Newest Residents at Jiwa Damai

Lava rocks

During his visit, Juergen from Germany, who is a Geomantist, the European version of Feng Shui, observed the property and its layout. Since many waters embrace and flow through Jiwa Damai, he strongly suggested adding stones, preferably Lava stones, the fire element, to balance the water on the property. What a great reason to make Jiwa Damai a home for huge lava stones from Mount Agung, the holy mountain in Bali. After inspecting and choosing the location carefully, a crew of ten men transported each rock, the largest one weighing 350 kg, to its location. The rocks are set 35-40% deep into the earth and placed on the opposite ends of our garden. Five rocks have been brought to Jiwa Damai and two of them are still awaiting their placement.

Jackfruit Season!

We are currently enjoying our second flush of organic Jackfruit from the garden. The trees fruited a few months ago before Christmas and are again yielding mammoth fruits for us to savour. Parting the strong skin with a large knife and peeling out the fruit makes our hands very sticky, while providing a unique aroma and taste. We thinly slice some of the fruit to put in our dehydrator, so we can enjoy this delicious treat on the out-of-season months. The seeds can be chopped and roasted for salads, boiled and blended into a delicious rich hummus, or boiled in soups and stews.

Our pond fish enjoy eating the remaining Jackfruit flesh attached to the peel as a special seasonal treat and for some variation in their diet. Yes, pond fish love fruit too! You'll never have to throw away a peel again if you simply compost it or feed it to whatever friendly critters you have around.

You may see trees with large sacks hanging between the branches all over our garden. These are the young Jackfruit which we cover in order to protect from fruit flies that sting and destroy it. All fruit is enjoyed without using poisonous and harmful chemicals.

Jackfruit

Jackfruit seeds

Mandala Garden Progress

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Our tireless helpers, Anya, Autumn and Russell, and our faithful work-study Jordy from Sumba Island, were re-invigorating and bringing our Mandala Garden back into its wonderful design. All individual areas were covered with coconut shells (left from our coconut oil production) and the new plantings are emerging and peeking out from in between. Covering the soil with the shells, fewer weeds will grow. The coconut shells serve another very important purpose as well, slowly decomposing to become a great fertilizer and compost for the future plants. In addition, the coconut shells help reduce our water consumption by protecting the soil from the sun during the dry season and stop erosion of the soil from the heavy rain during the rainy season.

Autumn

In the tropics printed signs bleach in no time, due to the strength of the sun. Previously written signs on bamboo sticks faded and decomposed within a month. Based on these experiences, the current solution is to use plastic pipes and markers. Autumn is preparing the signs. At this point this method has proven to last much longer. The Mandala Garden, aside from being a symbolic design and a pleasure to the eyes, produces our fresh organic vegetables for our consumption.

Trying to maintain our river clean

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One of our most challenging and complicated issues is the pollution of the river which runs through Jiwa Damai. Much garbage and plastic is coming down our way. After putting up nets, and other barriers, we now built a solid fence which does not break and does not allow the plastic to go further. However, this implies that we have to daily put on our rubber gloves and clean the debris which are caught and fill them in large plastic bags to be picked up and taken to a landfill. Unfortunately there is no recycling of plastic yet in Bali.

Tai Chi workshop

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This was our first Tai chi workshop in a series which is planned to take place in a regular basis in Jiwa Damai. It was a 4 days program, introducing people to Chi Gong in the mornings and in the afternoons Tai Chi.  The next one will be in March. .

Meet Our Volunteers

There are several volunteers from every corner of the world working hard at Jiwa Damai to help maintain our beautiful permaculture garden and retreat center. In the spirit of community, we'd love to introduce you to a few of them!

Luz, Argentina

Luz from Argentina

1 month at Jiwa Damai

It´s been a long time since Luz first came to Indonesia. For 16 months she’s been living in East Java, in Malang city, where she is an international lecturer in the communication department at the university. Often you can find Luz working in the garden, where she likes to learn about plants, but her main duty at JiwaDamai, because she studied Image and Sound design, is shooting a promotional video about our various on-site activities. In her free time, she likes to watch movies, read books, and cook. She wants to fulfill all her dreams and keep them real.

What is your life goal? To make people think, and to leave some inspiration in the people around me.

Favorite Quote “Life’s a journey, not a destination.”

Marina from Slovakia

Marína, Slovakia

6 weeks at Jiwa Damai

Marína came to Indonesia 17 months ago. She works together with Luz at the same university in Malang city, as a lecturer of Journalism. Before coming to Indonesia, she worked as journalist for more than ten years. She spent two years in Barcelona and now she is living out a big Indonesian adventure. You can find her watering the nursery in our garden or scrubbing floors, which she considers one of her favorite tasks. She is afraid of worms, spiders and snakes. She is responsible for our newsletter, so she spends the majority of her time writing articles and thinking about new, interesting topics. Marína is a huge fan of Crossfit, yoga, books, and swimming in the sea. She adores everything related to her dream country – Spain.

What is your life goal? I want to always be happy and satisfied with my actual work and the life I live. And I want to always be able to follow my dreams and to change my situation if I am not content.

What is your life dream? I would like to meet a nice guy, settle down and have my own family. I would like to feel the taste of the sea on my skin as often as I can get it.

Favorite Quote When a student is ready, a teacher will appear.

Calsae, California (USA)

Calsae from USA

1 month at JiwaDamai

Calsae arrived in Bali with her best friend Gloria two months ago. “We were traveling together all around the island. After that, we’re going all across Asia. We start in Indonesia, and hopefully we will see all of South East Asia: Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, all the way up to India and Nepal. After that I think we’re going to Eastern Europe. Maybe I’ll end up in Berlin and live there for a while. Or maybe I’ll go back to Netherlands and live there for a bit, because I have a lot of family on my Dad’s side there. And I’ll go back to California eventually. I don´t know,” she smiles carelessly, this highly optimistic girl who graduated in June with a degree in English literature. You can find her working on our new Chinampas project, struggling in the mud or cutting up heavy coconut leaves. Besides this she takes care of our marketing, contributes to the newsletter and gives morning yoga classes. She likes reading, writing, playing the guitar and banjo, cooking, baking, hiking, swimming, and practicing yoga.

What is your life goal? That´s what I am trying to figure out. I guess my life goal would just be to have a happy and fulfilling life.

What is your life dream? My life dream… That’s kind of what I am trying to figure out on this trip. I want to travel the world. I want to keep learning and growing and eventually I want move to a beautiful place close to the people I love. After that, I want live a happy life with my family.

Favourite quote "I saw that my life was a vast, glowing, empty page and I could do anything I wanted." - Jack Kerouac

Gloria from USA

Gloria, California (USA)

1 month at JiwaDamai

Gloria is Celsae´s best friend, but they’re really more like twins. Blonde, dreadlocked, and always smiling, Gloria majored in Environmental Studies in university, and is a perfect fit for the lush permaculture haven that is Jiwa Damai. Passionate about permaculture and the environment, Gloria is enjoying her time at Jiwa Damai, describing it as intensive labor with many opportunities to learn and meet new friends. Her favorite work here is using the machete to liberate trees from crawling jungle vines, and she has plans to design and build a medicinal herb spiral during her time here. After Jiwa Damai, Gloria´s travel plans are about the same as Celsae´s, as they are traveling together.

What is your life goal?

“I want to see the world, and learn about different cultures, ways of thinking and ways of doing things. I love adventure… and I don’t have a real job, so I’m free to wander! Her favorite place she has been so far are the hidden beaches on Bhukit peninsula, “secret spots,” she says laughing. Already an avid traveler, Gloria lived in South America for a year, during which she learned fluent Spanish, trekked Machu Picchu, and backpacked for six weeks through the wilderness of Patagonia. Her life goal is to have lots of wild adventures and make the world a brighter place, spreading positive energy and reconnecting humans with our Mother Earth. She like cooking, hiking, and surfing… or as she puts it “shredding the gnar.”

What is your life dream? To continue traveling and never stop meeting beautiful people.

Favourite quote? Be unique,  just like everybody else.

Organic food served in Jiwa Damai

Here you can see a couple of dishes served in the vegan yoga class in Jiwa Damai.

Our garden is organically certified, so they are 95 percent organic. 

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Our food comes from our garden, cooked with coconut oil made on the property, healthy food. Bon appétit!

Chinampas progress

We are working hard in the swamp at Jiwa Damai.  Chinampas – floating gardens - our new project has been in progress since the beginning of January. The muddy tangle of weeds is becoming a nourishing garden, step by step. Mud, heavy coconut leafs and green cuttings are the basic layers of our new child. Once the layering is complete, the top of the chinampas will sit above the surface of the water, leaving an elevated platform on which to plant the garden. When the layers are complete, we will plant trees along the perimeter of each frame. As the roots grow they will secure the structure of the chinampas, supplanting the bamboo frames, which eventually will rot away. The whole project will be built using only materials sourced from our property, making it a zero-waste, 100% biomaterial structure. Check some pictures and follow the progress, it goes incredibly fast.

Our Christmas tree

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This is our Christmas tree at the entrance of our dining area. Our guests from Germany and Switzerland helped decorate the tree. And to do that they had to move into the water.  We still keep it, you can come and check it out by yourself

Chinampas project

Chinampas project

We have just started our new project - chinampas. Our volunteers, Egle, Hannah and Chris are going to change this piece of wild jungle into the breathtaking floating garden. In couple of weeks.