Hey y'all,
So the course finished up, and everyone in it felt rewarded and pumped to take the knowledge and manifest situations for practice.
We learned about so many different aspects of sustainable living, all of which come under the vast umbrella of permaculture. We learned about the basics: water, soil, landform, altering landform to bring more water into the land (earthworks), mushrooms and how they are the ties between every living ecosystem, trees, and many other fields, all of which could be explored for years with virtually limitless in-depth knowledge to be gained. We talked about natural building, a field I felt very connected with, especially since I recently built a 'green' house. We spent some time on compost and compost tea, which can restore a trashed soil to one that is teeming with organisms. We learned about microclimates, and saw one example of a dude in Austria who discovered he had a microclimate next to some boulders (that absorbed heat) and was able to grow oranges. We spent some time on food forests, which aim at mimicking the way forests function in the wild, and tweaking that to create more yields, with very little maintanence. We covered the zones of use, starting at your house (zone 0) and going to the untouched, left-to-nature areas (zone 4) with a gradual build up of maintanence required and the proximity to put the zones depending on how often you need to tend them. A zone 1 area would be your kitchen garden. Food forests are zone 3.
We learned where permaculture came from (Australia), how it's grown, what kind of network exists for us back home and everywhere in the world, and saw many examples of permaculture setups around the world. Many of these came about before the word permaculture existed. This word and movement came about to encompass everything and bring unity so that people could share ideas more easily.
We had an awesome field trip to a farm that this Thai guy inherited and converted to organic; shortly after he became self-sufficient. He grows everything he needs to eat and has enough to feed people who come to his meditation retreats and ayervedic medicine courses. He was so inspiring! And he had no idea about permaculture, he just figured it out! The same day, we visited the King's Project, which is educating Thai people about organic gardening, composting, mushroom cultivation, and many other aspects of sustainability. It turns out the king of Thailand is a huge proponent for sustainability, and has made it a goal for Thailand to become sustainable. They also give out free organic starts, so we loaded up and went back to the farm, where we spent some time doing hands on implementation of our newly acquired skills. We planted some food forest beginnings and some beauty buffers along the road (which also have edible and medicinal funtions, of course!)
It was so cool to be at this farm, and see the way things get started. The panya project (www.panyaproject.org) has been going for less than a year. Their goal is to be a self-sufficiant education center for permaculture and natural building. The people who live there are so welcoming. They made us all feel like family! I encourage all of you to check out the site and attend a course if you are at all interested in sustainability and the tropics (it applies to the temperate zone as well).
On the last day of the course, we had a party (required for every course!) and we all performed something in a talent show. I beatboxed for Christian (the man in charge) who had written a love poem. It went off very well! Other people sang songs, performed skits, firedanced, one guy read a powerful quote from chief Seattle, and we put on a gameshow for the cooks (two amazing Thai women) where they had to guess what fruit we fed them while they were blindfolded. The prize was a wheelbarrow full of durian, which they thankfully shared with everyone the next day (probably the most durian i've ever eaten!! durian pudding, durian pancakes and straight up durian all day). After the talent show we turned it into a dance party, and we danced until long into the night. It was one of the best parties I've ever been to!
I stayed an extra day to help put in some more plants and get some hands on, and then on the 1st me and Eden headed to Pai. I reconnected with Willow and a few other people I had been friends with during my stay there last trip. We visited an organic farm I didn't know about before, (Tessa stayed there and told me about it) and were once again totally awed by what the Thai people are capable of. This guy also inherited his land from many generations of family farmers, and decided to go organic. He is self-sufficient and very happy! And once again, he unknowingly practices permaculture! He gave us a wonderful tour of his land, which has a handful of bungalows that he build, each one themed off a different hill tribe from around the area. One of the bungalows is built slightly over his pond, so you can jump into it from the deck! He made these ingenious bamboo showers that conceal the pipes so it seems like the shower is coming from a log. And he used mostly reclaimed wood or wood from his own land for everything. He even build himself a grain mill and a kiln to make steel objects. So incredible!
We hung out in Pai for a brief two days and came to Chiang Mai yesterday, in time for the Sunday market.
Today Eden headed to Laos and I rented a motorbike and zipped around to do a little shopping and get my train ticket to Bangkok (the trains here are so comfortable!) I ate lunch at this delicious organic veggie restaurant that is run by the neighbor farm to Panya, Pun Pun ( www.punpunthailand.org/). They grow most of the food for the restaurant and promote biodiversity with their seed-saving operation. The restaurant is in a big temple complex and had a very nice atmosphere.
This trip has been so awesome! Much more than I expected has come out of it, and I've once again realized how much I love the tropics and Thailand specifically. This country is so laid back and friendly. There is a lot to be learned here.
I spend one more day here in Chiang Mai and then I head to Bangkok to catch my flight (I succesfully avoided spending a night in Bangkok!) I feel so satisfied and happy with life! And I'm ready to see where the river of life takes me next.

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peace and love,
elric

WE drift through life, our bodies always changing along with everything else around us; accept this change and be one with the flow...