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!