It's my last night at Tamera. Yesterday I managed to make contact with a young family at Troviscais, 27km away towards the sea, who are living in a ramshackle farmhouse and renovating a second one to make it habitable for winter. Their project is valedovento.wordpress.com, and i found them through thepoosh.org. Theyre using local materials that are breathable and which will recycle easily and beneficially back into the soil at the end of their useful life.
This is what Ive come away for! To help people with the work of reconstructing or building new homes, and learn about the many natural techniques involved.
Ive been asked: 'What do you want to build for?' With regard to doing perhaps more 'intellectual' or 'spiritual' work.
I like to use my hands - I want to be strong - I think it's essential that humanity regains a connection to the methods of building that are practicable and simple and to do with what local resources are available, a way of building that is ergonomic and best done by a group of people using their bodies and the common knowledge. I am interested in empowerment through achievement at this level. I want to disseminate this knowledge amongst the pioneers of the modern natural-self-build movement, and spread encouragement and a sense of belonging to a wider 'we'.
Its also in me to challenge perceptions of what a woman can excel at. The modern construction industry is chauvinistic, an old boys club, at any rate pretty inaccessible to women. And it peddles an obfuscating mystique, the one of concrete and plastic and power tools - building houses needn't be out of our reach. I want to learn vocationally that this is true, that I can build a sturdy robust house without devastating the environment!
It's my last night at Tamera. I'm going to miss the socialising, the deep talks, the chocolate 'bar', the comfort of staying here - running (hot!) water, being fed copious amounts of delicious food, beds, internet and phone access - the warmhearted openness of my fellow volunteers and community residents. This is a unique environment where many conventional social boundaries are warped or overturned. Thankyou Galia, Mishie, Martin, Arnald, Mudi, Miriam, Boaz, Felix, Denys, Julian, Phillip...
I've appreciated walking between the canteen and the south valley lake every morning with my bowl of oats n hot water (then forgetting to take it back to wash it up and the pile growing day on day). I appreciate, though reluctantly, the efficiency and structured nature of the visitor interface here and the daily schedule, as well as the group communication channels in place for residents. I admire the groundbreaking achievements in ecology, buildings, and community and societal development.
I can't imagine there's a better place to land when leaving your country.
And it's also not been what I wanted or expected. The monetary charge on top of working here for free. The rigidity of the rules. The lack of interaction between resident community and volunteer and student community, except in a tamera-parent, guest-child way. The proliferation of promiscuity mistaken for free love, or the misuse of that term for promiscuity. How slow, demoralising and unstrenuous the ecology work here can be, with no hoes - argh! - with no mechanism for taking on feedback from experts passing through, and no displayed plan or record of the planting in the gardens. The lack of commitment to deliver a programme of learning for the practical ecology students, prepared in advance and communicated clearly. The scarcity of signs on the dirt track roads around the place!!
Now Im intrigued to visit more intentional communities, especially ecovillages. In the north of Portugal there's one called Tribodar, that could feature.
Staying here has shown me that you can have all the procedure available and still things won't please everybody or work perfectly. I have a more keenly felt appreciation for flexibility and forgiveness, and it's role in our social lives.
Tamera is a dream made reality, seeing and feeling it gives me confidence and ambition.
Monday 28 October 2013
Friday 25 October 2013
Off-road on the road
All change: last Sunday afternoon I walked offsite with Mudi and spent the week hitchhiking through the Algarve. Our first lift came within 5 minutes of us reaching the tarmac-ed outside world road, and was a minibus full of boisterous footballers returning from a game! It jolted me into the reality of ''I speak no portuguese!'' OR ''No falos portogues''. I'm in a foreign country and don't speak the language. It's ok, I was given a phrasebook by a friend, and now's my chance to use it. Though for the first few days I relied on my travelling companion and was very shy to try...it's because I hate being seen floundering or getting things wrong!
Anyway they had scheduled a stop en route at a supporters cafe-bar, and as it got dark we pulled up and piled in, to then be plied with piles of food! :-) Most of which i couldn't eat, as Im vegetarian: steaks, chips, rice, piri piri sauce, bread, red wine and beer. The lady brought me a saucer of cucumber and some salt, which enabled me to get relatively drunk on the alcohol! And the bill for me and Mudi came to just 6 euros...incredible.
As we got to the touristic coast everything became unsurprisingly more expensive, but not awfully so. We were gobbling pastel de nata and other delectable pastries, strong coffee for not much more than 60 cents ever. We got ourselves a picnic at Lidl and ate on the grassy bank of its carpark, overlooking a ring road roundabout. Its nice to holiday from whatever youre used to.
We slept in a tent on Albufeira beach, and baywatched it the next morning under the blazing sunshine. Lovely pink ribbed bivalve shells. Graveyards here have condominium-option coffin modules! Vertically placed in a wall, numbered. Eurgh. Conversations about how it feels when your government to assassinate terrorists who've been bombing your hometown.
The next night we set it up on a piece of wasteground in Portimao after a disappointingly short distance was covered hitching, and opted to catch a bus instead. A storm raged about us for 14 hours, threatening the little flimsy tents watertightnes and stability! We had cafe au lait chocolate, and ingenuity with hair clips and bag covers, it was fine. Just..a little cramped. Im 5ft11inches after all!
The next day we got a bus to Lagos and were met by my friend Dave who drove me here a mere fortnight ago - we stayed on his shared wilderness holiday site nearby for a couple of nights, up in the rafters of the timber frame community house. I helped dismantle an outdoor solar shower, and Mudi tried to get to Spain, eventually succeeding at a very good bus fare. We met an elderly fiery woman on a beach (praia) whose link to the place was my ex's mum's best friend! Small world.
I got to sleep in my very own cute caravan 2 nights, write some correspondence, and then back up to Tamera in Gary Alexander's hire car - he and I dance tango together in East Bergholt, and he also happens to be part of this land-share: the Field of Vision.
What an interlude.
Anyway they had scheduled a stop en route at a supporters cafe-bar, and as it got dark we pulled up and piled in, to then be plied with piles of food! :-) Most of which i couldn't eat, as Im vegetarian: steaks, chips, rice, piri piri sauce, bread, red wine and beer. The lady brought me a saucer of cucumber and some salt, which enabled me to get relatively drunk on the alcohol! And the bill for me and Mudi came to just 6 euros...incredible.
As we got to the touristic coast everything became unsurprisingly more expensive, but not awfully so. We were gobbling pastel de nata and other delectable pastries, strong coffee for not much more than 60 cents ever. We got ourselves a picnic at Lidl and ate on the grassy bank of its carpark, overlooking a ring road roundabout. Its nice to holiday from whatever youre used to.
We slept in a tent on Albufeira beach, and baywatched it the next morning under the blazing sunshine. Lovely pink ribbed bivalve shells. Graveyards here have condominium-option coffin modules! Vertically placed in a wall, numbered. Eurgh. Conversations about how it feels when your government to assassinate terrorists who've been bombing your hometown.
The next night we set it up on a piece of wasteground in Portimao after a disappointingly short distance was covered hitching, and opted to catch a bus instead. A storm raged about us for 14 hours, threatening the little flimsy tents watertightnes and stability! We had cafe au lait chocolate, and ingenuity with hair clips and bag covers, it was fine. Just..a little cramped. Im 5ft11inches after all!
The next day we got a bus to Lagos and were met by my friend Dave who drove me here a mere fortnight ago - we stayed on his shared wilderness holiday site nearby for a couple of nights, up in the rafters of the timber frame community house. I helped dismantle an outdoor solar shower, and Mudi tried to get to Spain, eventually succeeding at a very good bus fare. We met an elderly fiery woman on a beach (praia) whose link to the place was my ex's mum's best friend! Small world.
I got to sleep in my very own cute caravan 2 nights, write some correspondence, and then back up to Tamera in Gary Alexander's hire car - he and I dance tango together in East Bergholt, and he also happens to be part of this land-share: the Field of Vision.
What an interlude.
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Compost toilets, the work, the play
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| guesthouse compost toilets with glass bottles |
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| close up glass bottles as windows |
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| mid morn raw breakfast for the ecology team |
There's been much opinionating, suggestions and criticism from all students on the various methods of horticulture practised here, and I've been biting my tongue. A welcome personal challenge in being at Tamera is prioritising praise for the achievements and vision of the community over critique. Much food is produced here, which is vocally and poignantly appreciated in a speech before each meal.
The origin of many of the hand tools used here is in a book called Anastacia, or featuring her, detailing an attuned spiritual approach to eco system nourishment and interaction....ugh I cant get on with these Anastacia tools! I want a hoe like back on the Oak Tree farm, a swiss oscillating hoe! There are horses grazing in a pro-reforestation rotation system, and huge tusked boars helping to cultivate the soil.
The lessons we've had every Tues and Thursday afternoon haven't always been well prepared or presented, which's disappointed me. But yesterday we got one about a project soon to be visited and aided in Kenya, where Tamerans have been consulted in order to mitigate supposed water scarcity and actual water erosion. Kenyas rainfall is well above average. it has tooo much water in too short a space of time, its just that it isnt channelled and contained effectively, and disappears taking chunks of earth with it.
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| zambucheira beach at sunset, sunday |
What struck me was the similarity with beaches in Cornwall, where im used to going; high jagged rocky cliffs to either side, a dune stream leading out to the water from a steep valley, a long run of sand, and cresting waves.Pertinent for me because my family have a house somewhere near here, and they come from Cornwall themselves.
Afterwards we went to a restaurant in a little town nearby, beautiful food, and really cheap! Good to get out into the real world and hear Portuguese.
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| participants in the new education seminar |
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| ecology team at work weeding - jean-marie at forefront |
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| solar village fancy compost toilets |
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| and from behind...check the smell-i-scope! |
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| close up of the scope |
Im trying to decide whether to head north or south when i leave here, both options are possible with Helpx and Poosh hosts.
Any recommendations? :-)
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Camera is operational
this is the tent hall, where i sleep in a dorm room at one side
tent hall from outside - the walls are corrugated metal and canvas!
the dining area of the global campus
the 'compost organ' toilets
the aula - main hall. beautiful straw bale timber frame construction and clay rendered
urinals and sink through cork oak branches
tamera's stone circle, modeled on almendres near evora. 96 stones. i get a tour on thursday
the solar village and beyond...tamera goes on for kilometres. 150 community members!
my first sunset where i ate alone and the torch broke
moth in the shower room
Monday 7 October 2013
>Deep breath>
After a 4 day long van journey with 2 other people, down the western edge of continental Europe, which involved a crazy wheel-off breakdown on a Spanish mountain...I am installed at Tamera!
My own melodrama is becoming ever more visible to me, in sentences like the one above, and more longstanding examples I regret only in retrospect: like what the hell was I doing making such a big deal out of going? Its just travelling, everyone (well, lots of) people do it, no biggie. By making it into the everlasting life-change phenomena I have, it's now harder to take it back, climb back down off that aspiration (because it's also hard for me to admit I'm wrong, and I'm prideful). Silly Gemma.
As an astute person may tell from such an opening, Tamera is a place that encourages one to delve into oneself, and openly discuss 'inner work' and progress your self development. People visiting and living here are honest and proactive with it. The community runs courses called 'Love School'. Every announcement begins with and ends with a thanksgiving - because to live on the site is to connect with nature and the divine, in a way I dont grasp yet, because spirituality isnt yet appealing to me. The whole energy of the place, or atmosphere, is low. or rather slow, reflective, contemplative. Ive slowed down in attunement, showing my quiet-Gem aspect.
However when i arrived I was at panic station: my lift, Dave, brought me right into the heart of the site, to the Campus, last Friday night, and presented me to reception. Sabina showed me the room I could stay in with 15 other students and guests, where the toilets were, told me what would be happening over the weekend...but I felt utterly disoriented! Frustration boiled in me at not getting here to start the course, at not thinking about arriving at a weekend when no work would be done in teams allowing me to socialise with my team-workers, at having decided to leave the housing coop at all! So i spent those 48hours coming down off that nervous high. calming myself, being still and silent and timid. Does anyone else find that they are way more conscious of the time they spend in toilets when theyre alone somewhere, and anxious with it? These ones here are, I think, cob-walled, with tiled floors, very clean, for both poo and pee and with sawdust to add after - obviously the composting type. Im ok on my own, find it much easier than lots of people. A factor that intimidate me though. here it's rifely multi-lingual, with the predominant denomination of people being German (theres a historic german-community link: Zeg near Berlin helped spawn Tamera). And I dont speak any german! Or portuguese! Argh! It triggers all my colonial hegemony guilt that people can, and have to, change their language to english in order to communicate with me. Ugh.
The weekend drove home the point that I am far from anyone who knows me, or loves me, and that it will take time to develop intimacy abroad. I miss my friends, housemates, lovers, family. Even though its been a mere week, I have pangs for them. I do value what I had in Ipswich at Random CAmel, so much more when im in lack of it - it was home. I WILL use past tense, to help maintain my intention, though i know it will also always be my home.
Simon, one of my longest friends and one of the closest of those, has lent me his camera, and i really want to take photos with it for this blog. But it's making juddering clickings and wont stop, so no pictures so far :-(
In the mornings mist hangs above the many lakes, larger and smaller, that the Tamerans have created on this land. They refer to themselves as guardians of it. This morning, as every Monday, there was a ritual up at the stone circle, to greet and pray for..err..things. 96 stones of differing shapes, sizes, colours, degrees of decoration with cosmograms. We held silence facing the direction of the sun, broken when it rose above the horizon, whereupon began a water ceremony that is replicated simultaneously at peace communities all over the world. It is a connection with the global peace network. Gratitude was spoken for all the work and sacrifices made in the name of peace and healing the earth, and then each thanksgiver poured water into a bowl by the fire in the middle of the circle.
Today I felt my energy re-inflate the bubbly Gemma, easily linked to the fact that the course schedule recommenced and I was given tasks to perform! Whoop thats what i respond well to. getting stuff done, having a role. My comfort zone is NOT pure socializing, and its difficult for me to relax or stay still for long, Which people here instantly cottoned on to, and challenged me over; because the prevailing paradigm here is to do things with respect, love, and by taking your time. To 'be'. There's an unspoken approval for meditation and displays of poermaculture principles like 'observe before acting, show love if you intervene'. These are just phrases to me - i can know them, have known them, and they make sense to me, i agree with them...but ive not taken the opportunity to relish in their practice. This is what Ive said this trip is about; developing patience and care in my work, to achieve some discipline, a space for self reflection and growth. From day 1, it seems!
Day 1 subsequently involved weeding pots of then transplanting various herbs into hill-beds created along Holzer principles; like at Orchard Barn CIC. This was with a swiss guy who recommended I read Anastasia: a book about a woman reconnecting with nature (i find this turn of phrase really offputting, so airy fairy and spectator sport!). We were accompanied by a toddler Lucia, who has spent a day per week for her last - and first - year with the gardeners. She was happy shifting bean pods and weeds for us.
Lunch, as it has been for my stay so far, was delicious: lots of raw salads, tasty dressings and sauces, roasted veg, and fried chickpeas. Herbal tea is on tap, though the signs 'tea for vomiting- diarrhoea' didnt inspire me with confidence! Im not sick - yet...
For the second time, I volunteered to wash up in the kitchen, because thats commonly acknowledged as The place to get to know whats going on anywhere. And the pans are so huge!!! And shiny. Everythings bigger on the continent, landscapes, utensils.
I swam in the campus lake.
We had a course participants meeting, which was an open circle to ask questions and make connections.
I rang up the PO and got my travel money card activated. My other errand was to scope out the site shop for a new headtorch, as my fiver-from-argos specimen has already failed. now it only lights up red, but it isnt open til sunday.
I joined a group doing some yoga outside, and will most definitelz ache tomorrow!
The afternoon shift for gardeners is 5-6:30pm, and we weeded some long winding lakeside beds of cabbage, celery and chard, then filled in the gaps with more of the same and added onions down the middle. Peoples conversations went way over my head: ''do you think consciousness is permanent?''. Well...gee.... apparently yesterday there had been a visit to a local guru called Muji. I feel unenlightened. And, im only reluctantly curious. Not enough hard graft for me to warrant soulsearching!
Dinner, then a Political Cafe event; a talk by Mugove, a Zimbabwean man doing permaculture work in schools in Malawi. he showed us pictures of transformed schoolyards, barren bare ground to lush food forests. His presentation illuminated how the mindset of the people in Africa has been beaten down over the last 100 years, and is now very much 'we are the poorest of the poor, we have no resources only problems' as well as divorcing them from their food growing and identifying heritage, offering up in its place the promise of mass consumerist luxuries; and how their previously rich and abundant landscape has been monocultured into substandard production. He was positive and hopeful, and I could see why- it takes but a few weeks for biomass to rot down into humus in Africa: a true miracle in your raised bed!
I am connecting verbally to my fellow students more today, but I see how my brain recognizes and plays into the social hierarchy: I have aligned myself, made myself aware of, the alphas: young, trendy-hippy dressed and vibrant; the undercurrent of cool. Its easy to be attracted to them, and feel spurned when i see they are attracted to others. To desire the kudos of affiliation. I wore my bikini top this afternoon and was simultaenously grateful for the attention it brought me and disgusted with myself for being so superficial and lame at making connection from my true self!
OK theres one operable PC for several hundred people, this has been a massive first away-post, and it ends here. Ive been watched by a giant grasshopper on the wall for the duration. x
After a 4 day long van journey with 2 other people, down the western edge of continental Europe, which involved a crazy wheel-off breakdown on a Spanish mountain...I am installed at Tamera!
My own melodrama is becoming ever more visible to me, in sentences like the one above, and more longstanding examples I regret only in retrospect: like what the hell was I doing making such a big deal out of going? Its just travelling, everyone (well, lots of) people do it, no biggie. By making it into the everlasting life-change phenomena I have, it's now harder to take it back, climb back down off that aspiration (because it's also hard for me to admit I'm wrong, and I'm prideful). Silly Gemma.
As an astute person may tell from such an opening, Tamera is a place that encourages one to delve into oneself, and openly discuss 'inner work' and progress your self development. People visiting and living here are honest and proactive with it. The community runs courses called 'Love School'. Every announcement begins with and ends with a thanksgiving - because to live on the site is to connect with nature and the divine, in a way I dont grasp yet, because spirituality isnt yet appealing to me. The whole energy of the place, or atmosphere, is low. or rather slow, reflective, contemplative. Ive slowed down in attunement, showing my quiet-Gem aspect.
However when i arrived I was at panic station: my lift, Dave, brought me right into the heart of the site, to the Campus, last Friday night, and presented me to reception. Sabina showed me the room I could stay in with 15 other students and guests, where the toilets were, told me what would be happening over the weekend...but I felt utterly disoriented! Frustration boiled in me at not getting here to start the course, at not thinking about arriving at a weekend when no work would be done in teams allowing me to socialise with my team-workers, at having decided to leave the housing coop at all! So i spent those 48hours coming down off that nervous high. calming myself, being still and silent and timid. Does anyone else find that they are way more conscious of the time they spend in toilets when theyre alone somewhere, and anxious with it? These ones here are, I think, cob-walled, with tiled floors, very clean, for both poo and pee and with sawdust to add after - obviously the composting type. Im ok on my own, find it much easier than lots of people. A factor that intimidate me though. here it's rifely multi-lingual, with the predominant denomination of people being German (theres a historic german-community link: Zeg near Berlin helped spawn Tamera). And I dont speak any german! Or portuguese! Argh! It triggers all my colonial hegemony guilt that people can, and have to, change their language to english in order to communicate with me. Ugh.
The weekend drove home the point that I am far from anyone who knows me, or loves me, and that it will take time to develop intimacy abroad. I miss my friends, housemates, lovers, family. Even though its been a mere week, I have pangs for them. I do value what I had in Ipswich at Random CAmel, so much more when im in lack of it - it was home. I WILL use past tense, to help maintain my intention, though i know it will also always be my home.
Simon, one of my longest friends and one of the closest of those, has lent me his camera, and i really want to take photos with it for this blog. But it's making juddering clickings and wont stop, so no pictures so far :-(
In the mornings mist hangs above the many lakes, larger and smaller, that the Tamerans have created on this land. They refer to themselves as guardians of it. This morning, as every Monday, there was a ritual up at the stone circle, to greet and pray for..err..things. 96 stones of differing shapes, sizes, colours, degrees of decoration with cosmograms. We held silence facing the direction of the sun, broken when it rose above the horizon, whereupon began a water ceremony that is replicated simultaneously at peace communities all over the world. It is a connection with the global peace network. Gratitude was spoken for all the work and sacrifices made in the name of peace and healing the earth, and then each thanksgiver poured water into a bowl by the fire in the middle of the circle.
Today I felt my energy re-inflate the bubbly Gemma, easily linked to the fact that the course schedule recommenced and I was given tasks to perform! Whoop thats what i respond well to. getting stuff done, having a role. My comfort zone is NOT pure socializing, and its difficult for me to relax or stay still for long, Which people here instantly cottoned on to, and challenged me over; because the prevailing paradigm here is to do things with respect, love, and by taking your time. To 'be'. There's an unspoken approval for meditation and displays of poermaculture principles like 'observe before acting, show love if you intervene'. These are just phrases to me - i can know them, have known them, and they make sense to me, i agree with them...but ive not taken the opportunity to relish in their practice. This is what Ive said this trip is about; developing patience and care in my work, to achieve some discipline, a space for self reflection and growth. From day 1, it seems!
Day 1 subsequently involved weeding pots of then transplanting various herbs into hill-beds created along Holzer principles; like at Orchard Barn CIC. This was with a swiss guy who recommended I read Anastasia: a book about a woman reconnecting with nature (i find this turn of phrase really offputting, so airy fairy and spectator sport!). We were accompanied by a toddler Lucia, who has spent a day per week for her last - and first - year with the gardeners. She was happy shifting bean pods and weeds for us.
Lunch, as it has been for my stay so far, was delicious: lots of raw salads, tasty dressings and sauces, roasted veg, and fried chickpeas. Herbal tea is on tap, though the signs 'tea for vomiting- diarrhoea' didnt inspire me with confidence! Im not sick - yet...
For the second time, I volunteered to wash up in the kitchen, because thats commonly acknowledged as The place to get to know whats going on anywhere. And the pans are so huge!!! And shiny. Everythings bigger on the continent, landscapes, utensils.
I swam in the campus lake.
We had a course participants meeting, which was an open circle to ask questions and make connections.
I rang up the PO and got my travel money card activated. My other errand was to scope out the site shop for a new headtorch, as my fiver-from-argos specimen has already failed. now it only lights up red, but it isnt open til sunday.
I joined a group doing some yoga outside, and will most definitelz ache tomorrow!
The afternoon shift for gardeners is 5-6:30pm, and we weeded some long winding lakeside beds of cabbage, celery and chard, then filled in the gaps with more of the same and added onions down the middle. Peoples conversations went way over my head: ''do you think consciousness is permanent?''. Well...gee.... apparently yesterday there had been a visit to a local guru called Muji. I feel unenlightened. And, im only reluctantly curious. Not enough hard graft for me to warrant soulsearching!
Dinner, then a Political Cafe event; a talk by Mugove, a Zimbabwean man doing permaculture work in schools in Malawi. he showed us pictures of transformed schoolyards, barren bare ground to lush food forests. His presentation illuminated how the mindset of the people in Africa has been beaten down over the last 100 years, and is now very much 'we are the poorest of the poor, we have no resources only problems' as well as divorcing them from their food growing and identifying heritage, offering up in its place the promise of mass consumerist luxuries; and how their previously rich and abundant landscape has been monocultured into substandard production. He was positive and hopeful, and I could see why- it takes but a few weeks for biomass to rot down into humus in Africa: a true miracle in your raised bed!
I am connecting verbally to my fellow students more today, but I see how my brain recognizes and plays into the social hierarchy: I have aligned myself, made myself aware of, the alphas: young, trendy-hippy dressed and vibrant; the undercurrent of cool. Its easy to be attracted to them, and feel spurned when i see they are attracted to others. To desire the kudos of affiliation. I wore my bikini top this afternoon and was simultaenously grateful for the attention it brought me and disgusted with myself for being so superficial and lame at making connection from my true self!
OK theres one operable PC for several hundred people, this has been a massive first away-post, and it ends here. Ive been watched by a giant grasshopper on the wall for the duration. x
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