(This weblog is in chronological order)
Gringos Invade IPEC
Welcome to IPEC
Although tired after two long days traveling to Brazil, the beauty of IPEC dazzled my bleary eyes, filling my mind and body with excited energy.
Stars filled the night sky and the air was rich with the sounds of night in the cerrado. I said goodnight to my new roommate and slept soundly in my top bunk - our first night in our superadobe home we fondly nicknamed, “the Smurf house”.
My lovable roommate Becky and my Smurf-house companions Shaina, Melissa, Heidi and Ryan (the house next door) could not contain our anxious energy get to know our new environment.
Our New Home
We immediately recognized in our first day IPEC’s functional, playful, and beautiful identity as a center of energy for learning all things permaculture.
Throughout our time at IPEC, we embraced a dual challenge to rekindle our own relationships with the natural world and to harness our practical knowledge and imagination to design human environments for that world.
Living - IPEC Style
Each day the morning gong called us together for breakfast, some arrived bright eyed after early Yoga sessions and others still looking through sleepy eyes.
Morning classes revolved around basic patterns, processes, and design concepts in permaculture. These lecture discussions set the stage for afternoon sessions and practicals in the field.
Our lectures inevitably turned away from the topic and our class became an intimate place for sharing personal stories and experiences. Often these moments were the ones I valued most, the chances to understand each person’s unique reason to want to live sustainably.
Classrooms without walls
Whether swinging in hammocks listening to the wise words of Andre and Lucy or flexing our muscles in the field learning to make cob bricks, we were surrounded by IPEC’s living classroom
Instruction extended beyond designated houlas (lesson times). Every day we were encouraged to tap the vast wealth of knowledge of all IPEC staff by asking questions or helping out in their innovative and exciting projects under construction throughout the ecovilla.
Permaculture on the Table
Beyond learning how to cultivate nourishing foods in environmentally sustainable ways, we also recognized the importance of eating permaculturally - providing our bodies with life-sustaining foods.
Breakfasts were generally light meals of breads, cheeses, and fruits.
Lunch tables were burdened with a huge spreads of vegetarian dishes – salads, rice, beans, and squash casseroles. Meat was provided on each third day, either from IPEC chickens or meats purchased from neighboring farms.
Dinner provided light meal of soup or pasta, salads, bread and cheese
Afternoon Siesta and Practicals
Every afternoon we relished our two-hour siesta time when all of IPEC seemed to swing in hammocks to the rhythm of the birds’ melodies.
Roused from our naps and craft projects, Andre and Lucy and the IPEC team put us to work in the afternoon learning soils in the garden, building a watertank, learning how to level a pond before creating the superadobe walls, and practicing different skills in observing landscape features.
Design Task: COEPI
COEPI is an after-school program center for youth in Pirenopolis. Our permaculture knowledge was challenged as we were asked to meet with the students and teachers to create a new landscape design to fit their needs.
Our designs included 3 more classroom buildings, compost and conventional toilets, a community kitchen, an orchard, a football field, play area, and overall working edible schoolyard.
Bioconstruindo
Bioconstruindo culminated our experience. It brought together students of natural building from all over Brazil and the world. Among over 100 other students, I learned the skills and muscle memory of how to build with straw bales, bamboo, adobe, superadobe, light clay and straw, cob, brick, and iron.
Bioconstruindo was definitely a highlight of the experience.
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