1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 So very welcome to another episode of the Travel Diaries. 2 00:00:09,100 --> 00:00:16,400 This time it's not so much about our current travel situation. 3 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:23,440 It's more about my reflection of the years we spent on La Palma in the Canary Islands. 4 00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:29,560 And I needed to say that this time was really, really good for us. 5 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:36,500 It put life into a broader perspective because I come from a very boring background. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:37,920 My parents are super boring. 7 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:44,840 At least the dad, my stepdad and my mom, who I grew up with, are very boring people. 8 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,200 And they always thought I'm a fucking freak. 9 00:00:48,820 --> 00:00:56,220 And living on La Palma and meeting actual freaks made me realize that I'm not a freak 10 00:00:56,220 --> 00:00:58,340 and I'm quite in the middle, I would say. 11 00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:07,840 that was very healthy for me and I was able to work on a lot of things in these years I really 12 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:14,720 enjoyed that to go really deep into who I am what do I want and all these things to really narrow 13 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:26,260 down to yeah to the core maybe even so as this podcast is about education I wanted to share a 14 00:01:26,260 --> 00:01:33,300 little bit about the educational things that went on on La Palma. Yeah I don't even know where to 15 00:01:33,300 --> 00:01:38,480 start to be honest. So we'll start with the free school my son went to. Before I start I really 16 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:45,120 need to say that not all of our experiences there were great, far from it, but all of them were very 17 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:52,720 very valuable. Maybe you know this gut feeling when you meet someone for the first time or a 18 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:58,860 group of people even in your like something is off but somehow you I didn't trust it in this case 19 00:01:58,860 --> 00:02:06,320 and it turned out like years later I was fucking right what a nice feeling in this case shitty 20 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:12,540 feeling because being right about these people meant also that yeah the whole story wasn't that 21 00:02:12,540 --> 00:02:18,840 good but I really want to share this with you because from the educational perspective I think 22 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:25,100 this is quite interesting because if you choose to take the responsibility for your child's 23 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:32,080 education in your own hands you are going out there and you are looking at other people how 24 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:39,320 they do educate their children and all these projects are out there especially the projects 25 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:47,200 where a couple of parents come together and build something for the kids so I came there to the 26 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:54,980 Canary Islands with my son and I was really really convinced that I want to have a free school for him 27 00:02:54,980 --> 00:03:04,340 like a very small project where he is close to the kids and can yeah really bond with the kids 28 00:03:04,340 --> 00:03:10,960 have a good time there and discover life somehow so I was really really lucky to find a free school 29 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:19,580 from like kind of hippie community they weren't like not all of them lived together 30 00:03:19,580 --> 00:03:24,840 but they were like quite close they lived all in the same area of the island 31 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:28,260 quite similar kind of people I would say 32 00:03:28,260 --> 00:03:38,660 the funny thing is that always resonated in my head over the years like was in university I had 33 00:03:38,660 --> 00:03:45,660 someone in my class and she was best friends with a hippie girl and she always told me 34 00:03:45,660 --> 00:03:52,200 you know what these hippie people are the ones who are the most close-minded regarding 35 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:59,560 outsiders and I was always wondering if she's right so from my experience now I have to say 36 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:06,400 at least for the hippies I met on this island this is so true if you look different if you 37 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:14,800 have different living standards you're automatically out they would say in the 38 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,360 beginning it was like yeah bugging me a little bit because I really wanted to be part of this 39 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:27,480 hippie community and I know that I'm a hippie by heart and compared to the people I know in Germany 40 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:33,620 I also look very hippie from the outside but for them I wasn't hippie enough I already felt this 41 00:04:33,620 --> 00:04:42,080 from the very first second but it is what it is I thought at least we agreed on what free education 42 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:53,320 might look like I thought so Pali started to go to the school it took us some time to to get a 43 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:59,400 place there and I had the feeling like they are not really welcoming other kids like that are not 44 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:05,800 having the same lifestyle i do understand because of course you want to shield your kid and you want 45 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:14,580 to keep the community close and you want to really yeah know the influences from outside i do 46 00:05:14,580 --> 00:05:20,140 understand that fully so i think it was it was well there were about like 10 to 15 families 47 00:05:20,140 --> 00:05:26,780 sometimes more sometimes less um and through working with these families like really close 48 00:05:26,780 --> 00:05:32,300 because everyone had to take on some kind of responsibilities like from building stuff for the 49 00:05:32,300 --> 00:05:39,500 kids organizing workshops or stuff like that the finance team and all these little things that 50 00:05:39,500 --> 00:05:46,640 belong to some kind of project like this you really get to know the people and i i'm really 51 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:56,700 good in sensing first second how this how a person is what their weakness is what their ego is long 52 00:05:56,700 --> 00:06:07,600 you know what I mean so seeing like the dark shadows of everyone which is not a bad thing 53 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:13,940 it's actually really cool if you're open-minded and you're able to work with it but I think we 54 00:06:13,940 --> 00:06:19,440 weren't so connected that we were actually able to talk about these kind of things and I really 55 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:29,040 didn't care I need to say so I yeah I had the perception of really feeling into so many different 56 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:37,020 kind of families and personas very very interesting and in La Palma people are so 57 00:06:37,020 --> 00:06:44,720 direct with who they are like they are so they put it on the table if you're a 58 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:52,640 I don't know part-time shaman who never really went to the jungle but is giving 59 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:59,040 out ayahuasca to everyone who feels like it and then you have like really 60 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:09,480 yeah all these yeah I would say healers lightworkers I know that you know 61 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:16,440 probably that not all of these so-called light workers or healers are really on a good path 62 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:23,140 I really figured out after all these years on the Canary Islands that most of them are so 63 00:07:23,140 --> 00:07:31,040 fucked up that they I don't know that what they need is what they practice that is what I really 64 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:38,060 found out so within this educational community I really found that there was a queen and a king 65 00:07:38,060 --> 00:07:47,720 and like this ayahuasca shaman the psychiatrist that really needs psychological help this is what 66 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:54,780 i found out this is how i felt um for example her kid i think her kid was already 14 and 67 00:07:54,780 --> 00:08:03,260 she never washed not even one plate in the house she never cleaned anything which is okay and the 68 00:08:03,260 --> 00:08:10,360 was always complaining she's never doing anything in the house did you tell her to do no she didn't 69 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:18,760 so these kind of um yeah people i really saw so many personas from from the distance because i 70 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:24,000 never really became part of the group but i spent so much time with them organizing all these cool 71 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:31,700 things and yeah having all these meetings with them so i really was able to uh yeah draw a lot 72 00:08:31,700 --> 00:08:40,760 pictures. One family I really think was interesting. They were really really 73 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:46,640 nice parents, really awesome parents and they gave to their... I think their son was 74 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:52,400 two years old, they gave him San Pedro and I thought that is really interesting. 75 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:57,080 In the beginning I thought, oh my god you cannot do this and now I have a very 76 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:02,120 different perception of this because if you don't live in a society where these 77 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:08,840 things are like forbidden but it's a part of everyday life and what I learned 78 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:17,000 is that in Mexican tradition some villages some women take coyote when 79 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:22,160 they give birth so I think including this I mean we can discuss about if it's 80 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:28,400 okay to give it to a child but very interesting and I found that these parents were the 81 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:36,720 the yeah the ones with the yeah who were the healthiest so to say even though I wasn't friends 82 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:42,680 with them but from the outside I really thought how they raised their kid was beautiful because 83 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:47,520 they were full of love like real love and the others were like these were like fake 84 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:54,980 I call them om shanti shanti bitches if you know what I mean like these fake people 85 00:09:54,980 --> 00:10:02,100 so I want to tell you a little bit about the project initiators the founders who 86 00:10:02,100 --> 00:10:10,380 picture themselves or who present themselves as so open-minded so loving so acceptable to 87 00:10:10,380 --> 00:10:18,340 all beings and everything that they are not really um but i found that out later and later i mean i 88 00:10:18,340 --> 00:10:24,860 always had the gut feeling but i didn't have no evidence whatsoever so i trusted that 89 00:10:24,860 --> 00:10:32,900 this was good enough to be a good school for my son what i found out over the years that these two 90 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:41,000 were leaders like in a sex cult that was I don't know present on the island for like 15 years called 91 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:50,520 the angels that is hilarious and they were really worshiping an old blind lady she's dead now I think 92 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:57,760 for a couple of years even and they had to have sex with each other like all of them in this cult 93 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:06,200 to clean their karma which I think is hilarious but everyone has different beliefs so I'm not 94 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:14,660 judging this what I judge is that they had a kid in this cult like the two founders of the school 95 00:11:14,660 --> 00:11:21,220 and they raised him as the new king of the new world and these kind of things I think is 96 00:11:21,220 --> 00:11:31,380 just an egotropy thing. I don't know. So I'm still not fully there understanding how you can tell 97 00:11:31,380 --> 00:11:37,500 your child he's the king of the new world, which is interesting because in everyday life, before I 98 00:11:37,500 --> 00:11:54,483 knew about this I always felt like he treated as the king of the school And I was always wondering why does this kid has more rights as all the other kids But I blamed it on he the kids of the founder and not he the king of the new world 99 00:11:55,303 --> 00:12:01,983 And when I talked about other parents, I think I had like two parents that I was able to talk about these kind of things. 100 00:12:01,983 --> 00:12:09,663 they confirmed that they had the same feeling and that they found it quite weird because it 101 00:12:09,663 --> 00:12:16,843 wasn't the usual kid has more rights because it's the founder's kids it was worshipped also by other 102 00:12:16,843 --> 00:12:23,563 teachers and you will understand why later on um yeah so this kid has had more rights 103 00:12:23,563 --> 00:12:35,743 and I really think that in this community they said every parent is equal but I really felt like 104 00:12:35,743 --> 00:12:41,383 some people are more equal than others if you know what I mean and so some had more rights and some 105 00:12:41,383 --> 00:12:48,843 were told to have that they have rights to decide and to to vote and to create but in the end 106 00:12:48,843 --> 00:12:58,183 nobody was able to create but who the founders thought were yeah good enough to create for them 107 00:12:58,183 --> 00:13:07,303 I would say um and it was always covered with a layer of oh we all love each other we don't 108 00:13:07,303 --> 00:13:12,923 criticize so it was really hard to talk about these things because if you if I'm an open person 109 00:13:12,923 --> 00:13:17,363 and in all these meetings I always said hey this is not going right for me I would like to create 110 00:13:17,363 --> 00:13:21,583 this or that and it was always like yeah yeah you can do this you can do this but when I actually 111 00:13:21,583 --> 00:13:28,323 did it it was like forgotten and never talked about again so yeah in the beginning I wasn't 112 00:13:28,323 --> 00:13:34,843 so involved with this but I'm going to tell you a bit more about this later so I think this um 113 00:13:34,843 --> 00:13:42,283 let's talk about this general educational direction I would say um you have to picture it like that 114 00:13:42,283 --> 00:13:46,603 This is a quite remote island and the north is pretty wild. 115 00:13:46,763 --> 00:13:47,823 So even more remote. 116 00:13:48,603 --> 00:13:52,563 And in a very, very small village where only German people live. 117 00:13:52,923 --> 00:13:54,083 And it's a very small village. 118 00:13:54,503 --> 00:13:57,723 This school was there, was located there. 119 00:13:58,163 --> 00:14:01,643 So these kids never really left the school. 120 00:14:01,823 --> 00:14:02,743 There was no adventure. 121 00:14:03,003 --> 00:14:07,023 There was no showing them the world, showing them the island, all the options. 122 00:14:07,023 --> 00:14:24,243 And this is a beautiful island with lots of indigenous heritage, beaches, wild beaches, forests, volcanoes, museums, little villages with a lot of history. 123 00:14:25,243 --> 00:14:27,663 Food, you can explore food. 124 00:14:27,843 --> 00:14:29,883 I mean, there's so much to do, basically. 125 00:14:30,623 --> 00:14:35,583 Climbing, hiking, horseback riding, diving, sailing. 126 00:14:35,583 --> 00:14:42,243 I mean you name it it's an adventure to live there but these kids were kept in 127 00:14:42,243 --> 00:14:51,823 this school on this yeah like quite boring terrain and yeah it was for me it 128 00:14:51,823 --> 00:14:57,183 was quite yeah I didn't understand why they were not exploring the island with 129 00:14:57,183 --> 00:15:04,583 this millions of ideas kids have and why they were kept in this yeah boring 130 00:15:04,583 --> 00:15:11,703 environment over there so yeah once I talked about this with them and they were like yeah 131 00:15:11,703 --> 00:15:18,503 they don't need to learn those things because they don't need it for the new world it was basic 132 00:15:18,503 --> 00:15:23,883 things even to support them learn how to read and these kind of things I'm not a strict person I 133 00:15:23,883 --> 00:15:29,243 know that every child has their own rhythm but if you don't have a book you're not gonna read 134 00:15:29,243 --> 00:15:35,803 and if you only have books that are like 30 years old or 20 years old and they don't 135 00:15:37,323 --> 00:15:43,383 yeah that that are not interesting enough to you it's really hard for you to pick it up as a child 136 00:15:43,383 --> 00:15:48,883 and learn reading from what from sitting in the same tent every day it doesn't make sense so 137 00:15:48,883 --> 00:15:56,663 when i saw when i was talking about this with the founders it came really down to they don't need 138 00:15:56,663 --> 00:16:02,163 those things in the new world so we are not gonna encourage them to learn any of these things 139 00:16:02,163 --> 00:16:08,603 same time they were always like yeah we have material to learn how to read and to do maths 140 00:16:08,603 --> 00:16:15,403 and all these things but it was never really child-led or supported by the kids interest it 141 00:16:15,403 --> 00:16:22,823 was always a little bit more about their ideas and this is what I find difficult because I have 142 00:16:22,823 --> 00:16:29,403 ideas about my life in the world but I try to stay open-minded what my child thinks that the 143 00:16:29,403 --> 00:16:36,463 world is like and what kind of world he wants to live in I'm not a big fan of gaming but my son is 144 00:16:36,463 --> 00:16:42,063 gaming so I think you have to draw a line where your personal belief starts and the personal 145 00:16:42,063 --> 00:16:52,143 belief of your kids starts um I'm not a huge fan of brainwashing so I think kids are entitled to 146 00:16:52,143 --> 00:16:56,783 explore everything and to have their own opinion and I didn't see that there enough 147 00:16:56,783 --> 00:17:04,323 um and I also thought like even if they don't need these things for the new world whatever this 148 00:17:04,323 --> 00:17:12,063 might be or look like what about now I mean some kids were really interested to learn but they were 149 00:17:12,063 --> 00:17:19,263 somehow kept from it um and it was always said like the kids can decide what they learn and stuff 150 00:17:19,263 --> 00:17:25,303 and I was always like from what they don't have material they don't have an access to interesting 151 00:17:25,303 --> 00:17:32,503 things to play with and then they started to buy here and there some kind of lego and these kind 152 00:17:32,503 --> 00:17:38,823 of things but the kids had to work for it they had to craft things and sell it on a yeah like 153 00:17:38,823 --> 00:17:45,363 handcraft market and most of the kids they didn't even want to do it but they were pressured into it 154 00:17:45,363 --> 00:17:50,983 And it sounds weird that I let this happen to my child, but it wasn't abusive or any way. 155 00:17:50,983 --> 00:17:53,703 And my child always said like, no, I don't want to do it. 156 00:17:54,163 --> 00:17:56,783 I did something else in this time with my best friend. 157 00:17:57,863 --> 00:18:02,723 So he was choosing if he wanted to be part of that or not. 158 00:18:02,843 --> 00:18:05,783 And with all the money, I mean, it wasn't a lot. 159 00:18:06,023 --> 00:18:09,463 The kids had like a democratic choice what to buy. 160 00:18:09,463 --> 00:18:17,383 and you can imagine some kids had more rights and to choose what to buy than others so it is what it 161 00:18:17,383 --> 00:18:22,863 is in the end some kids had things they were interested in and some still didn't so this was 162 00:18:22,863 --> 00:18:27,683 one of the reasons my child left because he said like I want to learn I want to experience stuff 163 00:18:27,683 --> 00:18:34,403 but they keep me from it and you can imagine if kids have this boring environment and nothing 164 00:18:34,403 --> 00:18:43,223 really to explore they tend to create drama inside the community to explore something even 165 00:18:43,223 --> 00:18:48,623 if it's just this kind of emotions because kids want to explore and they want to have some kind 166 00:18:48,623 --> 00:18:55,163 of adventure and so my child always told me like it's too much drama within the community 167 00:18:55,163 --> 00:19:03,523 and not enough like adventure exploration outside of the community and I really think exploring 168 00:19:03,523 --> 00:19:09,963 the social structures you can do this while hiking you don't have to sit around and and 169 00:19:09,963 --> 00:19:16,963 don't do it the good part is um the kids didn't have to go to school if they didn't like it they 170 00:19:16,963 --> 00:19:23,563 could just stay home and do whatever they wanted so i treated it like an option if he wanted to go 171 00:19:23,563 --> 00:19:30,803 and if not and he had his two best friends in the school who were way more like him and the parents 172 00:19:30,803 --> 00:19:39,643 yeah were a bit more open-minded so it was always quite nice for him anyway to yeah to get out of 173 00:19:39,643 --> 00:19:46,563 of home and to be with his friends and these kind of things and I really think all these negative 174 00:19:46,563 --> 00:19:53,563 things I tell you now of course it's it's not the whole story the rest of the stories they had 175 00:19:53,563 --> 00:20:00,663 really great times over that they were playing a lot and they just had a yeah a very nice time 176 00:20:00,663 --> 00:20:08,043 in general but not deep enough for my understanding and what I really didn't like was that these 177 00:20:08,043 --> 00:20:15,023 founders they were always the one who were choosing the teachers and I was always thinking dude I'm a 178 00:20:15,023 --> 00:20:20,503 teacher first of all I would like to have a say in this I would like to get you know these even if I 179 00:20:20,503 --> 00:20:26,283 wasn't a teacher I'm the mom I'm paying for this and it wasn't cheap at all I really want to know 180 00:20:26,283 --> 00:20:33,383 who these people are that are spending four hours a day with my child but you never heard a say in 181 00:20:33,383 --> 00:20:41,343 this so they were really yeah choosing from my perspective like incompetent persons like basic 182 00:20:41,343 --> 00:20:47,743 kindergarten teachers so to say but what I want for my child were like competent coaches 183 00:20:47,743 --> 00:20:53,743 and in one situation the kids like at least my kid and two other kids they felt really 184 00:20:53,743 --> 00:21:02,563 uncomfortable with one of the teachers like a male figure and they told me and so I told the 185 00:21:02,563 --> 00:21:10,603 founders that there are some kids that don't feel comfortable and it led to such a disgusting 186 00:21:10,603 --> 00:21:17,323 shit show that in the end it was somehow my fault that the third founder like the inventor of the 187 00:21:17,323 --> 00:21:27,343 educational foundation so to say the educational idea left the school and in the end it was my 188 00:21:27,343 --> 00:21:36,203 fault because i spoke up and so the minute you talk about what you feel like is in misalignment 189 00:21:36,203 --> 00:21:43,723 you were the one to blame for the misalignment and this is what i found out quite late 190 00:21:43,723 --> 00:21:51,943 because I was gaslighting gaslighted into believing I mean it didn't work because I'm 191 00:21:51,943 --> 00:21:57,983 not stupid but they really try to gaslight people into believing that if they talk up 192 00:21:57,983 --> 00:22:05,903 they are the problem it worked for some parents they made them leave the school later on these 193 00:22:05,903 --> 00:22:12,163 kind of things if they yeah really wanted to change something in the school which is their 194 00:22:12,163 --> 00:22:18,423 right if it's a community project so they were like asked to leave the school these kind of things 195 00:22:18,423 --> 00:22:27,163 really really crazy yeah so what I really thought what is interesting was the finance issue because 196 00:22:27,163 --> 00:22:32,303 I've been in the finance team for quite some time and I always had the feeling like I'm doing the 197 00:22:32,303 --> 00:22:39,223 maths and still there is money missing and I'm not stupid I can't count and I have a calculator 198 00:22:39,223 --> 00:22:45,743 and I have the expenses and incomings of the school right in front of me and still I always 199 00:22:45,743 --> 00:22:53,403 have the feeling of money's going somewhere which I couldn't really yeah understand and after some 200 00:22:53,403 --> 00:23:01,283 years I really found out why and you will find out too because I'm gonna tell you and I need to say 201 00:23:01,283 --> 00:23:09,103 the whole time I've we've been with the school the school was taking the location was the founder 202 00:23:09,103 --> 00:23:16,183 house I mean what is that they all were always complaining about oh my god all these kids every 203 00:23:16,183 --> 00:23:22,043 day around our house we want to have some privacy but the same time they were responsible for finding 204 00:23:22,043 --> 00:23:34,606 a new place they wanted to be responsible for this there were really other parents that wanted to be responsible for this and they didn let them and they never found a place but they kept on 205 00:23:34,606 --> 00:23:41,506 complaining. They wanted to solve it like that. They wanted to manifest a rich person stepping by 206 00:23:41,506 --> 00:23:47,286 and I'm not kidding you to buy them a house for the school. So this is what they were manifesting. 207 00:23:47,286 --> 00:23:55,766 it never happened in all these years i've been with these guys i think i know them now for five 208 00:23:55,766 --> 00:24:03,086 years it never happened the school doesn't exist anymore for good reasons um yeah so basically the 209 00:24:03,086 --> 00:24:09,486 founders decided what free education is like they decided where the school is located they 210 00:24:09,486 --> 00:24:17,226 pretty much decided everything um and in the end they started to pay themselves for like really 211 00:24:17,226 --> 00:24:23,506 basic jobs every parent had to do but they paid themselves from the school money because they were 212 00:24:23,506 --> 00:24:29,226 like yeah it's on our land and it's not it wasn't even the land so they've been living there for free 213 00:24:29,226 --> 00:24:40,306 um and so on it it just showed a kind of misbalance um yeah but it is what it is they then started to 214 00:24:40,306 --> 00:24:47,466 really walk around naked and my child confronted them he was like yeah I don't really like that 215 00:24:47,466 --> 00:24:53,126 because you are strangers to me and I don't really want you to talk to me while you're naked or 216 00:24:53,126 --> 00:24:59,726 running around naked where the school is taking place they never told me about this I mean my 217 00:24:59,726 --> 00:25:07,186 kid told me of course and after a couple of times this happened I called them out I was like dude 218 00:25:07,186 --> 00:25:12,426 the kids told you they don't like that they feel uncomfortable that you're running around naked 219 00:25:12,426 --> 00:25:20,546 and talk to them while you're naked and I think this is crossing uh like a line uh it doesn't have 220 00:25:20,546 --> 00:25:25,666 to do anything with not being allowed to be naked because they wanted to make it about yeah you're 221 00:25:25,666 --> 00:25:31,726 uncomfortable with being naked and these kind of things and I really think you have to separate 222 00:25:31,726 --> 00:25:38,206 if it's your home if it's school time and how comfortable are the kids with it and I know that 223 00:25:38,206 --> 00:25:46,406 in the overall village community that doesn't touch the school but if they had a problem within 224 00:25:46,406 --> 00:25:53,106 this community they were living in everyone had to sit in a circle naked even the kids the 225 00:25:53,106 --> 00:26:00,426 teenagers and I think I would draw a line there because in the end you make kids do it 226 00:26:00,426 --> 00:26:08,446 especially teenagers to solve a problem and I don't really understand why kids have to be part 227 00:26:08,446 --> 00:26:16,566 of it especially if it's not your kid I mean if it's your own family and you want to solve problems 228 00:26:16,566 --> 00:26:25,366 like this it's okay I guess but making other people do it I think it's yeah everyone can 229 00:26:25,366 --> 00:26:32,066 decide for themselves but i thought it's at least for my understanding was a bit too much 230 00:26:32,066 --> 00:26:41,306 i mean i'm an open-minded person but i wouldn't i wouldn't want to be naked in front of kids i 231 00:26:41,306 --> 00:26:50,246 don't know all the time and talk to them i mean what is that yeah so all in all uh after i think 232 00:26:50,246 --> 00:26:58,866 two and a half years he attended the school one and like with every crazy situation that came up 233 00:26:58,866 --> 00:27:05,006 it was enough for me it didn't make sense anymore and my kid didn't want to go there anymore because 234 00:27:05,006 --> 00:27:13,466 he felt like he's wasting his time it's more drama than actual support or coaching so and I really 235 00:27:13,466 --> 00:27:19,266 felt like they tried to gaslight me and yeah I wasn't allowed to organize anything for the kids 236 00:27:19,266 --> 00:27:24,206 even if they asked me like yeah we want to know more about podcasting we know more about bitcoin 237 00:27:24,206 --> 00:27:31,586 we want coaching we want adventures and i try to really organize all these things but 238 00:27:31,586 --> 00:27:37,846 it i was never allowed to carry it out so i invested a lot of time and money into 239 00:27:37,846 --> 00:27:43,506 yeah these beautiful kids when yeah in the end nothing happened 240 00:27:43,506 --> 00:27:53,566 yeah and i remember one meeting uh that i made them speak about the problem in general that i 241 00:27:53,566 --> 00:28:00,546 think that we are not communicating in a good way that we agree on yeah we want to change this 242 00:28:00,546 --> 00:28:08,026 uh in yeah in balance between the parents and it's more like lip service than anything else 243 00:28:08,026 --> 00:28:15,886 and everyone had to vote on if we can go on like this or not if we believe in this change like it 244 00:28:15,886 --> 00:28:23,206 was very vague it wasn't really anything concrete and I was really the only one opting out I was 245 00:28:23,206 --> 00:28:32,246 like dude who's believing that I don't and I was the only parent who was like no I'm out of this 246 00:28:32,246 --> 00:28:39,626 and the parents of my kids best friends they already left school like months ago I was the 247 00:28:39,626 --> 00:28:45,566 only one left like the rebellious one they they said this was really the point for me that I 248 00:28:45,566 --> 00:28:52,506 thought okay you're all brainwashed by these founders there was never any change initiated 249 00:28:52,506 --> 00:28:57,446 the last 10 times we talked about it so why should it be like that this time it's like a ridiculous 250 00:28:57,446 --> 00:29:04,086 clown world that let's let's leave it like that and i think one thing that really fucked me up 251 00:29:04,086 --> 00:29:11,026 seeing no compassion whatsoever by the founders like compassion for themselves yes but anything 252 00:29:11,026 --> 00:29:16,406 else no they um attracted i mean they had to attract new people for the school because they 253 00:29:16,406 --> 00:29:21,286 were losing a lot of parents every year because they were dropping out because of the circumstances 254 00:29:21,286 --> 00:29:25,346 that were not really satisfying for parents nor the kids. 255 00:29:25,926 --> 00:29:30,086 So I know that two families moved from La Gomera to La Palma. 256 00:29:30,186 --> 00:29:32,446 One of the families even bought a house over there 257 00:29:32,446 --> 00:29:34,726 so the kids could attempt this school. 258 00:29:36,306 --> 00:29:39,086 And yeah, like false marketing, 259 00:29:40,226 --> 00:29:44,386 this vision crumbled and the curtains fell. 260 00:29:44,386 --> 00:29:48,486 The parents, these two families, they moved back to La Gomera. 261 00:29:48,626 --> 00:29:49,706 They had to sell their house. 262 00:29:49,706 --> 00:29:55,466 they had to buy a new house on the other island I mean that's just crazy for me I would really feel 263 00:29:55,466 --> 00:30:01,466 bad but they didn't they were like yeah not everyone is in for this mission and I really 264 00:30:01,466 --> 00:30:08,326 felt bad because it was just false marketing they yeah were like yeah they were like 265 00:30:08,326 --> 00:30:13,906 lured into something that is that wasn't it but it is what it is 266 00:30:13,906 --> 00:30:22,746 um so when my kid left the school I was like okay leave it like that whatever is is going on there 267 00:30:22,746 --> 00:30:29,246 let it let it let it be because the other families were quite happy in the end there 268 00:30:29,246 --> 00:30:34,366 were only three other families that didn't leave the school so it was a very close-knit circle 269 00:30:34,366 --> 00:30:42,266 and I was like they like this way of living so that's not my business anymore I was just 270 00:30:42,266 --> 00:30:49,046 happy for all the nice times we had together and it really called it a day so to say 271 00:30:49,046 --> 00:30:58,926 and a couple of nights before we left La Palma for good the former teacher called me and I really 272 00:30:58,926 --> 00:31:04,666 tried to talk about all these issues with her because she was always out of all these things 273 00:31:04,666 --> 00:31:09,966 she was yeah I'm just the teacher please don't involve me in anything else and I always thought 274 00:31:09,966 --> 00:31:16,206 that this is weird because we were only like a couple of people why don't you want to be involved 275 00:31:16,206 --> 00:31:24,086 but i respected that a lot because it was a lot of drama and i tried to talk about all these issues 276 00:31:24,086 --> 00:31:29,626 with her and she was like no you are wrong you see all of that wrong it's it's they're great 277 00:31:29,626 --> 00:31:35,046 people there's nothing to complain about you're really just out of your mind and for a second i 278 00:31:35,046 --> 00:31:42,866 was like this is crazy maybe I'm I'm a weirdo it might be that was what it is but in the end I 279 00:31:42,866 --> 00:31:49,926 talked about this with my kid and he was like no she's quite basic she she might not had the chance 280 00:31:49,926 --> 00:31:58,046 to grasp the like to see the bigger picture so I was like okay let's see and yeah she called me a 281 00:31:58,046 --> 00:32:05,006 couple of nights before we left the island and she would confirm everything that I told her and 282 00:32:05,006 --> 00:32:12,706 even worse at some point she was like they didn't pay her anymore because they told her 283 00:32:12,706 --> 00:32:20,506 they run out of money which I think is hilarious because with all the fees the parents had to pay 284 00:32:20,506 --> 00:32:26,626 how can you run out of money it's you have no rent to pay no nothing no bills no electricity 285 00:32:26,626 --> 00:32:33,626 crazy no material it was being bought just one teacher so then when the money stopped flowing 286 00:32:33,626 --> 00:32:39,826 she started thinking and she started discovering late but at least she did it so she left the school 287 00:32:39,826 --> 00:32:47,726 immediately and she confirmed everything to me and she also said that when we left the situation 288 00:32:47,726 --> 00:32:54,846 became worse and worse because the founder invited more and more so to say teachers or 289 00:32:54,846 --> 00:33:04,006 helpers from their cult. They never called it a sex cult. They just called it their community. 290 00:33:04,966 --> 00:33:12,146 And the former teacher, she really felt weirded out by the people that have been presented to her 291 00:33:12,146 --> 00:33:19,286 as their new colleagues. And then one day she understood what was happening there, that these 292 00:33:19,286 --> 00:33:27,286 people were not harmless at all that they were quite involved in a yeah in a direction that is 293 00:33:27,286 --> 00:33:39,046 not educational but yeah personal motivation in terms of yeah personal connections between them 294 00:33:39,046 --> 00:33:46,026 and the cult leaders the school founders so the former teacher she thinks that all this money 295 00:33:46,026 --> 00:33:51,806 was flowing in the pockets of the owners which I think is quite funny because they always made me 296 00:33:51,806 --> 00:33:59,406 feel like shit for wanting to work wanting to make money and all these things in the end and 297 00:33:59,406 --> 00:34:04,086 they loved my money because I spent quite some money on that school for materials that never 298 00:34:04,086 --> 00:34:13,246 came and these kind of things yeah so in the end I was right that was a nice feeling what wasn't so 299 00:34:13,246 --> 00:34:21,246 nice is that I was right about dark things going on in the background of some people's lives and 300 00:34:21,246 --> 00:34:28,906 that yeah I'm just happy that never any child was being harmed or yeah I would say 301 00:34:28,906 --> 00:34:36,706 yeah there was no harm for these kids it was always a for the kids quite positive environment 302 00:34:36,706 --> 00:34:45,226 that was more about yeah the social structures within the group than real education 303 00:34:45,226 --> 00:34:53,166 so a bunch of free kids roaming around which is really nice they were in nature they were free 304 00:34:53,166 --> 00:34:57,826 whatever to do they were free to spend time only with their best friends and 305 00:34:57,826 --> 00:35:03,946 just connect with the group for like lunch and these kind of things and 306 00:35:03,946 --> 00:35:20,968 I would say it was a really nice time for them Also I told you now the background story this is not what the everyday life of the kids was about if i if this was the case my kid would have attended exactly one hour and then this would 307 00:35:20,968 --> 00:35:27,369 have been it but i can say these two and a half years i've been involved with them two years 308 00:35:27,369 --> 00:35:35,049 were very very nice for the kids and the last six months i would say were more and more complicated 309 00:35:35,049 --> 00:35:42,508 when the whole story or the cart house was falling i would say but even then these kind 310 00:35:42,508 --> 00:35:49,029 of background stories were never brought to the kids or anything like that it was yeah 311 00:35:49,029 --> 00:35:56,448 that was the good thing i need to say about all these dramatic things going on between the parents 312 00:35:56,448 --> 00:36:05,569 when it came to the kids we were all very aligned with that they have to be free and that they 313 00:36:05,569 --> 00:36:11,749 should not be involved in any of these things so they were always pretty much protected by every 314 00:36:11,749 --> 00:36:17,409 parent by the teacher herself she was the horde of the school every kid loved her too 315 00:36:17,409 --> 00:36:25,109 i really they loved her and so they really had just a good time chilling out chilling in the sun 316 00:36:25,109 --> 00:36:33,809 what I think is it was way too boring and way too dramatic I mean way too boring for the kids 317 00:36:33,809 --> 00:36:41,988 and way too dramatic for the parents and yeah what I really learned from this that 318 00:36:41,988 --> 00:36:48,889 I really need to trust my gut instinct way more because I mean I don't regret being involved in 319 00:36:48,889 --> 00:36:55,049 all of this because I made friends, my kid made very good friends, the friendships are lasting 320 00:36:55,049 --> 00:37:02,649 till today, it's beautiful and I learned a lot about this fake prophets, fake shamans and fake 321 00:37:02,649 --> 00:37:10,349 light workers, healers and what you want to call it. I learned a lot about human beings, about 322 00:37:10,349 --> 00:37:17,089 people, about personas, about personalities, ego, all these things and what I really think is 323 00:37:17,089 --> 00:37:23,869 beautiful none of them were vaccinated they were all like living a really cool lifestyle like 324 00:37:23,869 --> 00:37:32,289 everyone was super interesting and if you just took one of the families like I would say really 325 00:37:32,289 --> 00:37:40,448 90% of all these people were really beautiful interesting people that I really enjoyed spending 326 00:37:40,448 --> 00:37:49,149 time with. So I would say this whole drama thing made up like 10% of the whole story. 327 00:37:51,189 --> 00:37:56,829 And yeah, but these kind of stories aren't told enough because I know so many people now that 328 00:37:56,829 --> 00:38:01,749 tell me very similar stories from their projects the kids attended. 329 00:38:01,749 --> 00:38:10,468 and it's somehow being pushed under a rock but it is what it is 330 00:38:10,468 --> 00:38:20,069 and in general what I really think about spending so much time on the Canary Islands 331 00:38:20,069 --> 00:38:30,589 I had to flee from two wildfires one volcanic eruption which had like crazy earthquakes 332 00:38:30,589 --> 00:38:39,649 5.2 I think was the the maximum earth cake it was really really interesting to 333 00:38:39,649 --> 00:38:45,829 to witness something like this because when in your life I mean in my life I 334 00:38:45,829 --> 00:38:53,249 never witnessed a volcanic eruption and with every earth cake I mean the house 335 00:38:53,249 --> 00:39:02,049 was shaking it was really like a moment of oh my god am i living my life right and nobody died i 336 00:39:02,049 --> 00:39:08,609 mean a lot of people lost their houses their homes their jobs which is very unfortunate and what i've 337 00:39:08,609 --> 00:39:15,889 seen is that even on the canary islands where the government is so small even there nobody cares 338 00:39:15,889 --> 00:39:24,549 about you even they were neighbors they all know each other but still help is uh yeah helping the 339 00:39:24,549 --> 00:39:30,529 people is is none of their business i i think i think and there were still like old people living 340 00:39:30,529 --> 00:39:39,988 in containers still it i think the volcano erupted in 2021 yeah that's crazy and what i really learned 341 00:39:39,988 --> 00:39:46,289 to love is the indigenous culture like the indigenous people that lived on these islands 342 00:39:46,289 --> 00:39:55,109 that were wiped out by the Spanish people it's really nice to see their places and their 343 00:39:55,109 --> 00:40:01,789 petroglyphs and to see and feel really what their life could have been like because there are 344 00:40:01,789 --> 00:40:09,209 pyramids on the Canary Islands nobody talks about that as well and this beauty of nature 345 00:40:09,209 --> 00:40:18,249 this wild nature the wild atlantic ocean it's just something else i mean i got used to be in 346 00:40:18,249 --> 00:40:26,649 this wilderness and to really face strong winds strong waves and fire and volcanoes and 347 00:40:26,649 --> 00:40:33,849 it's fucking beautiful and now that i'm not there anymore i miss it so much 348 00:40:33,849 --> 00:40:40,889 what I really don't miss is this crazy German hippie community over there that is really 349 00:40:40,889 --> 00:40:49,249 something else but I wouldn't miss out on this opportunity to get to know so many crazy people 350 00:40:49,249 --> 00:40:59,389 because of their interesting world views their history their personal yeah quirky behaviors I 351 00:40:59,389 --> 00:41:10,349 really think it is beautiful all in all and yeah maybe one thing about this school most of the 352 00:41:10,349 --> 00:41:17,669 details like the disgusting details i found out in the last couple of weeks before i left before 353 00:41:17,669 --> 00:41:26,448 we left the school before it was just a gut feeling and yeah what i really think pictures 354 00:41:26,448 --> 00:41:29,089 or describes this 355 00:41:29,089 --> 00:41:31,069 the hippie community on this island 356 00:41:31,069 --> 00:41:31,988 quite well is 357 00:41:31,988 --> 00:41:34,769 that they are welcoming the new earth 358 00:41:34,769 --> 00:41:36,569 where everyone is loving 359 00:41:36,569 --> 00:41:38,629 everyone else and 360 00:41:38,629 --> 00:41:40,829 we are all at peace and one 361 00:41:40,829 --> 00:41:41,589 in harmony 362 00:41:41,589 --> 00:41:44,289 but they live quite the opposite 363 00:41:44,289 --> 00:41:46,468 like quite the opposite 364 00:41:46,468 --> 00:41:47,649 of what they preach 365 00:41:47,649 --> 00:41:50,809 but anyway I wouldn't want 366 00:41:50,809 --> 00:41:51,749 to miss this time 367 00:41:51,749 --> 00:41:54,749 I really yeah I think it's 368 00:41:54,749 --> 00:42:04,229 a beautiful experience um but i need to say it for me it was um too boring to go to this even the 369 00:42:04,229 --> 00:42:09,988 most beautiful beach you can i personally cannot spend years and years and years going to always 370 00:42:09,988 --> 00:42:19,869 the same caves to to explore always the same wild beaches that's too boring and i really wanted to 371 00:42:19,869 --> 00:42:27,889 see more of the world like after yeah discovering and experiencing so many crazy stories on this 372 00:42:27,889 --> 00:42:36,669 island um i really thought like i want to have more of this and more somewhere else um because 373 00:42:36,669 --> 00:42:44,289 i really came to this island with the yeah thought yeah with this that i didn't like people at all 374 00:42:44,289 --> 00:42:47,129 and after all these crazy people I met there 375 00:42:47,129 --> 00:42:51,409 now I think like I want to learn so much more about people 376 00:42:51,409 --> 00:42:53,468 I want to get to know so many more people 377 00:42:53,468 --> 00:42:55,008 learn about their stories 378 00:42:55,008 --> 00:42:58,389 about their craziness and all these things 379 00:42:58,389 --> 00:42:59,789 I think it's beautiful 380 00:42:59,789 --> 00:43:00,948 it's fucking beautiful 381 00:43:00,948 --> 00:43:07,409 and unfortunately the island is not what it used to be 382 00:43:07,409 --> 00:43:10,249 in the four years I lived there 383 00:43:10,249 --> 00:43:12,129 there were quite some changes 384 00:43:12,129 --> 00:43:18,429 from being a wild, wild spot to being a smart island and you can see it. 385 00:43:18,988 --> 00:43:27,029 The changes are real and they are fast and I wouldn't want to live on a smart island to be honest. 386 00:43:27,029 --> 00:43:35,109 So I decided that with all the stuff that is going on in this world, exactly that island I choose to live. 387 00:43:35,609 --> 00:43:38,709 And I would, maybe I would have spent even more time there. 388 00:43:38,709 --> 00:43:47,309 but living on a smart island where you are followed by drones if you're hiking the wrong path 389 00:43:47,309 --> 00:43:55,889 if yeah civilians and there's a lot of military action on on the island as well so for me it was 390 00:43:55,889 --> 00:44:05,369 like a a hard decision that took me quite over a year to take and to prepare for but in the end 391 00:44:05,369 --> 00:44:12,169 I don't regret leaving the island I don't regret spending so much time over there because I learned 392 00:44:12,169 --> 00:44:19,909 so much I met my very very best friend who's the exact opposite of all these preaching praying 393 00:44:19,909 --> 00:44:26,789 hippies she looks nothing like a hippie and she's the in her heart the most hippie person I've ever 394 00:44:26,789 --> 00:44:36,289 and she's all about love and it um yeah really i a little i lost a little bit like this 395 00:44:36,289 --> 00:44:44,349 trust in humanity because of all the crazy people i met in the school um because of the story but 396 00:44:44,349 --> 00:44:51,269 she my best friend she really showed me the opposite of that and that made me re-fall in 397 00:44:51,269 --> 00:44:59,529 love with life and people i thought it's i wanted to share that to make you see not only bad vibes 398 00:44:59,529 --> 00:45:00,749 on this island 399 00:45:00,749 --> 00:45:09,829 yeah so what i think is quite interesting i lost two so-called friends i mean we weren't close 400 00:45:09,829 --> 00:45:16,109 friends but when i told them that i would leave the islands they never they ghosted me basically 401 00:45:16,109 --> 00:45:22,729 and they don't even live on the island i don't know what their problem or conflict is with me 402 00:45:22,729 --> 00:45:27,669 leaving the islands but i found that quite interesting that people like you because you 403 00:45:27,669 --> 00:45:33,869 live at a certain place whatever for whatever reason they never visited me over there 404 00:45:33,869 --> 00:45:43,648 never intended to quite interesting so if you have some i don't know interesting experiences 405 00:45:43,648 --> 00:45:47,049 with educational projects or anything like that. 406 00:45:47,589 --> 00:45:49,549 I would love to hear about it. 407 00:45:54,289 --> 00:45:55,869 Thank you so much for listening. 408 00:45:56,069 --> 00:45:56,749 Oh, my God. 409 00:45:56,749 --> 00:46:00,029 Thank you so much for listening. 410 00:46:00,148 --> 00:46:01,349 If you want to support my work, 411 00:46:01,729 --> 00:46:03,809 please head over to Fountain or Linktree. 412 00:46:04,269 --> 00:46:08,148 I do accept Bitcoin and it means the world to me 413 00:46:08,148 --> 00:46:09,689 if you guys support my work. 414 00:46:10,369 --> 00:46:12,949 And leave a comment, reach out to me on Noster 415 00:46:12,949 --> 00:46:14,889 I'm really happy to hear from you 416 00:46:14,889 --> 00:46:15,829 thank you so much 417 00:46:15,829 --> 00:46:19,629 and if you want to have more of wildlife unschooling 418 00:46:19,629 --> 00:46:20,669 head over to Fountain 419 00:46:20,669 --> 00:46:23,148 there's a wildlife unschooling premium 420 00:46:23,148 --> 00:46:25,648 it starts with $5 a month 421 00:46:25,648 --> 00:46:26,968 and you can pay more if you want 422 00:46:26,968 --> 00:46:27,968 and you can pay in bitcoin 423 00:46:27,968 --> 00:46:30,869 there you will find all bonus episodes 424 00:46:30,869 --> 00:46:32,629 and you will have early access 425 00:46:32,629 --> 00:46:35,249 to all my scheduled episodes 426 00:46:35,249 --> 00:46:36,849 have fun 427 00:46:36,849 --> 00:46:38,029 and see you soon 428 00:46:42,949 --> 00:46:44,949 You