Completion of Gwoona Dam

After a combined effort from 8 bedouin, 5 people from SKGR, 3 people from Green and Away and a Dutch lady called Mirjam, we finished Gwoona dam last week.  This dam will help bring water to many gardens down Wadi Gibal to Farsh Romana in the Sinai Mountains.

Here is the full report:

On 24 April, 7 participants from two organisations (SKGR – Self Knowledge, Global Responsibility http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/ and Green and Away http://www.greenandaway.org/page.cfm?pageid=ga-home ) arrived in Sinai at the start of a journey to build Gwoona Dam.  John Hill, Simon Gapper, Nick Ashford, Jeff Anderson,  Marilyn Churchill, Rosa Butler, Diana Jarvis and Helen Cranston (journey leader) arrived at Nawamis for the first night.

The second day we left for St Katherine’s and the mountains, and were joined by Mirjam Duymaer Van Twist from Nawamis.  We had a wonderful trek up Wadi Tala, into Wadi Zuweitin for lunch, then up Wadi Gibal to Salem’s garden, our home for the next 5 nights.  We were looked after by Eid and Mohamed with some visits from Hussein who had family matters to attend to in St Katherine’s.  On the next day we joined the team of Bedouin builders, Saiyeed, Saiyeed, Mohamed, Salem, plus the cement boys, who had already been working for a week doing preparatory work.

We found that they had had to dig down over a metre to get to bedrock so there was a lot of work needed to get the dam up to the finished height. Over the next three days we worked hard and the final dam was 15.70 m long and 2.70 m high.  The dam was 1.20 m wide at the base and 1m wide at the top.  It has a volume of  31sq m.  The Bedouin estimate that the dam will hold 1700 cubic meters of water.

The money for the dam was raised by the participants through friends and supporters.  Such was the generosity of our sponsors that we exceeded the target of £2000 for the dam and raised enough funds for nearly ¾ of another dam.

The day after we finished the dam, we had a slow trek to Farsh Romana.  We were accompanied by Eid who was a brilliant guide and it was wonderful to have Mirjam with us as she was an excellent translator for the Bedouin stories that Eid was telling us.  We heard about how a ruined chapel became a focus for teenagers to meet and decide if they wanted to marry.  The girls would be herding the family’s goats over the mountains and often arranged to meet at the chapel to exchange news and see friends.  The boys got to hear about the meetings and would find themselves in the same area on the same day!  Although the boys and girls were not allowed to talk to each other they were able to flirt at a distance and look for a future husband or wife. This culminated in the drawing of the outline of their sandals on rocks.  If the pairing was approved by the girls’ family, her father would signal his approval by drawing a circle around the two sandals.  This led to discussions on love and marriage, conflicts in neighbouring countries and the need for world peace.

Eid also told us about the history of the Jebeliya tribe, the meanings of names of landscape features, the herbs they use and of his sadness and concern that this entire heritage would be lost.  None of his daughters have been up to the mountains gardens so they don’t know any of these stories and his sons only come up if they have work with tourists. It will only take a generation growing up in the towns for this history to fade, and with it the ability to live in the mountains and to keep the gardens going.  Eid, Hussein, Salam and Saiyeed are all custodians of a way of life that is disappearing and along with it traditional wisdom and living in harmony with nature. What could change this would be a revival of the trekking holidays and more journeys which would bring more of the Jebeliya back up into the mountains as guides and camel providers.  The dams and deepened wells are helping to keep the older generation connected to their heritage and make living in the mountains a possibility but the younger people need work in the mountains.

The following day we trekked down the mountains to have an excellent lunch at Fansina and to indulge in some essential shopping for beaded bags.  The minibus then took us out to Nawamis for the walk to Mattamir.  At this point we said a sad goodbye to Mirjam who had worked so hard on the dam and as translator.  We arrived to the magic of Mattamir just as the sun was going down.  The following day we had the usual desert orientation walk and a chance to choose a place for our mini 24 hour retreat.

Just before we parted for the retreat there was the most unusual drama – thunder rolled over the mountains, the sky grew dark and then it rained! For 15 minutes or so there was heavy rain.  We quickly stowed away all our vulnerable belongings like sleeping bags under rocks and then tried to take refuge under the Bedouin tent.  However this leaked like a sieve and so we gave up taking shelter and stood out in the rain.  We could hear the

Desert Sandcastle

sound of gushing water and saw a waterfall spewing off the top of a cliff below Gebal Mattamir.  It seemed really incongruous to see so many puddles and the wet sand.  It was even possible to make a sandcastle. Everything dried really quickly as the sun came out and went back to normal.  To our great disappointment we heard from Mahmoud that there hadn’t been any rain at all in the mountains and that the new dam was still dry.

For some the retreat was a welcome opportunity to have time in their busy lives to stop and do nothing for a day.  For others it was an opportunity to reflect on the path their lives were taking and to make decisions about the way forward.  We came together again on the last night for a delicious meal and to share our experiences over the previous 9 days.  Our last day was spent walking and camel riding to Gebel Maharoon and Aduda dune then down to the jeeps for the journey back to Sharm El Sheik.

The journey was very thought provoking and we learned a lot, some of it about the Bedouin cultural heritage and some things about ourselves. The contrast between our own lives back here in UK and Bedouin life helps put things in perspective and emphasise what is really important in life.  Our impact on the Bedouin is huge but this is a reciprocal experience with everyone concerned being enriched – the journeys are definitely fulfilling all the aims of the Makhad Trust.

We would like to thank all our sponsors for their generosity.  The excess funds will be seed money for the next SKGR dam building trip scheduled for next spring.  Look out for more details to follow.

The next journey to Sinai will be a Retreat with Peter Owen Jones

My view of the world from my retreat place, looking towards the mountains of South Sinai, Egypt

This time next week I will be in Sinai leading a group to build Gwoona Dam and to go on a desert retreat.

Sometimes we need to get right away from all things familiar in order to find ourselves – to go to a place from where we can look objectively at our lives and at the world.  Such a place is often to be found in nature and in living simply without any of the benefits or distractions of modern technology.  Then we can listen deeply, to come to know who we are, and to see our place in the world.

The wild places of the world are ideal for this and in the UK we can go on retreats in places like the mountains and islands of Scotland.  But sometimes it is not enough to be silent in a familiar landscape or culture with its reminders and distractions, and then travelling to a place like Sinai, where people have been going to retreat for at least 2500 years, can allow us to connect with spirit more easily.  The three main prophets of the world’s religions all spent time wandering in the wilderness that is Sinai.

Here we come into contact with a land and culture vastly different from our own and with a people who are used to living in harmony with nature. Reflection on the contrast between the desert and our home environment can bring into sharp relief our usual disconnection from Nature, from spirit, and from ourselves.

At a recent talk, Satish Kumar said, “ A pilgrim celebrates life, places and people. Earth is a sacred place to cherish and to celebrate; it includes the wholeness of life.  To be a pilgrim needs a transformation of mindset so that we can see the beauty of the place we are in.  It is about adoration, celebration and gratitude for Earth.

A complainer is a tourist in the world.  Tourists are escaping from something. They are not interested in the place itself …people want the best hotel, the best food etc and they are disappointed as the reality never lives up to expectations.

For a pilgrim every moment is unfolding, emerging, and evolving.   Go into the unknown.  Don’t be fixed in mind or spirit.  Meet everyone for the first time each day, celebrate every day because when we celebrate we are a pilgrim.”

We can live life as a journey, or maybe as a dance, seeing where it will take us and who we will meet.  Then it becomes exciting and adventurous.  It may not always be safe but it won’t be boring and there is plenty of opportunity for challenges and growth.  Out of this inner journey we can bring out something to the outer world.  What is love for, if not to give to or to do something for others and to inspire others?

While living or being a pilgrim we can return the hospitality of generous hosts and give back to our communities.  We can offer gratitude, stories of travels and what we have learnt, maybe music or work.  Mother Teresa said do the small things with love – not the big things without.  And sometimes the power of not doing, of still time, is greater than that of doing.

Being-ness in Action

Realisation of past behavioural patterns,

Exposure of my weaknesses and blockages to life

Culminate in a spark of understanding.

Then comes the command to abandon any hope

And submit to life in all its riches.

With poem and verse drumming and tearing at my heart strings

I submit – and feel myself drowning in light.

A fire has been awakened in my heart

Fueled by the absence of hope.

I glow, – energised

And feel my body aching to dance – to the rhythm of life itself.

And joy – such exquisite emotion abounds -

I am full of supercharged emptiness,

A blank page, a clean slate –

Ready for life to write its next chapter on my soul.

Eternal Now

by Adyashanti

Take a moment to check and see if you are actually here

Before there is right and wrong

we are just here.

Before there is good or bad, or unworthy,

and before there is the sinner or saint,

we are just here.

Just meet here, where silence is

where the stillness inside dances.

Just here

before knowing something,

or not knowing.

Just meet here where all points of view merge into one

and the one point disappears

Just see if you can meet right now

where you touch the eternal

and feel the eternal living and dying at each moment.

Just to meet here

before you were an expert

before you were a beginner.

To just be here,

where you are what you always will be,

where you will never add anything to this, or subtract anything.

Meet me here where you want nothing

and where you are nothing.

The here that is unspeakable.

Where we meet only mystery to mystery

or we don’t meet at all.

Meet here where you find yourself

by not finding yourself.

In this place where quietness is deafening

and stillness moves too fast to catch it.

Meet here where you are what you want and you want what you are

and everything falls away into radiant emptiness

Hussein with his neighbours on Amria's Dam just after the first rain filled it.

On April 24 there is a collaborative journey to build a dam between Green and Away volunteers and SKGR (Self Knowledge Global Responsibility).  This is the next Makhad Trust journey to Sinai and we will be building the 12th dam in the mountains around St Katherines.  Last March I led a party of school children from King Ethelbert’s School in Kent to build Spayiers dam and while I was there, one of the Bedouin came to talk to me about the dams.  He said that the dams were making the most difference to the most number of bedouin and that their gardens were coming alive again with the increased water made available from the dams.  Hussein had such a light of excitement, and passion in his eyes and his voice as he told me about his neighbours planting trees in their gardens again after they had been abandoned for nearly 10 years.  Hussein inspired me to want to bring another party back this year to build another dam and now it is finally going to happen.

School children from King Ethelbert's School and local Bedouin last March after completing a dam.

There is the little matter of raising the funds to build the dam first though.  The dams are built high up in the mountains where there are no roads and all supplies including the cement have to go up the mountains on camels.  This is expensive and with other building costs we have to raise £2000 to make the dam happen.  I have opened a Just Giving web page for anyone who would like to donate.

The dam we are going to build will help trap enough water to help at least 30 gardens further down the valley.  Each garden provides food and an income to a family of 10 or more people, so that’s a lot of people who will benefit.

The journey will not just be all work and no rest though, as we plan to spend time

Our desert retreat camp

exploring the desert and having a short retreat for those who would like to.  The profound stillness of the desert enables a deep connection with self and with the earth and nature in a way we don’t often experience.  It is why a succession of desert hermits have lived in Sinai for centuries. It is also why we are running a Desert Retreat with Peter Owen Jones in October.  There is more information about both journeys on the Makhad Trust website.

Over recent years, and amongst the less structured, green organisations a different style has emerged that some have called flat management.  This is where there is no-one in overall charge and responsibility and management comes from a team of people.  This works very well for some organisations, especially where each member of the management team has a specific job and there is plenty of time to discuss each and every decision to get a concensus of opinion. The advantage is that it allows for creativity and innovation to arise and for everyone to contribute what they want. The disadvantage is that one needs a great deal more time to achieve the aims if they are realised at all.  This is directly opposite to the traditional way of one person taking overall responsibility and making nearly all the decisions. The advantage of this way is that it is strong and focused and the aim is very likely to be achieved but it can be stiffling of creativity and lessens feelings of ownership by the workforce.

In my opinion neither style would work well with Green and Away.  If we had the flat management style and long discussions about every issue we would never get the centre built, never mind being in a state to host conferences.  If we had the old strong tradition of leadership and I imposed my will on all aspects of the project, it is likely we would alienate or loose our volunteer work force.  The beauty of working with volunteers is that they force a different positive approach. They are our most valuble resource, but one that has the capacity to vote with their feet; if they are not happy then our resource is gone.  The balance between facitiating our aim of building and running G & A with keeping people working hard and enjoying it, is a difficult one.

So far I have led by gut instinct but not always trusted it.  Last weekend we had a social gathering of volunteers and trustees.  Rather than tell everyone what to do, I stepped back to see what would happen with minimal coordination.  We got through the weekend fine but time was wasted in working out what walks to do and waiting for people who did not know they were being waited for.  Meals were cooked and dishes were done but some people did more than their fair share while others contributed rather less.  There was less focus and less to do.  I think the weekend was a good experience for most people but it could have run rather more smoothly with more direction.  None of this mattered for an informal gathering but during our set up phase, when there is a whole conference centre to build in 12 days we have to have more focus.

The answer to what style of leadership suits Green and Away best is one that is firm and focused yet soft and adaptive depending on the situation. It needs to be both soft in an adaptive, yeilding way to encourage creativity, but firm of boundaries and to keep the focus on the aim.  To achieve this requires constant vigilence and always keeping a balance between the best interests of the organisation as whole with the needs of of the workforce.

Fortunately I am supported by a wonderful bunch of people who make up the Trustee body and who have responsiblity for various departments.  Out of season we have the time to talk through all the various decisions to reach agreement on the way forward and my job then is to impliment those decisions once on site.  It is a way of working that has evolved over 20 years and one that seems to work very well.

Meanwhile I will now trust to my gut instinct that has served me so well so far.

Preparing for the morning briefing

Further on, on a promentary of land where the sun and winds had been strong,  most of the snow had melted and then frozen again.  Bushes and grass were covered in twinkly, rainbow icicles, glistening in the sun.  Such moments as these are fleeting and rare and all the more precious.  I took some photographs but it is hard to capture the magic of the reflecting ice.  What a beautiful day…

Jay Griffiths has written  a book called Wild that is one of the most influential books I have read and I can’t recommend it highly enough though it is a difficult read at times. Jay has travelled the world meeting indigenous people’s and living in harmony with the Earth, experiencing the beauty and fragility of life as well as the ugly desecration of nature by corporate greed.  Her writing is powerful, potent and hard-hitting as well as poetic and inspirational.  Underlying her story telling is a courage to go to extremely remote wild places on her own, facing challenging climates and people.  What comes through is her capacity and willingness to show her vulnerability.  Without the ability to listen and be vulnerable she wouldn’t have earned the trust of many of the people she writes about, nor would she have seen all nature’s beauty as it is only when we are open-hearted that we are connected enough to really feel the intense, achingly beautiful and painful sights of the world.  And behind all this is a passion for life in all its wildness.  Her book has the potential to make a difference to those who read it and possibly to those she has written about.

Another woman who is making a difference is Jenny Jones, Green councillor on the GLA.  Jenny was elected in 200 and has worked with both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson.  Although the greens are a minority party in terms of representation on the council, their influence has been disproportionately large.  Jenny has sat on a wide range of committees such as Metropolitan Police Committee and the Firebrigade  as well as London Food.  In all her work she champions the cause of green issues. In the previous Mayoral administration she was the Mayor’s Green Transport Advisor, advising him on sustainable forms of transport. She was also Chair of London Food, a Mayoral body looking at ways of giving Londoners fresher, healthier and more affordable food while minimising its environmental impact.  Jenny is changing public perceptions in London to seeing that sustainability makes a positive impact on people’s lives as well as being better for the planet.  Jenny is standing for mayor in the elections this Spring against the usual strong opposition of the main political parties.  The fact that she is unlikely to win the election is not a reason to give up on supporting Jenny.  The more votes she gets the more the Green Party has to be taken seriously.  I don’t live in London but I would urge any London voter with a Green conscience to vote for her. Jenny spent a year as Deputy Mayor to Ken and could fulfill the role again in the future, bringing more sustainable policies into action.  Jenny has great passion, wisdom and integrity and we desperately need more politicians like her.

Behind these inspiring women are not only motivational hopes and dreams of a better world, but courage to stand up in front of people and say ‘this is what we must do’.  They have the courage to take action and carry out their intentions despite hardship, failure and derision.  At a time when we badly need more people doing this, I wonder what stops me and others from doing the same. There is courage in everyone’s heart if we look.

Each photograph captured a split second in the life of a creature or a scene, in a way that we don’t ordinarily see and the result is the most amazing, beautiful, vast diversity of life depicted in full glory.  Each picture seems to be a small fragment in a story, a freezing of time, that makes one wonder what happened before and what will come next. Life in these photos was stunningly bigger than ‘normal’, more poignant more real even, more ….  well you will have to have a look for yourself, click on the link above.

Photos have a way of making us see the world differently, of making us wake up to what is really there, – even the mundane parts of nature of life can be inspiring.

The exhibition was so inspiring it is difficult to take it all in and it reminded me of the words at the end of the film American Beauty….

It’s hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world.

Sometimes I feel like I am seeing it all at once and it’s too much.

My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst.

And then I remember to relax and to stop trying to hold onto it

And then it flows through me like rain.

And I can’t feel anything but gratitude

For every single moment of my stupid little life.

To watch this go to You Tube American Beauty

Acacia tree in the Sinai desert

The speaker I was looking up is Polly Higgins, who is campaigning to bring in new laws to outlaw the crime of ecocide. Polly is a barrister, author and creator of new laws to protect the Earth. Polly has proposed that Ecocide is the missing 5th Crime Against Peace, to sit alongside genocide as an international crime throughout the world. Her campaign highlights the awful things that are being done to the earth and the earths resources in the name of progress, the free market and ultimately – for money.

ECOCIDE the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished.

At present no one or no business has to take into account the fact that they are killing animals or destroying habitats and there is no law that say the polluter pays.    I think Polly is very brave to be standing up to powerful people to tell them that it is time they woke up to their responsibility to the Earth and to all the people and creatures living on the Earth.  How do you find the courage to do this?

Click on Polly Higgins

In Bristol and Stroud there are more brave women with a vast agenda.  Treesisters have made it their aim to reforest the world!  I was sent an email with a link to their website and sat watching their video clips with astonishment and tears.  To think that big is a courageous act because it carries the equally big possibility of failing.  However founder Clare Dakin, has a wonderful way getting over the fear of failure which holds so many of us back from doing what we feel inspired to do, which is to say it is an experiment, and you can’t fail an experiment, you can only learn.  Please watch Clare explain her audacious plan for saving the world at Tree Sisters

Another great woman I have had the good fortune to meet is Scilla Elworthy.  Last March I was asked to support her in leading a retreat in the Sinai desert (see the page on the Makhad Trust).  Scilla epitomises the archetypal wise woman.  She has worked tirelessly for world peace by setting up Peace Direct and the World Council of Elders. Her biography is a staggering list of achievements.  Scilla has achieved 100 times what most of us would feel proud to have done.  She has worked with people with fame and power, has the most amazing tall but true stories and has both an unworldly radiance and ordinariness that make her incredibly approachable.

We all need to be inspired – especially me.  Please follow these links to find out more about these amazing women and the work they are doing and be inspired too

Forgot to share this!

We should all do it – take a month out of our lives and see who we are -