Carlos walks an hour every day to come to work at our Permaculture Institute and an hour to go back home again.
And he always reaches us in high spirit, smiling with his lunchbox in his hand.
Edgar lives half an hour walk away. He is our newest member but fits right in and has already became an expert in the type of jokes that the guys like.
Alfredo is close to 70 years old, but way too fit to go into retirement!
And his son, Juan, is the strongest memeber of our group. You can put 2 rustic, solid wooden tables on his shoulders and he'll walk away as if he is carrying 2 pillows.
Their neighbour, Jorge, is the most agile one. Like a monkey, they say, he can climb the highest trees to harvest what's growing in them.
Eder is also part of the small village that is right next to our institute, but lives more in the 'suburbs'. He has a beautiful lake behind his modest house and his 2 kids have turned 2 tiny monkeys into pets.
We call them 'the biologos': the biologists. Some of them have always lived here. They know the soil, they know the plants. They depend on them to be able to feed their children. They know what conditions each plant needs to be able to florish, they know about the medicinal uses of the plants, which ones can protect you from harm and that one must always ask permission before one harvests of a plant.
The people here aren't rich in our western point of view, but our guys are an amazing source of knowledge disguised as a bunch of clows, because all they do is joke with each other all day long! You can hear Jorge laugh when he is far away and Juan sometimes cannot stop! They laugh with all their being, wholeheartedly, fully! Indeed, we have so much to learn from them!
