[JourneydeJenny email 5/16/07] "Blessings on flow"

Please note: the nature of this note is geared to Portlanders. so if you are from outside of Cascadia please just roll along with this. read on and you'll see why. Thanks.

Dear Community: City Repairers, Farmies, Village Builders, Portlandians, Cascadians and friends from afar,

For the past two nights as I slept under the stars of the Southern Cross, subconsciously listening to the waves of Lake Malawi, my spirit has journeyed to TLC Farm. My dreams have brought me to the prayers, songs, workshops, meals, meetings, building, gardening, planning, laughter and love there in Portland.

With the Earth Activist/Permaculture Training happening at TLC Farm and the 7th annual VBC beginning this week, I feel called to connect with my many hundreds of community members and friends who are building new ways to live back at home. Thank you all for serving the world through your example and prayers. I feel it!

Though I feel far away from the hugs and songs, I am immersed in our global community. This week, I am sitting in on a meeting of Malawi's permaculturists planning their 10-day permaculture training for school teachers across Malawi. It is fascinating to witness the merging of ingrained cultural norms, produced both by colonialism/capitalism and traditional culture, with the 'new age' international language and concepts of permaculture.

In a few days I will return to Zimbabwe, to give my love and solidarity to the grassroots efforts fighting oppression and dictatorship, and to reconnect with two sister organizations to TLC Farm and City Repair. For the rest of this journey to Africa, I plan to live at Kufunda Village, outside of Harare, Zimbabwe, and learn from/share with this unique permaculture education center. I will also reconnect with the Uhuru Network, the urban group of collectives who are bringing independent media, permaculture, action through art and other creative means to regenerate community power in Zim.

As I reflect on this special week in Portland and my own involvement with TLC Farm, City Repair and the Village Building Convergence, I feel that this week, with me here with our Malawian and Zimbabwean brothers and sisters, is a high holy time in my personal life journey. And it is a synchronistic time in "Jenny's Journey" - my original plan worked beautifully: I bought a one-way ticket to Nairobi to attend the WSF, and planned to meet amazing people there and then flow for six months. I serendipitously met both the Malawian permaculturists and Zimbabwian activists during the World Social Forum and now, four months later, I am here deepening our connections, networks and cross-pollination.

But now, I deeply want to be part of the 2007 VBC and the Earth Activist Training at TLC Farm. If you would, please take a moment to call me (and our African community) into some of the magic. You are all in my songs, dreams and stories, and I know I am there with you in spirit.

Lots of love,
Jenny

p.s. I am quite sorry that my blog is out of date - I hope to catch up this week. For the past few weeks I have needed a break from my cross-pollination journey - I was feeling tired (body and mind) and overwhelmed. If you have been following my journey, then you know that I had planned to spend April with the Peace Caravan in Kenya. I did spend two weeks in Nairobi, shadowing the main organizer and learning about Kenyan-style community organizing (and, well, spending a week sick in bed). But by the time the Caravan was set to begin, I realized that it didn't feel like what I was supposed to spend my time with. for reasons which I will share once I have more perspective.

After three full months of intense connections with the activists and issues of Southern and East Africa, I just needed to slow down and BE. So I continued my journey south to Tanzania, to immerse myself in Swahili culture (and language) and let myself merge with the slowed down island life of Zanzibar (which was absolutely magical - more on that later).

In the meantime, I will work on my stories and photos for my blog, and focus my energy on the precious last few months of this journey.

...blessings on the flow of the movement of movements....