Bonita's blog

June 5, 2011. I've been training a team of four teacher trainers and two agronomists to replicate a 5-day training that I've designed for AMURT called “Creating My Community”. After doing five days of “pre-training” with them, we are now training a larger group of almost 40 participants.

June 2, 2011. By this time next week, my plan is to have given two 5-day trainings; trained over 40 teacher-trainers, community animators, and agronomists from three organisations and five sites; and coached three teams on their projects using permaculture design. It's been a full few weeks.

Week of May 17, 2011. One of the little girls was over at our apartment and was hungry; in that moment, I struggled with the fact that I have food, usually three times a day.

I remember a friend's story about two little boys. One of them said to the other “We are all One” and the other said “Yes, but why are we wearing different shoes?” Being with that little girl, I struggled with how different our circumstances were. We have very different shoes. I struggled with my own belief that we are all One.

May 16.  What stands out for me in these last two weeks in Haiti is the people. I'm reminded that, in any life circumstance, we have choice in how we live and how we meet the world. Dr. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust, wrote about how people found freedom, choice and meaning even in the concentration camps. He wrote about men in the camps who walked around comforting others and gave away their last pieces of bread. I've met people like this here; to me they are everyday heros.