A Journey

Mckenzi Kerrigan

1. The book is structured like a journey. This is to bring the reader along from community to community with the characters in the events that occur in the various places of the story. Often the reader is directly addressed or spoken to by the narrator to create a sense that the reader is along for the journey being told.

The addition of quotes, pictures and explanation of terms from the author in the narrative allow for greater understanding allowing the reader to make connections and fully follow along with the story without getting stuck on an unfamiliar word or image.

2. What is community? The communities of Mexico were not necessarily all of the same nationality of people who spoke the same language and had the same culture. “They speak many languages and honor many traditions. Their land is sacred, as it is the resting place of their ancestors, and they will organize to sustain it – which at times means they must fight, and at times means they must become invisible” (Wheatley, Frieze 23). What made them a connected community was the desire to sustain the land in which they thrived.

“We tinker. We invent. We dream and we imagine and we make believe until its time to go out there and build the world we dream” (Wheatley, Frieze 59). The communities of Brazil were formed by the collaboration of all different types of people and all different communities that come together to create and build what their communities need and want for the betterment of all their members.

Why is community important? “What does work is when teams from one organization travel to another and, through that experience, see themselves more clearly, strengthen their relationships, and renew their creativity” (Wheatley, Frieze 35). Community is important because they imagine and create within the community and also feed off of the ideas of other communities in order to become successful. They are not built off of a single story so to say, communities are built from all different experiences and stories that help to incorporate different strategies for the best chance at learning and developing.

“…that reminds you how much more is possible when you have a whole community standing with you” (Wheatley, Frieze 53). Community is also important because there is strength in numbers.  Shown in this quote from the Brazil communities’ story, the possibilities of being heard are much greater when there are multiple voices shouting for the same cause.

How do we use information for social change? “This is scaling across: releasing knowledge, practices, and resources, and allowing them to circulate freely so that others may adapt them to their local environment” (Wheatley, Frieze 32). Information can be used to educate people about the environment and community they live in in order to contribute and adapt to it.

“Like Brazil’s fruit, nobody knows exactly how many favelas there are or how many people live in them. What we do know is that their growth is also relentless, and that there are enough of them to assume that when it comes to transforming life in a favela, no one is coming to help” (Wheatley, Frieze 56). Although all of the facts of a situation may not be known, any information of a circumstance should lead to questioning and discovering what can be done to change a negative situation.

3. The strategy of Daniel who traveled from place to place teaching the youth of the villages how to build bicimolino, a bicycle powered mill, from a few photos and concepts instead of an entire and detailed instruction manual. This way the communities knew how to build the model, but also had plenty of room to adapt and improve them. This allowed the communities to alter the machines to suit their specific needs like described in the Barefoot Movement (Wheatley, Frieze 31).  I think that this is a wonderful strategy that can be implemented in any community and have a great chance at success because it allows people to take an idea and adapt it for their specific community needs and continue to make it better and teach others about it around them.