From the 24th to the 26th of March, we joined a project in Lengyeltoti, a small village located in the south part of Balaton Lake. This project is called OASIS and started a few years ago thanks to a guy who bought a big land composed of fields, a camping area, a hotel, woods, two lakes and a lot of more things that now, after ten years of neglect, need to be repaired. (you can learn more about the place in our previous article).
The new project we worked on has been planned thanks to the principles of permaculture and in those days we started building the area closest to the home of the people who work and live there. The plan for those days was centered on Zone 2, that in permaculture is the zone close to where we live, in which we go often. We had to build a big raised bed, to clean bricks for a fireplace and summer kitchen construction, to sand the parquet of the glass house and to dig small cherry trees out of a land so they could be replanted.
Before arriving at Lengyeltoti we met not so far away in a greenhouse in order to collect all the compost that was needed to fill the raised beds and we had the opportunity to save some flowers that were still alive on that compost hill.
The first day we didn't work much, after collecting the compost we reached the place where the project took place and we had a tour with the coordinators, who explained to us all the history behind the area.
Even if we stayed there only two days and a half we lived a community life by dividing the tasks between us and expressing the needs and requirements of everyone… Thanks to this, plus our strong motivation, the second day we started early in the morning to work: One group started to dig the ground to level it in order to have the base for the raised beds, meanwhile another part of the group selected the pallets of wood that was needed to build the structure. Another group started selecting the unbroken bricks and then cleaned and stacked them. The last group was in charge of sanding the parquet of the circular house, a structure made of twelve sides of bright windows that will be used to host conferences, workshops…
Sunday was the last day, in the morning we finished the tasks and after lunch we planted different kinds of vegetable seeds and flowers taking care of the hidden relations they have.
In the last shared moment we talked about the observations we had done during the three days and our suggestions to help them in the improvement. All of this took place sitting in a circle in the grass drinking a cup of tea in the spring sunshine that ended with a "cultural sharing" where everyone said something in their native language :)
It was gratifying to participate in the beginning of this great project which will be cultivated thanks to thousands of hands that will pass by here just like we did. One brick upon another will one day give a fortress!
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