Paul Marko's Mindful Endeavors

Newsletter

Volume 1: Issue 3 late Fall 2006:

Seeing Yourself through the Eyes of the "Other"

In understanding another person and culture you must simultaneously understand yourself. .
Greg Sarris



Autumn, of all the seasons, brings major transformation, one of the primary reasons for the topic of this fall newsletter. The opportunity to experience a similar type of personal transformation is the reason that I am writing this newsletter to tell you about a chance to go to Peru. The trip involves not just sights, but the real Peru - the people. It involves a chance to be with them in the cities, in the jungles and on the mountain tops. It promises to be a transformative experience for everyone involved. How this trip found its way into my newsletter is quite a story.  



A friend of mine, Kati Johnson, has been living in Peru off and on for more than 20 years. At a young age, it came to her to help the Peruvians improve their living conditions and provide more opportunities for the children of that country. Kati felt compelled to help these people, especially the women and children, to achieve a higher level of economic independence and personal freedom. Coincidentally, it has recently been shown that the best way to pull a country out of poverty and despair is to empower the women of that culture. Kati focused upon what the Peruvians did well and worked to find markets in the US for their goods. Through her efforts, Kati was able to establish outlets for their weavings in major American corporations. Since first beginning to visit Peru, Kati helped staff orphanages, do training and generally do whatever possible to aid these humble people.



Needless to say, her experiences in Peru transformed her life. Those of you familiar with my study with transformative facilitative agents know that there can be catalysts for consciousness expansion and I feel this life experience with the people of Peru made Kati even more special than she was when she was drawn into this 20 year adventure. Recently, Kati wanted to share her experience with young people, so she began by taking a group of teenagers to Peru striving to condense her 20 year experience in a few short weeks. Here is Kati's account of part of that trip from an e-mail that she sent to me. 



They came with me on the 20th of June and we stayed until the 20th of July. They 	did the program with the 300 girls making masks and learning how to walk on stilts. They danced and sang and did things they never expected! It made all of their hearts sing. They really all learned so much and made wonderful friends.
	In the mountains, we made our own ovens to cook our lunch out in the wilderness. There we stayed with the Shamans for the afternoon. We all got to know one another and exchanged stories about our lives. We even mashed potatoes with our feet when it came time to share farming activities.
 



The last part of the journey involved going into the jungle where more adventures awaited the young people as they encountered the wonderful people and culture of indigenous Peru. 



For the young people this excursion constituted a wonderful experience, but at least one study hints that the aggregate effect might have made a more permanent and life changing impact. In research referred to as the Common Fire study, 100 socially responsible people were studied to find out what they had in common. These individuals each had shown a life long pattern of commitment to the common good rather than their own private welfare. One notable person in the study was Nelson Mandela. The most surprising finding was that one factor that all of these exceptional individuals had in common was positive engagement with individuals from cultures other than their own.  Laurent A. Parks Dolez, one of the researchers involved in the study describes this finding. 
 


In our study of lives committed to the common good, we describe a number of key patterns in the formative years of the participants, including feeling recognized as a child, having at least one socially engaged parent, growing up in a 	diverse neighborhood, and being mentored. But the only experience common to all, what we have called a constructive engagement with otherness, came as a 	surprise. Everyone described at least one significant experience at some point 	during their formative years when they developed a strong attachment with someone previously viewed as "other" than themselves.



With such phenomenal success with the teenagers, Kati and I spoke about a trip for adults, specifically adult women, a trip that would create intimate encounters with counterparts from this very different culture. I feel that this trip could make as much a difference for the right adult individuals (open, sensitive and imaginative) as it did for the youth. I was thinking of the people that I have been working with regarding the Enneagram and ego development. 



Kati put together an itinerary and entitled the adventure, the Inca Explorer Trip. For more information and my thoughts on the potential for growth experience that this trip could enable, visit my website workshops page at www.mindfulendeavors.com/workshops.htm
 where the itinerary and costs for the trip are outlined in detail. The plan is to meet in Lima, Peru on the 19th of May and depart for the US from that same city on June 1st. Subsequent excursions are planned for September and November.




In all honesty, Kati would love for all of the participants to fall in love with Peru and want to get actively engaged with her in helping the various people who will provide the workshops and experiences on the trip. 



If you are interested in talking about this adventure call me at 802 254-5269 or better yet, call Kati at 508-627-6634 (she may be in Peru, but she will still pick-up). My e-mail is pwmarko@aol.com and you can reach Kati at abachoperu@yahoo.com .  





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