April 16: The Story of OUR Ecovillage

The day began before the sun rose with the starting of the fire in the yurt. Just as the sun peeked over the horizon, William showed up and the yoga began. Willam's style is his own, combining Iyengar yoga, personal experimentation, and the native medicine wheel. The body's circular sections are balanced in every motion, every asana, every breath. The last time I had been up for a sunrise was when I had been up partying all night. I've been sleeping in for many years but this morning of yoga with a sunrise shining on the lake awoke so much more than my body. The whole day, I felt fresh and energized in my solar plexus, especially because of the root locks that he includes in a few asanas. Thankfully, he has agreed to bless us with leading 6am yoga many days of the week.

Brandy spoke for a few hours on the history of O.U.R. Ecovillage. O.U.R. stands for One United Resource. What a gauntlet these people have run to get to where they are. It all started with the dreams of a group of naive, idealistic, wonderful social health workers who wanted to start an ecovillage. They encountered so much adversity and outright hostility from the locals and government who were worried that it was some sort of cult or degenerate hippy commune, because anyone who wants to live that way must be crazy, right? Then there were the zoning and building codes to deal with. At one point after having their lofty proposal rejected by the government officials and receiving all the building and zoning code jargon of why it couldn't happen, Brandy said in an honest, sweet, disappointed tone, "you mean we can't live sustainably?" The relationship between government and the ecovillage trailblazers slowly and painstakingly became a partnership. Together, they created a whole new zone for the ecovillage to include bylaw elements of residential, educational, agricultural, environment protection, and commercial zones. That's truly groundbreaking. I am so inspired by the people who have been raising this place and community for almost a decade now. Also, in partnership, they built a hybrid natural building with half straw bale walls, half cob walls, a green roof, radiant floor heating, and rain water collection with $100 000 funding contribution from the government. Officially it's called the Climate Change Demonstration Building but we all call it the Healing Santuary. It's the most beautiful building I've experienced and the only building to actually give me tears of joy.

After our morning tea break, Elke Cole talked to the group about learning and teaching methods of the ecovillage, and specifically her own teaching method. Though Elke doesn't have any formal teaching education, she's one of the best teachers I've ever had. I feel like a peer learning from her. She gives us a lot of participation exercises, to the point where we talk more than she does but all the lessons gets learned. It's very engaging. I think it helps that she doesn't like lecturing. Since Elke is our main instructor for the program, I couldn't be happier and the group has been giving the same feedback as well. She expressed that if we are missing something or need to learn it in another way or method, to just ask. Imagine if all of our teachers were so open and trusting. We've been flying through the material and it never feels like a chore or obligation, it feels like engaging fun, growth and participation in something really awesome.

After lunch, we walked to and hiked up Mount Baldy, the mountain closest to the site. The hike was filled with learning about local flora and breathtaking views of the surrounding villages, valleys, lake Shawnigan and the Pacific Ocean. The mountain has a medicine circle set up by native people from the Cowichan tribe that correlates to the medicine circle that is about 50 feet from where I'm writing this in the ecovillage Yurt. With the friendship that the people of the ecovillage have formed with the native tribe, many ceremonies take place here lead by visitors from the Cowichan tribe. When one of the elders came to visit, we asked if she would lead a pipe ceremony with us and she gladly agreed. There also might be an Amazonian shaman coming to hold ceremony here as well. I'm sure we'll have many surprise visitors and events to fit into the already packed schedule.

That night, after supper, we watched Topia, a documentary on ecovillages that Brandy created for her masters thesis. Most of the film covered some existing ecovillages from around the world that Brandy visited. I highly recommend it as an eye opener of what's possible and successfully existing under the model of communal, intentional, ecological living.

During the film, a massive bonfire was lit for Katie's last night here. She had been living and working on the gardens and livestock for a month prior to our arrival. She's from Toronto too and had to return for a work commitment. She was so sad to leave and even though we only knew her for a few day, we were all pretty sad as too. When I get back to Toronto, we're going to get together and make waves.