Roswitha and Francisco — better known as Ros and Pancho — met during a student protest at their university. It fits: This pair is still bucking convention and working toward new forms of education.
During my month volunteering at their permaculture farm, they earnestly shared their educational philosophies and permaculture lifestyle. Toward the end of my stay, they were kind enough to sit down for an interview with me. (Apologies to English speakers: I’m far too lazy to embed subtitles, so below is the English translation to the video.)
Tierra de Aprendices
Tierra de Aprendices is an ecocenter, ecovillage project where we practice permaculture, and where every person who comes to get to know this space or comes to help, comes as an apprentice and also to teach what he or she knows.
Everyone can teach something to others, and we all have a lot to learn. And so this concept of “apprentice” allows that everyone who comes to visit this space ends up feeling part of it. Although it may only be a stay of a week, two weeks, a month, whatever, they become part of the project, completing tasks, proposing ideas, playing with their creativity. In this way, they start to dispel fears and constraints, and nurture themselves with an education in community.
Phases for Work
We started this project with phases in mind. The first phase is to set up the space — create the vegetable garden, do bioconstruction, etcetera. But now as a second and third phase, this space is open to the community. It has been since the beginning, in reality. Because of this, volunteers and others have come to get to know it. But we want this to consolidate even more, that if there are people who are looking to better experience this space — the connection with nature, the learning that Pancho talked about — they can come and live here as well.
And from another angle, there’s the dream that this becomes a school — as much for adults as for the next generation. We all go about learning according to our interests and motivations, but we always want education to flow in a way that’s free, and that the next generation catches onto this new way of seeing life, to this new way of experiencing life in accordance and harmony with nature.
Permaculture
A permaculture space that’s well designed allows you to have a continual exchange with a lot of people, from many places, who know many things. And so culture continues to develop in community. And at the same time, it has the benefit of having silence: spaces for meditation and reconnection with nature and oneself. From this point of view, I think it’s a good balance — permaculture when it’s developed appropriately.
And so the invitation is open for anyone who wants to come here to this space, to reconnect with themselves, to allow their creativity to flourish, to allow their inner child to be, or be born. Because permaculture is made for this.
Sounds enlightening 🙂