permaculture

["Grifen" <grifenhope@gmail.com>]

Good News for a Change <http://ecoescuela.cl/en/node/1959> 


Submitted by Grifen <http://ecoescuela.cl/en/user/2>  on Tue, 09/03/2010 -
16:03. 


Chile Trembles and the World Changes: by seconds and degrees


Hola Friends, We are just over a week out from the big shake, battened down
the hatches and secured our situation. We realise that we are blessed and
uniquely prepared to make a big difference in the restoration of Bio Bio
Chile. In coming months we will be living up to our destiny as a regional
centre and living university of Transition fully engaged in regenerative
design for eco-social regeneration. 

You can find images here http://elmanzano.ning.com/photo. 

Can you help us to invest in the resilience of our small rural community in
Chile post quake as a living model of local resilience that can be
replicated throughout this devastated region of Chile? 


Vision is seeing things as they will be


We intend to quickly establish a model of disaster response that can be
widely replicated in the Biobio region, and invest in the foundations of
long term resilience in other communities like ours. We have established a
strong foundation over the last few years here, and now we need your support
to make the most of disaster as an opportunity for catalysing change. 

We intend to install basic systems for water and food security for 80 people
and to reconstruct two damaged houses for 9 people in two families. This
will be implemented in coming weeks and months in collaboration with local,
regional and national government, the permaculture institute of Chile, and
international friends the Permaculture Research Institute, Holmgren Design
Services etc. We have a multidisciplinary team of permaculture professionals
and volunteers on standby willing to go, supported by a large network of
people throughout Chile and around the planet. We want your help, the
collective intelligence of our international learning community. Invest in
our transition.  


There are many ways you can help


1.    Donations can be made through the Permaculture Research Institute
http://permaculture.org.au – please reference ´´donationchile´´. Information
will soon be posted on their website with full details of the project, and
regular reports.  

2.    We need information. Do you have design(s) for permanent / emergencia
small quick houses 35m2 with local bio materials. We are thinking round pole
timber post and beam with earth bag footings (with recycled adobe), light
straw clay (harvest time now) insulation walls floor and ceiling. 

3.    Construction details for Ferro cement tanks in Español, or any kind of
water tanks. 

4.    Information on pumping solutions for shallow groundwater, and for drip
irrigation – on flat sandy soils with no stream flow and 1300mm rain.   

5.    Anything about grain mills. 

6.    Ideas for large water storage in sandy soils. 

7.    Woodstove / rocket stove stuff in Español. 

8.    Recommendations for machinery that may be available in Chile. 

9.    Advice on small scale solar generation. 

10.    Advice on round pole construction techniques, and milling and drying
of small diameter eucalyptus glutens y nitens, large old macrocarpas and of
25 year untreated pine. 

11. Volunteer; we need more hands, especially people who are skilled in
construction and technology, in working with people, managing groups,
facilitating etc, food growing and preservation, communications and
reporting etc, etc etc. 


Some News


We are well in El Manzano Biobio Chile 130 km´s from the epicentre. Despite
the full-on quake the damage has been minor for most. Concepcion and coastal
towns worst affected. Many in those areas are homeless and without basics.
Aid has kicked in and things are normalising. The main problem is the minds
of the people...their fears and addictions...as we are learning, their
personal resilience. We are in a state of curfew for most of the region from
6pm till 12 midday. Food is scarce in most communities, supermarkets closed
and empty....most were ransacked within 8 hours of the first shake. The
military are on the streets...the situation is a little tense...but
improving rapidly. Many regional roads and bridges on the main highway Ruta
5 are severely damaged and transport is limited. You probably know as much
as we do. There is a lot of stuff on youtube. 

In El Manzano we are somewhat more prepared than most. We are 80 strong; 21
children, 27 women (two pregnant) and 32 men (during the event we were 140
with an additional 24 men 28 women and 8 kids). And lucky. No one received
even as much as a scratch. The trees didn’t fall. The ground didn’t swallow
us up. And we were far enough away from any big urban centre. We have some
minor damage to buildings, with two substandard shacks / homes in our
village made inhabitable. Many are still sleeping in tents for fear of more
quakes and building collapse. We have given our bioconstructions the best
possible test and they passed with flying colours. We have manual pumps for
water supply and abundant shallow ground water. The dam and a few bridges
were destroyed, and we are doing a quick repair to get irrigation going
again...materials are hard to come by in the area, we are improvising. 

We have grown a lot of food this summer, and were in preservation mode until
the earth moved...most of our produce survived with last minute redesign of
shelving for earthquake. We have 5 hectares of wheat and rye to mill, with a
1.5 hectares of potatoes, maize, quinoa, amaranth, onions close to harvest,
plenty of fruit (apples, blueberries, mushrooms etc) we are drying, and
plenty of veges, the two cows are still milking, eggs and meat. The
electricity has now returned and we can irrigate the gardens a little
better, have light, turned the freezer back on, and can communicate with the
world. 

As a community we have gathered together and reinforced our interdependence.
We have realised that community is the key for our wellbeing. That we are
resilient and adaptable. The divisions between us are only illusion. Our
little insignificant village has emerged stronger, with all its inherent
unsustainability and barriers, its long chaotic history. There is life here,
abundance, simple clean ethical living, humble loving peasants. We have
ensured the safety of everyone and security of water and food. We have
reassessed our vulnerabilities and our priorities for increasing our
resilience drawn into sharp focus. The work we have done in the past two
years investing in our community has been rewarded. El Manzano is a light of
calm, a sane awake quality of not striving, of letting go into the unknown.



Participatory Design 


A meeting of emergency was held a few days ago. In our plan for 2010 we have
some funding to invest in the community with a pre-existing strategy to
install appropriate technology in all the houses in the village, to mobilise
the community to participate in design for climate change. Our priorities
have been redirected a little, and with blessings in disguise we now have
full support and commitment from our community and the draft of a shared
plan for action. We identified the following priorities; 

•    Regular community meetings with full participation.
•    Celebration together. 
•    Manual and or solar / wind pumps.
•    Large water storages.
•    Food preservation.
•    Community gardens – winter is coming (seeds, tools, land).
•    Community plant nursery.
•    A multi use community safety centre with public services.
•    Community storage of bulk foods.
•    Grain mill.
•    Small animals.
•    Diesel generators. 
•    New more efficient wood stoves.
•    Composting toilets.
•    Communications.
•    Security response plan.
•    Machinery – rip saw, chainsaw mill, chainsaws etc.   
•    Energy production for simple needs.
•    Shared transport. 
•    A plan for the development of community and individual resilience.
•    Tools for construct and food preserve. 

This is a work in progress. Detail plans will emerge soon. Please be patient
with us. 


Resilience and Vulnerability 


We have learned that resilience is a natural inbuilt characteristic of the
natural world. And she is much bigger than us. We need not worry about the
future too much, we will survive. Resilience is something that we have to
remember from our past, and to cultivate in our communities. It means the
capacity to cope with life's adversities, overcome and even be transformed
by them (Grotberg). Resilience means functional connections, networks and
community, taking care of the whole system. By experiencing adversity we can
adapt, and if we heed the message well, we can build resistance to future
crises, and provide living examples for others to practice. 

We can move beyond sustainability and mere mitigation, towards a more
resilient way of living, one that rolls with nature and rebounds quickly...
not a blind bounce back from crisis, but a practical transformation. We can
let go of the old, let go into not knowing, and we can create the new. With
every breath we choose, we speak into the world and so design, and so co
create the world around us. By leveraging the capacities of our networks, by
starting small, and thinking big, we can catalyse fundamental change. 

This great transition has never been more urgent, we need not wait for
disaster to act...it is never to late to adopt common sense. It´s never too
late to invest in resilience. 

Any help you can give us will be very wisely applied. 

´There was a large fire, the moon was in its glory and animals in the
distance warned us that the earth was still trembling, in the circle around
the fire passed the tobacco of the word. And word for word the people did
nothing but confirm that he understood the message and that resilience also
involves the "relationships" human, spiritual and multiple connectivity we
have between us and nature.´ (Ruben) 

Love from Chile 

Grifen, Javiera and the families of El Manzano. 

Ecoescuela El Manzano
Education & Design for Sustainable Living
Web: www.ecoescuela.cl 
Network: www.ecoescuela.ning.com  
Phone: +56-09-74322221
Skype: wholehabitat
Address: Casilla 15 Cabrero Chile 

Instituto Chileno de Permacultura
Networking Chile in Transition
Web: www.permaculturachile.org  

Permaculture Research Institute 
Chaning the World one Site at a time 
Web: www.permaculture.org.au  

Holmgren Design Services
The source of Permaculture Vision & Innovation
Web: http://www.holmgren.com.au/ 

Transition Towns Network
Self Organising for Resilience 
Web: www.transitionculture.org 

Gaia University
Degrees of Freedom 
Web: www.gaiauniversity.org 

 

 

Grifen Hope

 

Ecoescuela El Manzano

Education & Design for Sustainable Living

Web: www.ecoescuela.cl 

Network: www.ecoescuela.ning.com  

Phone: +56-09-74322221

Skype: wholehabitat

Address: Casilla 15 Cabrero Chile 

 

Instituto Chileno de Permacultura

Networking Chile 

Web: www.permaculturachile.org  

 

Permaculture Research Institute 

Chaning the World one Site at a time 

Web: www.permaculture.org.au  

 

Holmgren Design Services

The source of Permaculture Vision & Innovation

Web: http://www.holmgren.com.au <http://www.holmgren.com.au/>  

 

Transition Towns

Self Organising for Resilience 

Web: www.transitionculture.org

 

Gaia University

Degrees of Freedom 

Web: www.gaiauniversity.org