PROGRESSING through KAMANA
by Wilderness Awareness School Community Member PEZ
I‘ve been studying Kamana for about a year and a half now, having just finished Kamana Three in the last week. Due to begin Kamana Four, I have not yet opened the books. I have decided to take a short break between the two levels, while I wait for my certificate to arrive in the mail.
Completing Kamana Three was a major milestone for me and provided a great sense of accomplishment. My journal, a binder filled with all my journal pages — both those assigned by Kamana and others that I chose to do on my own — is a significant source of pride for me. I have not actually counted the number of pages, but using the ruler on the cover of my Rite in the Rain pocket pad, I just measured the journal at an inch and a half thick. There must be 200-300 pages in there! I have sure learned a lot. While I don’t claim to have it all in memory, I am often pleasantly surprised when I find something in the forest and I can recall what it is or what family it’s in.
I hear that the percentage of students that begin Kamana Four and then go on to graduate is close to 70 percent. However, lots of folks get stuck somewhere in K2 or K3 and don’t progress further. It may be that there were just a few things that they had a desire to learn and they accomplished what they wanted. Or maybe they got so interested in something that they followed a tangent off in that direction. I know I have taken a few side roads on my own path.
My first side interest was bird language. I purchased a bunch of bird books, the Advanced Bird Language CDs by Jon Young and a few about identifying birds by sound. I joined a birding club full of “life listers” and attended meetings. I learned a lot but finally discovered that to understand bird language what I really needed was just to spend time listening to the birds at my sit spot, and on the long walk there and back.
I took another tangent into tracking. I joined a tracking club that met once a month, and read a bunch of tracking books to learn about gaits and strides. I now have many resources on the subject and I have drawn the tracks of all the local mammals in another Rite in the Rain pad that I use as my tracking journal.
My current side interest is learning more about plants and the use of edible and medicinal herbs. This has led to joining another forum, planting an herb garden and making my own healing salves, tinctures and infusions.
You may get the idea that I am not very focused! But Kamana is a journey, and completing Kamana is not my final goal. I am enjoying the side trails and I know I’ll finish the program. I expect to continue my education beyond Kamana.
I have found a few spots where the Kamana trail was difficult for me to follow. I think the first really tough spot was journaling plants in Kamana 3.3 because there were so many journal pages to do. If you get bogged down on the trail here I have a few suggestions.
First, set a goal to complete one or two journals a day, every day. Set the time aside and just do it. Second, find a buddy to work with. (It may be easier to find your buddy online than trying to find someone local.) It would be ideal to find someone who is close to you on the Kamana trail so you can compare notes and offer each other encouragement. Third, fully engage in Kamana.org and the Village. You will find lots of interesting dialog and camaraderie that will help you get through the muddier parts of the path. Fourth, continue to make progress every week. Even if the progress is slow, every step along the trail takes you closer to the goal of becoming a native. And last, enjoy exploring the side trails you find that spark your interest. It’s all good.
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