繼去年的德國實習生Ariana之後，今年二月，我們又有了一位充滿青春活力的實習生 — 東京大學農業系二年級的學生長谷川愛。二月25日起，來自日本的”愛”加入了旅人在台東的第三屆樸門永續設計課程，藉由在課程中的協助，體驗了樸門在台灣的成長。請細細閱讀”愛”的樸門初體驗～
Hello! I’m Ai Hasegawa(長谷川愛), an intern of Earth Passengers from Japan. I’m studying permaculture in Taiwan in a wonderful nature in Taitung, the southwest of Taiwan. The weather is fine and I can see fantastic sunshine every day.
The reason why I’m studying here is that I’m learning about agriculture in my university. Because I was moved to the principle of permaculture ,I became interested in it. The principal said: be kind to the earth (Earth Care), be kind to people (People Care) and divide your surplus (Fair Share). Don’t you think it’s beautiful?
On my second day in the class, we designed a natural swimming pool using permaculture. There is a pond in the church where we stay, but it’s not clean and not beautiful. We can neither swim nor relax by the water. Our teacher, Darren Doherty told us to make the pond more natural and useful to our life. We had to think about how to get water, how to purify it before it pours into the pool, and how to drain it out from the pool. And also the design must be harmless to the nature, be beautiful and have many useful functions for our living.
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I couldn’t imagine what to do first, but when we gathered together and talked with each other, many ideas came out. We had a really hot discussion. All the members were always waiting for the pen to draw their ideas on the paper. Everybody asked each other what they think. I was also asked to say my opinion but I couldn’t make a good proposal. They asked me many questions as I was studying agriculture, but I couldn’t answer any of them. Looking at those people discussing so enthusiastically, I felt I have to study more.
After dinner, we made a presentation of our own design. All of the design was full of ideas and listening to their ideas was so interesting. They not only presented about water but also they explained how to enjoy living in the design. For example, planting various kind of plants which you can pick and eat when you got tired of swimming, or having a duck in the wetland (a place to purify the water) and eat it later.
Our teacher made a few comments for all the groups after the presentation. He said most of the design was too busy and hard to understand without an explanation. Having a lot of ideas is good, but I noticed it is important to simplify when you write down on the paper. Making a design is not just thinking. We have to make it into practice. I learned how it is difficult to make a design which is possible to realize.
I enjoyed the session so much and it was a good experience for me to put the knowledge into practice. I want to improve my designing skill and make my little garden more beautiful when I go back to Tokyo.