Shared by Yasmina El Khoury
Waking up to Amani, Layal, and Tina coming back from a two-hour yoga session with Hassane made me thankful I chose to stay in bed. As we're getting to know each other more, our daily habits are inspiring and rubbing off on each other. It's our third day in Saydoun, and things are getting more and more interesting.
We started our session with our daily ritual, the morning circle. We recapped yesterday's session in a small interactive exercise to get our minds and bodies out of the morning haze and ready for a new day.
Klaudia explained to us her method of remembering and organizing information; Mind Mapping. It's basically a creative way of writing down and personalizing information logically and in a way that helps us visually remember what was said. Apparently, she's been using this method since her college days, amazing!
After that, we noticed a hint of the beginning of design methods through learning about zoning the land; where to place what. But the most interesting session that day was about Zone 00: yourself. The best thing about this course is that it places a lot of value in the self, and how important self care is as a prerequisite for "earth care" and "people care", two of the permaculture ethics. My favorite exercise was one where we had to map out or concerns, and then categorize them into "in my control" and "out of my control". Made us realize how much we drain our energy worrying about things we have no control over!
Practical sessions with Betty and Klaudia are always super beneficial. This is when we feel we are really learning. For today, we headed over to Bassam and Sylvana's house for a lesson on how to sow seeds and make our own insecticide. We used paper cups and toilet paper rolls to sow marigolds, sunflowers, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Can't wait for them to grow! Later Betty showed us simple steps to prepare a natural insectidie which we can spray to keep bugs off our plants. Who knew using garlic, onions, and chili powder mixed with water can work miracles! After every practical session, we realize how unnecessary and harmful manufactured chemicals are and how bountiful the land is in giving us the simplest solutions. If only everyone resorted to natural remedies and worked WITH the land!
Finally, as a kind of prep for our evening movie, Sylvana led us to a terraced area where the villagers had planted olive trees, onions, artichokes...and where we found a field full of fava beans! A bunch of us started picking the beans (and tasting along the way) ending up with two huge bags of them, which we then shared with the whole class during the movie. Great way to end the day.
Waking up to Amani, Layal, and Tina coming back from a two-hour yoga session with Hassane made me thankful I chose to stay in bed. As we're getting to know each other more, our daily habits are inspiring and rubbing off on each other. It's our third day in Saydoun, and things are getting more and more interesting.
We started our session with our daily ritual, the morning circle. We recapped yesterday's session in a small interactive exercise to get our minds and bodies out of the morning haze and ready for a new day.
Klaudia explained to us her method of remembering and organizing information; Mind Mapping. It's basically a creative way of writing down and personalizing information logically and in a way that helps us visually remember what was said. Apparently, she's been using this method since her college days, amazing!
After that, we noticed a hint of the beginning of design methods through learning about zoning the land; where to place what. But the most interesting session that day was about Zone 00: yourself. The best thing about this course is that it places a lot of value in the self, and how important self care is as a prerequisite for "earth care" and "people care", two of the permaculture ethics. My favorite exercise was one where we had to map out or concerns, and then categorize them into "in my control" and "out of my control". Made us realize how much we drain our energy worrying about things we have no control over!
Practical sessions with Betty and Klaudia are always super beneficial. This is when we feel we are really learning. For today, we headed over to Bassam and Sylvana's house for a lesson on how to sow seeds and make our own insecticide. We used paper cups and toilet paper rolls to sow marigolds, sunflowers, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Can't wait for them to grow! Later Betty showed us simple steps to prepare a natural insectidie which we can spray to keep bugs off our plants. Who knew using garlic, onions, and chili powder mixed with water can work miracles! After every practical session, we realize how unnecessary and harmful manufactured chemicals are and how bountiful the land is in giving us the simplest solutions. If only everyone resorted to natural remedies and worked WITH the land!
Finally, as a kind of prep for our evening movie, Sylvana led us to a terraced area where the villagers had planted olive trees, onions, artichokes...and where we found a field full of fava beans! A bunch of us started picking the beans (and tasting along the way) ending up with two huge bags of them, which we then shared with the whole class during the movie. Great way to end the day.