A moving volunteer gathers no rust.

We are moving forward with a couple of new ideas within the space created for our sustain-ability project. One of which is extending the volunteers program into Forest Glade, a farm outside of Port St Johns with a mango orchard and people living in different stages of sustain-ability and self sufficiency.

On the small farm we are working with there are ample amounts of chilies, mangos, potatoes, onions, various herbs, mielies, tomatoes and passion fruit amongst other seasonal fruit. There are also coffee trees growing, some with berries but most will only produce in about two years time.

One evening this week the meal cooked for the volunteers living at the Jetty was a vegetable potjie that consisted of ingredients all picked and harvested from the Glade except for the cooking oil.

Sisonke school opened its doors for 2008 on January 16 and enrolled 60 pupils. This was a major event for all the teachers and Pippa who is the driving force behind the school is excited about the teachers desire to teach and the learners desire to learn.

We have also been sharing and discussing the ideas and philosophies expounded by Masanobu Fukuoka, author of ‘One Straw Revolution’ within the volunteers circle.

The ideas that he puts forward about farming and life in general have stimulated much thought and discussion. Theories about farming and how to blend in with nature and not struggle against it are important but most critcial are his observations about how people change and find time to write haikus despite running a successful farm.

Try find a commercial, "scientific" farmer with time for haikus.

The effect of working on a sustain-ability project and eating organically grown vegetables flavoured with organic herbs have had a noticeable impact on our volunteers, many of whom come from large cities and were initially intimidated by the rural and semi rural environment.

It has also left indelible memories with volunteers who spent time here and are now back ‘home’ and wrote to tell us of their feelings and how much the project has meant to them as well as how much they miss it.

Some are working at marketing the project back home and others are gearing up for a return to work and live the sustainability project that as a whole is fast becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

Our extended family unit now includes peoples in the UK, US and Australia.