This post is also available in: Spanish
I believe that one of the most challenging things in life is to understand the meaning of our existence and therefore, the things we do about it. Thinking about how everything could be different as the result of a single decision amazes me!
In 2018 when I left the comfort of my home and the warm company of my family to come to Colombia, I felt this part of the journey was literally a blank slate. There I was with a giant backpack, a lot of desire to learn, nervous, with a number of fears, and endless ideas, and at the same time no idea about how this experience would be.
Having lived in Chocó helped me to somehow figure all that I felt and thought. I share with you the representation that made sense to me, let us see if it makes sense to you too. I know three ways for a plant to bear fruit:
- Sowing: consists of placing a seed directly in the ground.
- Planting: placing a small or young plant (ferns, trees, maples, etc.) in the ground
- Grafting: to insert or join one branch of a plant with another so that it develops better, so it grows as one.
Now comes the explanation. My way of looking at it is that all of us at some time and depending on the place we are, the moment in time, our own time, have been been a seed, a seedling, or a graft. And considering the moment in time, we sometimes have had to open very deep furrows and other times ones that are shallower. I learned that the idea of bearing fruit has everything to do with our relationships with one another, with the environment. It has to do with how we need that interaction with the elements to obtain the best nutrients and to help in our growth, to be interrelated.
My time in Istmina, Chocó allowed me to be a seed, a plant, and a graft at different times, to think holistically of the fruits that become jewels that bring all kinds of wealth and identity to the territory. That we must seek spaces free of pests, diseases, genetic modification, and fumigation so that the result is better. I know it all sounds very literal, but what if we applied it to our ways of living? Creating connections with people gives us the opportunity to see ourselves and to see them, to accompany each other in these processes of growth through times of listening, of loving hospitality, of diverse meals.
Much has been said about how we reap what we sow: if we sow futures, hope, justice, what could we harvest?
Making the decision to come in 2018 opened furrows so that today we can see the fruits of years of efforts that others have sown, watered, cared for, and accompanied. Today I think it is necessary to know what stage we are at and how we can bear fruit, be aware of the processes and be present in them. Now that I have learned so much, I do not want to miss anything!
To close, I dedicate this fragment of the poem “I love you” by Mario Benedetti to all the people from Chocó that I admire for their love, perseverance, strength, and courage that contributed so much to me.
“I love you because your hands
work for justice
if I love you it is because you are
my love my accomplice and all
and on the street side by side
we are much more than two.”
Francisca Pacheco Alvarado, from Valparaíso, Chile, lived in the city of Istmina, Chocó, Colombia. She was part of the Seed V group in Colombia and worked with the Mennonite Brethren Church in the region in the “Peace Education” project, and in Fagrotes (Weaving Hope Agricultural Foundation by its initials in Spanish).
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This post was originally published on the Seed Colombia blog.