Caitlin Mezger-Sieg appreciating an old-growth coastal redwood forest while dreaming of her return to the Amazon.
And the Winner Is…
We are very excited about the success of our Spring Journey Drawing to win a life-changing Pachamama Alliance Journey into the Amazon. Not only did we raise critical support for our work with our indigenous partners in Ecuador, but we also created the opportunity for the breadth of the Pachamama Alliance community to participate. Each donation of $50 received an entry into the drawing.
Even though Pachamama Journeys are priced as low as possible, covering only the costs of the Journeys Program, they are still beyond the financial reach of many. The drawing is one way that we can help to make the possibility of a transformational Journey to the Amazon available to all those who hear the call.
The winner, chosen at random, was Caitlin Mezger-Sieg. Caitlin has been a longtime supporter of Pachamama Alliance. Twelve years ago she saw The Awakening Universe, a film by Pachamama Alliance founding board member and award winning filmmaker Neal Rogin. Caitlin was so inspired by it that she created a festival celebrating the Earth at University of Oregon. Three days of workshops, music, art, and outdoor activities that culminated in the presentation of an 8-hour Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. It was the first time that Awakening the Dreamer was presented on a college campus.
Soon after, Caitlin and her husband volunteered to teach English in the Achuar village of Sharamentsa in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Living with the Achuar, witnessing their way of community and harmony with nature, gave Caitlin the dream of finding similar community back home. She traveled around the U.S. for a year trying to find who was creating similar villages. She lived in intentional communities across the country, and she learned how hard it could be to bring the vision of a sustainable, fulfilling, just life forward amid a culture that doesn’t embrace it.
Caitlin has been deliberately working to build community since her time with the Achuar. She has facilitated and hosted over 30 Symposiums, worked with Native American communities in Southern Oregon around traditional Native food systems and cultural awareness, and co-founded the Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance Community. A year-and-a-half ago, Caitlin helped create the intentional community where she now lives in Sebastopol, California. She has become a Cooperative Real Estate professional, assisting people to find land and providing educational programs and networking systems that create the possibility to build community.
A Deeper Connection
Caitlin has always wanted to go on a Pachamama Journey. During her time teaching English in Sharamentsa, she could only learn by observation. She taught a couple of hours a day and ate meals with different families, but she did not have the expert curation of a Pachamama Journeys guide and leader to provide context and facilitate connection with the indigenous people and the rainforest. She wants to understand, to know more, and to deepen her relationship with the heart of the world. Going on a Pachamama Journey, she says, will open up the people and the forest to her.
“Pachamama Alliance has been the catalyst for everything I have ever done. Ever since I first took the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium at 18, I have been committed to Pachamama Alliance. And it has changed my life. Ten years ago, the forest gave me a dream of building community in the modern world. I am now living that dream. This Journey will help me to find my dream for the next phase of my life.”
Thank you to everyone who so generously participated in the drawing. Your donations go directly to support key Pachamama Alliance efforts, including initiating the Sacred Headwaters Project, developing an Online Community Platform, and strengthening our educational offerings by updating the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium and Game Changer Intensive.
And congratulations to you, Caitlin! How delighted we are that you are going on a Pachamama Journey to make an even deeper connection to the Amazon.
