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This course was an intensive one; students learned approximately 10 hours a day. Daily ac<vi<es started at 8 am with a vegetarian breakfast. At 9m the fist class started. Every 1.5 hours students had 20 minutes short breaks and a long break (including fruit and fresh vegetables) at mid morning. At 2 pm we served the meals, and for about 5 hours we had the same break dynamic, which included a long coffee break at mid-‐aMernoon. Every class included a lecture and prac<cal learning. We had a group dynamic at least every day; this way student can feel a change of rhythm that let them relax from such intensive work. These dynamics ranged from drum classes, peace dances, and walks to the mountains to reconnect with nature. We also included tradi<onal sweat lodge were student connected and heal. The students had a day off during the weekend, most of which went for a walk in Tepoztlán and some returned home.
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The student had the incredible opportunity to interact profoundly with some of the habitants of the ecovillage, they offered evening diners with instrument session where Toña Osher teached them how to make cocoa the natural way and even several singing and dancing bonfires. At least two nights, students had the opportunity to play with the wide instruments collec<on of one of the hosts. So, overall, although this course was intensive, students had a wide range of ac<vi<es that let them feel a liTle bit relaxed. At the end of the second week students had 15 hours of design <me. They worked in teams for their project (5 to 6 students per team). One of the facilitators had bought a land extension of 2 Ha nearby and during the permaculture design class the students visit it as part of their permaculture design class. On the final Project, the students were supposed to own that land and design an ecovillage there, one that included an economic plan, one that consider the community around them in way that they were inclusive, that respected and used the physical proper<es of the land to have a sustainable ecovillage, etc. On the final day they presented the projects to our facilitators team and with the facilitators observa<ons they wrote their final version and a month later presented their final projects on a social gathering we have with them. It was an intensive teamwork where all the facilita<on skills they learned and also pa<ence had to be applied.
This course was design in a way that almost every day students had classes form at lest two different dimensions, this with the idea to interwine the different themes and to create lighter workdays.
World View Dimension Worldview was addressed almost en<rely by Alberto Ruz, member of Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage and the Rainbow Caravan. Alberto talked about an holis<c life approach and how this can have a posi<ve effect in the world, emphasizing he need to consider everyone’s needs. This was amazingly accepted by the students and mo<vated them to feel and think this way. This dimension, encompass spiritual awakening, one of our strong holds in Mexico. The abundance of sacred knowledge in Mexico from the ancient cultures make the goals set on this dimension achievable. The Spiritual theme started with two basic elements a Temascal, run by Andres King (indigenous spirituality) together with a chat and Nature Connec<on in the forest with Veronica Sacta. This dimension had a lot of Group dynamics, drum and peace dances that gave the course an easy rhythm to follow, always in between of deep and heavy classes. We also a beau<ful chat about awakening, Veronica emphasized on the rela<onship between our female side and Mother Earth. This was one of the favorite dimensions because it let the student connect to one another and to mother nature. It released a sense of love and bonding.
Ecological Dimension The favorite in all courses. This dimension was well managed by our teachers. Juan Casillas started with permaculture values and Odin Ruz held the permaculture design class and prac<ce. These modules represent an important part in the core of the EDE. Many of the ecological design tools are given through this class. During this module we have several visits, one to the land property of Odin Ruz, were students based their final Design Project; they also visited SARAR Transforma<on A.C. a company specialized in sustainable sanita<on of water. The facilitators of SARAR also directed an exercise that demanded the students to solve sanita<on issues, and rainwater catchment, on two houses.
During the Bio-‐construc<on module students learnt the different natural building techniques and had a chance to work with the earth and build a cob bench. Lourdes Malvido from EcoPueblo Chalmita had a great impact on the students. She gave several hours of the ecological dimension during the two weeks. She is a bio construc<on expert linked to the Ecovillage movement.
It remains daun<ng to cover so much content, with prac<cal ac<vity during so liTle hours, this <me in comparison with the last course; student felt that prac<cal <me was balanced.
One of the most enjoyed ac<vi<es as parte of the energy class, was the
construc<on of solar dehydrtor, one that the students formarly gave to Toña Osher as a giM during the last day ceremony. As well ,the Organic Agriculture was enjoyed profoundly, they learned about seedlings, harves<ng and natural plague control. This was one of our best rated classes.
Economic dimension
An important aspect of this dimension is to understand how the world economy is working on the globaliza<on trend and the impacts that this has on the society and the environmental footprint. Through different presenta<ons and dynamics students are shown the real value of money, as well as the significance of abundance. How natural resources relate to a greedy pollutant economical system or a posi<ve sharing system were
coopera<ves, alterna<ve money and exchanges are part of the tangible alterna<ves. We had lectures on Alterna<ve Economy, Exchange and Coopera<ves, all of this in order to present to students an alterna<ve to the tradi<onal Money based Systems, and let them understood, thanks to several exercises, how to exchange and to start coopera<ve projects. This was a well-‐received module; it was improved since the last course to be more prac<cal and not so theore<cal.
““I really appreciate this course, I expected a different one but not one that opened my heart “ Itzani Guerrero
“It is really amazing being able to share such experiences with people in the same path as us, specially young people” Ana Sandoval
“I will most certainly apply all I’ve learned here, I am so mo<vated to impact in my community!” Katalina Guerrero
Social Dimension
Different teachers addressed this dimension and although it was covered in dept, it wasn’t that well received. Althought Marisela Vera, a cer<fied Facilita<on and Consensus prac<<oner by IIFAC (Facilita<on and Consensus Ins<tute) covered 80% of the this dimension themes, students felt that the class dynamic and rules were somewhat imposed by the facilitator and did not appreciated a class prepared that formarly. A challenge for our next course is to find the way we can distribute the social themes in a way that students find it fun, and that include more exercises and not so much theory. We had lectures on bioregionalism; through different learning exercises students were able to comprehend the connec<on between social and the environmental aspects in a bioregion. Alberto Ruz certainly emphasized on how to create community. His vast experience as one of Huehue founders, the founder of the Visions Council Gatherings and the Rainbow Peace Caravan Village blessed the course with an excellent example on how to unite the colors of the rainbow and shine on a common fire. Students bonded deeply and enjoyed social gatherings at least twice a week, we even celebrated one students birthday with lots of smiles and laughter.
Assessment and Key Trends
We assessed our course with wriTen ques<onnaires because none of the students answered the surveys, there was no such commitment by their part, and we had to perform a wriTen ques<oner on the last evalua<on day in order to guarantee the evalua<on. Approximately 96% of students who responded the ques<onnaire expressed a high sa<sfac<on on various items evaluated. A key trend of the
assessment was a desire of more <me dedicated to prac<cal training for the ecological dimension, in par<cular bioconstruc<on, they felt they didn’t learned enough. Another cri<que was that on every single class, the teachers asked them to introduce themselves and because we had around 20 different faculty members this issue represented a huge waste of <me. Overall the students assessed the level of exper<se of the teachers as outstanding. And despite they wished to deepen more in each topic they were sa<sfied by the course level.
New Approaches and changes implemented based on past experience
-‐The main change we did since last course was that we incorporated more prac<cal <me, so the theory and prac<ce was balance an 60%-‐40%. This was well appreciated and we did not received any complaint about the prac<ce hours. -‐We incorporated a more specialized prac<ce during the natural building class, students constructed an cob bench and find that amazing. -‐The menu of the meals changed because last course students felt that there was no variety. -‐ Last but not least, we broadened the course promo<on, we invested more <me on promo<ng on different schools and magazines, this impacted posi<vely in our profits.
Lessons Learned
-‐This <me we had to readapt all of our expenses, we diminish around a 20% in order to earn enough money to pay everyone. Almost all the students asked for more than 20% fee discount, which impacted on our economy. Next <me we will search for government grants to guarantee more scholarships. -‐We organized our course about two months earlier and this impacted the aTendance, we need to organize it with more <me in advance and this can help the previous situa<on.
-‐A liTle more ‘free <me’ was the only consistent comment on the feedback survey. A liTle more ‘free <me’ would enable the par<cipants to explore other possibili<es for interac<on with host community. Changing the schedule to offer a longer lunch break was appreciated in week 5 and could be a paTern to follow in future courses, enabling par<cipants to enjoy longer free <me for exercise and personal business. More <me for lunch -‐We would des<nate more <me to the bioconstruc<on theme.
INCOME Tuition payment 20782
Total 20782 EXPEDITURES Teachers payment 5538 EDE Coordination 3461 Huehuecoyotl rent 1615 Additional house rent 269 Coordinators housing 250 Food 2692 Cookers payment 1538 Materials 648 Advertising 320 Other expenses 556 Taxes 1194 Organi-k A.C. share 1538.5
Total 19619 NET INCOME 1163