Collaborative Roots Permaculture

Amigos,

Esos dias, estoy segura que la Permacultura puede a fixar el mundo... join us in this beautiful movement in which we realize that NATURE KNOWS BEST. ¨Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise.¨ Fleetwood Mac has it right here, and in so many of our lives there seems to be no time for such a thing. Here there is time -- organic time -- and I have been paying attention to the nature all around me. The other day I was teaching a class about nutrition, being super intense with the kids because believe me... it´s a serious situation out here... and without a second thought I grabbed a mosquito that buzzed by in front of my face. The kids thought I was totally loca lol. But you know what, the mosquitoes, like the soil and the plants, are intimately on my conscious mind at all times lol. 

You can never be sure of anything in life, especially in a place like this... and it doesn´t have to be such a bad thing -- living with such awareness and instinct can make you a wack job OR it can make you smarter. I will never again just simply grab a handful of my trail mix and throw it into my mouth. Why? Because you never know. Maybe that trail mix has been hi-jacked by ants and then boop, just like that -- you are eating ANTS! Aaahhhh I totally did this. I have developed quite the relationship with ants down here. If anything makes me insane it will be ants. Biting, relentless, infiltrating ants. My first experience with ants here in Nicaragua went something like this...

We were hiking deep up in the mountains past Monte Grande exploring the different coffee plantations (which grow at the highest altitudes) when all of a sudden I was being attacked! Over 50 ants had made there way up my boots and into my pants, where they proceeded to bite the hell outa my poor legs. Oooof. I ripped my pants off so fast you would think I had lost it right then and there lol. BUT I HAD ANTS IN MY PANTS!!! En serio. For those of you who will see me when I get home, I have plenty more stories like this... and I too, find them quite hilarious. 

Nathan and I have been experiencing some really incredible life recently. The pictures that follow are from the garden at Monte Grande school near where we are living in La Reyna and the others are from a trip we took North to Jinotega -- where we stayed at a Permaculture Farm called ¨La Biosfera¨. This was a landmark period in our journey here in Nicaragua for multiple reasons, but largesly because it was so clearly where we needed to be at that exact time. It fed both our souls and the people staying there as well. Mutual beneficial just like it should be. ¨La Biosfera¨ is located in Northern Nicaragua in a cloud forest on land that the owner Suzanne bought in trust in order to protect the Watershed. This particular location in Nicaragua has insane and prolific water features and Suzanne has made it her goal to control the flow of water in such a way as to have clean water available (fed from the cave higher up on the property) and also to bring water to neighbors who struggle with water security issues. Suzanne has also nailed another ginormous problem that society will not escape -- trash, garbage, waste. In nature you know there is NO WASTE. Well, at ¨La Biosfera¨ there is no waste basket, and the only place to put your garbage is stuffed with a crow bar inside plastic water bottles which will later be used to build blocks of infrastructure insulation -- to build homes. This solution is low cost, extremely intelligent especially for seismically active zones, and this is an effective alternative to disgusting land-fills. What a way to literally force a person out of mindlessly trashing the planet.

Here above you can see how Suzanne has built the main lodge at ¨La Biosfera¨ using an ¨Earth Bag¨ technique. The bags are filled with soil and layered like bricks atop one another, which can then be packed with a concrete-like mud material and painted. The idea, Suzanne explained to me, is to create solutions to address poverty that are as close to nature as possible, yet still aesthetically pleasing. She has also constructed beds using sustainably havested wood chosen from trees on site coupled with recycled automobile tires -- woven in stips criss-crossing to form a taut mattress. And they are comfortable too! Que Tuani eso!

Another really cool part about our trip to Jinotega was the hitch-hiking! Not only was it beyond beautiful because of the lush mountainous scenery, BUT it was such a rush.. and the adventure we had both been aching for! Nathan had been experiencing more than his share of turmoil over the lack of security that is somewhat inherent to Latin American travel -- and it was only being compounded with the whole foreign language gap as well. Culture shock ya. After this trip, where we were surrounded by only our fellow USA Americans for a few days (outside of trips to town), he was a new man. How refreshed and inspired we had both become! There are some really great people out here -- and as we have been coming to conclude time and time again, there are good people EVERYWHERE. And yes there are bad too. You just can´t forget about the good because of the bad. We must change the darkness to light!

Okay here is why we were meant to be at ¨La Biosfera¨... for the SWOT analysis! This was no joke, the thing that Suzanne needed to get all of her amazing ideas and goals in order, ready for attack. Organizing our priorities in life can make or break us you know. That quote ¨first things first¨ is so right on! Life has become tough for her because among having been robbed various times, she has dealt with a foreign government for over 3 years in the process of purchasing land for trust, and in the whirlwind she has found herself in the exact poverty that she was meaning to address. Well, what a better way to truly understand the thing than to be inside of it! I was so proud of Nathan here because no matter what -- he wasn´t backing down. We all knew (including Suzanne) that some Planning was necessary to make ¨La Biosfera¨ a strong and successful project into the future. The only threat, we discovered, was her giving up. We were doing what we had been trained in school and through life to do, and we walked away feeling that our Planning professors would have been proud ;) And our families too. Strategic Planning anyone, anyone???

I love public speaking. I do. I must admit though, it has been quite a challenge teaching Permaculture, the Sustainability Model, Nutrition, and AgroEcology concepts to a group of kids ranging anywhere in population from 30 to 100, having years anywhere from 4 to 12... while using a second language. This has been a positive and rewarding opportunity to really build upon my confidence with the Spanish language.I am proud of myself really, and feel that all of the future speeches back home in my native tongue will be like a walk in zee park. Tranquila.

We are both finding so much pleasure in working with the youth here. They are smart, willing, and excited to help work -- and with minimal guidance. Most are masters with a machete by the age of 4. These kids are full of playful and curious energy and deserve more than they have available to them. The opportunity here is not fair. Of course this is a well known fact. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Primary education is free in Nicaragua; however, it is too far from so many of the rural kids home to be able to attend every day. Some only go a couple times a week and some can´t make it at all. The majority of rural Nicaraguen children stop going to school after the Secondary level, around the end of the 7th or 8th grade in the US. As in other parts of the world, college is almost exclusively an entitlement of the wealthy Sandanista families or old money families from the Samoza era.

I am writing my Thesis down here titled ¨Food Insecurity and the transition towards Food Sovereignty¨ and am currently writing about the Human Right that all should have access to nutritious food. The idea of access continues to be compounded in my mind as it is within the literature -- as ultimate -- right up there with education. Which is number one? Who can be sure... BUT, the evidence is clear that there exists enough food to feed everyone -- all almost 8 billion of us. There are entirely too many idle hands reaching out for Genetically Modified food aid, too much corporate control and manipulation of seed, too much reliance upon machine, and too few authentic PERMACULTURE-based farms and small farmers... If we want to make this world just and right, than we could begin with the very basics: Good, clean, and fair food exchanges and REAL true education. Don´t you know, I´m talking about a REVOLUTION. The kind that Thomas Jefferson worked for -- without the sword. Vale la pena.

PEACE & LOVE to all the beautiful souls that have raised their hearts and minds with us along the way...

¨Courage doesn´t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ¨I will try again tomorrow.¨¨

- Mary Anne Radmacher