Sachawasi was a little bit different from what the website lead us to believe. The original project that was integrated with a community did not work out, and Bruno ended up purchasing a rather large portion of private land within with to build a permaculture. Most of the work is done by Bruno and a rotation of volunteers, usually about 10 people but sometimes as many as 20.
The land having been only 3 years into cultivation, we arrived during a period of installation and transition. We ate our meals on top of tables made from the future doors of the main house set atop logs, and projects included wiring the house and the kitchen with electricity, and installing a sink.
Initially, much of the work was isolated to Bruno's farm, and we had very little interaction with the other members of the town save the occassional football game (though us Americans did not participate) and pleasantries as we made small purchases in town.
Luckily, we were there in time to clebrate Carnaval with them. We were invited to join in their opening celebrations, a night of dancing and music. The dancing started with some sense of rhythm and regular movement, but quickly would degenerate into a train of people running in and out of the building. All the while, the children of the town pelted us with water balloons. It was a great way for us to break the ice.
The next day, We were able to return with a gift for the town. We dressed up in burlap sacks and leaves and marched through the town playing music and dancing for them. According to Bruno, we were representing a much older native tribe of Bolivia, but I think we just ended up convincing the rest of the town that gringos really are crazy. By the end of our stay, a system of work exchange was set up. WWOOF volunteers worked on the farms of some of the other people in town, and at some later date, they would work on Bruno's farm. Not only did this allow for for us to have more interaction with the townsfolk, but we also hope that over time, they will be able to learn from Bruno's philosophy of premaculture as a better alternative to their current agricultural methods.
The day-to-day was wonderful. Jon and I felt productive and stress free at the same time. Some of the work was very difficult (clearing an area of Amazon for a future camp location for a reunion of a Bolivian ecological group), and others very relaxing (harvesting "Taruma" or food for lunch).
When we were done with work, we bathed in the river and relaxed with each other. All in all, it's been one of the highlights of our trip. We would like to go back in 5 years or so to see how it has developed. (Please don't judge the river in this photo. It's a bit murkier than usual due to some heavy rains the day before.)
My time on the computer is almost done, so I will end with this:
Skillz learned that are just as important as NumChuck Skillz to get the wimenz:
1. Machete skillz
2. We can tell and harvest Choclo vs. Maize
3. Japanese Rock Weaving (taught to us by a kid from Vermont. His teacher isn's sure if it's Japanese either... it's just where she saw the method)
4. Pachamanca!!
5. Kill and clean a chicken or duck
6. Other harvests: Taruma, Yukka, Yutuyuyu...
7. Medicinal herb skills (though the taste of Plantain leaves are so bad that I would rather just use my hydrochortizone...)
8. Bug bite relief skills - MUD!! And after 3 weeks of meticulously drinking a very bitter tea to repel the bugs, we learned that we should have been RUBBING IT ON OUR SKIN!!
9. Starting a fire (well, half of us learned this one...)
10. Catering a full meal for 20 people over an open campfire
11. SPANISH SKILLS. Very important words like "probar" as in when there is an amazing smell coming from the kitchen, one says "¡Quiero probar!"
No comments:
Post a Comment