Mongolian Permaculture: Day 40 - Resource Inventory [Erdene Permaculture Short Course: Day I]

THE GOBI: FULL OF EMPTY

Our visits to the various Co-Operatives and Zamiin Yyl have given us an opportunity to conduct a Resource Inventory, to identify areas of greatest need where we can make the biggest impact in the short time we will have to work with the Co-Operative leaders and Members who have been selected to attend the Gobi training.

The Resource Inventory is a formal tool created by David Holmgren [with input from Ian Lillington, author of ‘The Holistic Life’], and is like a SWOT Analysis for Permaculture Designers …and anyone working in Sustainable Aid.

Really, it’s just a written version of what I have watched Rick do unconsciously since the moment we stepped off the plane:


Stage 1, Observation: What do we have to work with right now?
  
    Take inventory of all available resources, including Landscape, Infrastructure, Household, and Culture
Stage 2, Evaluation: What can it be used for?  

    List all possible functions of available resources.
Stage 3, Strategy: What can we do with it?  

    Explore possible ways to harness, use, and direct available resources.
Stage 4, Design: How can we connect it?  

    Explore possible ways to connect strategies create energy cycles and maximize multi-functions.
Stage 5, Implementation: Who? What? Where? When? How Much?

    Explore logistics and practicalities towards putting strategies and designs into effect right now.

Stages 1 and 2 are like a massive information gathering / brainstorming session and can be done with just initial team members; we spent the first two weeks of this trip doing just this.

Stages 3 – 5 can only be effectively done with input from local stakeholders; this local knowledge and skill base is the biggest asset a Sustainable Aid Worker has. 


By working with what is already locally available, resources can be re-organized into design solutions that can be easily adopted, adapted, and evolved by communities.

Similarly, knowledge can be more easily transferred and new skills more readily developed if they are culturally appropriate.

GOBI HASHA,
TAKEN FROM TOP OF PASSIVE SOLAR GREENHOUSE

Communities take ownership in ideas they have come up with for themselves, and teaching concepts rather than lecturing formulae & information will empower & encourage individual thought experimentation within a sustainable design framework, supporting forward movement and problem-solving without the need for constant supervision & trouble-shooting.

A positive feedback loop is created, and learning curves accelerated because students now have a holistic design framework in which to observe, ask the right questions, then filter and organize information through this base foundation.

Risk is managed through careful thought, and informed, small-scale implementation in experimental plots. Mistakes are confined to these smaller areas [rather than risking an entire crop], and become stepping stones to learning:

1. What worked?
2. Why did this work?
3. What didn’t work?
4. Why didn’t this work?
5. How can we improve?

When designing a course for a new culture, or as in this context, for a different community within a culture, this process of:

• Constant gathering of information
• Evaluating what can be done with available resources
• Strategizing potential uses [through observation and asking questions of locals]
• Designing appropriate solutions
• Small-scale experimentation [also through observation and asking questions of locals] before implementation

...allows the Permaculturist to create a course customized to the available teaching timeframe, and the most immediate needs of the students.

DORNOGOBI'S INAUGURAL PDC CLASS

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Gardening in the Gobi Desert Co-operatives’ Short Course Outline:

Day 1:
1. Breakfast Session: Introduction, Housekeeping, Principles [Multi-function]
2. Morning Tea Session: Ethics, Observation Walk
3. Lunch Session: Principles [Energy-efficient Planning]
4. Afternoon Tea Session: Integrated Pest Management

Day 2:
1. Breakfast Session: Principles [Small-scale Intensive], Soil – Kat, Rick
2. Morning Tea Session: Maximizing Vegetable Crop Production –Rick
3. Lunch Session: Compost Prac - Rick
4. Afternoon Tea Session: Resource Inventory - Matt

Day 3:
1. Breakfast Session: Bees & Worms - Kat
2. Morning Tea Session: Chickens - Rick
3. Lunch Session: Micro-climates and Greenhouse Design - Rick
4. Afternoon Tea Session: Water & Trees - Rick

Day 4:
1. Breakfast Session: Water, A-Frame Prac - Rick
2. Morning Tea Session: Seed-Saving - Kat
3. Lunch Session: Food Culture - Kat
4. Afternoon Tea Session: Vision Plan - Rick

CHILDREN OF THE GOBI:
THE REAL RESON WE ARE HERE.

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 28 – Tosontsengel PDC, Day XIV – Graduation and Act Night

DORGA SINGS A TRADITIONAL MONGOLIAN FOLK SONG AND THE CROWD JOINS IN;
THEY DID THIS FOR ALL OF THE SONGS

It is a tradition on Rick’s PDC Courses to have an ‘Act Night’ and celebration at the conclusion of Final Design Presentation day. Rick typically underwhelms anyone who has been to one of these events with his repitoire of infamous acts that he draws from: The Snowman Joke, Juggling Without Balls, and of course Monty Pythons’ Cheese Shop Skit to name a few.

Last night he took his acting repitoire to a whole new level.

The night had been progressing well, with my 10-year old fishing buddy Tetch [aka ‘ChoJo’ to the rest of the group] proudly performing MC duties and calling up embaressed classmates at random. Each student would then launch consistently into a haunting, melodic rendition of a Mongolian folk song that the entire class would soon harmonize into… goosebumps during each song.

Then, Bek silently disappears to prepare for his part in Rick’s skit and I am at least able to prepare myself for the shenenigans that are about to ensue.

An announcement is made from the back of the tent, WWF style but in Mongolian, the rough translation: “Ladies and Gentleman, Welcome… to the maaaaaaaaiiiiiin event! …tonight’s championship wrestling bout features the Thunder from Down Under: RICK COOOOOOLEMAAAAAAAAANNNNNN…!!!”

Enter Rick, shirt pulled over his head so that belly and chest are exposed, jocks on snugly and of course blundstone wrestling boots, flying around the room like a madman in his best impersonation of a champion Mongolian Wrestler – albeit a short, round, white one…

Bek continues his announcing: “…and the challenger this evening Ladies and Gentleman, all the way from Aus-tra-li-aaaaaaaa… RICK COOOOOOLEMAAAAAAAAANNNNNN…!!!”
And so begins an odd 3-minute battle between Rick vs.... well, ummm… Rick! ...circling himself and wrangling for position against his imaginary opponent [himself], before he finally vanquishes, well, ummm… himself. Epic.

The Mongolians are enjoying the show, laughing heartily at the crazy man at the front of the room, while Bek announces the next challenger: “…the Mongoooooooolian Marmot…!!!”

In flies ChoJo, racing around the room flapping his arms like a sparrow-hawk, flexing his skinny arms and playing to the crowd, who roar in delight. This match lasts another 3 minutes, with ChoJo chasing a terrified Coleman round and round the tent before pinning him heroically.

Then, Bek announces the grande [and un-scripted] finale: “…Ladies and Gentleman, this evening’s final challenger, also all the way from Aus-tra-li-aaaaaaaa… MICHELLE AAAAAAABELLLLLLLLLLL…!!!” Nobody escapes Act Night – everyone must perform – especially The Boss…

NO YOUR EYES ARE NOT DECEIVING YOU.
YUP, THAT'S RICK...

We are rolling with laughter by this stage, and when Rick finally goes down ungraciously to Michelle’s special long fingernal attack, tears of mirth are being wiped from the audience’s cheeks.

Classic. Epic. Epicly Classic. Classicly Epic.

More epic words to describe the occasion absolutely fail me at this point.

But in true premie-fashion, even this event has a multi-function purpose…

Students have just spent an intense 9-hours presenting and watching other students present, not to mention the long hours put into their teams’ design over the last few days.

It becomes vitally important to everyone that each person does well in the final design task, not only as a review mechanism for instructors, but because students really take on the challenge personally and own the results. As a result, the criticism given during feedback is always constructively framed.

The course - which takes a group of like-minded individuals searching for answers, and in two weeks creates a synergistic collection of permaculturists equipped with a framework to gather information, and fit that into sustainable designs for their farms, businesses, and communities.

Party night is a small but significant reward at the end of the intense conclusion to the PDC. It is often the last time that the group will be together under one roof, and is also an opportunity to share cultures, gifts, and fellowship with new friends and colleagues before we head back out to continue our journeys…

…and I haven’t even started telling you about how the day went!

‘Teach-the-Teacher’ is a bonus section that Rick has built onto the Mongolian PDC in conjunction with ADRA, because it is one thing for students to go back to thir projects and communities with new skills and knowledge, but it is an entirely different thing for students to go back equipped to actually teach and transfer their new skills and knowledge.

This is a challenge for most people working in Overseas Development and Aid.

To illustrate this point, perhaps it is best to quote from an article by Rick entitled ‘The Role of Permaculture in Sustianable Aid’:

“…permaculture is information and imagination intensive, thus lending itself to be followed up even from a distance, by email or internet.

If we design well enough we create spare time and energy. When communities have those, they then have the ability to move quickly. I believe in any permaculture aid project, training participants in the PDC (Permaculture Design Course) is integral.

Permaculture is not about clay ovens or water management systems [or composting toilets and greenhouse gers –ML-]. These are techniques applied to solve specific problems.

Permaculture is about design systems thinking. If we can introduce this methodology we leave behind an empowered group able to design their own solutions. Successful projects can then host new permaculture volunteers in a mutually beneficial way leading to further training and implementation.

An integrated approach tends to lead to higher uptake and therefore better success rates. …[therefore] permaculture has a major role to play on the world stage. As a design system, permaculture has so much potential to positively impact on aid and development projects around the world. Not only does it address issues of depleting soil, water and energy, but it creates empowered communities who can become more self reliant and less dependant on aid and more able to direct the aid they receive into positive capacity building projects.

In establishing successful permaculture projects around the world, we are also creating skilled designers who prove that permaculture systems work. As change is forced upon the world at an unwelcome rate, it will be crucial to have successful models on the ground.

Through implementing permaculture, aided communities of today have the potential to become the models for sustainable practices for tomorrow.”

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CLASS PHOTO! CONGRATULATIONS!!

We were treated with yet another special surprise this afternoon during the Certificate Presentations.

After all the certificates had been awarded, the co-operative members who had been sitting silently and elegantly in their colourful traditional diels at the back of th tent, filed to the front, then presented and dressed each of us in our own custom, hand-made traditional silk garment:

• An ornate, brown-and-gold diel with a bright orange sash for Rick.
• An intricate, red-and-gold top for Kat.
• An elegant, white-and-black top for me.

I love this work!

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 22 – Potato Fields and Pit Latrines

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION.
NOTICE TSURREN IN THE BACKGROUND,
WONDERING WHAT PLANET I'M FROM

Spent the afternoon working the potato fields with the women of the Co-Op.

Our mission today was to start digging an irrigation trench network to catch and use some of that rainfall which flooded the hasha on the Day 01 of the PDC.

We’ve had two more heavy downpours since then, and the co-operative has dug a trench outside the walls to protect the potato crops from being washed away. Since the roadway outside basically drains all the water off to us, we can and should catch and use this water constructively.

So, we dig a trench under the northern fence with an earth berm in the outside moat big enough to catch and divert smaller flows but small enough to let excess water pass. If we have a really heavy rainfall that is too much for our little catchment and distribution network then we can simply close the ‘tap’ by closing off the inlet trench.

OUR HANDIWORK

This inlet trench runs perpendicular to rows of potatoes, so we use it as a ‘spine’ to bring water in, and run ‘ribs’ off it at right angles into the rows of potatoes.

The adjacent crop rows run parallel to the inlet trench at the bottom of a small slope, so we dig a ‘bathtub’ here – just a deeper, bigger pool - to slow the water before distributing it again. The ‘ribs’ run of radially down the slope here, very shallow trenches to ensure the water doesn’t pick up enough velocity to be damaging.

Mongolian women are tough!

We dig through a rocky layer into the brickie-sand soil about a foot down to create our ‘bathtub’ catchment and pile the soil onto hessian bags, which are then carried two-by-two over to the potato crops and used to mound the plants. When covered with soil in this way, the plant produces more tubers where it is in contact with the soil.

Whatever I do, I must not drop one of these heavy bags of soil that they tote around with one hand...

It is a great way to connect with a people, getting your hands dirty by sweating it out in the fields side-by-side. They teach me some Mongolian words: rain [boro], potato [tummus], onion [tsongion] …and we have lively conversation about our families through signing and guessing at what the other is saying. Lots of smiling and nodding.

Oyona, whom I picked to be about 19 or 20, is actually 29 and married with 5 kids. Baska is the wife of Mogi, my friend the Watchman. Tsuuren is quiet and stone-faced, Attakka takes a mobile phone call every half hour like any other teenager, and Mama tells me that I have to think of a better nickname for her because she is far to skinny to be a mama. I can’t pronounce her name, she is my Mum’s age, and she has smiling eyes that remind me of Mum, so that IS the best I’ve come with so far…

At one point, we all stop and watch a herd of horses mosey past the hasha, and suddenly everyone is riding the steppe with the wind in our faces …then the moment passes and its back to the rhythmic digging, heaping, carrying, and mounding of the precious crops.

Meanwhile, we’ve had a major breakthrough with the class this morning… Rick and Kat have found that the students are simply parroting back examples the instructors have given during the reviews, showing a lack of understanding and independent thinking to make connections of their own.

It is not a lack of intelligence or in any way a reflection of the capacity of anyone in the room - many of the students are college educated. It is more so a symptom of a western university system which values a lecture format and formulaic teaching methodology, and perhaps some leftover quota-mindset from the Socialism era.

Case and point: at one point Rick mentions that he has no idea exactly how much vetch seeds you would need to collect in order to plant out enough to fertilize a crop field. One of the agronomists quickly pipes up with the answer, “Ten-to-twelve kilos.”But the connection between this plant’s growing requirements and functions, and actually designing use of this plant into the fields as a green manure system has not yet been made, and the highly specialized knowledge has sat filed and unused while the co-operatives continue to manually collect and haul animal manure as fertilizer for their fields and struggle to efficiently maximize production.

So an adjustment in teaching methodology is introduced, and a shift towards forcing independent thought and connections between the principles that have been laid is made.

This is done effectively by setting problems that small groups have to solve themselves using what they have learnt: parameters are set to design a greenhouse for rural and urban settings, and the 4 unique [and quite clever] designs produced at the end of the session show that the cogs are starting to turn in students’ heads.

STUDENT DESIGN:
A GREENHOUSE ON A GER!

Composting toilets turn out to be another favorite subject, not really that surprising when Rick produces a bottle of poo-coloured water, points out that the pit latrines we use each morning are 4 meters deep, the water table is 5 meters deep, and by the way who would like a sip of his bottle of poo water? …because this is what the water supply in the soums will look like if the populations continue to grow and use their current septic system.

He then presents his crazy idea for the day, a wild possibility for a multi-function sewerage system for the cold Mongolian winters – giant yellow icy-poles. Yup. He went there.

Imagine: it is so cold outside that your urine freezes almost as soon as it hits the ground. Your body shuts adjusts so that you only go once a day. You know that cartoon of an eskimo peeing ice cubes? Like that. Worse if you are a woman, and worse still when it comes to number 2s…

The Problem is the Solution, right?

So why not pee in a bucket in the greenhouse/airlock outside the ger door, then place the bucket outside so that it freezes solid? Better yet, why not put your shovel into the bucket to make a large icy-pole? Then, when the bucket fills up you can simply pop out the giant icy-pole, walk it out to your crop field, and kick it off the shovel.

Over the winter your crop field will become dotted with frozen yellow pee-pops, which will melt in the spring to fertilize your fields. It’s a lot more comfortable way to use the toilet , your waste is harnessed and converted to a valuable resource, and you have the additional multi-function of portable salt licks for the livestock!

The class gets a good laugh out of this wild scenario, which is presented in jest as a humurous way to broach a subject that we don’t even like to talk about in the deveoped world.

All kidding aside, there may be some merit in the idea, which was just thrown out there to open the door to conversation, thought, and discussion about better ways to deal with human waste in rural and urban contexts.

Kat walks the class through her ‘Bucket’ composting toilet system in Melbourne, outlining why she has chosen specific design elements and highlighting the safeguards in place to ensure safe treatment of potential toxins and pathogens. Rick then walks everyone through an above-ground rotational system that could suited to the soums, and possibly adapted for use in and around Ulanbaataar.

Nothing like some good old Aussie toilet humour to loosen things up [excuse the pun – I am clearly spending too much time with Rick…]. …and judging from the questions and enthusiastic discussion during and after this session, this light-hearted approach to teaching this subject worked very well.

RICK'S SPECIAL ICY POLES...

A DEFINITE IMPROVEMENT OVER THE EXISTING PIT LATRINES.

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 20 - 1st Design Presentations, Fishing, and A Feast For Kings

STUDENTS LEARN HOW TO USE AN A-FRAME TO FIND LEVEL

Using A-Frames to Find Level and Wicking Garden Beds on the prac list today.

Students were given their first design tasks yesterday and will be presenting this evening so that the Instructors can gague where everyone is at: what areas need more attention, which lessons/principles/tools have been understood best and worst, how people are working together, and which individual students need more attention in any areas.

Ater the pracs I spent much of the day in the outdoors kitchen, working with the cook to prepare some salad and tracking down ingredients to make a socially responsible cake. More on this later as I think it deserves an entire post to explore on its own, The Dilema of Chocolate Cake in Developing Countries.

FEAST FOR A KING

The very talented Michael [our principle translator] invited me to witness the traditional Mongolian livestock slaughtering technique ...HARDCORE.

The sheep is brought into one of the abandoned buildings to face his executioner. Michael takes of his shirt as he sharpens his knife: "Very Important," he says [the knife, not the shirt!].

Gunrick holds the animals back legs while Michael pins him with his leg as he crouches over its exposed belly, makes a small surgical cut just below the ribcage, then reaches into the live animal's organ cavity elbow-deep to sever its artery with his finger. The sheep kicks a few times and organs bulge out of the incision, pulsing with their last throbs as the life fades from its eyes.

Death comes quickly, and the Mongolians deftly push the guts back into the animal and begin skinning the warm carcass. It is a grisly thing to watch, very clean and efficient. No blood.

The animal bleeds to death internally, and the blood will congeal inside to be scooped out later for the broth and sausages. The organs are highly nutritious, highly prized and will all go into the broth for later.

The next part we had not seen before: the stomach and intestines are cleaned out, and the head and hooves scorched of their hair and scraped clean. The entrails are stuffed with the congealed blood, the stomach turned inside out and stuffed with the head and hooves of the sheep.

The fatty tail pad is scooped out, filled with meat, and sewn shut to be boiled next to the stuffed tripe for at least two hours: it is this part that was considered to be Chinggis' favorite meal ...a feast for kings.

I witness and participate in most of the preparation all day, and am picked up at around 6pm by 13-year old 'Gunner' and his little brother 'Huong', and their buddy 'Tetch' [that is the best I can do to pronounce their names!] while the students present their first design tasks to Rick and Kat.

FISHING BUDDIES, FROM L TO R:
'TETCH' AKA 'CHOJO', 'GUNNER' AND 'HUONG'

Gunner stopped by the hasha with about a dozen Mongolian Trout, which we butterfly filleted and salted this afternoon before heading to the river. Tomorrow we will fry them to a crisp and add some garlic and vinegar, Filipino-style. Fish and rice are now on the menu! I have enlisted Tetch help me with my Microfinance class on PDC Day 10 - hopefully he can design a logo for the Co-Operative by then...

It is about a 1 km walk to the river, and Gunner's halting English is good enough for us to have a pretty good conversation all the way there and back. He studies music and dance, likes basketball, soccer and volleyball, and has a very large family living in the ger encampment by the river in the distance.

I am determined to see one of the monster fish that lurk in the depths of Mongolian waterways, but as soon as I start signing that I want to hook the first fingerling he catches, Gunner puts his hands to his throat and signals that going for one of the big fish will mean certain death

So, me and my new fishing buddies stand at the river banks casting handlines hooked with grasshoppers into the current, and manage to pull out one pan-sized trout, and two small fries that the small fries wanted to bag.

We walk back to the hasha as the sun sets behind the hills and I play a little tune on the harmonica Rick has leant me for the trip. I'm not much of a player, but it is fun to walk home Huck-Finn-style from the river, and all of a sudden I am 9 years old again without a care in the world in the middle of Mongolia.

I arrive at the feast late and Rick is not impressed. Rightly so, as Michael has spent the entire day preparing a traditional feast reserved for royalty, and I waltz in with a few small fish on my back just as everyone is finishing up their meals.

We have been invited into their tribe, an extra-special effort is made to welcome us, and one of the guests of honor skips out on the feast. Not the right message to send to the group.

I will have a heart-to-heart with Michael tomorrow, and pay closer attention going forward... but geez it was fun today!

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 17 - Mulch, Compost Tea, and BBQ Liver

THE ART OF MULCH

So nice to wake up this morning to find carrot plots freshly mulched with grass and weed clippings in the compound where bare earth baked in the sun yesterday. The knowledge being shared is already being transferred and replicated.

One minor adjustments needed to be made: southernwood species were slashed and dropped onto the growbeds for use as mulch, but aromatic plants may have oils and other compounds that could act as growth inhibitors for the seedlings underneath. Better to dry out the weeds for a couple days before using as mulch in order to allow these compounds to evaporate, and to ensure the weeds die and so do not take root and compete with their vegetable crop.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Soils, Green Manures, Vegetable Crops, and Needs/Functions/Products Analysis taught today, students are finishing up their last session outside the tent, opting for the shade of one the abandoned buildings. After the hailstorm two days ago, the heat of the relentless sun is unbearable inside the tent.

Made friends with the kitchen today with a packet of 'Choco-Pies', 1,500MNT well-spent in town today. I’m a quick learner:

THE COOK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.
-Rick’s first lesson of working in Overseas Aid-

Class is progressing well, lots of interaction and discussion and connections being made. Personalities emerging through language barriers as we spend more time and get to know the students better.

Compost Tea prac taught by Kat this afternoon to get everyone moving and the blood flowing …there is now a small washbasin full of nutritious and delicious compost tea near the dining room entrance for everyone to turn and flow to keep the microbiology lovefest well oxygenated so that they multiply over the next 48 hours.

MANY DEFT HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK;
EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE HEAD AND HOOVES IS EATEN

Just finished dinner, home made noodles with meat again of course, but the highlight of the day …invited out to watch the men butcher a sheep.

Bek and Michael stole away with the liver, which they wrapped with the fatty lining of the offal cavity, stuffed in a wild green onion shoot, pinned with a piece of kindling, and put directly onto the fire coals.

Best dish I have eaten in Mongolia so far – the charred fat crisped up while the liver cooked through just enough to be safe – think succulent foie gras wrapped in crispy smoked bacon and you get the idea.

Yum.

YUM! DID I SAY THAT ALREADY?

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 16 - Ethics and Compost

PDC NOTES IN CRYLLIC ALPHABET

 Students had an impassioned discussion today about Permaculture Ethics, Mongolian Culture, and Government Law this morning in Kat’s first class. Errka, the skinny smiling woman who was out host out in Tudvetey summed things up beautifully… [to paraphrase]:

“The Law sets out rules for what is right and wrong so that we can live together as a community. Our Culture guides us through all the nuances and grey areas that the Law cannot cover.”

It warms my heart to observe how readily Permaculture Ethics was accepted by the group.

Ever heard the saying:

‘Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink…’?

Well, the Mongolian version of that is:

‘Horseshit, horseshit everywhere, and not a drop to spare.’

Most of the dung here is left to dry and collected as fuel to burn through the cold winters. What is left behind provides just enough nutrient in the sandy soils for the pastures to support the grazing herds of livestock - a crucial part of the delicate balance between herders, their animals, and the Steppe.

At first glance, it would appear to be a permie’s utopia, a buffet of rich manures laid out on the grassy plains for us to collect, compost, and grow crops with.

Look a little deeper though, and we realize that we must take one step back in order to move forward:

1. Before we can start to harvest dung as a fertillizer, we need to replace this fuel with another fuel source. A bumper potato crop will not keep your family warm over the winter.
2. Pit latrines dug just above the water table in urban and rural settlements risk contaminating drinking water, and wastes a valuable resource that could be composted and used to safely fertilize timber and fruit tree crops.
3. If soum communities started to harvest the manures lying in the fields then the pastures will be unable to support current levels of livestock, which are already at the land’s capacity.
4. Community grazing strategies will be needed in order to properly manage pasture to allow it to recover and regenerate, so that over time soil fertility and resilience is built up, increasing the land’s ability to hold grazing animals.

So we must be careful in how this precious resource is allocated and used…

STUDENTS BUILD A COMPOST HEAP

 ...Compost prac today was fun, we used dried weeds, sawdust from the firewood pile, freshly cut green weeds, and of course manure from our poo buffet conveniently stored in one of the abandoned concrete buildings on the compound.

Interesting to note how quickly the Co-Operative Leaders jumped in to grab tools and start shovelling shit, while the Aid Agency Staff tended to hang back, take photos and write notes.

When we go back to de-brief, the Agronomists in the group get hung on calculations and formulae for converting 25:1 carbon:nitrogen ratios into weight quantities, and almost lose the lesson. Rick ends up jumping in front of the whiteboard: FORGET THE FORMULA JUST USE YOUR EYES AND HANDS TO FEEL WHAT THE COMPOST HEAP IS TELLING YOU!!!

• Too hot, too much nitrogen. Add more carbon materials like the sawdust and dried weeds.
• Too cold, not enough nitrogen. Add more nitrogen-rich materials like manure and green weeds. Better yet, pee on the compost stack to help activate it.

Today’s lesson was a great illustration of INFORMATION vs. CONCEPT.

Information without understanding will overload and paralyze you.

Understanding a concept allows you to process, filter and organize information in a way that empowers you to make an informed decision and act upon it.

It is the difference between

• TEACHING vs. TELLING
• EMPOWERING vs. ENABLING
• KNOWING vs. UNDERSTANDING

Small shift in emphasis, massive shift in result.