Celebrating Gabriel and His Next Trek
One of the joys in the journey of Database Sherpa has been getting to meet, work with, and learn alongside different team members and collaborators. Most people may not know this, but both Bhanudas Tanaka and Gabriel Vieira approached me separately to share their interest in the Sherpa approach. I wasn’t actively seeking a team at that point, and they didn’t know each other, yet. When this happened, it felt like it was meant to be that we all work together. So, we joined together with curiosity for the work and openness to practice together, to grow the Sherpa community.
Over the last few years we have supported many nonprofits and their databases mindfully all along encouraging each other to grow as guides. We also supported each other as individuals, our willingness to share and learn together reflects our lives. And like all things in life, we shift and we always honor these new paths we decide to take. So with excitement and sadness we bid farewell to Gabriel, where he will bring his Sherpa spirit to a new trek, as a teacher working with children in his community. He shares more in his own words below, but I want to say how grateful I am for the chance to have worked with him. Thank you, Gabriel, for the gentle attention you brought our clients and all the amazing gifts you have given me. Your spirit will continue with Database Sherpa!
from Gabriel
I started teaching early. I was only fourteen when I had my first teaching job, working with younger kids learning circus skills: juggling, trapeze, clowning, and more. Ever since then, I’ve always been involved in teaching in some capacity, so when I found Database Sherpa, it was a natural fit. Ashima and Database Sherpa practice the art of teaching at its most fundamental: not a one way transfer of knowledge, not the filling up of an empty container, but true education, the drawing out of the hidden potential within each student. In my two plus years at Database Sherpa, I was blessed to be along for the ride as my clients took on journeys of personal transformation, cooked in the crucible of their developing databases. I watched passionate, dedicated world-changers wrestle with the ever frustrating limitations and the tantalizing promises of technology, and emerge with databases and personal habits and practices that serve themselves and their missions well.
Meanwhile, something was stirring and bubbling inside me as I traveled along on my own evolutionary journey. I had the opportunity to be the lead teacher for a parent homeschool coop at Earthaven Ecovillage, where I live, and I watched the desire arise in me to work with kids as my primary vocation. Now I am stepping out into the unknown to answer this calling. I am a teacher, and my village needs me to teach. As you read this, I will be returning from the Foundations Course of the Forest Kindergarten Teacher Training in Bishop CA, where I will be honing my skills and gathering knowledge to serve me as I develop a comprehensive village school here at Earthaven. As I look forward to this next phase of my journey, I look back with gratitude on my time at Database Sherpa, knowing that it has helped me to build the foundation that allows me to move forward in this way. I wish all the best to Database Sherpa and to all of our wonderful clients, and I look forward to crossing paths again in the future.
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