View from the Finca

View from the Finca
Originally uploaded by simcahorwitz.

Where I been the past three weeks-Finca Bona Fide on Ometepe Island. Read on for more info about what this place is about. But it sure is purty, in´t.

Back on the mainland

So after a month long disappearance or so, I´m back in the land of computers. Or at least back on the mainland of Nicaragua after three weeks on Ometepe Island, a volcanic island in the middle of lake Nicaragua. I was living and working on a finca taking a permaculture design course. It is hard to begin to describe it, and perhaps this is a matter of needing more distance, or perhaps it will always be confusing. It was a time of contradictions.
What is permaculture-this may depend who you ask. Officially, it stands for permanent agriculture and permanent culture-the idea that we should design agricultural and social systems that are not only sustainable, but regenerative. That will nourish and heal the environment and the people who are a part of the environment. Systems that will have the potential to last forever.
I am interested in permaculture because I see it as one of many solutions driven approaches to addressing food insecurity on a local and global scale. I don´t want my own little piece of land in paradise. I don´t want to go live on an eco-village, and frankly, i don´t even see myself leaving the city. But it don´t matter. Or at least i believe it don´t matter. That is what is cool about permaculture. It is a framework for approaching community and environment and it can be applied on any kind of scale, from massive commercial farms to your city community garden plot. I´ve heard it can be applied to your sock drawer, but if you´re doing that, you have way too much free time on your hands and you should figure out some way to be useful or at least get dirty.
So i´m not going to get into a whole lot about permaculture design, but i´d love to talk about it when i see you. (Mysterious ´you´ who is apparently reading my blog.) But in a nutshell, permaculture can be used to help regenerate the soil, micro-climate, landscape etc. in areas that have faced environmental destruction (which is to say-everywhere) and create healthy environments in which an abundance of food can be grown to meet human need and the landscape is designed to promote positive community development. I really feel that Finca Bona Fide is doing an amazing job on these fronts, leading by example in the community. They seem like a great example of small scale sustainable development work that really addresses the specific needs of a community, that is willing to adapt to changing needs and situations. They offer a holistic approach to increasing food security and economic development while promoting environmental regeneration.
But...I felt a major disconnect between the politics that seem to be running the organization and the framework that was brought to the course. It´s a lot of the same old shit of other environmental movements-unackowledged white privilege and a failure to recognize how the language we use in our movements can be incredibly alienating to certain communities-serving to perpetuate the very imbalances we are supposedly working against and creating major roadblocks to the creation of an inclusive movement. That´s a whole lot of jargon basically to say that i felt the course was taught to the white ´nothern´ (largely US) participants and assumed a great deal about their reasons for wanting to take a permaculture course and did not adequately include the Nicaraguan participants in a meaningful way. This is not to say that i didn´t learn tons from the course-i did. The instructors were incredibly knowledgeable and really engaging. We did a whole lot of theoretical work and plenty of really practical design processes and solutions too. I´m definitely ready to get some more farm work on when i get back to the states. And i want to learn to weld. I figure i like to solder, it´s just a slightly larger scale.

Granada

Granada is hot and everything moves slower in the heat. It´s like this thin sheet of sleep that descends over a place-makes each step a little shorter, each swing of the arm a little gentler. I have been trying to muster the energy to explore, but mostly i am wanting to sit and drink juice and get lost in nothingness. The buildings in the center of the town are big and bright and a beautiful contrast to the seamlessness of the blue sky. I haven´s seen clouds since returning to the mainland. So much new inside so much old and lots left to memory. A history of fire. A city burned by American William Walker who, vigilante army in tow, declared himself ´President of Nicaragua´. Soon thereafter, facing defeat, he burned the city of Granada before fleeing the country. It is strange and scary steps we follow as US citizens in Nicaragua. In practically anywhere. So there are ruins turned parks, old stone walls turned trellises for creeping vines, benches, sitting stones. It is good to be doing everything slowly, to have the time to write, to remind myself of being solitary.