Alison's report on the Beduin Permaculture project

Bedouin Permaculture Project
As a group of six students involved in a study abroad program focusing on sustainability in Israel, we were invited to stay at a Bedouin family’s house and begin a permaculture project on their land. Through a non-for-profit agency called Bustan, our group stayed at a Bedouin family’s house in Tel Sheva for 4 days. During this time we were asked to design and begin to implement a permaculture design project.
Day one was a tour of various Bedouin unrecognized and recognized villages in the area. Through this we developed a somewhat comprehensive knowledge of Bedouin history, culture and relation to the Israeli government.
Days two and three were designated for designing the project. Much time was spent observing the property in order to begin formulating appropriate, unique, and practical uses for the land. Things observed included testing of proportions of silt, sand and clay within the soil, history and previous uses of the land, orientation to the sun, wind direction, and frequency and amount of rain per year. After these observations were collected, interviews with the family were conducted in order to create a design that was specific to the needs of the family members. Some of these needs included food production, recycling, and leisure. From there the designing began.
Techniques used in the designing process were random assembly, zones and sectors, patterns and edge effect, and input output analysis. From a rigorous 36 hours of making base maps of the property and implementing designs on these maps came a final product. This final design would include a 15 person mud bench with three mud tables, elevated garden beds with pathways crossing through the entire garden, a compost bin, tire planters for potatoes, a fish pond, and space for a mud oven and taboon.
Days four and five were left for physically working on the property. On day four, we collected materials and cleaned off the area being worked on, loosened and leveled the garden area, made a compost and straw bin, began to dig out pathways through the garden that would consequently create elevated beds on all areas where no path was being dug, dug out the fish pond and lined it with clothing, and placed tires where the mud bench and tables would be.
On day five we continued to work, finishing all of the pathways, tilling all top soil on the elevated beds, covered the bed with nitrogen and carbon rich material, lined the beds with tires filled with stones and dirt, put and first coat of mud on the bench and tables, lined the bench with cement and tiles, made tire planters and planted potatoes, and started the compost pile.
Throughout the entire process, the family helped up work and build. During this process we taught them as much as we could about permaculture and the reasoning behind every aspect of the project. After we had left the property we left the family a comprehensive list and overview of how to complete and maintain everything on the site.
The most amazing aspect of this project was that we gave the family an area for leisure and food production without spending a penny. The resources we were presented with were already on site or in proximity to the site. These included cardboard, trash, tires, earth, cement, scrap wood, and stones.