And so it's already been nearly a month of a quiet life at Kilombo. The time just seems to fly here even though on the surface not much seems to happen.
As soon as I arrived I really felt like part of the community here. It was so nice to be back and be able to call this place home. But once again I am finding it diffilult to describe the experience.
So what is it that I have been doing for the past month? Very simple stuff really: start a day with a healthy dose of capoeira (I never thought that doing exercise in the morning can lift your energy for the day but I have now been proven wrong and am a fan of waking up to play); then stock up on energy with breakfast (at the moment its endless days of couscous and banana and even if you do indeed like one or the other there are limits to how often you can eat it; so it now comes fried, boiled, raw - you get very creative to hide what you are actually eating). Then the day continues with work in the garden or in the house.
It was very interesting for me to discover how much peace I find in working with the earth. It became a kind of meditation. And of course its hugely rewarding to eat what you have planted...or even just see it rise from the ground. I have also found that there are certain dangers to working the garden in tropical countries. One day whilst cleaning out the weeds I have managed to put my hand about 3cm away from the head of the poisonous cobra. Very luckily for me the snake was not in the mood to bite and so I am here to tell the tale... Needless to say I have learned my lesson and proceeded to work around here with a bit more caution...
After the day of work its time for dinner and I have discovered that I really enjoy cooking for other people and actually am pretty good at it. Cooking becomes an art in Kilombo as even though you have plenty of natural produce you do miss stuff like eggs, milk, so you need to learn to improvise. Improvisation is a key word here but it makes you come up with solutions to every problem with things you never thought would work. Like using bananas for eggs, mud with flour and curry for paint...
Since the normal oven has been broken we use wood oven to make the bread. Again there is so much charm to making your own bread and then lighting up the outside oven with real wood to bake it. Its a whole day job do Saturday has now become the 'bread day'.
During my time here we also encountered a problem with bats. The only real solution was taking down the roof so now I can add a new profession to my CV - experienced roofer...
The time moves in accordance with nature. You need to really slow down and try to use your energy together with the weather - rest when it rains heavily, clean when its sunny, plant when it rains a little... I have also discovered the importance of moon - I havent quite figure it out yet but it seems that for the plants to grow you need to plant them before the full moon.
I feel really far away from everything here. By slowing down and staying in one place I got to rest from my travels, recharge and find some new talents I never thought I had. For me this really is an oasis of tranquility and I absloutely love it. All the things that are so important for my life in London have no meaning here - you don't need money, internet, alcohol; it seems that nature and good energy is all that I need for life.
People come and go here and you really learn how their energy influences the place and community and that some of us are really not designed or open minded enough to live in one...And really becomes a challenge to deal with such situations. It's a microcosm that can grow beautifully or get very easily disstabilised...
So to live in Kilombo you need a healthy dose of open mind, sense of humor and good energy to tackle anything thats thrown your way.
