Raphaël

Informações de viagem

Eu estou

Descrição

[WHO AM I]

Hi, I'm Rafa, a French 29-year-old permaculture enthusiast, creative, and poet from Martinique – a beautiful French island located in the Caribbean.

Between April 2017 and September 2020, I had the opportunity to travel and volunteer within projects and communities around Europe and Asia as I was initially driven by a desire to enrich my knowledge and get more inspiration about permaculture, natural farming, agroforestry, natural building, as well as sustainable and regenerative solutions.

Those experiences were transformative in many respects, and turned into a beautiful, fertile, and inspirational journey fueled by the numerous and precious encounters I made along the way. They were a powerful catalyst for personal growth, nourished by the life lessons that were gifted to me. Being a naturally open-minded and curious person, this also helped me to broaden my horizons and better cultivate gratitude.

Coming back home in the midst of the pandemic helped to further refine my interests, especially permaculture-wise, where I am now aiming to specialize in local, artisanal seed saving and production. To this end, most of my efforts will focus on several initiatives that will cover the educational, practical, and communal aspects of seed saving while building resiliency, food sovereignty, and preserving the cultural heritage that comes with it. I am now looking for a small community for a long-term stay (ideally in the Canary Islands or maybe Portugal) where I would be able to make my humble contribution through a synergistic use of my skills while materializing those initiatives in a meaningful way for the benefit of all.

One of these seed saving-related projects I have been working is a free educational platform aiming to help gardeners and permaculture practitioners to learn how to save seeds for their community and future generations. The platform can be accessible at www.learnseedsaving.com (still a work in progress).

These days I am working online on and off as an English-French Translator (freelance and contractor) and sell some of my photo prints to fund the simple life I am cultivating and my future endeavors.

[WHAT NOURISHES ME]

I am interested in:

– Permaculture, natural and regenerative farming solutions
– Natural building (especially material such as adobe and bamboo, structures like domes and kerterres, as well as traditional seed storage solutions)
– Self-sufficiency
– Alternative ways of living and consuming
– Primitive skills & ancestral knowledge (especially pottery and basket weaving, which I would eventually like to use for some future projects)
– Rewilding

– Writing poetry, more specifically haikus that I shared through "Le vagabond bleu", a literary project created in January 2016. My poetry work can be found at www.levagabondbleu.fr and www.instagram.com/levagabondbleu.
– Leading gongfu cha (the Chinese art of serving tea) sharing sessions for friends and fellow souls I meet along the way, with a focus on Taiwanese teas and tea drinking traditions. An interest that I also capture through photography and would like to further explore through tea cultivation. My tea offerings and related projects can be found at www.le-cerf-volant.com and www.instagram.com/lecerfvolant.tea/
– Meditation (mostly using a "just sitting" formless method, referred to as shikantaza, mozhao, or zuowang in Zen Buddhism, Chan Buddhism, and Daoism respectively) and yoga (hatha and yin).
– Massage and holistic therapeutic practices, mostly acupressure so far (along with water therapy that I would like to eventually explore). My therapist friends from Malaysia as well as my volunteering experience back in March 2020 in Myanmar helping with physiotherapy within a Buddhist village were great sources of inspiration.
– Reading books about permaculture, seed saving, poetry, non-dualism, tea, and holistic health.

[ADDITIONAL INFORMATION]

– I am a Permaculture Design Course certificate holder (course took in Thailand in March 2018).
– I speak French (native language), English (fluent), and Spanish (I can understand and read the language without much difficulty, but I still lack practice when it comes to speak it). I am also hoping to learn Mandarin eventually.
– I do not smoke and usually do not drink alcohol. While I was pescatarian for 7 years, I no longer have a specific diet. In that respect, I am quite flexible and am always grateful for whatever healthy and nourishing food Nature unconditionally provides.

Most of my Workaway volunteering experiences were positive during my 2017-2020 journey, and I am thankful for all of them, as all lessons are life lessons. I hope that I could be useful to you and that you would be willing to welcome me and count me as your friend.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Rafa

Interesses

Habilidades e conhecimento para compartilhar ou aprender

Conhecimento de:  

Jardinagem

Projetos de construção/faça você mesmo

Manutenção geral

Vida na fazenda

Projetos ambientais

Cuidar de animais

Trabalho beneficente

Projetos artísticos

Ajuda com computadores/internet

Quais são suas habilidades?

Permaculture, seed saving, natural building, arts (poetry, music, gongfu cha), photography, general maintenance, online marketing, translation, computer-related tasks

Idiomas

Idiomas
Inglês: Fluente
Francês: Fluente
Espanhol: Intermediário

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Idade

29

Nacionalidade

French

Mais algumas informações

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  Fumante

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  Carteira de motorista

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  Alergias
  No

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  Dietas especiais
  No