Dave Kramer
Fellowship Report 2024: #Colombia
An awe-inspiring, awesome, and "awe-full" time in Colombia in 2024, Dave Kramer, via https://lnkd.in/eTRewNCi
The funds allowed me to explore programs at a range of educational institutions, seeing impressive examples of urban planning & renewal, meeting young people and adults whose resilience and thoughtful dedication to building a better world has left me in a humble state of #awe.
Across Colombia, I witnessed the new national plastic waste reduction law (Law 2232 of 2022 bans 21 kinds of single use plastics by 2030, starting with eight on July 7). I was immersed in fútbol fanaticism, soaked up breathtaking biodiversity, and stood before hundreds of masterful murals and street art.
An "iceberg tip" list of what I explored!
In Cali:
- 7th Sustainability Summit. Met folks from ProPacífico and OMAR JALVIN at the Centro de Innovacion Rural and got a preview of the upcoming #COP16
- Regenerative Tourism Forum https://lnkd.in/es_RcJdS
- Felidia w/ the High Mountain Base, a rural school, and hundreds of Yarumo trees
- Ecoparque de las Garzas, one of 61 urban wetlands https://lnkd.in/eSybre-8
- Colegio Bolivar - a firsthand tour of agroforestry efforts spearheaded by Wojciech Waliszewski
- Colegio de las Aguas, a school built of bamboo
- Pance River trails & greenery
In Bogotá:
- Biohotel Colombia , I stayed and marveled at sustainability at every turn!
#Ciclovia, walked for miles on closed streets in one of the world's biggest car-free weekly events
- Copa America Final ⚽
- Chingaza National Park + its amazing #páramo, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia w/ Eduardo Campos Umbarila
- Miguel Andres Tovar Sosa + Fundación Ana Valentina in Ciudad Bolívar
- Colegio Rochester, the first & only school 🌎 w/ gold certification from U.S. Green Building Council TRUE Zero Waste program
- Stewards of the Fucha River like Colegio Técnico José Félix Restrepo
- The sport of "plogging" (jogging and filling trash bags)
- The Forest School of Colegio La Colina
- The Escuela Pedagógica Experimental
On San Andrés Island:
- Seaflower Biosphere Reserve
- Ecofiwi kayak tours w/ mangrove reforestation in Old Point Mangrove Park
- Kreole language and history - it's located closer to Nicaragua than Colombia
In Medellín:
- Corporación Parque Arví, a huge forested area just outside of the city, reachable by the metro's cable cars
- Comuna 13
- Fundación Jardín Botánico de Medellín (it's free!)
- Parque Explora - wow!
- #MOVA, the innovation center for the city's teachers
- Largest living wall in Colombia
- The #greencorridors project targeting heat islands across the city
- Amazing Metro system of trains, cable cars, escalators, and bikes
- Alejandra Cano a fellow Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation fellow
And here's a great little podcast episode on the power of #awe that led me to Dacher Keltner's book in the first place and primed the pump for my time in Colombia.
Reflecting on awe over the summer has felt transformative, helping me better understand my own youthful sense of curiosity (and propensity for making the awe faces and sounds that Keltner describes in a way that inspires frequent ridicule from my own teenage offspring!). And the reading and reflection is informing my preparation for the fast-approaching 2024-25 school year in ways I'm not even fully aware of yet but in ways that will be sure to bring education out of classrooms and into the culture and ether of my school and community. I wish I'd selected Keltner's book as a summer reading option for my colleagues 📖
Awe can be found in so many spaces if we're open to it and helps put things into a really sublime and grand and long-term perspective, helping us see ourselves as part of a multi-generational storyline. It can come from immersion in nature near and far - even in micro doses in everyday places; to being part of the collective effervescence of events such as fútbol matches or group páramo (what I consider the most awesome ecosystem on 🌎 ) hikes in Colombia; to experiencing and healing from trauma and loss in a way that connects us to others and the great beyond, and more (what Keltner calls “the eight wonders of life,”)
https://lnkd.in/e2vfB6aA spotlights the article and field research by Outside contributing editor Florence Williams
