I moved to Canada's west coast from Montreal in 1993 to start my own business and since then I've been an entrepreneur for most of my working career. It wasn't until I discovered Permaculture in the autumn of 2008 while listening to a live web-stream with raw foodist David Wolfe, that I intuitively knew my life was about to take a turn. During that broadcast he announced 10 open spaces for a Permaculture retreat at his Noniland home in Hawaii with grassroots Australian Permaculture Teacher, Tania Leilani Manea-Strebel. Within minutes of hearing the one condition to winning a spot, I began to write my essay on why I should be selected, and within weeks I received notice that I had been selected and in January 2009, I was on a plane headed to Kauai, Hawaii.

I am forever grateful to David, but especially to Tania, for her inspiration and positive fun attitude and high energy throughout the design and implementation of Noniland's garden. Her authentic connection with nature inspiried me to rethink my goals and to help make a difference in the world.

Upon my return from Hawaii, I signed up for a PDC course in WA. state and in December 2011, I completed my PRI Internship at Zaytuna farm with Geoff Lawton. Thank you Geoff, Nadia, Paul and Nick for the blessed teachings and for my new skills which I intend to cultivate and share with others.

Inbetween Hawaii and Australia, I completed Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web workshop, and the Master Gardening Certification through Gaia College in BC. I have also cultivated 2 successful food gardens from seed, created herb spirals, seed saved, built a 3 layer compost system, built cold frames and set up a green house. The thing that fascinates me most about Permaculture is the more I learn about the natural complexity of ecological systems, the more I want to accelerate my learning.

Ever since I could remember, my heart's desire has been to experience life in the Caribbean and now that I am PRI Certified, I would like to set up PRI Barbados if permitted. A Permaculture Reseach Institute and demonstration site that teaches Caribbean's about Permaculture ethics, principals and the whole system design science that Bill Mollison developed in the early 1970's.

With food security high on Barbados National Agenda and a goal to become the Green Island of the Caribbean, what better time to introduce Permaculture to the region. Besides, Permaculture is expanding throughout 180 countries worldwide with tens of thousands of organic food gardens and projects building up bio-diversity, soil fertility, sequestering C02, self-reliance, dynamic communities and so much more. Paul Taylor's Bio-Vital course on building up soil fertility and regenerative agriculture is a perfect example of why I am so drawn to permaculture.

I recently discovered that the Caribbean region imports $5 billion U.S. of food annually and Barbados accounts for $700 million U.S. Realistically, food cost will continue to increase due to peak oil and unsustainable global economic monetary policy therefore, increasing local food production is crucial and it will free up the regions foreign currency for other vital expenditures.

Bajan people are some of the most beautiful people I have come to know. If I can make my dream come true, I will have Bajans rethinking their residential and common space into small scale productive and regenerative gardens that will not only lower their food budgets, but will improve their diet, stress and health.

For me personally, empowering people to grow food using regenerative principals is the most rewarding contribution I can offer humanity. It's no longer about how much money I can earn or the car I drive, but rather how many people I can reach out to and make a difference in their lives and ultimately, humbling and valuing my own life. What better feeling is there than to create sprouting productive gardens everywhere all within a natural ecosystem that supports diversity than to shop in a grocery store for produce that has been picked unripe, lost its nutrient value and shipped from other continents which contributes to C02 emissions?

Caribbean, developing countries and people worldwide are waking up to the misconceptions and illusions of modern times that have failed us and because of this has us reconnecting back to family, back to community and essentially back to a place that our lives depend on, back to the land.

Several days ago, I stumbled across a much forgotten Barbados Free Press Blog that I commented on back in 2008. Not in my wildest dreams, could I have ever imagined seeing it again unless, I went searching for it which I didn't. My original comment shown below was the last comment on that feed before I recently added my second comment only days ago.

Here are my posts:

April 23, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I would pack my bags and head to the Caribbean in a flash to contribute my time and help create urban gardens everywhere and anywhere if my help is needed. Although, it would be my first go at gardening, I am eager to learn, a hard worker with a very positive attitude.
Peace and Blessings!
Canada

January 3, 2012 at 8:22 am
Well here I am almost 3 years later since my original comment above. Since then I decided to get educated in Permaculture. I completed my PDC (permaculture design certification) in 2009 and just recently Oct/Dec 2012 I completed my PRI Internship at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. So do you think Barbados is ready for Permaculture now? Growing food forest and learning about real sustainability? Hope so because I intend to move there and teach others how rewarding it can be to grow your own food plus a whole lot more. Blessings to my fellow Bajans. I simply love Barbados, Lorraine from Vancouver Canada January 2012.

Well the nice thing about this story is that my blog post was noticed and I've been guided to a couple of influential Bajans. If everything works out, I'll be needing a few permies to help out. Stay tuned...I'll keep you posted!

CPRI Get's The Go Ahead!

The Ministry of Agriculture of Barbados Officially Endorses The CPRI Project Proposal For A Permaculture Demonstration Site and Educational Centre.

Urban Gardens in Barbados

Headed to Barbados