Adelante!

March 24, 2008

It is day 5 of our journey and I feel like we are finally finding our legs and immersing ourselves in the movement that persists everywhere here in Venezuela; the young people on the trip starting to get a sense of why they are here - why here in Venezuela. We arrived during Semana Santa or Holy Week, during which practically all of Venezuela closes down to celebrate the holiday. Caracas was a ghost town and Barquisimeto even more so. On Sunday, we hiked through the Yacambu National Park and found our way to a small waterfall. Several of us plunged into the frigid water and swam beneath the waterfall. We returned refreshed to the posada MONCAR, which doubles as a women’s collective that produces pasta sauce, jellies and candied fruits. The women of the collective have been preparing three hearty meals every day for us - keeping us energized for the full days.

The community of MONCAR is tiny but certainly not sleepy. Movement here is abound - political, social and cultural. As Gaudi, founder and matriarch of MONCAR asserted, the cooperative is about more than just making pasta sauces and marmalades. Since their inception 16 years ago they have worked for gender equality in their community, raised money to build community projects, planted thousands of trees, and pushed forward the process of revolutionary change on the local level. Communities in the US have much to learn from places such as Monte Carmelo.

- Trevor