Seeds of Hope

I’m still receiving photos of the trees we delivered to the community of Cunha, for reforestation. Here a batch arrives by the most popular local transportation method – VW bug. These trees will be planted near the water source of the Cunha Eco Villa, where people come to learn about permaculture and the importance of Mata Atlantica.

They will be some of the easiest for you to visit without invading privacy of local residents, as we will offer eco-tours to the area in 2011.

Sent from my iPad
Alana

Another photo just arrived, showing some of our trees being planted next to a waterway in Cunha. It will be so great to come back to these same sites a year from now to see the difference…

Just got this photo of some of our trees being taken home for planting in Cunha. Every cell of my being is smiling : )

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Before I leave the precious quiet and internet connection of Marcio’s law office in Guaratingueta, where I have been given a haven of space to think, to work, I must write one more post about what we co-created last week.

What you see in this photo, of me helping to plant a single tree, represents the end of one story and the beginning of the next. The man in the picture takes care of a property where many of the trees will be planted alongside of a pristine water source, with patches of first growth rainforest. After he dug holes, and together we planted a tree, then his family helped to plant another, we all walked up the hill to the source of the nascente to have a drink of pure water.

A conversation followed, as Fernando, President of the Nativas Vivieros Association (washing hands on right of photo) and Marcio (drinking on the left), Attorney for the Association, spoke with our planting partner.

They noticed seeds for species that the Association didn’t have yet, in his forest and asked if he’d be willing to collect them, and sell to the Association. He was happy with that idea. Then Fernando continued, that he’d be a welcome new member of the Association, and he could learn more about how to grow the seeds into trees – perhaps starting his own nursery – and teach others how to plant them properly, as he’d just learned. Further, perhaps he could work doing tree maintenance for newly planted forests, as Fernando’s crew did.

A new possible future opened for us all, on that Thanksgiving day. It happened spontaneously, it could not be stopped, nor had it been planned.

As Seth Godin wrote:

Wherever you are, you could celebrate Thanksgiving today.

Not the Thanksgiving of a bountiful harvest before the long winter, the holiday of pilgrims and pie. That’s a holiday of scarcity averted. I’m imagining something else…

A modern Thanksgiving would celebrate two things:

The people in our lives who give us the support and love we need to make a difference, and…

The opportunity to build something bigger than ourselves, something worth contributing. The ability to make connections, to lend a hand, to invent and create.

There are more of both now than there have ever been before. For me, for you, for just about all of us.

Thanks for joining me every day, thanks for your support, but most of all, by a longshot, thanks for doing the work, work that matters.”

I am so deeply grateful, to all who have made this experience possible, for all of us: to the many people in the US who have given their time, talent, support, money and heart to send me this far: Ian Scanlan, Marc Dangeard, Jenny Kassen, LeGrande Green, Martin Dunkerton, Katherine Woodward Thomas, my Pachamama family, the KEFSA (Kids for Environmental and Social Action) of Los Angeles, and my beautiful Rose, who always inspires me to make the world a better place. And now, to my family here in Brazil: to Maria Amalia Souza, Marcio Ricci, Helio Benetti, Fernando Rocha, the Nativas Vivieros do Vale Association, and the people of Cunha who are willing to bring their land back to life, for all of us. And also to Globo tv, who did very heartful coverage of our story that will air on Brazilian tv on Dec. 10. It could not have been done better, with more care.

We are so truly in this movement together, for life. I’m very, very happy.

Sent from my iPad

Alana

Children of Cunha wrote us a letter, in Portuguese. It will take me a few days to translate and post, but it begins like this…

“Nos brasileiros da comunidade de Cunha do barrio da Santa Barbara queremos prestar um agradecimento aos Norte Americanos integiantes da comunidades de Los Angeles e San Francisco por estalem interessadas em nos ajudar a recompor a Mata Atlantica que nao so paia nos signifier um lunar de extrema importance poise e las que entraps a flora e fauna que sais muito importantes na biodiversidade…”

I’ll only take partial blame for poor Portuguese transcription – the iPad keeps changing the words, trying to make them English. But the general jist of this first paragraph is the thanks of the children, for people of the United States taking an interest in their forest, which they now recognize is significant for its biodiversity. They went on to say quite a bit more, which I’ll post in the near future, with proper translation.

It’s been a long and amazing day. Time to rest.

Today I celebrated Thanksgiving with members of the community of Cunha, Sao Paulo state, in Brazil. A few people arrived at 10am to collect their trees, while others waited for the Globo TV truck to disappear, as they were too shy to be on camera. But we had wonderful interviews with many (not all) of the key people involved in this project, and ended doing a small tree planting next to a nascente (water spring) with a family. The Globo program will air on Dec. 10, and they’ll send me footage, so that we can share it with all of you…

The young people from the school of the area brought me a letter, thanking the people of the United States for their generosity, and promising to take good care of the trees – never to cut them down. When I read it, the tears started to pour, and only stop for a few laughs before I start again.

Marcio reminded me today, that this isn’t the end of our work together, it’s just the beginning…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Sent from my iPad
Alana

I’m sitting in the Casa de Dona Dirce in the countryside of Cunha, who is hosting the temporary nursery, where people will come tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day) to collect their trees. She makes me coffee, while she heats water using a brilliant wood heating system that takes the natural spring water, and runs it through pipes that are heated by wood, to prepare for showers, while her 93 year old father watches us.

Today, notices are being posted on fences and word is traveling across the patches of forest, among neighbors “…que tiver interesse em promover a proteçao de minas de agua para recebimento de mudas de especie da Mata Atlantica…” saying that tomorrow is the day to come collect trees, if you’d like to protect your water sources.

Each person will sign a simple statement, promising they will plant and care for their trees. Period. They will be asked to take at least one of each of the 20 species we have to offer, to bring diversity back to the land.

Globo TV is coming too, as well as representatives from the Nativas Association of Growers from Guaratingueta. How the timing of everyone will coordinate is in the hands of Nature herself. Here there are very few phones that work, no cell service or internet, so coordination is organic, natural, intuitive and always, surprising!

Dona Dirce was explaining to me (eu entendo mais do que falo) in Portuguese, that when she was born, she remembers how large and swift the streams and water springs were, that are now a fraction of their size. She took me to the stream to see how small it is now, compared to fifty years ago when it ran like a bold river. She showed me how high the water came, up to her thighs, in a flash flood on New Year’s Day, due to deforestation. The community gathered at her home, in fear of the future.

Some teenagers were waiting for their VW school bus came in to see who I am, what this iPad thing is (I sure wish it would STOP autocorrecting my Portuguese), and to watch the little movie I made to show the youth from Los Angeles who are supporting them to become eco-heros. Their jaws dropped as the Los Angeles teens said “Tudo Bem?” and put their thumbs up for Cunha! They squealed with delight when I showed them photos of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and had a hard time believing me when I said that their land, their rainforest, was one of the most important places on earth right now – they must help us to bring the forest back.

I hope that they will get, deep in their bones, the truth of those words.

Sent from my iPad
Alana

Two years after being introduced to the area by Maria Amália Fontoura de Souza, she is seeing the fruition of our shared dream as we deliver trees to a community who has been promised trees, without delivery, by others. Today, everybody is happy!

We were greeted by a few people from the Santa Barbara district Association who will distribute the trees to their neighbors over the course of the next few days. Unpacking lots of 50 trees each, of 20 species, we created a new temporary nursery on their land.

Fortunately, the weather was kind to us today – not too hot, not too rainy. Just right.

Still with 20 miles to go, we’re entering the region where the trees will be planted, primarily along waterways.