2006 Ecopeace Camp - International Peace Exchange

Gandhi School, South Korea
and
Enigmata Creative Circle, Inc.
in collaboration with
Department of Education, Division of Camiguin Island, Philippines

Pathways to Peace
“Sharing Peace and Building Relationship Between Mindanao and Korean Youth”
International peace Exchange “Ecological Inner Peace Camp”
Camiguin Island , Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, Davao City
November 6-24, 2006

Documentation

Rationale

In Korea, there is a special education movement that is an alternative school movement. When the generation that started the democracy movement became parents, they are confronted with the kind of commercial education which is focused on making commercial human being in capital society in 1990s. Having realized the irony, a group of individuals started an alternative way of education movement for changing society from the bottom. As a result, now there are 70 alternative schools from elementary school to high school. Particularly the Gandhi school is a one of leading school in that movement. Gandhi schools are starting to develop wholelistic peace curriculum in high school course which started this year. The youth have peace classes, NGO studies, field exposures in Korea NGO society in spring semester. After that course, they will be in the Philippines for three months for learning by travel in other society while they are staying with Korea NGO Center in Manila. On the last month they will go to Mindanao where they will be meeting with people who are working for peace with youth who believe in peace. The journey can help build peace by ourselves not as victims but also as peace builders in peer relationship.

Enigmata initiates to integrate the local values in ecological peace as one of the foundation in community peace building. Camiguin as a naturally peaceful community shall be an ideal host for this ecological inner peace camp.


Purpose of program :

 To learn how to build peace in conflict area such as in Mindanao in formal and informal education
 To build peer relationship between Mindanao and Korean Youth through Peace camp
 To develop peace -expression skills and to create peace action between Mindanao and Korean students with peace activists and artists
 To strengthen personal values as foundation for inner peace
 To integrate ecological concepts in peace building through biodiversity education
 To enhance exposure for local and foreign youth for a deeper multiple cultural diversity integration
The Peace Journey…

Welcome to Mindanao
November 6, 2006
• A welcome visit to the museum in Xavier University was a good overview of the history of Mindanao and Camiguin

Opening Ritual, Journey to the Heart of the Earth, Labyrinth, Inner peace Journey
November 7, 2006
• Water-soaked students and teachers are welcomed by fire upon a rainy arrival, a candlelight ritual of thanksgiving prayer and a Filipino-style breakfast. Students settle into their respective rooms after a tour of the grounds and a short orientation on the schedules they might expect for the next few days in Enigmata treehouse.
• The first stop on the island tour is to pay a courtesy call to the governor of Camiguin who welcome the students to the island by swapping history stories and is treated to a song performed by the group.
• The Korean students pile into (and on top of) the Filipino jeep that would take them to breath-taking Katibawasan waterfall for lunch. The facilitators and the Korean counterpart teachers and organizers have their first meeting to discuss expectations and possible concerns regarding the peace camp as a whole.
• Rosalie Zerrudo leads the students on a Journey to the Heart of the Earth, a short workshop on finding one’s center to act as an anchor for the many diverse experiences the students are to experience during the peace camp.
• In the evening the welcome prayer ritual of light brought the participants together in a sacred circle where they learned to dance the language of stars
• The Filipino gracious hospitality were also shown in dances like the “pandango sa ilaw” dance of lights and “tinikling” bamboo dance
• Candels were lit with prayers and peace wishes that now joined the stars as we send them off to the heavens to bless this earth
• A biodiversity slides of Camiguin and the Philippines was served as a closure in the evening to give the participants an overview of the island’s natural heritage and the relationship of the concept of peace and nature

Creative eco teambuilding challenge around the island
November 8, 2006
• The peace campers arise to an early wake-up call for a morning trip to White Island, a picturesque sand bar off Agoho Beach. After a hearty breakfast, students and teachers are gathered in a circle for a declaration of expectations. A few more hours are spent swimming and replenishing spent energy from traveling the previous day.
• To act as a synergizing tool, the participants take a trail to a mountain forest. Tourism volunteers from Camiguin Polytechnic State College give the group an orientation on the natural wonders of the island. Afterwards, the group is paired off in buddies, where a blind-folded participant is led by another who has to describe the sights on the trail, hug trees, switching roles on the way down.
• The participants pay a visit to the Philippine Vulcanology Institute for a tour of the museum of the volcanoes of Camiguin and an inspection of the instruments used to measure volcanic activity on the island.
• The group proceeds to Macao Cold Spring, a natural pool of mineral water, to have lunch and a good swim in the fresh mountain spring blue waters.
• Back in Enigmata, the participants experience storytelling with Waway Saway, who talks about the ways of his tribe using The River of Life as metaphor and music as his medium. After, the group undergoes The Web of Life, their first activity focusing on community. A rope is passed on and intertwined to crisscross members in a way that creates a web that acts as metaphor of the oneness in nature and of the community where the actions of one affect the other. Participants take turns being swayed to sleep by laying on the web, aimed at building trust and communal responsibility.
• Three workshops are held simultaneously for the rest of the afternoon. Using peace symbolism as a medium for empowering self-affirmation, Rosalie Zerrudo facilitates a workshop on soil painting while Waway Saway facilitates a clay sculpture workshop. Pompet Villaraza gives a workshop on creative healing to give the participants an introduction on tangible inner energy as a means to finding inner peace.
• After dinner, the group decides to have a warm evening swim at Ardent Hot Spring to complete the day’s tour of the island.

Indigenous Filipino Living Traditions
November 9, 2006
• Rosalie Zerrudo speaks to the group about Kapwa, or the self in the other. She introduced tribal story in a slide show; Cross and Sacrifice, of Datu Vic Saway illustrated by Waway Saway. The story speaks of the tribal community accountability for each other and how to lead by example.
• A peace game was introduced for the second half of the workshop. It was to level off with participants definitions and ideas on peace that can serve as a starting point for the resource person for the afternoon, Datu Vic Saway, spiritual leader of Talaandig Tribe of Bukidnon.
Sample Peace game questions:
1. Can you imagine the possibility of a world without violence?
2. Is it possible to create peace if there was no violence to create peace from?
• Datu Vic Saway, the chieftain of indigenous peoples of Mindanao, gives an interactive talk on social and inner peace. The talk is followed by a question and answer symposium on finding daily inner peace where students find personal answers in the context of ancient tribal wisdom.

Input
• We are being attacked by the western system everyday
• Duality, when good comes without bad is not whole, mouth and anus are one.
• The proper place and timing of duality is essential
• Do you know who is the greatest enemy in the context of peace…?
• As peace warriors we cannot give up… if peace is life… we cannot give up life…
• The body is the most perfect model or an organization.. each part has sovereign authority… each has its own space… the anus as sovereign as the eyes… peace is sovereignty… under each power is responsibility… we need cooperation… coordination.. collaboration…
• Structure of the body is perfectly correlated to the structure of the world and the universe… eyes is the sun… the stomach is the economy...
• If we want to understand the world, how I am related to the world… then it takes certain understanding of other parts of the body and how they are related… just like the human body has north and south… if we understand to understand the body to the world… we will understand peace… the community has a body like the physical composition just like the body...
• Common sense… is what is lacking today that we do not learn in school… western society makes robots… but the problem many people are loosing their senses…
• If we are peace makers we must govern the world… peace must reign the world… How? The very simple formula… we have been victims of western colonization… the Filipinos have western economic system, education system etc… we are trying to recapture our cultural self… because we have been dominated by the western system… many of us are western advocates… this is a serious issue on peace.. because by the end of the day we are not helping our own power…
• In order to recapture our culture.. rebuild.. recapture… we need to recapture five important laws for the self , for the nation, for the world.. the laws on kinship or brotherhood… if these laws are achieved then it enables peace governance..
1. the law on mutual recognition and respect … nobody is above or powerful than the other..
2. the law on sharing information…
3. cooperation… if you are happy and nobody will not join you it is useless…
4. mutual protection of life…
5. helping the disadvantage….

• As peace advocates… Cultural accountability as tool to teach peace… making an inventory of things… we can be accountable for peace…
• First step is understanding the self…
• You cannot command peace of power… peace is authority… the power to deliver the strength of responsibility, accountability, obligations… but the struggle does not mean war..
• If you have small dream… we have small blessing… if we have big dream, then we can get bigger blessing from the creator of humanity…
• What is your concept of peace?
• Change oftentimes bring conflict… what we need to do is to understand change… if do not, we cannot react appropriately… How? We need to understand the events involved in every change…

• Waway Saway gives a workshop on community drumming and percussion followed by a performance by the Korean drummers and other interactive dance presentations.
• A creative movement workshop with the same thread on community is held at the Enigmata gardens
• Creative Movement workshop (Big Circle, barefoot) Overview: Based on questions raised after Datu Vic’s session, they’re on the level of trying to find a common ground (peace in relationships) that’s why this workshop is “a way of opening up ourselves to one another.”
• LISTENING TO YOUR BODY- feel/acknowledge every pain in the body, mind, heart. Free every joint in your body (unblocking). The best way to do this? Be like children again. Enjoy the softness of the body. Anger and negative emotions stay in the body for 6 months, then becomes poison; emotions trapped in the body later manifests into sickness. Don’t throw your anger at other people for they will get sick, throw back to mother earth if necessary because it can accept the anger. But better to manage anger with creativity. Everything is energy e.g. Russian “Kirlian” photography (can capture images of the aura) (Brazilian Music) Instructions: “Concentrate where the pain is coming from, then let go through breathing (give it breath, give life) …”

Process: Movements by pair- Complement followed by Mirror movements. Ended with LIVING SCULPTURES “synergized whole group movement.”

• To cement the theme on Kapwa, the group is initiated into an Eye-to-Eye, I-to-I activity where they are asked to meditatively gaze deeply into the eyes of the participant in front of him or her, and to try to communicate all their feelings, thoughts, intentions to the other without the use of words. The group is rotated so that each participant is able to partner with all the other participants.
• In the evening, the group learns Filipino traditional dances in the faint glow of the full moon and torches at the Enigmata garden area.
• The group travels around Camiguin Island in their minds via a slide show presentation on its volcanic formations, its flora and fauna, and other details concerning the state of nature on the island.
• For the evening, an open-mike concert is held at the Enigmata stage grounds. Featuring Waway Saway, the camp facilitators, The Korean Drummers, and anyone else brave enough to step up to dance and perform in front of the crowd.

Healing Arts and Alternative Eco Friendly Lifestyle
November 10, 2006
• The group again takes up the thread on personal healing during the four simultaneous morning workshops. Tatting Soliva gives an interactive workshop on meditation and drumming, Waway Saway on the bamboo flute and the kubing, Rosalie Zerrudo on healing the inner core and lifestyle check, and Pompet Villaraza on experiential energy work and healing massage.

 Synthesis of Rosalie’s workshop: Think about what you put on your table… it affects the world. Simplify your lifestyle… free yourself from the demands of consumerism. What is your personal advocacy you are ready to stand for that brings peace to your personal life…
 Tay Tatting’s commentary: (Inhale/Exhale) “Relax… Close your eyes… Think of that bright light within yourself, try to locate where it is now… (instrumental-flute) …Have you located the light? Focus on that bright light … Capture the light… Take it in your hand as a guiding light towards your path… (flute) …Now bring that bright light with you… to the peaceful place that you know… forest, river or seaside, wherein you and that light are shining with a companion, go to the place that you like… (flute) …Now set that bright light ablaze like ether from your forehead moving down… …outwards where you are. Focus on the light… peaceful light… focus on yourself… (flute) …Bright light… bring down to your heart… surround yourself with the bright light now surrounding you… appreciate nature… appreciate the air… (flute)”

 PROCESSING for inner healing activities:
Insights/Experiences:
-“the one thing and the most important thing is nature” -“during the meditation, I felt good… I imagined going home beside the forest and at first I didn’t expect that I would be able to concentrate, but I was able to”
-“I didn’t know that the energy thing was real…”
-“I felt like I was flying to our house but I couldn’t get in…”
-“I was crying and I didn’t know why. Before I came I felt like I was flying (unstable) but now I feel like I’m standing (comfortable).”
-“I was surprised at the arrangement… the four groups has a connection… energy inside all of us, and nature. I’m comfortable with the place; what you’re doing now is what I’m interested in…”
-“It was just comfortable…the healing thing”

Rosalie’s Synthesis: “If all of these made sense to you, it means there is hope for the future. I hope that you will all share it to other youth back in Korea. It’s no accident that you are in Camiguin … and I am glad that this feels like home for you… The peace within us radiates outside so others can also feel”

• After a short forum where the students and teachers give comments on their experiences during the morning workshops, Tatting Soliva gives a talk on alternative holistic lifestyles and bio-dynamic planting.  included concepts by Rudolph Steiner and “Peace Education thru Agricultural and Cultural Enhancement and Homa Therapy and Agnihotra Processes.”

• After an afternoon break, Tatay Tatting leads the group in a prayer ritual circled around a sacred ziggurat fire. A demonstration on air purification through Agnihotra process was done at the exact hour of the sunset (based on Bohol time)

• Rosalie Zerrudo talks about the importance of harnessing cosmic energy and the life force in the context of plants followed by a workshop on healing the big tree inside the Enigmata treehouse using organic healing aids and mud pack.

• In the evening, the students gather around to sing songs, some of them spontaneously created once the students are inspired enough to harmoniously express their minds and soul through unprompted song.

Living Values peace activities
November 11, 2006
• Guest Filipino youth and teacher participants are invited to interact with the Korean group for an entire day’s workshop on invocations and visioning a better world, and creating inner peace using the arts facilitated by theatre practitioners from Cebu Province; Ellen V. Luna, Delia Villacastin and Telly Ampatin.

 Process:

a) Visioning Exercise (Vision for a Better World) (Write down words/phrases that would capture your idea of a better world…) Words that came out were: No war; No garbage; Equality; United People; No Corruption; and Peaceful. Input: Everything starts in the MIND.

b) Personal Privilege Inventory (Chart)
Input: Do all of these things/labels define who I REALLY AM? Human Being- Body-Spirit/ Mind-Heart.

c) Values Awareness by pair (Sending good wishes/positive thoughts to partner through thoughts/energy and by looking at the eyes/soul. Giving drishti to someone who’s far away)
Input: Having the experience of soul consciousness and a different way of communicating with and serving others.

d) Machine Exercise (One by one, the students would choose a sound and a shape they’d like to act out and then connect to the one that came before him/her. It would go on until there are a sufficient number of people. The end result would be a whole interconnected machine with different leveling/shapes and diverse sounds which, when taken as one, shows a whole new, unified harmony of sounds and movements.

Processing: Value picked up from the exercise- Unity/Teamwork. Parts of the machine-shapes, positions, uniqueness… “but when we come together, we become one…”

e) Going back to the self again (Question raised: What do I need to do to become a better person?) Answers gathered from students: Trust oneself; act out feelings after thinking; give importance to self/make self happy; have experience; self-discipline; find your talent and share oneself to others; be kind to everyone; be true to oneself; understanding and believing in one’s self; smile; laugh a lot; etc.
Input: “Say this upon waking and before going to bed: I LOVE MYSELF UNCONDITIONALLY…”

Additional activity: PEACE ICEBREAKER BINGO

Synthesis: Majority of the values listed as a result of the session/process could be summed up into four words/phrases-Peace, Love, Respect for Nature, Freedom. These are all Universal, and these Universal values connect all of us regardless of race, gender etc.

• The group now consisting of both Filipino and Korean students and teachers are separated into groups and are asked to interpret the lessons learned during the day. The output are inspired multi-cultural words, colors, dance, music, and installation sculpture performed and presented by the five groups.

 Tasking: Group 1-Banner, 2-Peace Notes, 3-Peace Tower, 4-Puppetry, 5-Organizing the presentations as well as the ritual on six directions.

• Ellen Luna gives a meditative slideshow presentation to the international audience on how to harness inner peace as a tool for creating a more peaceful world.
• They gave out little slips of paper wherein people wrote their “offerings of Peace” and then they gave out toil (sweets) and blessings for everyone.
• An Iranian Art Film is projected on a micro-cinema screen at the garden, entitled The Colors of Paradise, about the journey of healing undertaken by a blind child and his father.
• A concert is held in the evening highlighting local Camiguin musicians, Zonic Drive and students, Waway Saway and the facilitators, the Korean Drummers, and the other Korean students.

Community Integration with Cantaan Youth and Cultural Solidarity with the community
November 12, 2006
• Community Integration with Cantaan Youth and Department of Science and Technology @ Kebila white sand beach. Hosts: Cantaan Youth- Cantaan Youth Marine Resource Angelo King Association CYMRAKA and CUTE. Cantaan Centennial Multi Purpose Cooperative (CCMPC) Board of Directors and the Manager of the DENR Training Center.
• Program (initiated by Cantaan Youth): Cantaan youth prepared some overview on topics such as: Information Education Campaign, the History of Cymraka and accomplished projects, Fish Sanctuary Management, Effective Coastal Management, the Law of Coastal Management, Proper Waste Disposal, the History of Giant Clams, and facilitated the interaction of Korean Youth, Camiguin School-Based Youth and Cantaan Youth.
• Divided into 6 groups (each with equal representation from the three main groups). These six groups had simultaneous activities: Snorkeling to see the giant clams, learning local livelihood skills (crocheting using plastic as thread), going through the forest, exploring a local cave, focus group discussion, and walking along the coastal area. Lunch at the beach.
• Ardent Hot Springs in the evening to soothe the restless feet

Travel to CDO for eco adventure
November 13, 2006

• Went to CDO for canopy walk and white water rafting to exercise teamwork and sharing joy, adventure and happiness. In the afternoon the group proceeded to Talaandig School of Living Traditions in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
• welcomed by a sumptuous dinner

Talaandig School of living Traditions exposure in Malaybalay, Bukidnon
November 14, 2006

• Free time for everyone. Students and teachers went around and got to know the place, culture and people in the Talaandig Community. Talaandig youth taught the Koreans how to play their Kudyapi, Tambol, Kubing etc. and there were nonstop jamming sessions. In Waway’s home, the students got hooked on the clay pendants and making of instruments.
• Afternoon-Welcome Ritual by the Council of Elders wherein the visitors were formally accepted as friends of the community
• Cultural Night-clad in their elaborate traditional attires, the Talaandig townsfolk shared more about their culture through music and dance starting with the youngest up to the more mature residents of the tribe. Later on, everyone joined in on the dancing and jamming. The Koreans also had their chance to share their music and modern dance. Some tokens of gratitude were then exchanged as the program was about to finish.

November 15, 2006

• The students went around one last time and settled down in front of the stage after packing their bags. Here, Waway led the group in a closing ceremony with the reminder that we are all connected, no matter where we may be. After the Korean students offered a heartfelt song for the community as thanksgiving, everyone reluctantly said goodbye, some with a silent hope of going back there someday.

• Late evening, the group arrived in Ponce Suites, Davao City. Although exhausted from the long journey, the students went around admiring the works of art as they were getting settled in.




Kublai's Art Attack, Café Transcend, Ponce Suites, Davao City
November 16, 2006

• Kublai Art Attack was another explosion experimenting with colors and paints. A poetry workshop was incorporated into the journey of finding the soul in Kublai’s creativity and what it is saying to one’s heart.

Youth Peace Camp (Mindanaoans - Koreans Interaction and Solidarity for Peace) with Catholic Relief Service
November 17, 2006

• The group headed off to Camp Alano for their three-day Peace Camp with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and met their peers, youth from Davao and Cotabato City.
• Nov 17-19, 2006 CRS Peace Camp

Rest day or City Tour (optional)
November 20, 2006

• A visit to a theme sculpture village in Kapatagan was an unforgettable experience

Creative Peace in Mindanao
November 21, 2006

• Creative Peace Workshop with Geejay Arriola at 1:30 pm
• 7:30 pm MTS to watch Salima and jam with the artists. Salima a beautifully written theater concert mounted by Earth Music Foundation, Davao City has toured all over Mindanao and other parts of the Philippines.
• Past 10 pm, trip back to Balingoan

November 22, 2006

• 6:30 trip to Benoni port, Camiguin. Back in Enigmata.
• Rest day, some went to Ardent Hot Springs in the evening.

Magic card of affirmation closure
November 23, 2006

• Processing and giving affirmations to everyone in the morning, then white beach (vanishing island) in the afternoon. Socials Night.

November 24, 2006

• 4:30 am Korean group left to catch their 10:35 am flight back to Manila

Evaluation

Many impressions, thoughts and feelings were summarized into words of love, peace, blessings, and gratefulness. The joy in each one’s heart was too big to describe.