Change is something that affects everybody from all different backgrounds.

We recently had communication from a volunteer who was with us October 2007. http://www.sicambeni.co.za/node/246 Kelly talks of being back in the heart of the First world in the UK but her experience at Sicambeni and with the school has opened her eyes to the way people live across the other side of the world.

Looking at her UK life and appreciating what she's got and maybe becoming a little less materialistic. This kind of change is bound to happen when a project like Sicambeni gets going. People travel long distances and sacrifice time with loved ones back home to spend time volunteering and learning about a different way of life and maybe more about themselves as well.

The impact that this crossing of boundaries and sharing has on all involved is one of the perks that volunteers gain. Seeing themselves through somebody else's eyes who has never seen their home country and couldn't possibly imagine the wealth and access to material goods.

We have a new group of volunteers, all with us for different lengths of time and all bringing their own experience into the search for sustainability. Sustain-ability is simply another way of saying keep on keeping on.

We hope to hear from more of our Sicambeni family once they arrive back home as their feelings looking back are a crucial learning curve for us here.

2008 is a year that we at Sicambeni are going to use to build further on the sustainable foundations laid in 2007.

2008 kicks off with more volunteers arriving, coffee seeds planted and areas demarcated in the village for the plantation as well as more work on the gardens, water management and the brick making.

2007 was an exciting year with lots of firsts including volunteers, vegetable harvests and pushing forward with the coffee plantation.

Sicambeni has a new website going live (we'll update you on this new development) with a forum for ongoing discussion and debate around the way forward with the project and how interested people around the world can fit in and contribute their unique skills.

Once again the emphasis on people is absolutely crucial to the ongoing building and development of the sustainability project.

We are also writing a history for Wikipedia and will keep you updated. The project has come a long way since its inception and more leaps forward are planned but these don't happen on their own, they are people driven and then sustained by people.

Sustainability depends on the entire community being involved.

In a recent development we met with the community in Sicambeni and discussed the way forward as a joint project and not something that we, as volunteers, could make a decision about unilaterally.

There was a consensus about the positive results of the joint project so far and there were also some crucial questions asked by community members that we were able to answer and build further ties between volunteers and community members.

One of these was the question of where the community centre will be built, to which I answered that the community must decide on the site and then we’ll build it together.

There were some other moments of community and volunteer bonding when we were granted the use of some of the natural resources including the dam.

The end result of a small meeting like this is a giant leap forward with everybody involved aware of what others are doing, what has been achieved so far and where the community as a whole is heading towards.

This crucial concept of including everyone concerned within community decision making is paramount and something we are going to keep building on.

Shifting consciousness and convincing people that they can sustain themselves without outside interference.

The challenge in building a successful and sustainable community in a rural area is very simple. It means creating a paradigm change in people attitudes and perspectives. The shift in consciousness that kicks in once a person or persons realize that they can do it themselves is astounding.

Achieving this means not allowing the community to start to depend on the volunteers assisting them and teaching them the basics about permaculture and other life skills necessary to sustaining themselves alongside nature.

These volunteers will not remain indefinitely and should be able to reach a stage where they can move on having planted many seeds literally as well as figuratively in peoples’ minds that will germinate, grow and bear fruit in future discussion and interaction with other communities like themselves.

Many programs that start off with good intentions lapse and end up leaving 4x4 vehicles, empty school rooms and other evidence that they were indeed once there and yet these items are of no future use on their own to the rural community.

We are intent, at Sicambeni just outside Port St Johns, on teaching and nurturing the absolute basics for sustainable living and then letting the community evolve slowly, increasing their knowledge of permaculture and teaching others around them these basic fundamental life supporting skills.