Well, things didn´t exactly go as planned after the program ended, but, that´s generally how life goes, huh?

First off, I am in Chile now, at my family´s house . . . for all of you who have been wondering. =:)

Second off. . . where was I? Brasil. Ralph, you are right. I love your birthplace. The end of the program was intense. Our final projects were due right before we ended, so the last week was filled with project time as well as lessons and trying to finish all of our personal goals as well. I didn´t sleep a couple nights, but what´s new, right? Our final projects were the outlines for the sustainable school. Our group´s designs were awesome, and so were all the other groups´designs. Everyone was really creative and practical. This is what I love about Permaculture. It IS intelligent design. Working within the natural strengths of your environment and protecting and exemplyfying what aspects benefit you. Our group´s design was a muti-cultural building focus with an observatory that included a chemistry lab that was half underground to allow for maintaining an appropriate cool temperature year round and to be able to use the walls as classroom practicums. One wall had within it a worm and ant "home" to view and also soil layering and root systems. The chemistry lab included a soil sampling and water sampling practicum so that the kids can learn about contamination effects and also how the natural environment can be used to clean and remediate contaminated areas. Inside the main tunnel there were two staircases that would around both sides to meet at a certain level which as a small walkway thay circled the exterior of the inner pillar. Then there was a suspension bridge from one side to the other with a circular platform in the middle where the observation deck was located just above. From the lower level of the observation deck, the kids can repel down to the mosiac constellations on the bottom floor. Physics lesson, kids. Aw yeah. (Yes, I am a dork) On the outside of the observatory, we created a lunar garden. Three circular gardens, each planted with a specific lunar cycle. This was our group´s pet project. We spent a lot of time thinking and designing it.

There were four people in our group, including myself, Joe, Tanner, and Megan. Each one of us took on a classroom design, one for each grade level. Joe, being the most knowledgeable on plants, because of the degree he is pursuing, pretty much did the entire landscaping for the garden and food production area. It looked amazing. Megan designed a beautiful kitchen that included a teacher´s lounge on the second floor that was half open to the freah air and overlooked the children's playground. Joe also designed an Old English roundhouse classroom that included a water catchment and natural filtering system. Joe also designed this crazy Maya pyramid classroon with a rain tank on the top that acted as the roof. The excess water ran down the sides of the classroom into the chinapas where there was even more food production. Tanner designed an outdoor classroom that was built into the ground and included a giant tree within it as part of the structure and the aesthetics. It was also half open and half covered by the earthen roof (6 months for the rainy season) and acted as an outdoor cafeteria also. On one side was a garden and on the other a pond. There was also a rain tank located above the calssroom at the top of the hill in order to provide fresh water to the classroom for drinking. And then, there was my crazy classroom, that I stayed up all night finishing, along with my other crazy friend, Kirsten, who´s designs and artistic talent puts me to shame. She is going back to get her masters in Architecture and she truly will be amazing at her job when she is done.

My classroom was modeled after an ancient Japanese pagoda. On the roof, there is a small gutter that runs underneath the top pyramid of the roof. The water runs inside the gutter into a cylindrical glass tube that runs from the roof all the way through the middle of the classroom and then underneath the classroom into an underground tank that can then be accessed for pure drinking water. My favorite part, the fact that the kids can watch the rainwater come down through the classroom six months of the year. For me, the rain has always been one of the most soothing things in the world, so, hopefully, that helps the teacher out. Underneath each corner of the roof was also an area where the rain was caught and utilized. One corner, a pond with fish, turtles, and waterlilies (the giant ones that grow naturally in the Pantanal in Brasil); one corner had a herb garden; one corner had a mandala garden that was accessed by the front porch as well as a trellised pathway from the teacher´s office on the right side of the building; and the other corner had a living water system that filtered the water (also a practicum) and then fed it through a piping system into the greenhouse at the back of the building. The greenhouse and the herb spiral (to it´s left) also utilized the greywater that ran from inside the classroom through an underground piping system. The greywater came from the sink inside the classroom at the bottom of the stairs that led outside to the dry compost toilet. Between the greenhouse, living system, and mandala garden is the worm compost area. The entire inside of the classroom is open for whatever space the teacher needs to utilize for teaching. Oh yeah, and there is also a library/ tea room/ meditation room that is enclosed by recycled paper walls inside the classroom. It looks out onto the pond.

In honor of my insanity and ridiculousness, my companions in my design group decided to call our group The All Night Rain Storm.

I have great pictures of the sunrise the morning Kirsten and I finished. As soon as breakfast was over that morning, we grabbed our projects and headed to Andre and Lucy´s secret waterfall where we all had to be on good behavior and quiet because an endangered bird nests there . . .

More on that later. Gotta run. . . .