The raising of the seeds

Plant nursery_

The permaculture garden at Jiwa Damai features a plant nursery. This area is sheltered by a roof to protect the seeds from the heavy tropical rains.

One challenge we have is to raise the little seeds, grow them into small plants,  that can then be planted into the grounds.

Plant nursery

The ideal thing would be to grow the seeds in biodegradable pots. On Bali, unfortunately there are no biodegradable pots available. So once more we had to be inventive and develop our own devices: We use cut banana leaves, which are  folded into the shape of a pot.

Plant nursery (1)

This technique is working very well. The seeds develop beautifully. Once big enough they are planted in the organic garden.

Plant nursery (2)

Balinese temple ceremony

A special highlight at our first week volunteering here at Jiwa Damai was an invitation from the staff  to attend two temple ceremonies. We left here late afternoon with 2 cars, but in order to attend we had to dress in traditional Balinese clothes.  Our guide for the evening and the President of Lagu Damai Foundation, Wira, brought sarongs, udengs (headpiece for men), ribbons and a blouse for us to dress in.  Finally, Astri picked some beautiful flowers that we wore behind our ears; now looking a bit more like the locals, we were ready.

Intaba and Daniel with Balinese hosts, dressed and ready to go

After a good hour drive we arrived at the first temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur, the main sukas and water temple in Bali.  Out of our car windows we could see myriads of people with offerings on their way to the temple.

Locals making their way to bring offerings to the temple

We walked through a stunning carved gate to find ourselves in a big courtyard where a band was playing music.  A group of mostly older men performed a warrior dance with symbolic spears.

Traditional Balinese dancer inside the temple

It appeared we were the only foreigners that were welcomed to the inner- temple, which we can attribute to our Balinese friends.

Once inside we watched as offerings were presented to the Gods.  We kept a small box made out of banana leaves containing flowers and incense in front of us.

Various offerings presented throughout the ceremony

Sitting on the floor we meditated for brief periods throughout the ceremony.  At the end of the ceremony we took some rice out of a silver bowl, put it on our forehead and then ate a bit.  Afterwards, we were blessed with sacred water.  The sun had already set while leaving the temple and the full moon came up behind Mount Agung; the scenery was just breath-taking.

We set off to the second temple ceremony at the Mother Temple of Besakih.  The Besakih Temple is the largest and most important temple in Bali and is at the base of Mount Agung.  We had the honor of experiencing a second ceremony there as well before heading back.

Beautiful Mt. Agung with moon rising up as we were leaving

We were very tired after the adventure and slept in our car seats the whole way back to Jiwa Damai.

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.....