This week I stayed close to home. I did
go to Vancouver Island on Wednesday to visit my aunt and then visit
my friend at O.U.R Eco Village. It's crazy how I found out about the
place. I was talking to my friend over in Germany asking him for tips
on how to learn about farming as I want to start my own farm. He sent
me a link to this Youtube video, to OUR ECO village, in which people
live together in a commune and share resources, labor on the farm,
and food. I thought the place was in the Okanagon because it looked
hot and dry. About a month later I see a picture posted on my friends
wall of her outside her new trailer at some ECO village. I message
her asking her where she is and she happens to be at the same Eco
village I heard about online, and it was 30 minutes away from
Victoria where I was going to visit. So I went to visit her and
another friend who was there with her as well. She let me stay in her
triangle trailer, which she didn't think was that cool, but I rather
have a triangle than a square any day!; and its way less boring than
a box shaped stucco house! There were about 25 people at the farm
registered for a 1 month course studying permaculture at the Eco
Village when I arrived. When I got to the farm, Acro Yoga was going
on so I joined in which was awesome. Some of the positions were
foreign to me as you had to hold people in the air with your feet,
and I found it funny and hard to hold, and felt bad for laughing and
dropping my partner sometimes, but she was good spirited about it! If
you don't know what Acro Yoga is, it is like gymnastics mixed with
Yoga, and it was actually a really good time, building strength and
flexibility; I am definitely gonna get more into it. For dinner it
was Vegan food, mainly grown from the sight. The food was
surprisingly good for being mainly beans and vegetables. You used raw
cabbage leaves, and you wrap them around things like chick peas,
kuskus, shredded radish, carrots and other veggies. I had about three
plates fulls and was really full and feeling good afterwards. There
was a class I sat in on for two hours in the evening talking about
oil, food security, and how it affects are world and possible future
scenarios that may take place as the amount of oil reserves is
reduced. It was very informative and some stimulating conversations.
The the guy running the lecture had some really good personal stories
about spending time volunteering in Palestine, going to different
food and environmental conferences, and using a lot of visuals in
his presentation. After class there was a camp fire happening beside
the outdoor dining hall where people were playing guitars and banjos.
I got to know some really passionate people and hear some really cool
stories and discuss philosophy. I slept that night in the triangle
trailer, it was actually really cold as there weren't enough
blankets, so it took a while to get to sleep- which I didn't really
mind after such an awesome stimulating day. I woke up in the morning
to the sound of a rooster, but ended up staying in bed and trying to
sleep some more. I went on a 40 minute hike up Mount Baldy and ran
into at least 10 deer which is good to see nature still exists! After
lunch I was shown around the farm a bit more. They call the outhouse
the Credit Union where you make deposits, so I dropped off a couple
hundreds. There was also a Yert, which is a huge circle tent, that
Mongolians lived in, and still often do. It was probably my favourite
building on the farm, followed closely by the “Chillage”, an
outdoor building made of sand, clay and straw. I left at about 2:30pm
and hitchhiked to Nanimo, which took about 2 hours, receiving a free
ice cream dipped cone from Dairy Queen and a beer; and believe it or
no one tried to kidnap me or do other other mean things! It took me
four rides to get there. You can keep just calling me lucky and hitch
hiking dangerous, or you can be like me and choose to believe
everybody in the world is naturally good, and it's okay to help each
other out, as its the best feeling you can get (and better than
paying for gas and driving alone)! If you have never been to
Vancouver Island make sure you check it out, and I would highly
suggest checking out O.U.R Eco Village or getting involved in
something like it, as you leave feeling healthy, relaxed and really
happy and stoked on life!
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