Day 1 of the PDC saw us working in hot conditions.
We have based ourselves in the grounds of a small rural hospital in the Kyonza district of Eastern Rwanda. It has some seriously bad land to work with, extremely degraded with gravel and no organic matter or water holding capacity, this is deliberate so we can demonstrate Permaculture as a viable solution. Good land is too easy!!

We opened with an introduction to what Permaculture is and then looked at a few of the design principles applied in Permaculture.

Rick led an observational walk of the site and I finished the day with a lesson on zones and sectors in a Permaculture design.

Ricks overview following day 1 is below:

Day one of the PDC well .We picked the worst site we could find cos if we can do it there ,it will apply everywhere. Class is already beginning to buzz.

The plan is to train 50+ who will take it out with Rwandan cultural adaptations.(Every design strategy is different and must be attuned to variations in soil ,climate,culture and capacity).

I expect the trainers to positively influence 15 000 people in the first year and 38000 by year three.

Andy and I are here as seed mechanisms. The rest will generate from the above structure and our ability to draw on existing knowledge and skills already within the communities.
That is we won't be bringing in excavators or using designs that no-one can copy.