Well, we spent two months in this project and now I (Leedia) would like to share some of my personal experience. pros and cons. and how i felt there.
*of course it's my personal opinion and even my husband doesn't completely agree with all what I am going to write but that's exactly how I felt when we stayed there.
So first of all when we came
… read more I felt that this place is very magical due to the fact that the jungle and untouched nature and moreover a river are all very beautiful. Really!
We even considered joining community permanently but some aspects of how things organized made me think again and change our plans.
Because despite all the nature that is beyond expectations there are some cons that you need to consider before going there.
first is that hygiene is something that this place lacks. Chicken walk freely everywhere , they jump on kitchen table and serving tables leaving chicken pooh behind them . They were eating from the plates if you turn around . of course it gives cross-contamination! then there are dogs . three of them. +Cats . Thus, you can step not only in the chicken poop but also in a dog s***. We razed that question about re-location of the chicken coop a bit away from main house. Because the land is huge and chicken could live anywhere on it. That don't have to be kept close to the social area making it messy. but no luck. Turned out that chickens were in much priority not the level of hygiene or people's comfort. And if you have a baby please consider this as you will have to pay extra attention to your child so that it doesn't pick up from the floor chicken or dog poop. It happened to our daughter few times for sure.
Next thing to consider is that sometimes you will witness how cooking pots (after serving meal to voluntees) are given to dogs in order for them to eat the leftovers and to lick the remnants of the food from the inside of the pots' walls. I was shocked! that's highly unacceptable and definitely a cross contamination will occur. But when we expressed our concern , Florian assured us that the dogs will clean pots very good and all we have to do is to wash the pots after dogs finish licking them. But guess what : considering that all the cutlery and pots are washed just simply by the ashes and vinegar I don't believe you can properly sanitize off all the dogs bacteria afterwards.
No wonder, We ourselves got cross contamination few times for sure : all the time we had some level of diarrhea and our child suffered from fever and diarrhea for 4-5 times and finally got a skin disease. Doctors said it's because of extreme low hygiene
Usually we like to be barefoot but in this case it was not possible because it's not pleasant sensations when every now and then you step on a fresh poop in the kitchen or social area and it stick in between your toes.
Coffee is roasted on the concrete floor literally just 1 m away from the chicken coop and they and dogs walk over coffee all the time. No one cares about it or seems like it.
But "the last straw that broke camel's back" was that Florian has his own vision of saving / reusing expired or spoiled left over remnants of the food or even 3 days old food ( even with mold on it).
Fact is there is NO fridge and food is simply stays on the table in the heat of the day. For days.
Nevertheless he will impose and make you follow that vision even if you disagree. NOTE: even though he declares it a community with a democracy he will make you follow those extreme approaches and make you follow those extreme rules of his.
For example, after it's been discussed few times about wasted smelly old food (and he seemed like understood that for us, as yogis , even food from yesterday is not acceptable) , yet, what he did was, he still put the beans that we ourselves cooked 3 days ago in a newly prepared food! I would not even offered those old moldy beans to dogs, yet he put them in newly cooked food when we didn't see it.
So, considering that there is NO fridge, you can guess, it's was always an issue. we knew that not only us expressed our concern and asked him not to put the food from yesterday ( leave alone, food from 2 or even 3 days ago) in a new one, please, please, PLEASE....
but he he would say " yeah yeah yeah sure, sure , no worries, I'm going to re- process , re- cook and gonna eat old food myself" . but, as a result , he was putting old already smelly food in the freshly cooked one again and again.
Few people asked Florian not to do that, well, he just said that it's a shame to throw food away ( I agree if it is good fresh food BUT not food that already stinks) and yes, he tries to use baking soda to preserve what is left from lunch to keep it for dinner, which is fine . But I believe, if lunch food is not finished for dinner same day, then next day we should not eat it even after it's been re-fried . Why ? because it stayed in the heat for 24 hours and it's all least not healthy or already a poison. Maybe that's why he got his appendix cut... perhaps that's because of such extremes in that aspect. But that's his personal way of life, which is ok. However, why must we follow that path? I don't understand , I never did...
So , in other words, even though the price of the food that you share the cost of is low but same low is a hygiene standards there .
and same is true for the way the food is treated/saved/ recooked / recycled in this project and all that inevitably gives you stomach ache , belly cramps, etc. either constipation of diarrhea.
Be aware of that.
Next thing is general cleanliness . The point is that there is no washing machine (and never will be due to vision of the project). thus, everything is washed by hands and that is okay for small items! but how about heavy bulky wool blankets? it's hard to wash those . That's why I reckon, they never been washed. I believe no one took them to laundry in Tapachula. Never. They are indeed Very dusty and smelly. Better bring your own bed sheets, sleeping bags and pillows.
And final comment is about firewood: Florian asks you to make fire only for lunch (everything is cooked by the firewood by the way ) so if you are used to drink hot tea or coffee in the morning that is your problem (and "white privilege" as he calls it) . Wasting wood resources are frowned upon.
Florian advocates to keep firewood in the forest to rot on the ground in order to nourish soil rather than bring it to the kitchen for the oven. for him unnecessary burning is a waste . I disagree as I remember from permaculture course that ahes is also good supplement for soul. but he doesn't think so.
for the same reason forget about the heating leftovers from the lunch for dinner. During the two months of our stay we never had warm food for dinner.
So, in short Florian is building kind of a monarchy not a community.
there is no voting for this or that. final word will be his anyway. and that is okay if it's described so on the web page and everyone is clear about that you are building a monarchy. but if you declare that you're building a community then your approach should include other people's opinions and concerns.
Or it's simply a question of a common sense and basic respect in any co-living space.
Anyway, good luck to anyone who is going to visit this project.
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