last sunday we got to meet with Mylene, who's organization builds canoes as community builders! we got to enjoy a small presentation on the Bankas(canoes) that Mylene and her companions specialize in, followed by a truly wonderful meditation session. finally we spent the rest of our time with Mylene making canoes of our own! Despite what most of us may have had in mind going into the project most of our canoes were quite unconventional. this was all or course to prep us for this sundays workshop and I can hardly wait to actually put this work into practice with visitors! I think it'll be a really great activity that almost every can get involved in!
Getting to meet Mylene and hear about all the amazing work she's doing with communities and survivors of trauma, in an attempt to reunite herself and her community with their Filipino culture and sea bearing ways, was really amazing and awe inspiring. To many of us in America who have heritage in other countries are loosing the culture that we come from. Although for some this is completely fine, for others it is truly devastating and even though they aren't apart of my culture, I feel that it is so important that people like Mylene are around to inspire her people for years to come.
-Sophia
