First Month
So the scene is set, I let you know about the other interns, not the people I would choose to be marooned with on a desert island but passable none the less. The nepotism in the selection was huge, there are only two ecologist in the 9 of us. The others don't really care about plants and are just here to be in Hawaii. Van Ray is amazing, he teaches me new things everyday about food, chickens, fun and uses of plants.
So the first week was just a shemozzle really. Living in close quarters with everything disorganised. We had preliminary introductory lectures and spent our free time working out what research project we would do. Although I was fairly set on doing a farm design project for the Hawaiian community in Hana on Maui I did look around at the other projects to see if they fit my bill as they were all so cool. I passed up seed collection and banking techniques and also GIS training and Breadfruit ethnobotany but I think that doing this farm project is really where I want to take my education and also its the first real project that is really just motivated by me and myself so I just have to make sure my finger is pulled out and i get some work done inbetween hiking and swimming.
Everyone else in the house eats crap food. That statement is not a blanket truth, vanray is a master asian chef. I had the best kimchi soup I have ever eatten last night and his meals never fail to impress me. Most of the food people eat in this country is processed, from a box, instant and totally joyless. Also, it mostly has high fructose corn syrup. Now the filp side to this is that there is a huge niche organic food market but lots of the organic food is still processed and its all hyper expensive and so provides no solution to global agriculture issues. Anyway, I finally found a bulk food store that sells to caters and resturants and shit and got loads of oats, nuts, dried fruit etc and also have now rooted out the asian grocery stores to make fine chinese and fillapino food.
Went canoeing up a river to a waterfall on my first weekend. Was really nice, with an old guys from Alaska. I also went to a turtle dig on the Thursday. We and the volunteers dug up a hatched turtle nest to look for ones that had not escaped properly. We found one and 123 hatched eggs.
The second week we did some lectures on native hawaiian plants and canoe plants and also learned 10 tropical plant families and how to describe them. I still haven't learned them as well as I should have.
The structure of the program is that we have lectures on Monday and Wednesday from 9 till 12 except we have to arrive at 8am for some reason beyond explanation except for beauracracy. We then get lunch and the arvo to work on our projects. Tuesday and Thursday we do work. Often weeding and planting and work in the nursery. Then Friday we have rotation where we alternate between different departments in the garden: Science, Conservation, Education, Garden work and Breadfruit Institute.
The first week we weeded and planted out a cliffside and the second week we worked with the nursery, learning seed propagation, cuttings, airlayering etc.
The third week we worked with conservation learning seedbanking and such and this week jsut passed we worked at a cave reserve. Its been great doing heaps of manual labour and working outside. We weeded, planted, landscaped and layed our irrigation. I love landscaping. I think if it is combined with permaculture principles it might be a great way to get cities to fund urban sustainability projects. But I'm an optimist.
Low points have included backing one of the cars into a bolard which is costing me $400 which sucks. It was one of those hot careless afternoons when you think it couldn't suck anymore and then it does. Was good though, following it and the subsequent fallout I went bike camping for 2 nights away from all the other interns and the house and camped alone on a beach. I woke on the sand every few hours and the sky had shifted and I watched a huge sunrise over the sea. Helped me get my mana back in line. Also, got really sick of Amerians for a week there. Especially as free market capitalism was collapsing and they all looked at me like a lunitic when I talked about moving to a non-growth economy.
Other than that the only thing to report is there is lots of reggae on the island, which is good. Van Ray taught me some new skanking moves.
I can't think of anything else to report really. I've been studing permaculture and playing harmonica and trying to get ontop of my communication with everyone and on top of my classes and shit. I just payed for my ethnobotany class so thats locked in in the first weeks of January. Hope you are all well. I'm off to Maui where the farm I am designing is gonna be. We stay for 2 weeks with the Hana community and get to camp out every night. So I'll fill you all in when I return.
Love to all
So the first week was just a shemozzle really. Living in close quarters with everything disorganised. We had preliminary introductory lectures and spent our free time working out what research project we would do. Although I was fairly set on doing a farm design project for the Hawaiian community in Hana on Maui I did look around at the other projects to see if they fit my bill as they were all so cool. I passed up seed collection and banking techniques and also GIS training and Breadfruit ethnobotany but I think that doing this farm project is really where I want to take my education and also its the first real project that is really just motivated by me and myself so I just have to make sure my finger is pulled out and i get some work done inbetween hiking and swimming.
Everyone else in the house eats crap food. That statement is not a blanket truth, vanray is a master asian chef. I had the best kimchi soup I have ever eatten last night and his meals never fail to impress me. Most of the food people eat in this country is processed, from a box, instant and totally joyless. Also, it mostly has high fructose corn syrup. Now the filp side to this is that there is a huge niche organic food market but lots of the organic food is still processed and its all hyper expensive and so provides no solution to global agriculture issues. Anyway, I finally found a bulk food store that sells to caters and resturants and shit and got loads of oats, nuts, dried fruit etc and also have now rooted out the asian grocery stores to make fine chinese and fillapino food.
Went canoeing up a river to a waterfall on my first weekend. Was really nice, with an old guys from Alaska. I also went to a turtle dig on the Thursday. We and the volunteers dug up a hatched turtle nest to look for ones that had not escaped properly. We found one and 123 hatched eggs.
The second week we did some lectures on native hawaiian plants and canoe plants and also learned 10 tropical plant families and how to describe them. I still haven't learned them as well as I should have.
The structure of the program is that we have lectures on Monday and Wednesday from 9 till 12 except we have to arrive at 8am for some reason beyond explanation except for beauracracy. We then get lunch and the arvo to work on our projects. Tuesday and Thursday we do work. Often weeding and planting and work in the nursery. Then Friday we have rotation where we alternate between different departments in the garden: Science, Conservation, Education, Garden work and Breadfruit Institute.
The first week we weeded and planted out a cliffside and the second week we worked with the nursery, learning seed propagation, cuttings, airlayering etc.
The third week we worked with conservation learning seedbanking and such and this week jsut passed we worked at a cave reserve. Its been great doing heaps of manual labour and working outside. We weeded, planted, landscaped and layed our irrigation. I love landscaping. I think if it is combined with permaculture principles it might be a great way to get cities to fund urban sustainability projects. But I'm an optimist.
Low points have included backing one of the cars into a bolard which is costing me $400 which sucks. It was one of those hot careless afternoons when you think it couldn't suck anymore and then it does. Was good though, following it and the subsequent fallout I went bike camping for 2 nights away from all the other interns and the house and camped alone on a beach. I woke on the sand every few hours and the sky had shifted and I watched a huge sunrise over the sea. Helped me get my mana back in line. Also, got really sick of Amerians for a week there. Especially as free market capitalism was collapsing and they all looked at me like a lunitic when I talked about moving to a non-growth economy.
Other than that the only thing to report is there is lots of reggae on the island, which is good. Van Ray taught me some new skanking moves.
I can't think of anything else to report really. I've been studing permaculture and playing harmonica and trying to get ontop of my communication with everyone and on top of my classes and shit. I just payed for my ethnobotany class so thats locked in in the first weeks of January. Hope you are all well. I'm off to Maui where the farm I am designing is gonna be. We stay for 2 weeks with the Hana community and get to camp out every night. So I'll fill you all in when I return.
Love to all
posted by Angel Ironhead at 3:13 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home