December 07, 2013

Yoga Retreat

December 07, 2013/ Jiwa Damai

We hosted a 24 day yoga training retreat at Jiwa Damai organized by School Yoga Insitute, it was a most interesting and intense experience.

About 30 young people training day after day, getting up at 6 am to Meditate, then doing their Yoga postures, getting lectures about anatomy and sutras and much more. Our kitchen was working high speed, providing the vegetarian cuisine and many smoothies and of course, fresh coconut juice.

It was a pleasure to see so many young people learning and exploring themselves through this training. They will be back next year and are very much welcome.

October 01, 2013

Building a new pond at Jiwa Damai

October 01, 2013/ Jiwa Damai

Our volunteer Shoshi from the US and our intern Andreas from Germany are working close to our parking lot on developing a new pond on our premise. They were digging very hard and now they are preparing the pond lining which should prevent the water from being re-absorbed into the earth.

For that purpose a lining of newspapers and green banana leaves are left for a few days. Then this is covered with earth tightly compressed on top. The underlying layer will then create a water resistant lining.

Building a natural pond by using the old Russian method of 'gleying':

The different steps:

- Dig the pond and compact the soil really well.

- Clear the pond of stones and rocks.

- Cover the bottom and sides with a thick layer of organic material (fresh grass cuttings and bananas leaves) and waste paper

- Spread out EM all over to add the bacterias which are necessary for the process

- Add a layer of soil and press down firmly all over.

- The soil keeps out the air and allows a biological process known as ‘gleying’ to take place (its an anaerobic process)

We shall see how well that works. Lets hope for the best ;-)

September 13, 2013

Coconut Shells

September 13, 2013/ Jiwa Damai

At Jiwa Damai we are using a special way to place our coconut shells around the base of our plants. Since we are producing our coconut oil form our own coconut trees , the shells are available and we are using them for several purposes. During the rainy season they can collect some of the water with their inner softer hairy material thus allowing to keep some water away form the plants.

The second reason is to have them soak up the water we are distributing in the dry season around the fields. They will hold the water longer for the plants to feed .

Last but not least when they decompose they will make an excellent nutrition to be added to the soil. On some plants we are just setting them directly around the root of the plants.

September 04, 2013

A Balinese Wedding

September 04, 2013/ Jiwa Damai

Ketut Badung, our head gardener at Jiwa Damai invited the whole team and our volunteers to join him at his village in his compound to attend the wedding of his nephew.

The altar in the background with all the Balinese offerings is made completely our of pork. This was prepared by the whole village and will also be eaten by the village later.

The headdresses of the bride and the groom weigh about 5 kg each.

The clots are very beautiful and elaborate.

Guests come and go all day to bring gifts, mostly some money in an envelope to support the expenses.

This was a wonderful event to witness and a beautiful opportunity to experience Balinese culture.

Terima Kasi!

August 24, 2013

Permaculture Gardening Workshop

August 24, 2013/ Jiwa Damai

This workshop 'Basic of organic edible gardening' was the first one in a series of permaculture teachings we offer in conjunction with unfolding the HeartSelf-Intelligence at Jiwa Damai. It was a two day workshop introducing permaculture gardening for small gardens. Stephanie who is teaching the class presented a wonderful mixture of lecture, movie and practical hands on in the garden. The participants seem to have enjoyed this very much.