We arrived in Quito on 15th October, we were met at the airport by Dario a one armed man with a taxi, well not really one armed, just one was in plaster. We were driven to our homestay which was in the centre of the Mariscal Sucre in Quito, we were in a sixth floor aprtment with a family consisting of Mother, Father and adult son of about 30ish. Also staying there was a girl from Prague by the name of Martina. This was not what i had envisaged when told we would be staying with a local Ecuadorian family, but never mind, the language school assured us it was safer than staying in the hostels. The first day we were there we had free, so we spent the day exploring the area and getting our ... read more

Continuing my tour around Israel, to say good bye to friends and to see some last sights has been fun, good to see people, good to find more treasures in this small but historically packed country. The journey has taken me back to the South, firstly to Shakharut (a village on my desert trek) where I went to stay with Iran and his girlfriend overnight in their desert house. It was lovely to be in the desert again, without the light and noise pollution from the town. The stars were so bright and the air so clear and although it is still very hot down south during the day, by night the temperatures have started to cool so there was a lovely evening breeze. It was so quiet and peaceful to stay, and to be woken ... read more

Once again we were off on another adventure to volunteer again at a kibbutz by the name of Netiv HaLamed-Heh, this was set in the hills about half an hour’s drive from Jerusalem. The group we were to help were a group of four sisters and their husbands (and numerous children). Three of the couples lived in the kibbutz, and all of the sisters in some way were connected to dance. They had been running a dance group called Vertigo and school for seventeen years, based in Jerusalem, with a touring group which they took to the USA yearly as well as putting on shows in various other countries. The kibbutz had at one time been a big chicken/egg producer and just below the village itself there were a group of about 8 huge steel framed ... read more

After resting for a few days we set off again in the direction North of the country to a place called Zivon. Through Lotan, we had been in contact via email and phone with a group of people who were part of a Kibbutz that were fairly new and small (24 families) but were in the process of turning the village into an Eco village, using grey water systems, growing vegetables, only buying from the locality, being aware of their carbon footprint, they were building using mud and wood Chipping’s from the locality. They were also in the process of setting up a learning centre to teach Perma-Culture. We took the train from Haifa north to Akko, then we took a bus on to Zivon, however, when we got to the station the bus had gone. ... read more

For some reason, unbeknown to me, we thought it may be a good idea to find out a bit more about building from mud. I think we are thinking ahead for when we travel (I hope) to South America, we thought it may be a skill that would come in handy. Well, suffice to say we were told by a friend in Haifa about this Kibbutz in the middle of the desert who are an ‘Eco’ friendly centre for learning and have build most of their kibbutz using mud and straw. As luck would have it they were running their very last course before the summer shut down (it get up to 40+ degrees there in the summer so it is too hot to run the courses or do anything much). There was a place available, ... read more