Featured Testimonial
Ashley Hocking
Rehearsing Change, Fall 2023, American University ('24)
Learning with community through the Rehearsing Change Program was a great honor, and has reoriented how I learn, and now, how I teach. We imagined possibilities through art, theater, movement, music, and sustainable projects, guided by the knowledge and lived experiences of the communities themselves. I am constantly inspired by the transformative work of Pintag Amaru and Puma Wasi. Their efforts go far beyond restoring the land. In doing so, they are also safeguarding their culture, language, autonomy, education, food systems, traditions, and medicine.
The women of Puma Wasi, the Chakramamas, continue to shape my understanding of resilience through their roles as community leaders, teachers, and ecological stewards. The children of the Living Forest School offered lessons of their own, teaching me more about the Amazon than any textbook or class ever could. I will never forget playing in waterfalls with them and the other international students, or how they always offered a hand as we hiked–or really, slipped, slid, and fell–through the muddy forest. Once, a student named Maycol and I had gone for a walk, during which he told me about the different fruits that would be ready in March and how he learned how to fish. I was playing music from my phone, and Maycol kindly asked me to turn my music down because he could not hear the birds–he wanted to point them out to me. That simple request to be present shifted something deep within me. Today, it is a lesson that guides how I teach.
As I shift from my role as a farmer-educator at my hometown’s food bank to a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Spain, I carry with me an understanding rooted in the example of Pintag Amaru and Puma Wasi. Meaningful change begins by dreaming with community. During my time with the Pachaysana Institute, that dreaming took many forms. Sometimes it looked like traditional guayusupinas, where community members shared the dreams they had while asleep and then planned their days together. Other times, it emerged from our classes Theater for Social Change, Sustainable Project Design, Identity & Pacha, and Storytelling. We dreamed aloud through the stories we told daily at mealtimes, during car rides to class, endless soccer and basketball matches, and in the communities that welcomed us with open arms. We also dreamed in quieter but equally powerful ways: during mingas, long hikes, campfires, music, cooking, and the simple day-to-day of living in community, where presence can speak louder than words.
All of this is to say that where accessibility, inclusion, listening, and collaboration are prioritized, something special happens. We unearth the stories that need to be told and the work that is still ahead. Our dreams begin to transform and unite. I am endlessly grateful to have received these lessons from my time with Pachaysana.