As many of you can tell, I’m a bit of a nomad — in work and in life. I divide up my time between freelance writing about travel and wellness, teaching yoga or giving reiki, and practicing slow travel. Since nature is such a fundamental part of wellness, I’ve also been digging into farming practices and quietly put that intention out into the universe. I’ll briefly note that this way of life doesn’t always leave me the most financially stable as I’m still quite young in my career, so I’ve developed the ability to take opportunities as they come (for all of you wondering how I really manage, I used a credit card for a lot of years which I recently paid off *high fives self*). Although occasionally stressful, for me there was no other way to live and it’s led me to some very interesting adventures. Including recently. Why I Love Public Transport My latest bit of serendipity came in the form of an experiential education position with Operation Groundswell — a progressive company that centers around the ethos of sustainable travel. In standard fashion, I found out about the job during a 7-hour bus ride to the border of Cambodia where I happened to be seated near their Regional Director for Southeast Asia. As I’m a non-stop talker about social and environmental issues, I unknowingly gave a full interview and formally applied shortly thereafter. So come January, I’ll be co-leading a program showing a group of budding activists, intellects and people just plain curious about this wild world we live in a side of Southeast Asia and traveling they may have never seen before. Equally as rewarding, I get to dive into the culture and community of Cambodia, a place I’ve called home for more than 3 years, to learn even more about this region I’ve fallen completely in love with. As always, holistic wellness remains a top priority for me so I’m pleased to have already connected with one of our local partners committed to bringing sustainable agriculture methods to Cambodian farmers, ensuring reliable crops and financial security. Remember: Wellness is so much more than just eating a perfectly clean diet. Adventures with Ockenden I met some of the local Ockenden team when they picked me up from a side-of-the-road noodle stand in Sisophon and as we drove away toward their main offices we fell right into a discussion about fertilizers and the chemistry behind creating the most nutrient-rich formula. After spending this past summer working as an organic gardener and realizing that I could talk endlessly about soil, I gave the universe a sly smile for hooking me up with this gig. As a child I loved treasure hunts, geocaching and finding geodetic survey markers, so I immediately said yes to returning last week to join a workshop for surveying a potential eco-village site. Although we wouldn’t be looking for anything specific, I suspected that observing and mapping the environment could lead to surprising discoveries. With rubber boots on my feet, I set out with a mixed group of Ockenden staff, volunteers and area farmers to note all of the nooks and crannies of this plot of land. My roll for this workshop was more to get a feel for what projects Operation Groundswell would be helping with in the future and understand how Ockenden works within the surrounding communities, but I couldn’t help enjoying the discoveries of rare insect eating plants and determining the quality of water flowing across the land. One of the older farmers in our group shared my enthusiasm by jumping across streams, excitedly identifying different trees and plants. We all reconvened back at the Ockenden office and described our observations — determining where the water was flowing from, what condition some of the plants were in and any external factors that might affect the land. We worked in groups for the two days of the workshop to brainstorm the many possible ways to work with the land (permaculture) and create a sustainable center for experimental farming and education.
I learned that the Khmer expression for slanting land is something like “an orange can roll down” and that many Cambodians are extremely passionate about understanding and using sustainable farming techniques. My one summer of gardening left me miles behind their decades of knowledge, but they were very patient with me. We’ll be joining them again when our first group arrives in mid-January, and I’m already looking forward to learning more and helping where we can. I’m sure I’ll have a few more random adventures before then, though.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |