Seven educators joined Matt Cook and Tom Roderick for T4CJ’s first Climate Justice Retreat for Educators in the Indigenous Bribri territories of Costa Rica. Head of Latin American Service Expeditions, Matt lives in Costa Rica and works closely with the Bribri people of Yorkin in the rainforest. Traveling by van and dugout canoes to Yorkin, we were warmly welcomed by the Yorkin community and lived with them for five days, experiencing the breathtaking beauty of their eco-forest and their way of life, so different from our own. Along with experiential workshops on chocolate-making, medicinal plants, and tree-planting, we learned the story of their struggles to create and preserve their land- and people-friendly community against incursions by the United Fruit Company—the Yorkin community’s ultimate triumph, an inspiring example of active hope. 

Interwoven with these learnings were workshops in which, con cariño, we wrestled with how to bring our radical, transformative vision of climate justice education alive in our schools and classrooms upon returning home—our own adventure of active hope. All the above worked together for a powerful impact on each and every one of us greater than the sum of its parts. I can’t think of words to express what happened. But, as I said to the group in our final session, “This is what radical, transformative climate justice education looks like!”

-Tom Roderick