1st ECO CAMP African Way
An exhilarating experience!
An exhilarating experience!
Lived as if on an impulse to support a collective that is here and wants to be here!
We give ourselves to the will to Create, to Help, to want to See, to want to learn and to see things done.
It may not be perfect, but it turns out so naturally elegant that it ended up staying just as it was.
We notice the flaws and look at them with a curious eye, asking what opportunity might come from them.
It is with this naive, wise gaze that we reassess the priorities of our needs and the wishes of our whims.
We look back and laugh, because it was the challenges that brought us together and, in helping, we got to know one another better; ourselves too, in the enthusiasm of the collective. Our strength grew, and dance set the rhythm for treading and kneading the clay, with straw from this very ploughed field, in a unison dance of body, soul and machete.
Now, sweaty, we realise that Joy holds back the discomfort of tiredness and extreme heat.
We carried on; the moulds for the bricks had already been made from scraps of wood and art.
The watered mix, strawed, trodden-kneaded-danced, took on the consistency and plasticity it needed to withstand a great Great deal;
It is a brick: and to Be one it goes into the mould and comes out of the mould, and the Sun's heat will bake it.
So far, so Done!
Approved!
The acid test: the Joy of having a dream and following it - achieving it together!
Just as comfort is, so it is inversely proportional; let us see:
- Without working, how could we ever have this Appreciation?
- How could we Long for the delight of a cool shower?
- We look up and our gaze is lost in an intense Blue Sky, where the Sun caresses us at the same time as the water cools us.
We feel the presence of where we are, the presence of this olive grove!
- Now we know that we are Being Observers and observed! We feel our Senses! All of us in Integrity! This is how we Are!
Building dry toilets
Solar Oven Workshop
Caring for the Earth: organic waste from the dry toilets and the kitchen
Permaculture Design Workshop
Permaculture Vegetable Garden
Brick Making | Preparing the earth
Brick Making | Cutting the Straw
"The watered mix, strawed, trodden-kneaded-danced"
"It is a brick: and to Be one it goes into the mould and comes out of the mould"
"So far, so Done!"
Sharing Circle
"Now we know that we are Being Observers and observed! We feel our Senses! All of us in Integrity! This is how we Are!"
"Optimised Permaculture": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwuUHbRtpw
Reflection:
- Why, in a more "developed" world, before and after 1970 - 80 - 90 - 2000 - 2020, do tensions and Wars marginalise people and impose ever greater human sacrifice?**
- As we head towards an ever more committed (interdependent) "Global Village", what ties bind us in this collective blindness?
- What are Lobbies?
- Are we ready to de-construct our perceptions of reality?