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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Final Morning Gathering

I have about 10 days left at ARI. My flight home is scheduled for September 29th at 4PM. By home I mean the US, I will fly to New York for about a week and land in Texas on October 9th. Next week I will be in Tokyo for a few days to visit friends and attend the 150th anniversary of the Anglican Church in Japan.

Yesterday I had my final morning gathering where I summed up my experiences at ARI and talked about the future. This is a slideshow I made for the morning gathering. It includes pictures from my year at ARI.



During my sharing I read my answer to the question "what do you do at ARI?". Here is an excerpt:
What do we do? What do we do? Where the hell have you been? We create change, we educate the educators, we share food (for a fair price) we plant we grow we harvest we learn. What do you mean what do we do? 1100 graduates in 50 countries across Asia and Africa, 36 years. What do we do indeed. We bring people, smart, educated people, pillars of their communities, leaders in their own rights, and we bring them to this little corner of the world. We invite them to come and live and learn with us for 9 months. We all live and learn about life, food, community. We learn about the three pillars, love soil, love neighbor, love god. We learn about appropriate technology; biogas, wind energy, biodiesel, bicycles, incubation. We learn about agriculture (organic and otherwise) , aquaculture, animal husbandry. We learn about the dangers of an unchecked global marketplace for small, ill equipped rural farmers with governments that don’t care for their welfare. We learn about pesticides and chemical fertilizers. We learn about bokashi and compost, why to spray milk on aphids, and why ducks and rice are such good friends. We learn about butchering and the true cost of meat, castration and egg hatching. We learn about the connection between food and life. And sometimes, we even learn how to laugh again. Sometimes, yes sometimes, we even dance.

What do we do indeed.


And with that I will leave you to get back to your lives. I hope you are challenged and happy.


peace love and good food


Mike

7 comments:

T/MoM said...

Oh Mike- I am so glad you did this.
love MoM

Piapi said...

Love your collection of moments Mike. I will miss this blog of yours. Well, hope you continue posting your thoughts and reflections, here or elsewhere...
By the way, wasn't there a list of recommendations on the right part of this? Could you put it again?
Gracias!

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see you!! It seems that you have had an utterly amazing time, but I really can't wait to see you!

Love,
Mama Mia

P.S. Mcgilicutty?

Hannah said...

I am sure challenged. And inspired. Enjoy the rest of your time in Japan! I loved the slideshow and that version of HC. Yet greedily still, I cannot wait to see you in person again.
Peace and Love to you my friend,
//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\
Hannah

travis green - mrs hughes class said...

you said that you shared goods such as food for a fair price ... was the country more or less industrialized in terms of economy

Nia Brookins- Ms Hughes said...

It seems that ARI is a very fun & knowledgeable place. One country I've always wanted to visit was Japan so I hope you have a good time there. I would love to learn more about this ARI you speak of. I would also like to hear more about the economy. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Japan has been one of my top ten countries i want to visit when i get out of high school and graduate college..looks like u had a good time....


Carlos "Estados Unidos" Jimenez
(Beans and Rice perhaps?)