Intentional Latino Community

Tom Osher

Tom Osher aka Mofwoofoo is Chambalabamba's founder and visionary.

​Chambalabamba is the first ever intentional community or eco-community ever started in Vilcabamba with the intention of being mostly Latino with Spanish as the first language. All the other attempts at starting communities were «gringo», English speaking communities.
We began in December, 2012. We have never solicited for members, they came by word of mouth, or by chance, or through the internet.
I, the founder, am a long-time radical anarchist activist. That means I don’t like hierarchies, especially unnecessary ones, that is I prefer decentralization and horizontal self-governing where all have equal rights and an equal say in the doings of the community. There is no authority. It also means that we are self-organizing. And how well organized we are playing a significant role in how well we function as a community. We use sociocracy, a horizontal way of self-organizing.
We have no rules, only agreements made by 100% consensus. We enjoy collective freedom, which incorporates individualistic freedom, freedom with responsibility and with the understanding of the need for reciprocity.

We also only want people who have 100% commitment to the community. This way we are all connected and do things with enthusiasm and with the joy of collaboration and cooperation. In this way we constantly maintain harmony, unity, and personal integrity. Of course, from time to time we are challenged to maintain this and if these challenges can be handled with love and effectiveness, we grow stronger.
We always want to be improving, refining, on an upward vector. We do
this by having transparency and feedback. Openness to trying new things is very important. It is necessary that all are reasonable, logical, open-minded, if we wish to progress and resolve issues. Living together is difficult as well as wonderful. It is easier to live outside of a community, but the advantages outweigh this. Working together we can achieve so much more than working alone. The possibilities exponentially increase. As well as the joys of belonging, connecting, sharing, collaborating and serving one another and the community. It is a process of opening the heart and living from love, diminishing the ego, realizing that to serve others is the best way to
serve oneself. 
We have the opportunity to co-create a life that incorporates all of our most important values. Our community reveres art in its widest sense and we are set up for artistic expression. Our foundation is love.
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