Visiting Damanhur - an ecovillage in North Italy

First Day, First Impressions

It seems a bit surrealistic feel the heat boiling my body while in between the curves of the road reveals here and there amazing views of the mountains with some tops still with snow.

There is an unspoken expectation of places that presents themselves to be more spiritual: kindness, friendly services, compassion, accessibility on alternative ways to deal with material matters, etc… At least a smile.

Well, the arrival……

It started at the road when a Damanhur’s resident car stopped carelessly in one the blind spots of the curves, then on the entrance someone came out of the Welcome Center shouting…. So, I decide to take a nice deep breath and in my search of seeing things beyond, my eyes came across to some plants dying in a sunny balcony – with no second thoughts; I promptly start to water the plants until someone tells me: NO NO NO, water only in the afternoon!!!

Hmmm…. Deep inside I work through my critical mind questioning what sort of ecovillage is this one that says to develop music with plants, new generation tools and healing techniques healing, temples of Humanity, etc and etc and the plants at the entrance are almost dead!

A quotation says that we never should trust a doctor whose has dead plants!

Anyway, it must have several reasons why Damanhur has been well succeed its more than 35 years and I am here to have a feeling of it. I must be open, not judge from appearances, respect, accept and allow the flow of my experience.

Trust the process.

Give entirely to the experience.

Open heart. Open mind. Open channels.

It is siesta time is up and I am a sort of person that respect local culture.

So, from 12:30 till 3:30pm I must relax, enjoy a complete meal and then a rest.

a place to be

Cerrado´s Institute of Permaculture

E Book: 'Sustainable Communities: Lessons from Aspiring Eco-Villages'

I haven´t read this book, but sounds good and I found very interesting have it available as an e-book.

This is the ebook version of 'Sustainable Communities: Lessons from Aspiring Eco-Villages' by Malcolm Hollick and Christine Connolly.

The book first introduces eco-village concepts and then describes eleven eco-villages and communities in Australia, the USA and Europe. Seven of these are members of the Global Eco-village Network and/or the Eco-village Network of the Americas.

An integrated view of each community is given which includes details of their beliefs and values; legal, financial, social and economic structures; technological systems, and interactions with the outside world.

In the second part of the book, eight key issues arising from this study are discussed in depth:

Building the legal foundations
Finding the money
Community sharing versus individual responsibility
Creating a caring, sharing community
Making decisions and managing conflicts
Making a living
Land selection and community design
Technologies
The book contains a careful discussion of what makes a community an eco-village, and an imaginative glimpse of a sustainable future based on eco-village communities.

PS. I have no connections with the author or the business.
I just found interesting the theme and teh availability!

Alto Paraiso/ Goiás

What can someone expect from a place called High Paradise?

ALTO PARAISO is amazing beautiful and it is located around 3hours from Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.

........more to come SOON!

Northeast Brazil

CEARÁ - Fortaleza..........

January isn´t the best time of the year to get work done in Brazil.
It is a tropical country and this time of the year, the best to do is enjoy the most of the beach and time with friends.

Therefore, I am heading off to the Northeast and so far I only heard of a permaculture´s group in Fortaleza - Ceará´s capital.

www.redepermanece.com

If you know any sustainable hints from the Northeast, I will be grateful.

Eggs of Happiness make me HAPPY!

Today I am so happy! I found some organic eggs in Sao Paulo! (believe me, still not that easy to find them around here!)

And the eggs were called EGGS OF HAPPINESS from this community that I went years ago; called Yamaguishi in Jaguariúna/ Sao Paulo.

By the time, I did a retreat called Tokkou that really touched me and still makes me happy when I think of it. For me, their way of common unity is really essential: see each other as brother/sister, that WE ARE ALL ONE; coming from the same source.

You can say that is easy to say and hard to do...then you should make a way to visit them or be part of one of the tokkou.... after that you might say that is hard to say, but easy to do!

At my visit to the Vila Yamaguishi, I was very impressed by their hight level of loving, sharing and the high level of sustainability! It gave me heaps of hope!!

To find out more about this movement started by a Japanese much before Climate Change and Peak Oil go to www.yamiguishi.com.br

And i found the eggs and others good priced healthy food at Marukai, a charming family well organized supermaket at Rua Galvão Bueno, 34. Liberdade - the Asian suburb in Sao Paulo, by the subway...

NAZARÉ PAULISTA/ SAO PAULO/ BRAZIL

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And again my promisse that I will be more regular to feed this blog!
Here we go.......

I just spent few days in Sao Paulo hinterland visiting a very special place called NAZARE PAULISTA.

Nazaré is around 70km away from Sao Paulo capital. You can just get a bus at the Tietê Bus Station and organize someone to pick you up to get to there or you can try an adventure: moto taxi!

Nazaré Uniluz (University of Light) is not exactly a community, but I do believe that is a place that everyone would learn some skills to live, in an intentional community or not.

Nazaré Uniluz is a place to awake and develop ourselves in a more holistic way.
The principles of their work; since it has been create in the 80´s ; are: the art of given heart, meditation and the spirit of presence in daily activities.

They have a beautiful veggie garden by the water, a bakery, a library and plenty of space for arts, meditation and social interaction.

It seems to me a beautiful opportunity to spend some time.
Good food, good people and a private room!

Check their website: http://www.uniluz.org.br/

PS. And you can come along to volunteer too!!! :)