Gone are the days where energy is without options. We are entering a new era where homeowners like myself have the potential to generate and directly use our own power. PURE Energies Group helps homeowners across North America adopt solar energy for our own benefit and those of our future generations. A proponent of renewable energy and sustainability, President and CEO of PURE Energies Zbigniew Barwicz took a small team lead by the International Conservation Fund of Canada to the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest to live with the indigenous Kayapo tribe in order to explore what it truly means to be sustainable and independent.
PURE Energies brought a film & photography crew to document the adventure, the participation in their traditions, and to ultimately enable the Kayapo people to continue to protect 10.5 million hectares of their lands from deforestation and continue their conservations efforts through funding. What else did they do? PURE Energies distributed Goal Zero solar powered lanterns to the tribe in Kendjam, Brazil. Fostering independence these lanterns can be used for social enterprise, health care, and social gatherings at night. Freedom and independence is the key, in no way does this program want to impart Western norms on their culture!
An executive member of the PURE Energies Team, Elianne Mureddu, writes about the 5 things she learned from living in the Amazon that we can all take to heart and how they can potentially change our outlook on life.
- You need less than you think. Think about commercials during the holidays. All the new products we need to buy, all the new gadgets we need to make our lives easier, it becomes tough not to want that new iPhone, or those expensive heels, or that fancy new car. Many people base their life on these “wants” and focus their drive on obtaining them. Often we save for months to make that purchase and quickly realize that product wasn’t everything we had imagined, or we need a different, better model. An endless cycle of materialism begins and it’s difficult to escape. The Kayapo live modestly. They don’t use money everyday and they have little material possessions. Their happiness isn’t based on social status, material wealth, or career development. They want to care for their family and make sure their community is happy, they don’t aspire to be lawyers or CEO’s and make big bucks.
- Use your freedom. Societal rules surround us with things to maintain order; our jobs have us in meetings, writing emails, making phone calls, our lives have us shopping for groceries and making dinner. The Kayapo live in perfect disorganization. No specific calendar, no dinner time, they live life as they feel. They hunt when hungry and swim when they feel the urge to swim. Kids become free, fearless, and self-sufficient from a young age as no one is watching over them. There is community love. It’s okay to break the rules, it’s okay to relax and do nothing on a Sunday. Take time to enjoy the little things, take it all in and slowly and profoundly allow things to inspire you.
- Don’t be afraid. Because we’re often taught to be afraid of things, it can hinder us. Before going to the Amazon, the writer was afraid of snakes, scorpions, and pirhanas, because people had told her to be over the years. She quickly learned that while those threats were indeed present, you learn to be careful. Careful, not afraid. Kids of the Kayapo swim alone at age 2, hold knives to build their own toys, climb high trees and have the time of their lives.They’re not taught to be afraid of things like we are and thus teach our own kids. Adults aren’t afraid of constant failure because society doesn’t make them feel that way. Everyone is seen as an integral part of the mechanism and success is wanted for everyone. There is no “I” everything is “we.”
- A smile goes a long way. The writer spoke no Kayapo and her Portuguese was rusty but her smile made a difference! No matter where you are in the world, people breathe the same air, feel the same emotions, want love and care for their families, want to live happy and healthy. A smile makes people feel loved, comfortable, listened to. The Kayapo were the smiliest group of people she’d ever met making them calmer, always in a good mood, smiling back at each other.
- Appreciate what you have. The Kayapo protect the forest with their life because it’s their home, they love the land they live on. The land gives them life, sustains their needs, provides food, shelter, and a home. There is respect for their land, their traditions, stories, battles, learnings. They fight to be themselves, we don’t do this enough. We need to learn as a society to respect everyone, fight for each other. The place you live is part of your daily life, your environment, your surroundings, care for it. If not us, who will? If not now, when?
The Kayapo and their land is threatened every day by loggers, ranchers, and miners. For PURE, independence means giving homeowners the decision to take control of their energy bill and make their own choices. Through their work in the Amazon, they learned the truest form of independence, leadership, and sustainability and want to convey those learnings to the homeowners of America.
I encourage you to follow their journey to witness never-before seen footage of this beautiful place and these amazing people.
This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.
These are awesome life lessons from the Kayapo people. I think that we Americans can learn form the Life Lessons of the Amazon people. I would like to live like the Kayapo people and live a simpler life!