Long before coming to MTA, i had heard a lot about alternative schools such as the KaosPilots in Denmark, the Knowmads in the Netherlands and of course, Team Academy in Finland. It has always been a dream of mine studying in one of this schools. Back home in Brazil, we are a country of many missed opportunities, and i think that this new way of education is one of them. Luck me I got the chance to meet some LEINNers there and they were crazy enough to invite me to join their team: Ego.
This whole story started in Santos, Brazil. It was July and during that month the Warriors Without Weapons was taking place there. The WWW is a training for social entreprenurs and community leaders to develop their local communities through the Oasis Game – a seven step process to engage and empower communities to use their own talents and resources to make their collective dreams come true. It was over one weekend during the hands on work in the communities in Santos that I met Susana, Ander (Ego), Ana, Juan Felipe and Jon (taZEBAez). It was a very powerful weekend full of transformation and excitment! One weekend later we all came back to Santos for the celebration party of the Warriors and Susana and Ander had a very special invitation for me: «Leo, do you want to come to Ego and do the first Oasis in the Basque Country?», the dream had come true: «YES!!!!».
And just like that, two months later I arrived in Euskadi. I still remember the first day when I went to the university and arrived in the office of the teams. I couldnt belive what my eyes were seeing. I kept asking myself: is this real? And yes, it was! It was a big room, designed to be a coworking space where the teams could display their work and also to cooperate amongst the teams. In one word: Spetacular! It was fun, relax, open and at the same time serious and focused. A mix of people, ideas, talents… All coming together to colaborate instead of competing against one another.
As the days went by I started to understand a bit better how it was possible to oganize a little bit all this chaos. Every week each team had two training sessions to share what was happening in the team, talk about projects and also to plan the goals. Each training session was always very interesting to see the commitment of every single person to the team. This is something that I will never forget: in MTA it is all about teamentrepreneurship!
After some days getting to know a bit more about MTA, finally the Oasis Project Team came together to start working. After sharing our expectations and do some planning, we went out there to get to know some communities and we just felt in love with Etzabakoitz, one of the communities on the surroundings of Pamplona. It was perfect, the locals seemed very interested in the project and so did the local community associations, school and church. We worked very hard on the project for two months, mobilizing the community, getting sponsors and gathering volunteers from MTA. We even got to be on Navarra TV, wow!!!
I was quite impressed to see the commitment of everyone involved inthe project and from the MTA community. I think since for them learning by doing is the best way to learn something, Oasis would be an incredible experience. It was something that never happened before and everyone was very excited about it. Unfortunately we came across some issues with the leaders of the community that made itnimpossible for us to through with the project. With not enough time we had to do our best to learn from the experience so we could make it different next time.
Having facilitated over 10 oasis all over Brazil, for me this was a new and very exciting experience. Of course it was quite a shock to see what was happening, but in the end we had accomplished something great. We put ourselves out there and try to do something which no one had ever done before. We had to be curious, corageous and entrepreneur! All I can say is that I was very proud of my team and the whole MTA community for their support trying to come up with solutions for the Oasis. Im certain that next time, we will overcame all the challenges and deliver the most amazing Oasis ever done in the world!
This entire experience was very special to me in many ways. For all the things i learned, for all the places i’ve visited and for all the incredible people I met. I am very thankful to be – even for just a little while – part of Ego and MTA! Now, there is one thing I wish to you: that one day one LEINNer come across your away and change your life as they did mine.
Leo Duarte
EGO 