Hola amigos!
This week at Mama Roja the focus was on continuing to build the house at the top of the hill- Kimberly and Marcelo’s dream home made out of natural building materials (re: mud!). The frame of the house and the roof had been constructed with assistance from previous interns, meaning that we are getting to start with learning some of the finishing processes and then will learn more of the beginning steps when we start work on the bedrooms. This week we’ve been carting clay and sand up the hill for combining with water and fibres (pine needles and straw) for mortar for the adobe bricks, and for cob/mud “meatballs” to install windows, close cracks and crevices, and add elements such as glass bottles to the walls. One of the best parts of this experience is that to make the mix we literally get to stomp through the mud in our bare feet, adding more water and fibre as necessary. As we’ve learned, constructing with mud is a mixture of conceptual application and intuition, and it’s frickin’ FUN. Some of the benefits include being able to use materials found at or near your building site that are local and renewable, and mud buildings stay cool in the heat and warm in the cold. Natural buildings can include plumbing and electrical wiring, and in colder climates can be heated as well (ie it is very possible to build a home in Canada out of natural and recycled materials that will be comfortable the whole year round). Natural building is safe and architecturally sound, and working on a home such as this one has certainly made me wonder why in Canada we build homes out of wood and bricks, only to need to add large amounts of artificial insulation, when we’re surrounded by natural, renewable building materials. And to top it all off, natural buildings are gorgeous pieces of creative work, sustainable, and only need to be protected from large amounts of water to last a long time.
In addition, this week we started discussing and working on a micro-hydroelectric dam installation on the property. We were visited by Eric Barney, a retired engineering professor, who will be advising on the project, and have begun the first steps of clearing part of the river of rocks (some of them GIANT) and digging a trench in which to construct the base of the dam. When finished, the dam should be able to produce about 500 watts of power!
Life at Mama Roja is a balance of intellectual and physical work, combined with community living and cooking, and plenty of personal time for pursuits such as yoga, reading, meditation, learning, and emotional and spiritual growth. Once a week we watch a documentary related to sustainability, and later in the week we go through assigned readings and have a discussion about these and other thoughts that have come up. We also have a weekly meeting to sit down and see how everyone is feeling, check in, divide up the chores for the week and propose workshops such as learning reiki, massage, knitting, soap-making, etc. Twice a week we have yoga and meditation classes at 6am, and are welcome to use the yoga shala at any time for our own practices.
I have decided that as a part of my blog I will share some quotations, thoughts, ideas, documentaries, articles, topics, and books that come up throughout my time here, in the hopes that you will consider them and perhaps incorporate some of them into your own life.
The first thought that I would like to share is part of what brought me to Mama Roja in the first place. As many of you know my family has always been interested in sustainability, self-sufficiency, and growing and preserving our own food, and with that as my root it’s not surprising that I have nurtured an interest in these areas. However, what drove me to seek out this experience is a nagging thought that began to creep up over time, and truly came on strong in the last half off my time as an residence manager. It is an amalgamation of many things that I’ve learned in school, from books, and in life, but the basic idea is this: the average Westerner, and more and more people in other parts of the world as well, are living in a manner completely out of sync and often at odds with the very world from which humans arose. The reason we as a species came to be is evolution (choose to “believe” this or not- regardless, evolution is a fact and an observable phenomenon). Our predecessors that were best able to survive and reproduce produced more offspring and eventually, as differences between us and our closest relatives increased, the separate species of Homo sapiens came to be. Along the way, we developed sentience and an advanced self-awareness. From these traits we were able to form a variety of societies, from hunter-gatherer to the discovery of agriculture and all forms in between. Throughout all of this, we tended to stay connected with the Earth that is, and always will be, the only reason we are here. No Earth, no life, no evolutionary development- no us. Our populations have tended to be small enough and our practices sustainable enough to not deplete the area around us of resources, or to impact our environment to the point of detrimental change. However, in the last 75-100 years, things have changed. With the advent of machinery, engines, nuclear power, cars, industrial agriculture and food production, plastic, and a whole host of other modern-day trappings, we have become, in many people’s eyes, “more advanced,” and at the same time more and more disconnected from the systems and the place that gave us life. Because, to be honest, everything worked on Earth before we got here, and for anything that we need to survive and be happy there is likely a natural system already in place. Compost happens on its own, everywhere- yet we’re the first species to divert our waste and create toxic landfills. The sun provides consistent power that millions of species on the planet utilize (as do we, every time we eat anything- that energy came from the sun)- yet we are the only species to turn to limited, polluting resources and to forget how to use a source of energy that is present every single day. In the last few decades, we have become the first species in the entire history of the Earth to begin the process of creating our own demise. That’s depressing. But things don’t have to be this way. What bothered me more than anything while I was working in residence is that my way of life was not lined up with the way I think people should live: sustainably, in community, supporting one another, and in a manner that doesn’t take too much and that treats our only home with respect and gratitude for letting us stay here. So that’s why I’m here: to learn more about truly living sustainably, so that the values that I align myself and my life with can reflect the best parts of who I am, and the kind of world I want to live in.
Before the photos (and with the speedy internet in this hurr cafe, there should be quite a few!) I want to suggest some reading/watching:
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
A novel that has informed much of the way I think about the way that people live currently, out of sync with the natural rhythms and cycles of the planet. Beautifully written and it gives lots to think about.
The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins
A lot of us are likely squeamish about the idea of composting our own poop, but NOT doing it is what’s weird and unnatural. Safe (thermophilic bacteria will take care of any pathogens) and fantastic compost is literally be flushed down the drain every day. This book is hilarious and very factual- I would highly recommend checking it out and letting the ideas it presents sit for a while. You may just start to think differently about the way we process our waste.
Dirt! The Movie
A fantastic documentary that will motivate you to get your hands dirty! Compelling and yet hopeful, with lots of great ideas and information about what’s under our feet.
And some quotations...
"If we do act, in however small a way, we don´t have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." --Howard Zinn
A quotation from Mama Roja’s blog, and one of the first things that attracted me to this place!
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw
A quotation from our readings this week which thoroughly expresses so many of my feelings!
And now...the photos!
My new favorite photo!
Sometimes bushwhacking turns into bush-pushing through the vines.
Just gazing out into the jungle...you know, normal day.
Really cool grasshopper we found in la selva!
The view from the road leading down into the valley where we live.
Some days mud-building makes Cassie rill rill dirty
If it looks like my finger is wet, it's because it is. With butterfly pee. Because it peed on me as soon as it landed.
Valerie (left) and Paola (right) join us for a bit of mud-building and jungle-livin'!
Working on installing the windows!
Recycled car windows make beautiful additions to a dream home.
Closing the crevices with mud!
A monkey-child in her natural habitat :)
Some Lulu-lovin'
After a hard day's work we hang out with the pups. Notice the mud on my face? That's because Ashley "aimed" for my "shoulder."
A monkey-kitten in HER natural environment...asleep.
Turns out one of my hidden talents is creating mud cat sculptures.
A toad visits us in the evening.
Toads confuse kittens.
Finding a waterfall on your bushwhacking adventure is always a treat. After a couple more rains she'll be rushing and flowing at full force!
Spiders are our friends when they eat wasps.
An impenetrable jungle canopy.
Jungle flowers :)
Cool jungle mushrooms.
The river runs a tad dry but the pools in between stay filled with water and life.
A sleeping Amanita in her favorite place- on top of the bike-powered laundry machine!
Night off sweet-potato-beet-latke dinner by candle light with new and wonderful friends.
Starting work on the dam ie moving big-ass rocks.
An adorable little crab-like creature found in the water.
My fierce face elicits Ariel's disdain (she's just jealous of my pick-axing abilities, I think)
Monkey finds a convenient napping location in the pocket of my sweater, which I find hilarious.
We start our day with delicious breads.
We're off to collect the poop, and we're taking these two characters with us!
Bebe cows!
This is what we came for- bags and bags of poop to use for plastering!
How we poop- starting with a base layer of sawdust that gets added to in between every "drop-off" of new material, these toilets don't smell and are completely sustainable! When the buckets are full, they get added to the Humanure compost, which reaches temperatures high enough to kill all pathogens.
My home in the woods :)
The path down from my home to the bathroom and kitchen.
As we head down the path we come across our community kitchen!
OK. I don't really like spiders. But this baby tarantula found in the garden was surprisingly adorable. Trust me, I was confused about that too, but he really was cute.
Sometimes when you're bushwhacking...you fall in a river. Actually, it's been a theme for me at Mama Roja, as this is about the fourth time I've fallen in a river.
The waterfall from the top...little does it know, this water's about to drop twenty feet.
A mysterious jelly-creature found in the river. Anyone know what this is?
We look pretty bad-ass as we set off to collect cow-poop from the neighbors!
There should totally be a caption-creating contest for this photo. This cow's in serious kinda MOOd.
No comments:
Post a Comment