Visitors observing and learning about recharge wells, as part of our demosite
The sky was overcast, the soils were still wet from the rain, and the early morning drizzle decided to fall again. At 12.30, a group of students from St. Mary’s College of California, equipped with umbrellas and curiosity, entered IDEP’s demo site. This January 26th 2023 visit is also the first ever visitation for us in the year 2023. After welcoming chit-chat and lunch, the group which consists of 22 students and two lecturers then gathered in the Training Center to start the agenda at 13.30.
This visitation also suited as a learning opportunity for the students to get to know the community development and empowerment model developed by IDEP. Specifically, the implemented model within the permaculture garden on IDEP’s demo site. For more effective information and dissemination, the group was spread into four batches. Each batch then taking turns inspected each post within the demo site. There were five posts, which consisted of the recharge well, seed nursery and dryer, local seed bank, medicinal herb and vegetables garden, compost processing, and waste water garden.
Visit one of the honey production in Kemenuh Village
The students enthusiastically participated in the discussion session. Even so, few decided to jot down the visitation on their notes. One of them is Jessica Pham, whose friends usually call her Jess. “I am here in Bali studying abroad, learning about sustainability, as well as environmental activism or ecological restoration, as with my class. And today, I visited IDEP to learn more about their function within the Balinese communities in restoring the ecology,” said Jess when we talked with her. According to Jess, the retained information from this visitation would be proven beneficial for her personally. She wishes to implement the compost processing in her backyard.
Drizzle fell once again. The group left the demo site, strolled around Kemenuh Village. After visiting rice fields and the green environment around us, we along with the group ended our tour in Bli Yanik’s bee farm, which is located 300 meters from our office. The group looked around the farm and tasted honey produced by various kinds of bees, before finalizing the visitation, pocketing experiences.
Article & Photo: Nicolaus Sulistyo © IDEP Foundation