Мы строим деревню / we are building ecovillage: корнями вниз или немного истории

Roots Down, or A Little History

pakuleva 22.11.13 в 18:12

A good friend of mine once said: "You know I think our Earth is the best place in the universe. And there's nowhere more wonderful... At any price we have to settle down here, on Earth. We must not fly off anywere, we won't find a better place, but we can lose this one. Amongst my friends there's a lot wanting to fly away out of here. And this is like trees, started growing roots upwards in the wrong direction. We have to turn over and start to grow roots downwards, in the earth. The best in the universe". I liked her words very much. The metaphore about the tree roots expressed my feelings I have been having these past few years - I want to grow roots downwards, like trees.

vladvic 24.11.13 в 05:17

The willingness to move to the eco settlement appeared to me about five years ago. And, since then, it's been slowly developing: I visited several settlements, have read a lot on this subject, been looking for like-minded people and land... And the geography of eco settlements was examined - the place for living drifted from Europe to the Far East, then shrunk down to Siberia, and after that - localized to Altay. And it's been three years when I knew I would live in Altay. In spring of 2011, I've heard rumors, that the people I knew (some of them I knew personally, some only "virtually") started at least to organize a settlement and gathered people who wanted to participate. I felt - this was what I need, watched some photographs, looked at the maps and read the description, then had called one of the co-ordinators and asked only a single question: is there any mosquitos in that area? (The memories about a land in Tumen Region were still fresh in my head, where, after we got out of the car, we've been almost eaten alive by mosquitos; we left alive, but the desire for ecological life got down). After getting the answer, that there is just a few, I told them I was participating. I did believe myself and my feelings. And the people who started this "adventure".

vladvic 24.11.13 в 05:34

So, at the beginning of May 2011 our delegation of the to-be-settlers with the representatives of several cities had come to the regional center to legalize the land ownership. It was a long process. We, again, were reassured that the bureaucracy is the greatest science on Earth. But everything resolved in our favor. About 1200 acres of land, the first part of our lot, was registered to our shared collective ownership. That was the beginning of our eco-experiment. Now, official.

vladvic 24.11.13 в 09:41

While looking for a place to live, a lot has changed in my private life. I had different relationships, visits to civilian registrars' for different, sometimes opposite purposes. Whatsoever, by the moment when in the settlement I'm writing about, the first building, less or more suitable for living, appeared, we were together with Natalia, and we were already thinking in what part of the valley were we going to start building our own house?

vladvic 24.11.13 в 18:42

I think it's a very important factor that the family should be unanimous in the issue of moving to the virgin lands. Anyway, I will write about it a bit later, and now another important question: "Why?"

pakuleva 22.11.13 в 18:15