Sierra Solstice: Notes From Dragons Orientation
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Coming at you from the Stellar Brew coffee shop here in Mammoth, CA,
under a roof for the first time this week, catching up on e-mail and
giving my sunburned nose a break from the dry Sierra solstice sun.
This will be freeform flow writing, as fast as my fingers can go.
I’m at the annual orientation for Where There Be Dragons. There are
about 80 instructors here, most about to embark on a 6-week rugged
travel program with 12 high-school students, all of us gathered in the
mountains for 10 days of workshops, bonfires, trips to the hot-springs
and big communal meals.
We sleep under the stars and the Milky Way stretches clear across the
horizon. The campground is divided by region – clusters of Megamid
tents for Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, China and the
Himalayas.
Dinner last night was Hindustani, cooked by instructors based in
Varanasi, home of our Visions of India semester program. Team Bolivia
performed a solstice ceremony before the meal, calling us to the
Amazon, to the Altiplano, to the great solstice fiesta of the Aymara.
We ate the curry and dahl with our fingers under the pinon pines,
gathered round a fire, sharing stories from Rwanda, Cambodia, Nepal….
And then to the hot-springs down below, passing around a thermos of hot tea, sharing the constellations, then burrowing deep into down
sleeping bags and sleeping until red dawn touched the tops of the
Sierras.
Dragons is a community of remarkable travelers, each one an educator
and role model. We share common values of global citizenship, and
believe in the transformational power of conscious travel.
I’m so grateful. So humbled. So blessed to be part of this community.
Thanks to the parents who trust us to guide their children to the far
reaches of the world.
Thanks to our students, those brave and curious
teenagers, as they get ready to embark on their Dragons adventure.
Thanks to the people waiting for us across the oceans, who are willing to open
their hearts and homes to strangers from far away.
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all
peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that
if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
- Maya Angelou
To learn more about Dragons, check out www.wheretherebedragons.com.
5 responses to Sierra Solstice: Notes From Dragons Orientation
Leave a Reply
Alanna Roethle said on July 6, 2009
What an amazing group! That sounds like a wonderful thing to be a part of. Also, I LOVE Mammoth. Haven’t been there in years…
-Alanna
Julie Schwietert Collazo said on June 28, 2009
Tim- Love the photos–they just reinforce everything you’ve written here.
candicew86 said on June 26, 2009
This sounds absolutely incredible…
Hal Amen said on June 23, 2009
Amazing, Tim. I actually had no idea there were Dragons instructors based all over the world. What an opportunity to meet like-minded folks from different corners of the planet.
I recently visited Tiwanaku, the ruins on the Altiplano where the official Ayamara solstice is celebrated. I wish I’d been there for the real thing, or with you guys for your version of it!
Lorne Schweitzer said on June 23, 2009
Haha Tim that picture of you and Alanna looks like the picture of her and me from the airport in Phnom Penh. Glad you had such a good time at orientation.