The Jlal at-Tormos organic farm proved to be a very interesting site to visit - and it gave us the chance to share a bus ride. It was an hour-long ride to Joun in the Chouf caza but it was well worth the trip.

Jlal at-Tormos is located on an arid slope that has seen extensive grazing and wildfires for a good number of years. Nestled inside a wind barrier of fir trees, Jacqueline Jreissati and Mostafa Sleiman have single-handedly regenerated the soil and planted different varieties of fruit trees and vegetables the organic way. The farm sends fruit and vegetable baskets to subscribers all year and constantly experiments with new varieties.

It was interesting for us to see some of the permaculture concepts we learned about being applied in this small spot. The famous "3 Sisters" guild of beans, corn and pumpkins was especially visible on many terraces. Betty and Mostafa traded recipes for promoting effective microorganisms as we made our way downhill to the farm's chicken coop.

After we got back to Saidoun and had a hearty lunch, we talked a little more about group dynamics and non-violent communication. We then returned to our assigned sites and continued mapping under a hot sun until dinner.

The evening was a very special one as we initiated a talking circle and really opened up to each other.

We now come to the bittersweet realization that we are three quarters into the course and we are really intent on making the best of the time we have left.

See you tomorrow.

So now we've officially embarked on the design phase of the PDC, and we couldn't wait to see the sites set up for us to design.

3 sites in Saidoun and nearby Rimat were outlined for us, including the land around the houses of Rita Khawand and Bassam Khawwand from SOILS. But before we got to go there, we talked about working in groups and understanding the dynamics of teamwork. In any group, there is a normal progression along different phases from forming to norming, storming, performing and finally, celebrating.

As the suspense mounted, Klaudia Van Gool gave us an extensive crash course in basic mapping for permaculture, refreshing in our minds lessons about geography we had learned as kids. Then we had one more practical session where our instructor Betty Khoury taught us to build an A-frame and a "Bunyip" (basically a transparent tube folded in a U-shape and filled with water to reach equal levels) to trace contours along a slope. It was quite an exciting and  challenging exercise. For Sarah Lily Yassine and Maya Karkour who are actually urban landscapists and architects, it was fun to go back to these basics in their specialization.

Finally, equipped with pen and paper, we formed 3 groups which headed for each of their designated sites with a single instruction: map, don't design. With all the possibilities that Klaudia and Betty opened for us in the past week, it was a little hard to stick to this, but we carried on.

Over the next few days, we will have more visits to our sites and gradually understand their location, soil and other specifications so we can come up with permaculture designs for them.

In the evening, several of us organized a sharing session where they demonstrated skills which could definitely be of use to us in permaculture or for recreational purposes. Bassam gave an expert presentation on grafting according to local lore, Joey El Khoury brewed some Kombucha tea with a mushroom he had brought with him from Canada, Sarah got us sketching and understanding light and shadow, then Joey and Jihad Chanehsaz got technical with photography. Then before calling it a night, Ghassam Al Salman and Salim Khalil, the "Gusleem Band", broke down playing the guitar and percussions for us. What was meant to be an hour-long session actually extended to 3 full hours of fun which we had to cut short so we'd be awake for our visit to an organic farm tomorrow.

We'll tell you all about this in our next post. For now, goodnight and good thoughts.