Mushuk Away
Updated: Aug 6, 2019

by Marco Andrade
Director of the Mushuk Away Network,
Quito, Ecuador.
“Many small people, in small places, doing small things can change the world.”
– Eduardo Galeano
In fact, five years ago that is exactly what the MUSHUK AWAY network started doing in Equator. A group of visionary and nonconformed activists invited and joined together all alternative projects and initiatives in the country and gathered them on a three-day event to dream a New Possible Word. The meeting brought together educators, healers, psychologists, artisans, and all kind of alternative practitioners. That was just the very beginning of a long shared journey.
Since then, each year we gather together to dream, share, and build that New World that already exists in our hearts. In fact, Mushuk Away means “new network” in our ancient and indigenous language, Quichua, and that network is connecting and strengthening the sharable value of each of its members.
Puerto Cabuyal, Manabí. Photos by Sebastian Melo
But this story is not really about us. It is the story of an idea conceived at the right time. As Victor Hugo said “there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. Six years later, that small idea has grown, slowly connecting a person at a time, and step by step the web of more than 25 different projects and dozens of people involved is now a reality; it happened slowly, but surely.
I know that if you have visited Jim Palmer´s website you are someone with a lot of dreams and a huge desire for self-transformation. I am here to let you now that those ideas, dreams, and goals that make your heart burn, are in fact reachable. Perhaps, you will not be able to accomplish all of it on your own, but surely you are the one that has to take the first step. I do believe that the way will go by doing.
Is a National Network of dreamers and practitioners of a New World out of reach? No! It requires passion, patience, endurance, and energy… years of constant impulse; but it is possible. Your dream is only one step away.
On Mary Oliver words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has…”
We believe in you. Here and now is the exact time for your next step.
With love,
Marco Andrade
Quito – Equator, South America
Mindo. Photos by Juan Pablo Cadenas