day 2 - santa branca ecovillage

put your volume all the way up when you listen to this one.


Sunday June 5, 2011

My access to internet has been much greater than expected, which is awesome cuz I can share more with you guys (and feel more connected to home)! Pat lets me use her internet whenever we’re at home and she isn’t using it – and we are home quite a lot.

Today was really interesting – we visited the Santa Branca ecovillage, which is about a 20 minute drive from Pat’s house on a dirt road. The ecovillage is an enclosed area of about 70 acres – it’s a huge area of land, but not all of it is used. Today I got to see the recreation area for the ecovillagers (tennis court, sitting area), one ecovillager’s home, and the ecotourism center. The ecotourism area reminded me of a recreation center at a public park in America – a lake to swim in, paddle boats, horses to ride, etc. The ecovillage itself along with the tourism site was all so beautiful. Instead of cars and planes, you hear crickets and wind. And instead of buildings and smog you see trees and birds.

I interviewed two people today, one of which spoke English and that was a great interview. His name is Antonio and he had some really strong points about how the ecovillage movement can grow and be strengthened. He mentioned that one of the main problems with the ecovillage movement is the stigma about the movement’s spirituality and association with hippies. For those of you that don’t know, ecovillages are often based not only on communal living and environmentalism, but also on some type of spirituality. For example, an ecovillage in Scotland believes that meditating in the same room as one’s plant’s will allow him or her to communicate with the plants and know if they need more sunlight/water, etc. This ideology is common among the members and provides for a commonality between the people.

Antonio believes that ecovillages need to be marketed as communal living styles, and less focused on the spirituality. He made the analogy that the spiritual side of an ecovillage is a filter that turns away many people from even considering living there.

This is true, and although I do agree with Antonio that spiritualism can be a turn-off, I also see how spirituality can closely bring a group of people together, which can only strengthen the community aspects of the village. Additionally, if spirituality is present at an ecovillage’s core, that spirituality needs to be communicated to prospective members in order for them to fully understand what they will be getting involved with. Therefore, I think spiritual ecovillages need to be transparent with their ideologies, but I also believe that it is important for other ecovillages (based solely on community and sustainability) to up-play that they are NOT spiritual, or at least intentionally include no mention spirituality in their marketing communications. Non-spiritual ecovillages will be a strong point in spreading sustainable lifestyles to the general public.

After a tour of Antonio’s green home, Pat and I headed home for her afternoon nap.

Fun facts about Brazil/Santa Branca:
- EVERYONE has at least two hammocks outside their house (great for falling asleep in)
- No one puts toilet paper in the toilet. The plumbing isn’t hardy enough, so instead toilet paper goes in the trash next to the toilet.
- They drink a lot of coffee but instead of one large mug in the morning and one large mug in the afternoon, its tiny shots of coffee all day long.

I am happy that I’ve written two research papers on ecovillages; I feel much more prepared to discuss ecovillages with the ecovillagers and I can better relate to their lifestyles.

Tomorrow I am going to interview the founder of Santa Branca Ecovillage – Jeremias. He speaks English, so it should go pretty well!

Boa noiche,
Ninita