La Esperanza — an exciting challenge

Living on the borders of modern culture is an exciting adventure.

It is living on the edge. It is trusting radically in the unknown.

In Inla Kesh we experience it as a deep commitment for love, transformation, evolution and healing inside of us and with everything that surrounds us. It is a constant communication with life itself. What is needed right now? What are our next steps? Who will knock on our door tomorrow?

The last months my core team of eight people and I had to understand, that our time on the land in Chichihuistan, Chiapas, Mexico, is coming to an end. The land is getting too small for all our impulses and visions. It feels like outgrowing a shoe — we sense, that it is time to move on. It is time to start establishing our life in La Esperanza.

A few years ago the community took the risky step to borrow some money and buy 65 hectares of land (La Esperanza) a five hour drive away from its current location. That definitely sounds crazy and that definitely is non-linear as this land is quite a bit off the traces of civilization, off the buzzing centers of modern culture and in wild nature, who doesn’t do compromises.

La Esperanza is located on the eastern foothills of El Triunfo Natural Reserve, where the river that crosses the land springs high up in the mountains and gives us a great water security. The land is far off from the next village so we can more easily be our-self without upsetting the neighbours, and we have wood, clay, stones, sand and a lot of space to create a Garden of Eden that inspires.

Now some years passed, our 10 hectar coffee plantation which was established by the previous owner is now organic and its harvest drastically decreases every year. The wilderness is taking back what once used to be hers and here we are with our little group of challenge lovers.

The time is ripe to take the bull by the horns and do something with the land that in the eyes of many of us is just waiting for someone to go into deep interaction with it. To restore the eroded soil, turn grasslands into forest and make it possible to live off the land.

It get’s more and more clear to us, that it is time to cut off even more ropes, that connect us with modern culture, with all its noise, pollution and toxicity. The global system isn’t made to support life. We think that it is only a question of time that the current systems will collapse.

And then? How will we human beings help regenerate and heal all the mess we created?

We believe it is crucial to start building alternative cultures and way’s of living in cooperation with nature again. To research and re-learn how to live in community and to be an inspiring, supporting model for other groups to dare the step too. In la Esperanza we will take a even more radical stand in this mission that unites us. That’s why we think it is time to be even closer to nature, find our niche in the local ecosystem and openly share our lifestyle with all people interested in it. It is time to create decentralized nano nations that thrive independently integrated in the local ecosystem.

Besides creating a Garden of Eden, we will build a training center where we can continue to train ourselves.

We know from experience: if we don’t work on and transform our most inner traumas and destructive behaviors, the dream of community and of La Esperanza can not fly!

It is important for Inla Kesh to work with short and long term visitors which particularly come to experience communal ways to deal with the challenges of life.

That’s why this center will also be for You. Here you can come and train yourself to thrive on planet earth and in life with all its different facets.

More specifically, we will establish a center for possibility management training (human thoughtware upgrading), for permaculture in action with courses and establishment of permaculture design, for Río Abierto and Biodanza (movement) events and cultural investigation close to nature.

It is a beautiful impulse and exciting project we are daring to start. And it also brings a huge challenge.

This new challenge, starting to move to La Esperanza, will for sure change what we know as our community Inla Kesh forever.

It is the transition from a comfortable, well established home close to the city to a land far away from any civilization, surrounded by wild nature.

How will this redefine our community life and rhythm? For sure it will be a Box expanding experience for each of us. How will we experience the personal transition, reconnection and healing processes that will be triggered by being closer to the wilderness?

What will life look like in the transition time? How does the team go with inevitable changes that will come when some people spend more time developing La Esperanza and others maintaining our current home in Chichihuistan? Will all of us move to La Esperanza one day? Do we sell our land in Chichihuistan? Or will we try to maintain both places?

Right now we are on the first steps of realizing the dreams each one of us has for the land. I just finished my permaculture certificate and made a permaculture design for La Esperanza with my new gained knowledge which gets more and more refined.

It is clear for us, that the next step towards the land is: planting!

The just starting rainy season will give us the necessary water to start extending the existing forest.

This rainy season the nursery shall get established and first reforestation experiments will take place. We will plant lots of bamboo for future constructions, Cacao trees for our chocolate factory and generally observe more how the forces of nature display on La Esperanza to find a sustainable way of building the described center, which will be powered by our community.

Dear Reader, thank you for reading this lines. For being part of our adventure!

Me and the Inla Kesh community invite you to support us in our mission in any way you can imagine. Helping hands are very welcome.

Get in touch if this article is moving something in you!

Anton

and the Inla Kesh Community