New rooms at Jiwa Damai

New blogs_room2

These are the new rooms, that we recently built here at Jiwa Damai.

The rooms are quite basic, with a beautiful stone floor and lots of light.

New logs_room

Come by yourself and check it out !

Troubled waters

When I arrived at Jiwa Damai the pressing issue of a lack of infrastructure to manage the large amounts of waste now being produced here in Bali, was quickly brought to the forefront.  My initial exposure to this was on my first beach walk from Legian to Seminyak when I noted trash scattered beneath my feet.  I was informed here that common practices of disposing trash include dumping it into the rivers or local waterways, burning the trash (plastics included releasing toxic chemicals into the air) or simply creating a trash pile in the backyard.  Each of these methods have both environmental and personal health implications that will surely grow worse as production here tries to keep up with mass amounts of visitors like myself. In an effort to begin addressing this issue, our host here at Jiwa Damai has begun a program to educate locals in the village of Mambal on the hazards of the current methods utilized for trash disposal.  As well, the volunteers and interns here at Jiwa maintain a weekly schedule of picking up trash from the river that runs through this beautiful property.

Troubled waters 1

Troubled Waters 2

Like many systemic problems, this one will take time and collaborative efforts to resolve.   For me, it was important to be exposed to a place like Jiwa where I could become a participant in the solution rather than just taking a backseat, as is easy to do when you are just a visitor.

Troubled Waters 3

Birth of a healthy boy

Recently a very special event took place at Jiwa Damai - the birth of a healthy boy. Our volunteers Miquela and Terry, staying here for 4 months already, are the happy parents. Seems like her child wanted to be born here at Jiwa Damai.

birth

The birth took place in the Health Room with the big bathtub. The parents wanted an underwater birth. The birth was accompanied by the now famous Ibu Robin midwife of Bali and her assistant. Robin Lim received the annual CNN Heroes for 2011 price for her teaching and practice of Gentle Birthing methods. Read more about Robin Lim at www.robinlimsupport.org.

In this type of birth, the child remains for a while underwater before being taken onto the breast by the mother. The placenta remains attached until it dries out by itself and drops off, until about 2 -3 days after.

As you can see, the mother and baby are in best shape possible.

birth (1)

Congratulations and all the best to the little family!

Jiwa Damai feels blessed and honored to have welcomed this soul.

Permaculture through the heart - internship program

Permaculture through the heart Jiwa Damai Agro permaculture and retreat center is located on a four hectare property next to Banjar Bindu, Mambal in the district of Badung, Bali, in a small tropical valley.

The Flora and Fauna are diverse, including Coconut-, and Banana trees, ponds, a small river, plants and a jungle which is home to numerous traditional Balinese healing plants.

JD main picture

We offer a four week intensive internship training

This innovative program blends introductory with advanced learning and application of the core principles of tropical Permaculture/gardening with Self exploration from a transpersonal psychological perspective.

Experiencing Permaculture through the heart presents a unique opportunity to combine class room Permaculture learning with “hands-on” experience, complementing the active physical engagement with the soil with an inner attitude of loving alignment with the earth.

The internship is a combination of personal growth processes, allowing our heart energy to flow into our work with the earth, environment, water, soil, plants and people.

This program is the first of its kind, working with the psychological framework of the mind, theoretical Permaculture principles, design and planning, planting, harvesting and food preparation - all in alignment with the heart energy.

The fundamental understanding of the Permaculture principals, the interconnectedness and interaction of nature and environment will be aligned with our own personality landscape and deep inner nature which directly impacts the quality and nutritional value of the food.

Program and Activities

The theoretical and hands on learning is complimented by a daily early morning yoga session and heart meditation.

Two field trips to other Permaculture centers on the island are planned during the 4 week course.

Two cooking classes will be also be offered featuring Balinese vegetarian and raw foods.

An excursion and exploration of the local spices and medicinal herbs grown in the area will also be included.

Yoga session

Week One: Classes in theoretical Permaculture will take place for 2-3 hours every day, including discussion and evaluation application of the principles via hands-on practice.

Week Two: 2-3 hours daily, unfolding the HeartSelf-intelligence, and an experiential transpersonal psychological approach to Self exploration will be offered.

Week Three: Designing an environmental group project to be executed in Jiwa Damai.

Week Four: Focusing on your personal project design, presenting it to the group as well as receiving input and feedback.

Interns are encouraged to research and investigate areas or potential project sites which may welcome and benefit from your support and feedback following the internship.

Permaculture topics

Ethics and principles in Permaculture design

Understanding environment, weather patterns and location, seeing the large scale

Planting patterns and design

Water infrastructures

Composting with IMO or EM

Ecological Insect control

Indigenous building materials, bamboo

Edible Aqua Plant Permaculture

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Organic food topics

Virgin coconut oil production

Balinese ceremonial and medicinal herbs

Organic raw food preparation

Balinese vegetarian cooking, local spices

Topics of the heart

Unfolding the qualities of the heart

Aligning the brain with the heart

Respect and appreciation for Self and the Earth

Translating transpersonal inner values to the soil and earth

Connecting to the heart of the Earth

Our international faculty brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the program.

Ketut Badung is Balinese and has received his Permaculture training from IDEP Bali, Indonesia. He is our head gardener with an in-depth knowledge of local Balinese Flora and Fauna as well as Western plants which feed an nourish our team and guests. Under his care, the Jiwa Damai gardens have flourished since their inception twelve years ago.

Shelby graduated from Florida State University with a degree in International Affairs and a concentration in Sustainable Agriculture. While in school, Shelby managed an educational community garden and began her own Permaculture based urban farm after finishing her degree. She continues learning new techniques daily through a partnership with Edible Landscapes, a Permaculture design install team and through her own constantly evolving farm.

Uwe Scholz studied Permaculture with Rico Zook (USA) in Darjeeling, India. He is developing his Permaculture node in the mountains in Bali and likes to built earth houses. He is a graduate Dipl.-Ing. in informatics and computer sciences from University of applied sciences in Frankfurt, Germany.

Terry Trushel loves to transform plants with thrive in extreme conditions, such as desert and tropical environs. He established a landscape gardening business in Ashland, Oregon, USA before moving to Bali. He graduated form the Logan College of chiropractic and holds a diplomate in orthopedics.

Miquela de Ris is a certified Tri-Yoga Teacher, specializing in Yoga Flow, meditation and Kriya Yoga.She received her Yoga training at the Datta Peetham Ashram in Mysore, India and apprenticed in raw foods with Jeremy Saffron in Maui. Hawaii. She majored at the Berkshire, Massachusets community college in Peace and world order.

Margret Rueffler is the founder and caretaker of Jiwa Damai Agro-Permaculture and Retreat Center. She holds a Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology and is an acupuncturist and teaches internationally. Her books have been translated in several languages.

Course tuition: 18 735.000 IDR             $US 1 950.00

Times: Class and working times are from 09.00 am to 5.00 pm excluding weekends. The course is limited to 15 people.

To enroll in the course or if you want to receive more information , please contact us via email: info@jiwadamai.net

Restoring our pond

Here at Jiwa Damai we have a wonderful pond with a variety of aquatic life and beautiful water lily’s.  The pond covers an area of 200 square meters and has been an integral part of the atmosphere here since the very beginning of Jiwa almost 14 years ago. In recent weeks we realized the level of water is going down; first we thought that was due to normal evaporation.  For several days we let water into the pond with a hose, but the water level continued to drop.  After an inspection by local building company we were informed that pond has countless leaks.

Margaret decided that we had to repair the pond even though the project would be quite cumbersome.  First, all the fishes had to be taken out by draining the pool to a lower level and the Balinese staff had to catch them with nets to move them out.  After that the remaining water was pumped out until it was empty.

Our pond before the drain

The pond after the drain

She then hired 12 local women to take all the stones and mud out of the pond.  They worked incredibly hard and at an unseen pace.

Working on the pond

Lifting the stone

Please visit our blog soon to see what the next phase will bring...

Organic jackfruit

Our permaculture garden is home to several jackfruit trees. Jackfruit is a quite exotic fruit with an uncommon flavour, pretty much unknown outside Asia. The jackfruit tree is well suited to tropical lowlands, and its fruit is the largest tree-borne fruit, reaching as much as 80 pounds (36 kg) in weight and up to 36 inches (90 cm) long and 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter.

This jackfruit was just harvested. Ketut is on his way to the kitchen, so our lovely cook can make dryed jackfruit chips. Yammi..

Ketut Jackfruit_1000px

The flesh of the jackfruit is starchy and fibrous, and is a source of dietary fibre. The flavour is similar to a tart banana. Varieties are distinguished according to the characteristics of the fruits' flesh.

jackfruit

In the kitchen the fruit is opened, the flesh is extracted and the meat cut into slices.

Jackfruit drying2

Jackfruit drying3

Ripe jackfruit is naturally sweet with subtle flavouring. It can be used to make a variety of dishes, including custards and cakes. Our slices will be dryed in our food drying oven, an special oven that is used in the raw food kitchen.

After the drying process we package the jackfruit chips in bags for sale and further distribution. See our homemade products at Jiwa Damai.

Abundance of nature

We are blessed with fertile grounds at Jiwa Damai. Basically, every time anyone takes a walk around the permaculture garden, there are fruits, herbs and veggies ripe and ready to be harvested.

Basil harvest

Tomato harvest

Storms over Bali

Uprooted tree

We had several very severe storms on Bali lately.  This last one has uprooted 7 of our beautiful trees. The storm caused quite some damage on our premise -  one of the entrances to the coconut house was damaged, and also a small bridge was destroyed when a tree fell on it.

Destroyed bridge 2

Currently we are in the process of cleaning up the mess. Soon we'll start reconstruction.....

Roof cleaning the Balinese way

It is rainy season on Bali. Heavy rains and storms are quite common during this time of the year. One side effect of the rain, in combination with the hot and humid temperature is the fast growth of algae, weeds and fungus. The roof of our green house was completely covered with algae. No sunlight would come through the roof anymore, …which the plants down beneath did not like of course.

Something had to be done. Ketut was very creative in developing a tool, a special brush, with which he could clean the roof.

And see what kind of cool construction Ketut made: A bamboo stick, with hair from a coconut shell attached to it as well as a water hose.

Roof cleaning

This construction worked quite efficiently and not before long, the sunlight would shine through the roof again !

Ketut cleaning roof

Roof cleaning2

A trip to the East of Bali

Here on Bali there are many beautiful places and attractions which our guests can visit during their stay on the island. Many of the sights can be reach within few hours. At Jiwa Damai we organize day-trips and excursions for our guests, according to their wishes. We have a privat driver who will be exclusively at your service.

Today we want to take you to the northeast of the island, to a small village called Amed. This is a very calm place, ideal for relaxing  with beaches of black lava sand.

Ahmed beach

In Amed you can find pretty cheap accommodation. We can book a hotel or guest house for you if you wish. The thing to do there is go snorkling. There is a huge ship wreck lying few meters away from the beach, grown over with beautiful colorful corals and plants. Tropical fish are swimming through the corals - an amazing sight !

Along the way up to the north you will pass the famous sight of Tirta Ganga - the ancient royal water gardens. Tirta Ganga was built by the last Balinese king of Karangasem.

It is definitely worth to stop here and take a walk around. The beauty and serenity of the place is astounding.

Tirta Ganga

Tirta Ganga

Ask us for individual excursions and day trips. We will be glad to arrange a trip for you, exploring the beautiful Balinese nature and/or getting to know Balinese culture.