life in community
THE COMMUNITY
The Ecomunidad Aroiris is located in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, just two hours from the city of Iquitos, on the Iquitos-Nauta highway, km 50.
We have the blessing to be guardians of 80 hectares of
land crossed by a beautiful stream.
THE TERRITORY
The primary forest: It is the main part that we are taking care of, preserving its biodiversity (70 hectares). - - There live the grandfather trees, guardians of this territory, together with plants, animals and insects.
The purma or stubble: It is a part of jungle that has been cut and burned for cultivation and where the vegetation. has grown back for several years and where pioneer trees, fruit trees, young trees and a lot of vegetation now grow. This is the area that we are reforesting, regenerating and where we implement the new cultivation areas.
The chacras: They are the different zones where we grow food, both physical (sugar cane, bananas, plantains, papayas, yucca, corn, peanuts, pineapple, malanga and many varieties of local fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, pumpkins, sweet bell pepper, basil, caihua, cocona...), and spiritual (coca, tobacco, ayahuasca, huambisa...
The Mother House or House of Dawn where we keep the sacred fire, where food is prepared and shared during the two daily food circles, where we prepare the sacred medicines of mambe, ambil, and murundi(rape), where we share the mambeaderos, workshops, ceremonies, and where we celebrate, sing, dance and pray.(For more information link to ancestral school).
The Temple where we share kambo ceremonies and yoga workshops.
The Casa Corazon which consists of the kitchen and the community dining room and 3 dormitories where visitors and volunteers stay.
The Healing House where food is prepared for diets and retreats.
The Grandmother's House where we prepare Ayahuasca and other medicines.
The House of the Sun, the House of Friendship, the House of the Tree, the Colibri House, the House of Krishna, which are the houses where the residents and Habitants stay.
The House of the Matses and The House of the Boras where the indigenous families who accompany us reside.
The Moon Temple ,a space dedicated to feminine energy, women's circles, and for the sisters who are in a state of pagamento.
The carpentry workshop with all its tools, where we store the material for construction and where we collect rainwater.
The composting station where we compost all the organic matter, where we produce fertilizers, biols, and micro-organisms for the crops.
The diet and retreat area:
Located in the middle of the primary forest near the creek.
This zone was designed to carry out retreat processes in isolation such as fasting, and master plant diets (For more information on the medicines link).
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY
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The community operates in a self-managed way and each one is responsible for what happens. We use a system of project managers called "focalizers" to manage tasks and projects.
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We share the common spaces (kitchen, common maloca, dorms) and everything that the land offers us.
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We share the abundance of the earth in 2 daily circles of vegan food, and we sometime also share meals with healthy animal protein especially to share with natives in special ocasions like Mingas, communal work where we invite our neighboors or when elders visits us,
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We share the community tasks that are distributed in our scheduled board..
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There is always something to do: Care for and clean the crops, build and repair things, clean, organize shopping lists, carry and filter water, carry firewood, take care of the fire, cook and anything else you think useful or necessary. "If you see a task, it's yours."
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Each one is invited to offer workshops
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Sharing generates abundance
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The community lives and grows thanks to the collaboration and participation of all.
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We generate abundance together for the community. we have different production cells to generate abundance
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The circle is the sacred form in which we communicate to share the visions and ideas of each one, organize ourselves, make decisions by consensus and resolve conflicts.
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In the circle, we are all the same and part of the family. We use a talking stick that goes hand in hand and respect who has it, listening in silence, so we all have the opportunity to express ourselves and be heard.
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We listen quietly and with respect allowing freedom of expression
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We can all call a circle if we think it is necessary, to share our word from the heart. All decisions are made by consensus among the permanent members.
LIVING IN COMMUNITY:
• We are guided by love, respect, tolerance, family spirit, unity, individual freedom, spiritual connection, devotion and service.
• We help in our personal and spiritual growth, trusting one another and encouraging the development of our abilities, gifts and faculties.
• We are creating a harmonious and open space to coexist, co-create and act together in family, following the common vision.
Being Self Sustainable:
• We are creating an ecosystem where biodiversity prevails, where cycles close and self-generate and where the forest is protected, using permaculture as a guide.
• We want to cultivate and produce everything we need in an organic way for the community and for sale if we have a surplus. Therefore, our objective is a lot of diversity: regional food (fruits, cereals, legumes, vegetables, etc.), medicinal plants, trees for reforestation and construction/refurbishment of houses, and species used to make crafts and clothes (seeds, fibers, tinctures, etc.). We also use clay which is a very abundant resource in this area, to make soaps and pottery.