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A Practical Example of How Attitudes Can Be Leverage or Obstacles in Critical Project Development Work

Editor’s Note: It’s a trend we’re increasingly seeing with permaculture unfortunately — that of the rise of permaculture perfectionists. Many readers have noticed this in comments on this and other permaculture sites, where people are quick to judge and criticise, feeling superior in their own problem-discovering skills, instead of taking pride in helping fledgling projects move forward, by way of encouragement and nurturing. I applaud Alex here for his dogged determination through blood, sweat and tears to keep building his much-needed permaculture demonstration site in one of the most needy parts of the world. I think we can all learn some lessons in humility here, and how to be appropriately constructive. For those who want to support Alex’s project in a more tangible way, consider attending Strawberry Field’s next PDC, starting October 17, 2011.

We ran a Training of Trainers course with Steve Cran at Strawberry Fields here in Ethiopia [editor’s note – read much more about Strawberry Fields via Alex’s author profile] in July, 2011. The course was not a great hit with many members of the group because they were unhappy with the living conditions at the lodge. Others felt it was over-priced. There was an outbreak of Typhoid amongst the group during the course and that put a big downer on things. Although, all agreed the training was top quality and we all learned a huge amount from the course.

It is true that it didn’t run perfectly for various reasons which I am going to give a detailed account of, from our perspective, over the next couple of weeks, along with more background on the history of the project, how we have got to where we are today, what we are doing now, and perhaps most importantly what we are planning to do in the future.

However, I would first like with this post to address some of the very public criticisms that one participant on that course has been making both on this website and other internet platforms as an apparent act of revenge for us in some way trespassing against her. Alison’s message on the latter site is as follows:

I stayed at SFEL in July 2011 for a Permaculture Design Course. The teacher was great, and we learned a lot of great practices on Permaculture. Unfortunately, our experience at SFEL was not as positive. One member in our class fell sick with Typhus from the lice/fleas in her bed, and the Management did not offer to change her bed sheets; did not offer to fumigate her room; did not offer to put her mattress outside in the sun; did not offer to shift her to another room. Nothing!

Then, seven other members in our class fell sick with Typhoid. It seems that some kitchen staff had been diagnosed with Typhoid, but were still working in the kitchen and serving food. Typhoid is highly contagious, and anyone diagnosed with Typhoid should be forbidden from cooking or serving food. Likewise, the staff latrine should be quarantined, especially when it is close to the kitchen and dining area, as it is at Strawberry Fields, but this was not done.

So, if you decide to stay at Strawberry Fields, make sure you go with your eyes open – public health and sanitation are not well observed. Make sure you have your immunizations, and come with a full round of broad spectrum antibiotics to treat whatever intestinal disorder may attack you.

Otherwise, it’s a nice place with good, fresh food”

Our response to Allison’s post is as follows:

Alison,

Nice to see that you are highlighting these issues here as you have been in other places. However I feel that your portrayal of the situation is A) one-sided and completely unfair and B) out of line with Permaculture principals.

In Permaculture we believe in turning problems into solutions. You have highlighted these problems for us. However you don’t seem to be interested in a solution. In fact it seems more like you would prefer to see our business destroyed and our objective of training and implementing Permaculture in Ethiopia fail. I think that is callous and destructive and not how Christians were supposed to behave. You also declined to accept the refund we offered you since you were so dissatisfied with our living conditions. But have chosen instead a course of trying to rubbish our name on the internet with your exaggerated and inaccurate portrayal of the situation.

To address your portrayal of the situation:

– None of our kitchen staff were ever diagnosed with typhoid. That is a flat lie. Our receptionist was sick with typhoid the week before the course. As soon as we discovered that we stopped him serving food immediately. We should note that one of the other course participants was also sick with typhoid the week before the course before he had ever been near Strawberry Fields. There is no reason why he could not have been the source of contamination as he was interacting with the other participants more than any of our staff. That also demonstrates the fact that a) typhoid is common in south Ethiopia and b) anybody coming to the area should be vaccinated and should bring antibiotics with them (ciprofloxacin) in case they pick it up. We agree with you on that perfectly. We told you and all the other participants in our information sheet before you came to Ethiopia that you should have all necessary vaccinations and bring a medical kit.

– Regarding Stephanie, the girl that was diagnosed with typhus. When i heard she was sick I immediately offered to take her to the clinic. She refused. The course of action that you suggest I should have taken – fumigating her room etc. – was not suggested as we didn’t know what she was sick with. She never suggested to us that she had been bitten by bed bugs or flees as you are inferring, so how would we conclude that her room needed to be fumigated? In fact we deliberately didn’t ask her to move out of her room when we had a large group of tourists come, because she was sick. When she didn’t recover after taking some remedies of her own we took her to the clinic and paid for her treatment. She could equally have picked up typhus by playing with the cat.

– Stephanie was not the only student who got sick to refuse medical treatment. In fact Steve, the course trainer also refused treatment, and encouraged the students to do the same. I think it’s fair that if we are responsible for the general health of the class then the students should cooperate in getting treatment with the right diagnosis and the right medicine immediately so they don’t spread their infections to the rest of the class. This didn’t happen.

– The students were also going to town to drink local brew in the meat houses where the locals eat raw-meat. We discouraged this but that was looked upon as though we were spoil-sports. These places are rife with typhoid as all the patrons are drunk, have dirty hands and eat raw meat with the same dirty hands and drink local brew from glasses which aren’t washed properly. The students seem to me more likely to have picked up typhoid here than at Strawberry Fields.

You can put all of the blame on us if you like. I am not saying we have not got to improve our sanitation, we do and we are doing, but I feel that these points balance your story.

Now to focus on solutions – solutions are what Permaculture is all about – the rest of your class made a series of constructive recommendations on how to improve hygiene, sanitation, accommodation and working conditions at SFEL, and we have been making use of the proceeds from the course to implement these changes, and are working on them right now. (Thanks for not accepting the refund as that has really helped us in this regard.) And you can follow our progress on our facebook page.

Our approach to the issue of development has been to build up from the bottom. We accepted to live a local standard of living so that we can improve that standard in a way that is meaningful to the local community: IE If we can do it, they can too. And that is what we are doing. Steve has really taught us a lot on how to move forwards in that regard and the other students, especially Goose and Stephanie gave us a lot of helpful advice on how to improve things both in terms of infrastructure and operationally.

Accordingly we have outlined the following schedule of tasks and are working through them (you can follow our progress on the face-book page.

Room refurbishments

– Dousing the grass roofs with diesel on the interior to repel insects. The smell dissipates after a day or two but the effect lasts for months. STATUS: done

– Re-rendering walls to seal all gaps and craters that may house insects and painting inside and out with gypsum which also repels insects. STATUS: Nearly done.

– Replacing the wooden beds with mud-brick platforms filled with sand and rendered over and painted with gypsum. STATUS: Done on 2 of 11 rooms, in progress.

– We have installed a new solar system to give light in rooms 1 to 5 and are now purchasing an inverter so there will be 240V sockets in the rooms as-well. STATUS: Part complete, part planned.

New Kitchen

– Building a new range with chimney so that smoke does not affect the health of the kitchen staff STATUS: Done


Get running water into the kitchen with a convenient hand so that staff can wash hands more conveniently. STATUS: In progress – pipes are now in place and we have attached temporary fittings. The sinks can be fitted once the walls are rendered.

– Build a facility for heating water for the kichen using exhaust heat from the range. STATUS: Planned and materials prepared, can proceed once other jobs are done.

– Fit doors and windows and render the walls of the new kitchen. STATUS: In progress, nearly complete.

– Build new furniture for the kitchen; work surfaces etc. STATUS: Planned and materials prepared.

Toilets and Sanitation

– We have a new compost toilet design that was suggested by Glen “Goose” McGrath who took the course and is a professional compost toilet builder. We have purchased the materials to build this design and will use the prototype for our new staff toilet at a new location more remote from the kitchen, behind our tree nursery. The other guest toilets are all functioning perfectly adequately, we have dug new pits and the design works fine as long as the operational procedure is followed and they are cleaned regularly, which they are. The problem with the staff toilet comes from the difficulty the staff have in grasping the concept of how it works, which stems from poor education and a general complete lack of toilet discipline in Ethiopia generally. STATUS: Planned and materials ready.

– Stephanie and Sam, two on the course participants ran a sanitation workshop for our staff before they left. They demonstrated using vinegar as a natural disinfectant and recommended we use different colour coded buckets and cloths for washing the toilets, showers, rooms and the kitchen. We have now bought these materials the cleaners are implementing their system effectively. We have also hired a second cleaner. STATUS: Working.

Staff and Management

– We have hired a new receptionist and a new lodge manager for the high season. They are both proficient in English, well educated and have experience working in the service industry.

– We have hired a new cook, Mirco, from Italy. He has revolutionised the management of the kitchen to make the cooking much less work-intensive. This has taken a lot of work-burden off Semira, my wife, so she is also happier and more effective.

– We have written a new operational code on the advice of Stephanie, and begun a program of weekly staff meetings with rewards for good performance to encourage better staff motivation and a spirit of teamwork. This is paying great dividends on staff moral.

Over all I feel, Alison, that we have taken on board your concerns, and those of the other students on the course who got sick. We are not claiming that everything was perfect. That is why we offered you a refund. You didn’t acknowledge that but preferred instead to go on a crusade to destroy our name. We however will turn this problem into a positive solution and an opportunity for progress. This is a chance the build on the course outcomes, the ideas and advice of the participants who encountered the same or worse problems than you did but had something positive to offer in response. It is clear that some people will obviously never be satisfied with the general standard of living in Ethiopia any way. We have adapted to those conditions and are now building up from that base of the local life-style. It is sometimes a shock for westerners coming into these conditions to be faced with them. That is why people coming should take all due precautions. Still I think that what we are doing is a far better way to approach development for communities than building western-style compounds with all the modern mod cons that you have been demanding while the locals around you live as a different species. And I think we deserve a chance to keep moving forwards without being slagged-off slandered like this.

What is really important to us is that our project has grown and will continue to grow by the input of the various different volunteers, guests and course participants that come to put their energy, ideas and skills into the place to build a real working example of Permaculture in the heart of food-insecure south Ethiopia. That is not just for us either but also for the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project which we have established in ten primary schools around Konso over the last 3 years. I can’t see what you hope to achieve by destroying our reputation here.

Apart from Alison’s destructive criticisms we also received various constructive criticisms as well as recommendations on how to improve the project for the future from almost all the participants in the group. What I want to show now is that we have taken all this on board and are acting accordingly. We have nothing to hide. We are not ashamed of what we are as a project. We have come from far more humble conditions than those encountered in July 2011 and I am sure by, the will of The One who writes the tale of all our destinies, we shall advance on to a much better stage than the one we are at now. As this was the most high profile course we have ever run, it follows that it was a big test for us, and, they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This is especially true in Permaculture because we believe in turning problems into solutions. We have learned a huge amount from Steve on all of this and we are now implementing this knowledge, building on it and are ready to pass it on through practice.

The group outlined the current problems with our project and the suggested the following solutions too. I have also given a response to the recommendations and an outline of our progress so far:

There is a lack of effective access to hand washing facilities and showers for the staff and for the guests around the toilets.

Our plumbing system needs to be worked on. Part of the problem is that our composting toilet design is a moveable house that sits over a pit. Ash and straw are put on top on the “humanure” as it is used. If used properly the ash will repel flies and stop the smell, while the straw raises the C:N ratio and aerates the mix, also countering the smell. When the pit fills up it is covered over with soil and a new pit dug. The house is lifted up and placed over the new pit and a tree, usually a banana or a papaya, planted over the old one. Currently we use jerry-cans which have a tap on them and are filled by a jug by the cleaners each day. These often get empty and there is no water to wash hands after using the toilet.

Glenn “Goose” McGrath and Stephanie Douglass suggested a new design of composting toilet that would be fixed in one place with a removable receptacle (usually a wheely bin in the west, but probably a half oil drum with handles welded on the sides so it can be carried by two people will be used here) which is emptied periodically to a central composting point. That point can be far away from the domestic part of the project so it is not a sanitation issue for the guests. This will save labour because carrying the shit over there is a lot less work than digging a new grave for the next month’s batch of turds. It will also mean the toilets are fixed in one place so we can plumb in sinks next to them. It’s just a question of laying the pipes and fixing the fittings.

We will begin this project as soon as possible. We have not done so yet because we have been focussed on the kitchen at this stage. We have plumbed in running water to the kitchen and juggled our water tanks so that we have a 1000l header tank supplying the kitchen, the staff shower and the drip irrigation on the zone 1 garden. It’s not much capacity for all that but for now these are the biggest tanks we have access to. We have built a new range in the kitchen and have a plan to heat a small water tank using exhaust heat from the range. This is a work in progress at the moment and all the materials are ready.

For the moment however, Stephanie and Samantha Bruinwoud, another green warrior, ran a sanitation workshop for our staff during the course and left a series of recommendations for us on how to improve the sanitation to avoid the spread of infectious illnesses in the future: using vinegar as a disinfectant and having separate buckets for cleaning in the different parts of the lodge – for toilets, showers, kitchen and bedrooms with colour coded cloths. We have bought the materials they recommended and have begun implementing the system of cleaning they showed us.

As for staff showers, there were problems with staff abusing the showers in the past so it was ordered they would be regulated. Our manager seems to have taken this to the extreme and banned all staff from showering, which is ridiculous. We have now made it a point in our operational regulations that all staff shall take 3 showers per week of 15 minutes length.

The kitchen is inadequate in size, covered in soot and lacks proper food storage facilities, or a decent cooker with chimney to remove smoke and use fuel effectively.

We had already been building a new kitchen before the course. During the course Steve showed us how to build a new range in the new kitchen building using mud bricks and render. We have grasped this fantastic technique and subsequently modified and improved the design of that range to improve efficiency, add an oven/warming box and include more burners. You can see all this on our facebook page. We will subsequently install convenient hand washing and dish facilities with hot water heated by the exhaust from that range. We have a plan for this and have the materials ready.

We are now finishing off the walls of the new kitchen. Once the walls are complete the furniture will be built by our regular carpenter on contract and have made sure to include adequate screened food storage in the design, to prevent vermin from getting access to stored food. We have actually removed the long term food store from its previous location to become a sub-section of the kitchen so that food is no longer stored in the same room as farming and building materials, as it was previously. We are actively working on realising all these designs.

There is a lack of adequate capacity for rain-water storage and over-reliance of the project on mains water pumped from a local bore-hole, this is not good Permaculture.

This problem has been difficult to deal with for us for a long time due to financial and logistical constraints. We have dug 4 large dams on the site, one in gulley 2, one in gulley 3 and two on the main gulley (for site layout of gulleys and ridges, head here). But due to the poor quality of the base clay they do not hold water and have been breached during heavy rains but stand empty for most of the year. Of them all, only one holds water now. These dams were a large investment of labour, time and cash, so we have always been hesitant to invest more in them till we have a design that we are sure is going to work.

As for tanks, building or buying-in large storage tanks has always been part of our plan, but has also always been beyond our budget. Big cement tanks are not cheap or easy to build. There was no point in doing a botch job when we didn’t know what we were up to. Neither are plastic tanks cheap either. A 10,000 litre plastic tank in Ethiopia costs about US$1200 which is a huge outlay on our part and then there are the logistics of getting the tank from Addis to Konso, which means more cost.

Steve has shown us a new way to build tank-cisterns using earth-bags and render. Using this technique we can get about 4000L of storage for around $400. We built one of these tanks during Steve’s course at Gocha Primary School, with the green warriors (participants) and the school community. The tank was initially not holding water. We have made several follow up visits to Gocha since, during which, Fayisa, our mason, added another layer of render to the tank. The good news is that the tank now holds water and has filled up twice in the last month. The community used the water to mix mud for re-rendering their classrooms, which anybody who has seen the school will know was much in need. The mud was bought ages ago and had just sat there for a long time due to lack of adequate water. The project has already given the school a boost. Well done to all players involved on that one, we have really achieved something. From now on we hope they use the water for their garden though. (As usual you can follow our progress on our face-book page).

We have enough materials now on our site to do one tank like this at Strawberry Fields which would have a capacity of 4000 litre. I have also been considering modifying the design to use black plastic lining on the bottom so it can be wider without increasing the cement usage, as cement is the major cost, which would increase the capacity in proportion to the costs. The likely location for the first earth-bag cistern will be on the highest point on Ridge 3, which is the second highest point on the site, so can gravity feed to all areas, but can still catch water from the roof of the staff accommodation which has an area of 60m2. This will allow us to easily install a new staff shower right next to the staff accommodation too. We can limit usage by not connecting the shower to the cistern directly, but by having a separate shower tank that must be filled by a bucket from the cistern, so one shower is 20L – 1 jerry-can. That means the tank can hold 2000 showers. We will report back on this on our facebook page, as and when we do it.

The rooms need re-furbishing so they are less attractive to insects (and hence associated predators) and easier to clean. They also need working lights installed. This will make guests more comfortable and make them stay longer.

We have already embarked on our program of room re-furbishing and No 1 is already complete, with rooms 4 to 5 nearly ready to open for guests as well. We have removed the wooden beds and put in mud-brick platforms which are rendered with Steve’s magic formula render and painted over with gypsum. Externally and internally we are re-rendering the walls and painting on a slurry of cement-gypsum over the render as the students did on the class-room building during Steve’s course. The stone buttressing on the outside is getting re-painted to fill all the gaps in too. Fayisa, our mason, has been inspired by his participation on the course and is going at the work with a vengeance.

Internally, the roofs are getting a dousing down with diesel before all this work starts – not very PC but then that is the most effective way we can think of for getting rid of the bugs for the long term – and then when we finish them we are covering the insides of the roofs with local material. We are also making new blankets and curtains from local materials. We have purchased the materials for this as well as a full set of new sheets so that we can change sheets more easily – i.e. the cleaner no longer has to remove, wash, dry and replace the same sheets in a single day as she did before. We have also given the cleaner a pay rise and hired an assistant for her. They are both doing fantastic. You can follow our progress on all this on our facebook page!

We already had lighting installed in rooms 1 to 5 before the course (this was done by Padraig Kavanagh from Ireland – one of the most active and industrious volunteers we ever had, in March. We only wish his father had not got sick, so he could have stayed with us for longer… the guy was a hero…). These were originally powered by a windmill that Padraig also installed. Unfortunately it lost a limb in a storm which we have never been able to locate. Accordingly, during the course we brought a technician (Abdu, from Arbaminch) who installed a new solar system to power that lighting system during the course.

Unfortunately the capacity of the battery needed on a solar system is bigger, as the sun never shines at night which is when the light is used, while wind tends to be 24h. Hence the capacity of the battery that Padraig installed was not adequate for the solar system. We have now bought a bigger battery. We have got light in the rooms!

There is a lack of animal-systems incorporated into the design. The group recommended rabbits, chickens and milking goats. The local manures will increase productivity. A duck fertilizer tank system would work well.

Ducks would be great, if I can find some we’ll go for it. For the moment we are planning to do chickens. When our regular garden guy, Bahrudin, who has been on holiday, comes back we also have a plan to bring in bees, which he has experience with. This may all take a bit of time to get going. The reason we don’t have many animals now is that there is no point in having them unless they are going to be properly looked after. If we are not well prepared we would be foolish to rush in with animal systems. I got rid of our chickens because I was sick of seeing them suffering when people who were supposed to give them water and feed them, etc., didn’t show up. Unhappy chickens don’t lay any eggs either so it’s a waste of time and money as well as being immoral. We need to prepare responsible people to keep them as well as good housing etc. If we can get in some good long-term interns these are projects we can work on with them.

Make use of skilled volunteers and willing students to assist you in your rebuilding phase. Treat them with respect and pay attention to what they achieve. Post a gallery of their achievements.

This is true and we have been posting on our volunteers achievements on our facebook page for some time, though we will do so more regularly and with more detail from now on. We have now got in two new fantastic interns; Geraldine from Dublin, who has taken on managing the garden. She has been helping us implement our plans at the operational level far more effectively. She has also started giving English lessons to our staff each evening. Mirco is our new chef. He is Geraldine’s partner and is from Italy. He has re-organised the way the kitchen is managed to make it more efficient. Semira, as you will know if you been to SFEL, is a great cook, but the way she operates the kitchen is very labour intensive, and she puts most of the burden on herself. Mirco has changed all this and is training the other support staff how to work better as well. Moral in the kitchen has shot up. Mirco has really helped us and he’s only just started. The best bit is that Semira and I are able to go on holiday for a rest!

A lack of positive feedback to the staff and an unstructured management system resulting in a lack of team-work and poor moral amongst the staff.

Two key suggestions were made on this by Stephanie Douglass, who’s advice has really helped us improve the management and the staff moral. One was to write up an operational manual for the company, which clearly defines the roles, rights and responsibilities of each and every staff member, the penalties for breaking the rules, the rewards for effort and initiative, etc. We have now done this. Her second recommendation to improve motivation was to hold weekly staff meetings and hand out prizes for good work to the person who’d been doing the best that week; a sort of worker-of-the-week award.

We have many volunteers coming through and even guests, who leave donations of clothing or other items for the staff. However we should ask them to donate it not directly to the workers, but to us so that we can use it as prizes to reward good work. Last week we had our first such meeting. We unveiled our operational procedures to each department on the project, so that all staff are now clear about what they are required to do according to official company regulations. We also gave rewards to the best workers in the following departments for progress in their work: Kitchen – Sabah (got some trousers left by Stephanie), House keeping – Hirut (got a hairbrush left by Fanny, our recent volunteer from Spain), Vehicle – Gosai our new driver (got a fancy pen, also left by Fanny), Farm and Construction – Kusse (got some shorts also left by Stephanie).

I would like to give a big thanks to Stephanie for this advice as it has really improved the working atmosphere on the project for everybody, including, perhaps most of all myself and also Wessen, our manager. Steph, i will send you a copy of the operational manual, it’s really just a draft at this stage, but we will keep updating it as we go.

Last of all I would like to invite all or any of you to come and help us with our work in south Ethiopia. We are working in development on the front line here, at the local community level. We are developing a real lasting and appropriate model of Permaculture both on our own project site and in our local Permaculture in Konso Schools Project which has been established, lead and developed by Tichafa Makovere, who is also our resident Permaculture trainer and consultant.

We are not a fancy, luxury place. Our philosophy is that if you really want to tackle poverty you should be able to feel what it’s like to be poor and be able to work up from that base, which is that we have been doing. We can make great use of your skills, energy and enthusiasm, as well as the financial support that you will bring with you to help develop us and our mission out here. We offer volunteering positions as well as longer term internships and we run regular PDCs. Our next one is in October and after that will be in December. Come along and help us, we are doing it, not just talking about it. Be Mr Today, not Mr Tomorrow. ;)

12 Comments

  1. In my opinion, handwashing and health teachings must be prioritized in your area. I’m glad you are doing that already. Growing lots of moringa trees will also provide you with seeds that can clean your water will also help. Guava leaves are great antiseptics and smell great. We use it as wounds and for smoking fish so it wont spoil. The leaves are good for cleaning boils and as antiseptic wash for the newly circumcised and women who just gave birth. Get a guava twig, chew on one end, and presto! You have an instant toothbrush! Oral hygiene done. Get some over-ripe guava fruits, place them under the bed and the bedbugs will say “Adios!”. Ginger tea is good for the tummy- ask anybody from India. The herbs we call artamisa (of the wormwood family) and sambong are great, too. They grow like weeds, very prolific. I can suggest more herbs but really, team spirit, compassion, and optimism will take care of the rest. And never underestimate the power of our immune system. (I’m into herbal medicine so forgive me. It took great effort to stop writing about natural medicine.)

    There will always be things that happen which we do not expect. We can call them mistakes or we can look at them as lessons and opportunities. Personally, I’d rather learn than whine. Maybe, some people need more exposure to cultural diversity and more practice on being part of a human guild.

    Strawberry fields forever!

    1. In Mexico, we treat bedbugs like described here. Mash overripe guayava, smear all over bed posts and withing a couple of days, just as you mentioned, they say ‘Adios’!

  2. At first i found it kind of strange why you talk here about “destructive criticisms”,its Alisons experience and opinion and it fit into the permaculture principals: observe and except feedback

    but yeah it sounds like the troubles with the course gave you guys a push and a lot of motivation.don’t want to criticizes because i am very happy that you and your team is taking the challenge and doing something rather than just talking.

    the improvement plan looks very good to me and i just wanted to say from my experience when i visited last year in November,there was not much happening,the two volunteers who stayed there where complaining about the expensive costs for volunteering and also the dorm in which i wanted to stay was not in a good shape but kind of expensive for Ethiopian standards,so i just can identify with the people who say its a little bit overpriced.
    I know now people will say “yeah but this money will help develop the farm and the community project” but i don’t think its the right way to go to make a lot of profit from volunteers who work hard and bring some experience or new energy to a project.i speak out of experience,i volunteered the last 3 years all around the world in permaculture projects and you can find many kinds of them,some make a hell lot of money from volunteers and courses but don’t really offer that much for it but thankfully that happens not to often!

    wish you all the best with the project and thank you for keeping us updated!

  3. Out of the Darkness came the Light, came Love.
    These are still surrounded by darkness, yet You All Prevail and Persevere.
    Most of Us SEE the Light and Love you bring forth in your DOING There.
    A small piece of ash clouded someone’s eyes and darkness befell them awhile.
    Spoilt in the West. Let it pass.
    We Love your LIGHT. It Will shine on Forever.

    NB. please start a ChipIn and Paypal for projects.

  4. I’ve also seen the perfectionist attitudes at work in the Permaculture fraternity, leading to discouragement and stress. Our organising of the Fair Share Festival (FSF,in Newcastle, Australia) on social-economic Permaculture last year was much distracted for months by a few key people insisting on a business plan, when the Festival was not operating in the business economy, but the love or gift economy, expenses covered by a grant I had arranged.
    I did have a budget, with optimistic and pessimistic attendance forecasts, to show the event would work. Also we’d run several previous successful events without a business plan, attendances up to 600 for the day. all expenses were covered.
    Fortunately PRI & Transition Newcastle became co-sponsors of FSF event, without unnecessary expectations,
    so the business plan insisters relented, with a very decent apology from their chairperson. FSF was a success, 250 attending, plus much media exposure educating the wider public in co-operative community economics.
    Transition Newc. will do an expanded no 2 FSF next March, with a bigger grant of $14K, come join the fun.
    Permaculture is a constant learning experience, nobody has the final infallible answers since we model our solutions on the imperfectly-known natural ecosystem.
    Biologists and ecologists confess there’s still very much to learn about that, including estimated many thousands of yet undiscovered species, and the complexities of the global climate and water systems, which the best computer models can only sample imperfectly.
    The word HUMILITY is related to both humour and humus, 3 great things to have in Permaculture for co-operative achievements.
    Alex, your detailed account of learning from criticisms, fair and unfair, and your ongoing improvements at Strawberry Fields Ethiopia are an inspiration and a model of stick-with-it hard work plus creative thinking to further improve other workers’ solutions– such as earthbag tanks’ plastic floor (please lets know how it works out), and your improvements in the cooking range efficiency. Great work.

  5. You are absolutely right to reestablish the truth about lies posted on the internet. But I still don’t understand any connection whatsoever with “permaculture perfectionists” who would be “quick to judge and criticise, feeling superior in their own problem-discovering skills”. Would that be also a revenge?(Just kidding!) -Also, about vaccines: just check that this one is not useless, as most vaccines are… (any vaccinated people got sick?)

  6. Alex,

    It is interesting reading your early posts through your current ones. The Permaculture community tends to write about and make pictures of our excitement and successes while glossing over our challenges and setbacks. The Damn Story from October of last year is a great example. I loved reading it as it DIRECTLY relates to challenges I am accepting in some property I am looking to buy.

    Now I know it is bad marketing to express frustration and detail the challenges a permaculture community like yours face on public forums/venues beyond the system level, but it has potential to teach those of us who are stepping into similar situations. Unfortunately the emotional, financial and inter-relational aspects of these challenges are rarely communicated and those of us who intend to follow in your footsteps REALLY need to learn those aspects as well!

    Would you contemplate putting together a couple e-books for $.99-$9.99 (based on quantity and value of content) which tell the story of the struggles (with minimal whitewash) and how you dealt/are dealing with them both in a operational, emotional, financial and inter-relational sense? By charging for it you will prevent people from hitting them on the marketing side, and you’ll make money (that I’d GLADLY pay) teaching persons like myself to avoid the pitfalls that our community doesn’t tend to share.

    Some great sentences that would lead to awesome content are:

    One of the situations we’ve dealt with that was really hard emotionally on myself/others was…

    I had to learn to stop being disappointed that students/volunteers…

    I was surprised to learn that students/volunteers are motivated to…

    Let me tell you about an expectation that I had which proved completely unrealistic…

    Some money mistakes to avoid are…

    We’ve learned that we can improve community involvement by…

    10 things you MUST do/have if you want to succeed in a permaculture community are…
    ____________________________________________________________

    Many of us don’t expect constant excitement and action. We’re human and sometimes we all need time to stop and catch up to everything we’re dealing with.

    Please know that what you’ve experienced here has resulted in Strawberry Farms becoming one of the first places I would like to budget time and money toward to study intensive community-wide permaculture. Also, I intend to try to interest my Rotary Club in sponsoring your efforts there.

    Thank you for what you’re doing!

  7. Hey Alex,

    Many people have never travelled to a developing country and are unprepared for what they see and have to live with. This means that they are naive and unknowingly take on risks that they don’t understand – meat halls (!), refusing treatment (!) – what were they thinking? This also includes not fully investigating the medical risks involved in travel to these destinations and having an appropriate medical kit. I reckon that it may be a sign that the infrastructure that these people live with is taken for granted and they then lack the ability to empathise with others – by which I mean a large chunk of the rest of the worlds population.

    In one place I stayed in the back blocks of Laos I was told to secure my food or the rats would get it…

    As a history lesson, it wasn’t that long ago that typhoid and cholera were rife in Western countries for much the same reasons that you mention. It may surprise a lot of people to know that many cottage gardens were founded on humanure – because it was available and recognised for what it was.

    The naivety is a bit sad really because it just shows how disconnected they have become from nature.

    Good luck with the water tanks, I have the same problem here – Southern Australia – in that dams will not hold water. All water is stored above ground in tanks for later use or collected and stored in the ground via swales and increased organic matter. Always aim to increase soil organic matter through mulching and composting. Have a go at increasing shade to your plants over the hot period to reduce transpiration too. By the way, the prices for tanks over your way ($1,000 for 10,000l) are about the same as here.

    Every experience is a learning experience.

    Regards

    Chris

  8. transparency can make you fell a bit raw at times, but it also grounds you, keeps you real, and gives you a greater vested interest in getting it right. We’ve built Milkwood literally from the ground up and tried to be completely open about all our challenges and failures, as well as our successes.

    At first I thought it was highly embarrassing to share the story of our failed dam, or our other not-so-great newbie decisions. I just wanted to share the stories of the bits of the farm that went right!

    But after doing this for a couple of years, I find many students and interns choose to come here because of reasons like “we’re inspired by how truthful you guys are about it all” or “we feel you’re sharing the whole picture, not just the shiny bits”.

    Permaculture rocks. We know this. The best thing you can do to be an effective teacher/designer/community/whatever is stay honest and open, share the whole journey with those around you, and let others learn from your mistakes, so that they can avoid them. That’s effective use of energy. Plain and simple.

    Cheers for sharing the rawness.

  9. @Dr Gonzo: Hi there,
    What I mean when i say destructive criticism is not the opinion
    itself, we are happy to accept the feedback, as you can see. What’s destructive is the way it is delivered. Allison had plenty of chance during the course to give her feedback, as did all of the other participants, and they did. Alison however did not give any useful feedback, or useful advice on how to improve things, let alone help by actually doing something, when she was with us, as many of the other participants actually did. What she did was keep quiet until she had gotten back home and then run around the internet “whistle-blowing” about the lepper that Strawberry Fields is, to try and dissuade anybody else from falling into the same heinously planned trap that she did. I think that is destructive because she is not trying to help us improve, rather, she is trying to destroy our reputation and our business.
    As for charging volunteers; we charge $50 per week for short stay and $30 per week for long stay volunteers. Our average monthly turnover is around ETB 70,000 (US$4,000). Of this the government takes 15,000 for VAT. Our general consumption materials cost another 15,000. The full time-staff also get around 15,000. Non permanent workers also take 2,000 to 20,000 depending on what we are doing on the site – ie construction and crop sow/harvest times will see more casual work. The remaining 5,000 – 25,000 goes on maintenance materials, utilities, vehicle costs and rent. We are not piling up money in the bank, I can assure you of that! It’s a struggle here. Volunteers pay $50 per week for food and accommodation, and $30 for long-stay (which is what Conny and Stefan, the couple that you chanced across on your travels, paid). If you can make a big profit out of that then you are a much sharper business man than I am. We have to be able to sustain the project or we can’t employ anybody. I wonder how many people’s salaries these two volunteers have ever paid? They have probably have no idea about the challenges of running a business anywhere, let alone in southern Ethiopia.

    As for costs generally, following the last PDC, I offered a refund to the whole class of whatever amount they felt they deserved. Only two of the participants actually asked for it; $500, which was 25% of the course fee, which we paid. To be totally honest with you Dr Gonzo, I will admit it, we did make some money out of this course. Yes, finally, though we have been in the negative for months, in July we did make some money. Don’t we have a right to make some money at some stage? We have to grow and we have to develop. Everybody is saying “this needs to be better, that needs to be better”. But how are we going to improve it if we can’t afford to buy the materials or pay the guys who do the work? Am I expected to do it all with my own two hands? Out of thin air? With some people that does actually seem to be the case…

    @ coevicman: thanks for your good wishes brother. We have a paypall already, what about ChipIn, we could start one of those too, maybe you can email us more information?: [email protected] thanks very much for your support.

    @Tom: More power to you and the FSF, i would love to come but fear it’s a bit of a mission to make it. Thanks also for your good wishes and support. We will keep posting our updates on the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/permalodge so follow us there for more feedback.

    @ David: I don’t know about “revenge” as I didn’t write the editor’s note. About vaccinations; I can tell you one thing, it’s strange that for the first 3 years I was in Ethiopia I never suffered Typhoid, however in the last year and a half since then it seems to him me every couple of months. An attack of typhoid is basically the squits, a nasty headache and sometimes a fever to go with it. Sometimes the malaria flares up with the typhoid too. If you go to the doctor they give you a jab, some Paracetamol and a 7-day course of ciprofloxacin. If there’s malaria, they give you the malaria meds as well. It’s all gone within 12-48 hours but you have to finish the course, of-course. Now it’s a strange thing that I never got typhoid for 3 years. I just figured it was because my vaccine had expired…

    @ Scott Reimers: Thanks for this. I would love to get around to doing a $99.99 e-book some day. It’s gonna need some thinking about… as you say so yourself. Hey if you want to support us that’s GREAT. Let me know what you want from me in terms of info, pics. etc. ([email protected])

    I’m not sure if this is really bad publicity. There are a lot of people out there who want to make a positive difference and do something even if it means taking a bit of a risk. What we’ve shown here is that we can do that and we can teach people how to do the same. These are real problems that people in the developing world face all the time. I don’t think that most people who are concerned with poverty are scared of poverty. If they were, they wouldn’t really care about it. You can’t help a sick person by poking them with a stick. Look at all these NGOs who live in their fancy compounds and drive around in their flash 4WDs. They consume billions but achieve hardly anything. We can achieve more with tiny funds because we are working on a level with the community. They know the conditions that we came from and they’ve seen us building up from nothing, and they’ve done it with us. Sure some westerners will never accept those conditions. But a lot will. We have worked with the community and the learned with the community. We didn’t parachute in with all the answers and plant a fancy full-mod-con-compound with a razor wire fence around it in the middle of their country. We are developing a working model along with them, and people will love to see that and be happy to learn from that and contribute to it. That’s what we want.

    @ Chris: What’s strange about it is that most of the people on this course have plenty of experience of travelling, working and even living in the third world… In fact, there was actually a current of scepticism towards conventional medicine and the pharmaceutical corporations. Sure the pharmy industry are evil. Maybe just as evil as the agro-tech industry, in many ways. But when out you’re out in the sticks of southern Ethiopia, especially when you’re fresh in that environment, it’s hardly the time to take a moral stand. You could end up dead. And then who would be held responsible? Anyway, thanks for your advice. As you say this is all a learning experience. From now on, whenever anyone is sick on our project, we will immediately take them to the clinic whether they want to go or not.

  10. Well done Alex, you took a rocket up your ass and dealt with it. You and your team are stronger now and have a new direction and quality. I came there to teach permaculture development skills and all those problems we encountered may not have been fun but everybody learned a lot.When you are running permaculture schools, eco lodges or anything in the public eye, improvement must be constant. If you go slack , somebody will spot it and report it to the world. We are going to see a whole new wave of permaculture training centres springing up soon globally. We’ll also see a few flop
    Good luck for the next course Alex

    Steve Cran

  11. Hey Steve, yes, as well as helping raise the profile of our improvement initiative your group also helped by fuelling the rocket, so to speak. You see we, like most people, believe it or not, are generally prety broke around here. The funds from your course really came in handy getting all this stuff done. It’s great having plans advice and ideas, but there is not much you can do without materials and the means to pay people to do the work. I will tell you frankly that 90% of the stuff that was recommended was stuff we were planning to do anyway. They were great recommendations nonetheless. That’s why we did them. If we’d had the cash we probably would have done most of them before the course though. It’s often just that there is usually more than motivation which is standing in the way of achievement when you live with poverty. Now that proceeds from the course have been exhausted, we will be back in low gear again by the time i get back from Jordan. If we get a good number of registrations on Rhamis’ course that may also help, but experience sais we cant really bank on that. What i was really interested in was finding out what we would need to do to get some of that funding you were telling us all about when you came out here, to develop the traineing centre. You’ve given us a lot of help mate. Maybe not always in the kindest of ways, but help none the less. I feel we have made good use of your assistance and carried it further. We have delivered on what we said we were going to do so are you going to help us keep moving forwards now? Cheers, Alex

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