Reflections on a powerful journey

We are leaving here on the overnight sleeper bus from Vinh city to Hanoi on the 29th which is only a few days away. I am in two minds about how I feel about this. While I am yearning to get back to Farrell, my own bed, my own garden and also the community one, my friends and family and also my work which I love; I am at the same time realising that I have just adjusted to life here. I can pick up and use chop sticks without having to think about it. I can converse better with the students between their new English and my new Vietnamese. I am into the daily rhythm although we still quite often miss breakfast (grin!) and also I have made many new friends who I will be sad to leave.

The PRI team consisting of myself (and Sky), Rebecca (and Amalee), Robert (Sink) has happily turned out to be a dynamic and highly skilled and effective and complimentary team with Lauchy, Craig (and Miriam and Kade) also contributing much to the success of our work here. I am going to miss them all greatly.

As I enter into the last few days of our stay at HEPA, I want to share some of the most powerful learnings I have had here.

1) I used to think that I lived a very modest, low carbon lifestyle (by western standards I do) but here I have been shown just how much of a 'consumer' I really am.
I am committed to implementing the lessons I have learnt here and applying them as best I can within the context of my home community. Hopefully inspiring others along the way. It is not about 'doing without' but rather about being creative and resourceful in building an abundant lifestyle that does not exploit either the planet or its inhabitants. Permaculture provides us with abundant tools for this purpose.

2) I used to think that I was part of an integrated and cohesive community (thinking on a city level) here I realise that my lifestyle is actually quite isolated and while I do enjoy my own company, having experienced a complete lack of it for the last 7 weeks, I realise how little I actually share with my wider community at home and also how little privacy I actually need. While I am craving some quite down time when I get home to assimilate and integrate the journey I have traveled (physically, mentally and spiritually) I have learnt alot about myself, my boundaries and how I relate with people and I am committed to upping my level of community living on every level.

3)Society is an incredibly interesting topic and here, eating, sleeping, working and playing together every moment of the day is a given. It actually is the most efficient use of resources, especially when it comes to cooking. I have always thought it is a bit crazy to have 14,000 individual households (based in Whanganui)each using energy to prepare meals at the same time and eating them alone. What better way to build community than to share food together more often? I work long hours at home and when I come home I don't have alot of spare energy to prepare food for our small family. I would however take an afternoon off to prepare with joy a feast for many families to take my turn at feeding people and in turn share meals prepared by other families. I am lucky to live in a community that does share a meal every week but even this requires each of us to prepare individual plates of food to share. HEPA has a full time cook who feeds everybody. This frees everybody up to work more hours in the garden or doing other work around the farm. Students take turns to help prepare food and also clean up after the meal. Everything is shared. Everything. I think Bill Mollison once said something like "It is only by what we share that we are able to access what we need to live sustainably." or something like that - I'll look it up for you later.

4) Sharing is another interesting thing. I like to share and I share alot but have been challenged here by how I think about what is 'mine'.
Everything here belongs to everybody and I have had very powerful reflections about how I relate to things I use with some sense of ownership. "My bed, my blanket, my mangoes in fridge,my ...." What exactly is ownership? What rights does it give me over anybody else? Why should my needs be greater than anybody elses? The other side of this has been sharing the little resources we have brough here - balsamic vinegar, Milk, olives etc - I share these willingly. Even more so after experiencing hardship and hunger (Sky more than me).

Overall I have had many powerful reflections about western living practises and attitudes. There is so little physical resource here, pretty harsh living conditions and yet there is such an abundance of community, culture and joy for life that is truly inspiring. I am deeply moved by the kindness and love of all of the vietnamese people that I have met and been living with. In light of the very difficult history of this small south east asian country, this is even more humbling.

It is true what they say 'Attitude changes everything' and we really do have the power to transform our world. As geoff says "You can solve all of the problems of the world in a garden." but only if you share it!

Fishy Aversions

I have discovered that my lifelong aversion to all things fishy is because I am allergic to it!

Paul Taylor (Mr Compost) first suggested that I could have an allergy at Zaytuna Farm after I shared my experiences of trying to eat fish and not being able to.

In Melbourne I accidentally got a mouthfull of Tuna (which was hastily spat out)and was covered in spots the next day. They were not very serious and didn't last long. I didn't really pay much attention to it.

For the last few days I have been getting gradually more covered in little blisters which at first I thought were insect bites. I have since discovered that 'Shrimp Soup' (61% shrimp) has been added to all of the 'vegetarian food' and we now think the blisters are hives.

I have been generally not very well (not much energy, no appetite etc) since I arrived in Vietnam which I had put down to climate adjustment.

I am now fasting for a day to give my body a chance to cope and expel the shrimps to see if that is what is going on.

Otherwise I am well and happy (although home sick) and last night we entertained ourselves with an evening of cultural exchange, complete with Kareoke machine!

We learnt a Black Thai dance backed by the absolutely beautiful singing of the Black Thai students. I led the group in a ever faster rendition of Upoko, Pakahiwi, Puku, Hope, Wai wai... which was fun and the Australian contingent taught us some new 'traditional' actions to Waltzing Matilda. Miriam sang us a traditional song from Slovakia and Khu Tah (Mong Student) demonstrated how to call to your love one (to arrange a raudeveux) across the mountains with a leaf whistle which is a language all in itself which of course the loved one can interpret and respond to across the gaping valleys. Many traditional songs were sung and then explained and we even tried to do a version of With or Without you - although none of us could really remember the words.

Sky started a few rounds of Chinese whispers and we did English, Vietnamese and also Mong versions which were all hilarious.

It really was a fantastic night and all of us had a great time and learnt much about each others cultures.

Today is a day of free time so I am making the most of the opportunity to ctach up on reading and also get our washing done - the hand washing novelty has worn off already!

My Garden in Springtime

I just had to add this extra post. Dani and Nelson loaded this picture of my garden as it is now. Thank you Dani and Nelson for loving my garden as much as I do. I am yearning to get my hands back into that soil now!

Chasing Buffalos and flooded rivers

That's right, when I got up there was a buffalo outside our house that was having a feast of the gardens here. Village Buffalo are hard to keep out of here. Sky and I chased it back out of the property at hight speed. I managed to get close enough to hit it on the bum to hurry it along!

I spent most of today doing research for the worm presentation that I did tonight. I also has some good communication with my darling sister (hi Penny) Trish and Myk (Permie pals) and Craig who is taking great care of Te Mana Park while I am away, having this news from home was sooooo good.

While I am having a great time here I am also counting down the sleeps (18) until I am back in my own community.

Geoff and Nadia left today to return to their farm in Australia. HEPA organized a farewell circle and more than a few tears were shed as good byes were made. Having spent every day of the last 6-7 weeks with them, it was an emotional goodbye although one thing Sky won’t miss is having live Leeches dropped on her by Geoff!

Andy Kenworthy, having completed his work here, also left today. We managed to catch a photo of the kiwi crew before he left.



Talking with Rebecca today, we were marveling at what an honor it is to have the opportunity to continue their work here in Vietnam. Robert (Sink), Rebecca and I have all been left with different aspects of the project here to work on with Geoff and Nadias back up email support. We will all work hard to rise up to the challenge of filling their large shoes!

My project is the worm farms here and developing relationships and links between NZ and Vietnam to offer internships for training Vietnamese farmers to come and learn English and extend their knowledge and practice of Permaculture.

The worm farming session went well although it was quite a challenge to teach via a translator and I didn’t quite get into the rhythm of it. So, not my usual dynamic teaching style but it seemed to work all the same. It is also hard to share a joke via a translator. Well, easy to share but getting the timing of the shared laughter requires real skill!

It stopped raining today and although it was still pretty mild temperature wise, I had promised Sky a swim so off we went with Thu, Lauchy, Sink and Phuong. Lachy and Phuong were jumping off the big rock and I climbed up too.

The River is very high and very fast after so much rain and I was too chicken to jump off the top (not being able to see where the rocks are) I climbed down to half way and jumped into the current. When I surfaced I was enjoying how fast I was being carried along until (too late) I realized that I was moving way too fast to get out of the current before going through the rapids and on down the River at high speed. The water was only about a meter deep but very rocky on the bottom and the river was moving so fast that there was no way I could stand up let alone stop.

I had a brief moment of panic until adrenalin kicked in and everything I have ever learnt about river safety flashed before my eyes. I spotted the calm edge further down the river and relaxed making sure I didn’t bash myself against any rocks. It was a pretty wild ride!

When I cleared the rapids and swam into the calm part of the River I turned around to see everyone way off into in distance. Lachy and Phuong were approaching at high speed over the rocks. The look on Phuongs’ face as he came into view made me leap to my feet so he could see I was safe. Looking back it is quite funny but at the time it was pretty dangerous and I gave them quite a fright. I apologized to him later as we did the dishes together.

Needless to say, I won’t be jumping off the big rock again until the River drops and slows down a bit!

email communications

Just a wee blog today to let everyone know that I am having trouble accessing my usual email from Vietnam so will be using my gmail account until I get home. So apologies to anyone who has sent me an email that I haven't responded too - I haven't been able to read them. I can however receive and respond to email at the following address

consciouslisa'at'gmail.com

Glad to be missing the election campaign (just been filled in by my sister) but even glader to be home just in the nick of time to vote!

Hot Baths and Illegal Logging

Yesturday we spent the day in a fundraising communication workshop run by NZs very own Andy Kenworthy. We went through a process of applying each of the Permaculture Principles to Fundraising Communication. It was fascinating and very effective at making sure we are all on the same page and also deepened the cultural unstandings between all of the parties.

Three new volunteers arrived last night, Lachy, Naiomi and Mark from Australia.

In the evening we went back to our house to back up Andys' photos onto my computer as his laptop died yesturday morning. He noticed a leech on my leg and it proved to be a difficult one to remove. We observed it for a while and it seemed dead keen on having another taste of me. Sky spent the rest of the night worried that leeches would get her from under our mosquito net.

Before we went to bed, Huan took us down to the local hot mineral bathes. They were big enough for Sky and I to share one and it was absolute bliss to soak in some naturally hot mineral water, wash our hair and soak our weary bones for a while. The temperature has been pretty mild lately and we have been getting lots of rain - thus the influx in the leech population.

On the way home in the 4 wheel drive we came across a group of people who were blocking the road. It was dark and as we came closer it became clear that they were stacking logs in the middle of the road for illegal sale. I reached for my camera straight away but luckily the car was full of people with more sense who stopped me just in time. It could have been a dangerous thing to do. They loggers quickly made just enough room for us to squeeze through. It was heart breaking and when we returned to HEPA Rebecca told us that she had heard the trees fall just across the river from us and watched them take the logs across the river at dusk. Each of the logs can fetch between 1 and 2 million dong ($100- $200) which is nothing in comparison to their real value as standing trees.

It would be easy to take the moral high ground about this but it is nothing that hasn't happened anywhere else in the world. Paula just sent me a note that this was happening on the Whanganui River back in the day. Everyone that has ever driven along the Whanganui River bank will know what an environmental disaster this has been. Maybe we can send pictures of the results of this activity has been so that people here are inspired and motivated to find other solutions to survive.

The nutrient cycle is much faster in the tropics and soil loss can happen incredibly fast if the tree cover is removed. This activity is supported by a whole ecosystem of buyers, traders and authorities that overlook the activities of the illegal timber trade. It is difficult to find a way to stop it, where do you begin?

Noisy Fertility

As I sit here cosy under our mosquito net, we are serenaded by the flowing of the nearby River and the multitude of night time Tropical insect and animal songs. There is a cacophony of mating going on out there, the tropics certainly are lush and fertile!

It is hot and balmy this evening. We had rain all of last night and some of today, the river is in flood (although not up to the banks yet – the rocky flats have disappeared under water) and the water has changed to the colour of the subsoil which shows how much is being washed away from the ever depleting forest being slowly felled tree by tree. Yesturday we were swimming in the river when two loggers came by dragging their prize from the forest (roughly hewn in two) over the stones with Water buffalo. Once they had cleared the rapids, they let the logs float freely down the river. One logger slowly made their way over the rocks with the buffalo and the other chased the logs down the opposite side of the River, freeing them with a large stick whenever they were caught up on large stones or snagged in the river bank. Later on in the day we saw more loggers riding slices of a huge tree down river. This was incredibly dangerous, both for the loggers and those of us refreshing ourselves in the water – we all had to make a hasty exit!

We had a live link up with the ecoshow in NZ yesterday. It made me yearn for home. To everyone who jumped up and down in front of the camera when it was my turn, I couldn’t tell who you were (you were a blur of kiwi mania) but it warmed my heart all the same. It was such a treat to make out familiar shapes in the audience and I really was wishing I could be there with you all. It left me quite melancholic for the rest of the day, missing you all and NZ terribly!

Ron asked me if I would recommend this experience to other Permaculture students. Something I neglected to share at the time was the value of the cultural exchange. I am able to share so much from NZ culture – both Maori and Pakeha (or gringo as Geoff calls us) and also I am learning so much about Vietnamese culture, history and language. I have learnt so many new words that they are going in one ear and out the other! Vietnamese is quite tricky to learn as there are 5 (or 6?) intonations so if you get the tone wrong you could be saying something completely different. Everyone is very tolerant of our foibles and it was a great lunch time joke when I said I was being careful as I didn’t want to tell anyone that their mother was a buffalo.

Also it is an experience of humility. I am embarrassed by my western lifestyle and while much of this week has been difficult adapting to the lifestyle, it has taught us much about how little we need to be truly happy and how much we take for granted in the west. This evening before coming to bed, I was squatted over a basin for over an hour doing our washing by hand. It is amazing how conservative and water conscious you become when you have to carry the water from the river. The rinse water becomes the wash water for the next batch and so on. It was actually quite hard work and has resulted in me making more of an effort to keep my clothes clean, not that I can do much about the sweat situation – did I mention it is hot here?

Much of today was spent indoors as it rained most of the day. We spent the afternoon reviewing the mindmap that Geoff, Nadia and Mrs Lanh have been working on for the last week. It was very interesting and I am very inspired by what has been achieved to date and even more inspired by what they are aspiring to over the next few years.

This evening I showed the students the Rainbow Valley Farm country calendar documentary. There was no sound but I have watched it so many times with every single one of my classes last year that I nearly know it verbatim, so I was able to talk about it as we went and paused it while Huan translated my narration. It always makes me feel immensely proud of Joe and Trish and their work over the last twenty years. It struck me tonight as I looked around that Joe would have been proud of me here in Vietnam sharing the passion that he helped to ignite and kindle in me (I will let Trish speak for herself!) I am deeply humbled by the opportunity to be here. The students loved it and were very inspired by the top soil that Joe and Trish created and asked many questions about they do things on the farm.

We have to be up, scrubbed and presentable at 5am tomorrow as we are all going on a field trip tomorrow to visit other project sites. So gooooood night Vietnam!

Goooood Morning Vietnam

We have been here quite a few days now and there is so much to share, I don't know where to start!

We actually caught both of our flights to get here which is a good start. I am very grateful to Tony who delivered us all to the Airport from Melbourne University. It was a bit hairy when my alarm went off but had been turned down so when I looked at the clock at 7:40am and I was supposed to be in the car at 7:30 I nearly had a heart failure (given our track record of catching planes!) I had -10mins to get our bags down the stairs into the car, my washing out of the machine (which had stopped mysteriously in the night so I had to pack dripping wet clothes into my luggage!) and sort out all of those last minute things that inevitably crop up. I am grateful to Sakina and Brenna who did the last day of catering, Tony who did everything(!!) Trinity college that may be scratching their heads at the washing machine full of wet towels and sheets, Lisa and/or Raelene whoever is doing the last two days of catering maths for me.....

Vietnam is so beautiful, Andy Kenworthy summed it up nicely as we were swimming (in the clearest water I have ever swam in) surrounded by rainforest cloaked hills and stunning riverside geological formations. "It doesn't seem real without the cheesy soundtrack and an old man (David Attenborough styles) whispering in the background" Well we are here and I am awe struck!

Sky is finding the heat very uncomfortable and has become wilted and lethargic. Swimming revives her so I am trying to get her into the river as often as possible. The diet is also quite an adjustment, I am feeling really good with the absense of bread Sky was not impressed when her jellybean rations were infested by some rather large ants. We both nearly scremed the house down.

Geoff and Nadia saw a Tarantula in the forest yesturday, we have not been so lucky but have been lucky enough to not encounter any snakes yet, especially seeing as this is a busy season for them. Everything here is large, including the insects which is quite freaky. I am very grateful for the tight weave mosquito net over our bed.

The cities, although interesting are way to stressful for me - even crossing the street is an act of faith. The advice we got was not to look and just step on out. Sky and I linked arms, took a breath and braved stepping out into the oncoming traffic. Sure enough we made it to the other side without being ploughed down by a moped loaded high with people, chickens or other interesting vehicles.

HEPA (human ecology preservation area) is stunning. The staff and students are so friendly and welcoming. The work they are doing is phenomenal and I am very inspired for projects to do when I get home. The whole system is only 2 years old but everything grows so fast here that it is looking lush and productive already.

I am doing a worm session for the students on Friday night and Robert (Sink) and I are adding English translations into some of the students normal lessons. I came back from a tour around one of the farms with Geoff and Nadia to discover that one of the sentences the students had learnt was "Lisa has missed the lesson!"

The money photos are me and sky as millionaires! We are each holding 5 200,000 Dong notes. My vague calculations are that NZ$1 = 10,000 Dong, it takes a wee while to be able to calculate the currency exchange accurately.

At the Hanoi markets (which were also very stressful) I put my new haggling skills into practise. I brought a light cotton dress for Sky and was very proud to haggle the cendor down from 100,000 to 90,000. When I sat down over lunch to actually work out how much things were costing - Skys' dress went from $10 to $9. In conjunction with the fact that the average vietnamese person earns between $1 and $2 dollars per day, I decided not to haggle anymore.

The photo of birds on the motorbike was taken as the birds are actually alive waiting for a restaurant to buy them.

Farewell to Melbourne

I can't believe another two weeks have flown by! In a few short hours (still to pack our bags - I can always sleep on the plane!) we will be flying off to Viet Nam.

I managed to sneak off to Ceres today to have a quick squiz around. It really was quick, I only had time to dash around quickly taking photos. I stuffed my bag full of flyers and brought two great resources for when I get home. One on ethical shopping and the other on starting community food projects, both of which are right up my alley!

I am pretty sure there was a picture of Tessa on the wall of the fabulous new info centre - were you there in 1996 Tess?

Tomorrow is the last day of the PDC here and today the students presented their design projects and tonight we had the party.

Sky and I did a skit on traveling in the Melbourne Trams. Sky also made up a joke:

What do you get if you cross a Permaculturist with something fast and hungry?
A Permavulture!

My favorite preformance of the evening was Bill's Whale story. Not many people have been on the other side of a whales throat, and he lived to tell the tale!

Coming in a close 2nd was the Permaculturally adapted lumberjack song (complete with Austrian outfits) which was hilarious and also harmonious.

Then there was the Gyno Kinetic Phobia therapy designed to cure Bill of his phobia of women falling on him. I'm not sure if it worked but it was certainly fun and involved the whole audience - the women descending on Bill like a storm of screaming banshees (led by Sky) and Bill being protected by his guild of Men. No women, children or Mollisons were harmed during the therapy!

Then there were poems, songs, stories, water dances, fairy recipes and the list goes on. PDC parties are always a hoot!

I don't have time to post the photos tonight as I really do need to go and pack our bags! Your in for a treat when I do though.

Half way through our trip already!