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!