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.

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.

Building small farmers and sustainable village communities by increasing coffee production makes sense in South Africa.

Coffee is the second biggest commodity traded globally after oil, and South Africa is not even listed globally as a producer. This information comes out of the farmers weekly, http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/index.php?p[IGcms_nodes][IGcms_nodesUID]=da803a3f67b81bbecddcfd61f0a6115f
, and raises some interesting questions regarding the lack of coffee production in South Africa.

At 100ha, the current portion of land dedicated to coffee is quite ridiculous given that coffee originated on the African continent where climate, soil and high unemployment and poverty make the region ideally suited for coffee growing and processing.

Coffee is a labour intensive crop that would benefit areas of high unemployment like the Wild Coast (old Transkei). It is also ideal for inclusion in sustainable rural village projects as it provides work as well as income for the community.

South Africa also has an advantage with none of the major diseases that affect coffee plants except leaf rust. farmers weekly goes on to say that the gene bank currently contains rust resistant varieties that augurs well for organic coffee production.

The Sicambeni sustainable village project near Port St Johns is an ideal location for coffee growing with soil that is unspoilt by commercial farming exploitation leaving a vast potential for organic yields.

There are moves to increase land dedicated to coffee crops and to assist and train small farmers in Mpumalanga and Kwazulu-Natal but more needs to be done to bring the smaller communities into the game possibly via a cooperative style arrangement.

With the potential for increased jobs as well as export possibilities it makes a great deal of sense to focus on building up this microscopic local industry and providing employment, home grown South African coffee for the local market as well as increased potential in export earnings.

Dear Luke,


I would like to congratulate you again on the work you are doing at Amapondo. And “congratulate” might not be the best word… It’s better to thank you, to encourage you, and to reflect back to you a bit of the infectious energy I experienced. I was impressed and inspired during my short stay as I tried to submerge myself in the Amapondo world. I had two overwhelming impulses: to learn and to contribute, and nothing else seemed to matter.


Your projects are multi-faceted and many-leveled, and because of that you will attract a large spectrum of people and achieve highly varied success. Because of your stance as a facilitator and Amapondo’s potential as a hub, the possibilities are endless. It’s as if Amapondo is in the center of two funnels pointed in at each other—or it’s the middle of an hourglass—and people come from everywhere to find a launch pad and a small tribe of collaborators, provocateurs, and guides quietly welcoming them to accomplish anything.


Your central thesis of cultivating initiative and sustainability in individual communities should be the mantra of a new world order. It seems to me the truest approach to alleviating the current plight of people who are misled by money, media, and self-serving leadership. Your work restores self-worth and independent thought in places that have been disrupted, displaced and deprived of these basic rights. But at the same time your project is not about politics, global poverty, or about redressing the past; it is about giving life now to those around us.


You provide a starting place—a physical, productive, and comprehensible way to act in response to an overwhelmingly chaotic struggle. As a privileged foreigner I must admit that I was overcome by the struggle I found in South Africa. Amapondo has established an accessible and open dialogue, an active forum for questions of cultural relations that begins with nonverbal discourse, communal action and creation. I believe in this kinetic contact and take the same approach when teaching or touring with my own physical theatre company. Your program at Amapondo calls for action and not discussion because you are seeking to effect change, not to generate ideas.


In the end, my greatest take-away from my experience was the cultural education and social consciousness that blossomed in me. Amapondo raised many questions for me about community service, cultural arrogance, colonization, and the capitalist empire. I see my own nation and its history in a new light, and I have a more tactile understanding of the global ramifications of American action—individual, federal, and corporate. I also understand how important this type of education could be to other Americans and American culture. However, this was my experience and just part of the Amapondo ripple you have sent across the Atlantic. Educating privileged Americans is not your mission, nor should it be, but this is one way your program is able to work on multiple levels.



Clearly I’ve been deeply effected by my time at Amapondo. Thank you for everything you have given me. Your community plays an incredible host, and I am looking forward to the soonest I will be able to return.


Warmest regards,


Thom
Artistic Director
The Savannah Theatre Project

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.