At Jiwa Damai all plants, grow at an extraordinary speed. Kadek, our gardener and Mariano, our Spanish volunteer and Koko our Japanese volunteer are cleaning the area, to be mulched and prepared for ginger, garlic and other plants.
Our Garden Lumbung from Jiwa Damai, which has housed many volunteers so far was badly in need of repair. We had to remove the beautiful alive cover of passion fruit. It was embedded in it and we had to remove the old wrotten pieces. Phillip, a German carpenter is undertaking the renovation now. The termites had eaten much of the structural posts. Since the last violent storm we had, several trees had fallen and after being cut properly they came in very handy to replace the old posts. We will keep you updated on the progress.
Cleaning the plastic from our river in the forest. Every two days, our local team and our volunteers collect the accumulated plastic which is caught in the net we placed across the river. It is then taken to the main road to our garbage container, where a truck picks it up every 2 weeks to take it to the larger landfill.
At Jiwa Damai, we love to explore and experiment and we are very open to new ideas. We encourage learning by doing in our permaculture garden.
Cedric was volunteering for a 6 month period. While completing his other volunteer responsibilities, he had an opportunity to research cacao beans and cacao fungus. He also experimented with different mixtures of chocolate and sugar: 90% , 80% and 65%. We all loved the 80% best! Read Cedric's full research paper --> Cacao production at Jiwa Damai
At Jiwa Damai we produce useful research and we share it with the community. The following article is meant as a support for those who wish to learn about cacao, the black pod disease and methods how to deal with it. This article contains a short overview to thehistory and the ecology of the cacao, a summary of the cacao plantation in Jiwa Damai and a description of the black pod disease.
The article was the work of our volunteer, Cedric Ricci, under the supervision of Dr. Margret Rueffler.
Jiwa Damai is located in a tropical forest with many cacao trees. However the cacao production has decreased in the past years due to a black pod infection.
Dowload the article and feel free to share it with your friends. --> Cacao production at Jiwa Damai
Our Balinese team and our international volunteers from France, Spain, Japan, Austria and Germany decorated our Christmas tree.
We are hanging some lovely ornaments on the Frangipani tree at the entrance of the dining area. We hope the strong rains will leave our beautiful decorations hanging :) Merry Christmas!
It is absolutely amazing how people from all over the world are coming together at Jiwa Damai, in the heart of Bali!
Ow and here we tried a selfie at lunchtime! Find out more about our education activities on jiwadamai.net website!
We are very grateful for the work of our volunteers at Jiwa Damai, in Bali. We appreciate their help and we hope that they also enjoy the beauty and the peace of our place. Here are the thoughts of ZaneLeadley on the volunteer program.
"I was a volunteer at Jiwa Damai for two months from September - October 2015. Jiwa Damai is a special place that fosters learning, creativity, and inner growth. In addition to working in the garden, teaching English, and promoting Jiwa Damai's internships, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on my own aquaponics project. I am very grateful for the opportunity. The food is delicious, the people are fantastic and the place is idyllic."
Sabine from Austria and Shannon from California are lovingly cleaning our Water Angel and the place on a little island at the end of Jiwa Damai walk ways. They have to use a brush to remove all the algae which settles on the stones and the statue.
volunteers in bali
We thank our volunteers for their work at Jiwa Damai. If you are interested in the program, have a look at our website!
volunteers at jiwa damai
Jiwa Damai is a hands-on, socially responsible organic garden and retreat center.
We are located amidst lush tropical vegetation in the heart of Bali (20 mins from Ubud).
