U.S. Tour Part 1

I skipped a month; I apologize. This delay is due, in part, to a lot of boring business-related things happening, but I will sum up: we have changed our name, and are currently traveling around the U.S. promoting the newly renamed Insight Resources International (IRI for the rest of this post). We are in the process of creating a new website, and are putting all the necessary governmental documents in place to make sure everyone knows everything they need to know to do the things they need to do. Until everything is finished, our old website, e-mail, etc. will remain up and available (and probably for some time after we are finished, just to avoid confusion).

Unlike my last trip, this time I am not going solo. With me are Al and Velma Corson, who are the founders and primary agents for IRI. They do most of the work in Mozambique and South Africa, and are responsible for some of the research and successes we are experiencing in those places. While they are out of Mozambique, the nationals have taken over day-to-day operations of the organization, and, from all accounts, are doing a great job. For those of you who are not familiar with Mozambican culture, you will not understand how dramatic a step this is – Mozambicans, because of their cultural background, have a difficult time supervising a western-style organization. When you consider that most businesses and government systems in Africa are built on a western framework, you start to understand why Africa faces many business and governmental issues. Our friends in Moz are rapidly developing new perspectives and ways of thinking that are helping them overcome these obstacles. Their ultimate goal is to help the entire country develop new ways of thinking and problem solving, and from what we are seeing, they are off to a great start.

We are currently in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma visting friends and supporters in the area. The rest of our U.S. Tour includes traveling:

In November:

• East to Atlanta, GA
• Back to Broken Arrow, OK

End of Nov – December:

• Break for the holidays (“break” is a relative term)
  • I will be traveling up to IL to speak with supporters and visit my parents
  • Al and Vel will be staying in OK to visit their children and speak with other supporters

End of Dec – January:

• Fly from IL and OK to meet in Alaska
• Fly back to Broken Arrow, OK
• Down to Austin, TX
• Down (again) to San Antonio, TX
  • I will stay in San Antonio
  • Al and Vel will travel on to Corpus Christi

End of Jan – February:

• West to Bakersfield, CA
  • I will take a side trip to the Los Angeles area
  • Al and Vel will stay around Bakersfield
• East to Colorado
• North to Wyoming

End of Feb – March:

• Off to South Africa and then to Mozambique

From March until at least June, I will be back in Africa leading seminars and teaching others to do the same. It looks to be a fun trip, and we hope to meet with as many people as possible to help raise support and to find new venues for the seminars.

What do the Seminars Do?

One question that many people are understandably interested in is: what, exactly, do the Insight Seminars do? The problem answering such a question is that there are many things the seminars do; there are also many ways to explain what they are and different people are interested in slightly different aspects of what happens. So for this explanation, I will try to keep things at their most basic. That is, I want to explain what we think is the core of what the seminars do.

First, some background. We have all heard how our environment shapes us. Various studies, researches, papers, articles, and our own experiences make this clear. What we don't often realize is how much we are shaped by our environment. In our early development, nearly everything we believe is determined by outside forces—we are told what to wear, where to go, what to say, how to behave, even how to eat and drink (properly). In addition to everything we are told, we absorb even more by example. From watching other people and through personal experience, we learn how to really act, what is real and make-believe, what things are dangerous, and just generally how the world works.

As we get older, we pass this knowledge on to others in our community, which both reinforces and refines the ideas we have about the world. It is human nature to want to be right and comfortable, so we tend to spend time with those who have similar views to us; this puts us in a situation where everyone around us strengthens our views. Over time, it seems to us (and those around us) that our ideas are just “the way things are”, and we think that such things are “common sense” and “everyone knows this.” The truth, however, is that we are often wrong on all three counts. This is what gets us into trouble. Because our view of the world is restricted to our own community, we are unable to see certain aspects of reality. Thus “the way things are” may not actually be the way things are. “Common sense” is only common in our community, and everyone most definitely does not know “this.”

Once we have a community consensus, it becomes difficult to recognize where our ideas don't match up with the way the world works. In certain cases, this can produce terrible troubles, such as cultures of poverty and the self-reinforcing fatalism found in communities which have suffered long-term social and/or economic hardships. These cultures create self-reinforcing systems of thought which accept or even encourage negative or destructive behavior. Because the ideas behind these systems are shared throughout the community, they are considered “the way things are,” and are treated as “common sense” within the community.

In order to break out of these self-destructive systems of thought, new ideas need to be introduced. That's where the seminars come in. The seminars introduce new ideas and concepts which help people to identify how they can take control of their environment and change their lives and the world around them for the better. Introducing ideas isn't enough, however. It is important that people understand how these ideas apply to their own lives—this way, people can use these new perspectives to improve their lives on their own terms, without having to fit another culture's paradigm into their system.

Long lead-in for a quick explanation, I know. Next time, I want to explore a bit more about what these new principles are and why they are so effective.

Reporting In

I've been away from the blog a bit, despite my best intentions. I have completed my tour of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. During my time traveling, I was able to visit several of our supporters and talk to a large number of people about what we've been doing in Africa and our plans for the future. I've fielded a lot of questions about what we are planning and why we are doing what we are doing. I've also gotten to talk about our vision for the future. Most of the people I talked to were enthusiastic, some were confused, and a few were concerned about some aspect of our work, but all were open and welcoming. In short, it was a lot of fun, and I want to thank everyone I met for taking the time to hear about the exciting work we are doing.

I still plan to write up a few articles to help explain more about the seminars. I did not forget—the seminars are just hard to describe. There are a lot of ideas that have contributed to their development, and I want to make sure I do them justice.

One quick point—when I post about the seminars (or anything else), please remember that I am speaking as a person, and my views may not reflect Safari Insight Mission's official position. Just needed to throw that out there for legal reasons, so no one takes something I am musing over and presents it as the SIM gospel.

Next up: what the seminars are really supposed to do.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

It has been a while since I posted last. I have been rather busy over the couple months, which makes for a long post, I'm afraid. Instead of giving a lot of exposition on how or why I got behind, let's just catch up with where I am. There are three major events that have happened since I last reported in:

Event 1: Moving Out

I am homeless. This is completely voluntary, a result of the minimal time I will spend in any particular place. I don't think I will be in one place for over 2 months at most for the next few years. This makes any apartments, houses, or any other permanent residence little more than an expensive hotel room I must pay for monthly, even though I won't use it. Thus, no more apartment until I settle down a bit.

Event 2: Visiting Haiti

In June, I was asked to visit NorthwestHaiti Christian Mission to see if the seminars, which have had astounding success in Africa, might also have a positive impact in Haiti. From what I gather, though the history of Haiti is very different from Mozambique, the current situation is surprisingly similar. This is, I think, largely because of the tremendous colonial influence—as in Mozambique, Haiti has been trying to climb up from a long history of colonial rule, but seems to lack some essential tools for doing so. From what I have seen, the techniques and training we have been using in Mozambique should work in Haiti as well. We have coordinated with NWHCM, which is interested in developing local churches and communities, as a partner for developing Haitian communities. I will provide some additional details about specifics of the Haitian situation and how it compares to Mozambique, South Africa, and the U.S. in a later post.

Event 3: Removal of Non-Vital Organs

Surgery hurts. It seems my gall bladder had overtaxed itself, and was in danger of becoming more of health risk than a help, so the doctors at the nearby Regional West MedicalCenter were kind enough to remove it. From what I gather, the surgery was more difficult than they anticipated, due to existing infection and inflammation of the gall badder. In short, it was painful, unpleasant, and I am still getting over it. Fortunately, recovery time is minimal, and I should be able to go do some fund-raising in a week or so. All in all, I'll trade a little bit of pain for the knowledge that I will never have to bother with that discomfort (or health risk) again.

Next Steps:

There, now we're caught up. Over the next two months, I will be visiting supporters, raising funds, and generally traveling the country. Since none of the work I will be doing is seminar-related, I hope to take this time to explain the seminars a bit in this blog, and discuss how they can apply to such a wide range of people, cultures, and circumstances. I would also like to discuss some of the root issues we have noted that are common in many communities both in Mozambique, South Africa, Haiti, and the U.S. The first step to solving a problem is correctly identifying the source, and we're all about solving problems.

South African Seminar Report: From Vaalwater, South Africa

Despite difficulties with transportation, illness, rescheduling, rerouting, and other general disruptions, the third and final seminar of this trip was successfully completed last week. This group was a bit different from the other two seminars for several reasons. First, the audience was, on average, the youngest we have had yet – most of the participants were around college age. Second, the seminar was in English, but it was a second language for most of the participants, who largely came from South African tribal groups, and their tribal language is their first language. Third, the seminar was remote—all participants stayed on site the entire week, so there were far fewer personal interruptions. It is remarkable how many fewer “emergencies” arise when you are unable to address the day-to-day details of your normal routine. Finally, it was the only seminar without Al and Velma (both were in Johannesburg due to Velma's illness—see my previous post for more information).

The seminar started with a preliminary session on Sunday that, unfortunately, was disrupted when we learned that about half our participants had not received the transportation we had arranged for them. As a result, we had to go pick them up, which caused substantial delays. Fortunately, this was easily managed, once we determined the problem. In addition, some of the students had difficulty with the vocabulary—not everyone had the same level of English ability or literacy. This is an issue that has arisen in more than one seminar, and one which we plan to address—we need to be able to communicate to all audiences, and mixing strong and weak scholastic backgrounds tends to leave those who are not as well-educated behind. Since we are trying to develop everyone, we are looking into ways to plan seminars according to more strict demographics. This may not be necessary in all cases, but for certain groups, I think it will benefit everyone involved. The rest of the seminar went smoothly, and the participants all indicated that the seminar was beneficial in helping them learn new ideas and think about their future.

We have now had three seminars, and three positive responses. Coming out of the past several weeks, there are a few items we have noted all the seminars had in common that we think we can improve, and some clear areas of strength that we should continue to develop. This information is very valuable as it allows us to refine and improve the seminars as we planned. I may address these at greater length in the future, if it doesn't create copyright or participant security issues.

To update, Velma Corson, one of our coordinators, is still in the hospital. Between the initial illness (cerebral malaria) and ensuing complications, it is likely she will have to remain in the hospital for at least seven weeks. Al (her husband) and I have found accommodations in the Johannesburg area for the duration of her stay, though I will probably need to head back to the U.S. before she gets out of the hospital. It is a mark of her dedication that she is already thinking of things we need to do with the seminar while we are in South Africa. There is a great opportunity for development here as well as Mozambique, so we expect that our long-term plans, while modified, remain consistent with our vision: bringing development to the lives of people in Africa and around the world.