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Dare to be Dirty? How Natural Building Changes Your Life.

Updated: 14 hours ago


Woman wearing a cap squats as she uses a level while moulding cob
Artist and instructor uses clay to make an earthen oven

Growing up in the Caribbean, you may have made mud pies or built sandcastles as playful pastimes. Beyond this childhood stage, the adult mind may no longer value such skill or that inner desire to play in the elements. Yet, if most of us started our little human adventures engaged in such muddy activities then surely it is worth examining “why”.


Probing these mysteries is natural after being immersed in ‘earth’ on a permaculture demonstration farm, for a 7-Day earth building immersion. This life changer was put on by OneRegeneration and Wa Samaki Ecosystems in Freeport, Trinidad and Tobago. Thanks to these entities, I now know that I want to live like a Batchac (leaf-cutter ant,) in a cool and calming mound of dirt, made by me, with the help of some friends, in a conga line of happy community trails. 


Six people churn mud and  fibre with their bare feet in a circle to mix cob traditionally. Beautiful, tall, green grasses in the background contrast with the brown mud in the forefront of the image.
Baila! Dancing the mud to make cob and community

If the 7-day earth building immersion were a song, it would sound something like The New Seekers’, “I’d like to build the world a home and furnish it with love...,” and of course grow mango trees and honey bees and a bunch of white little doves. The overall experience was peace filled and gratifying. Looking back, perhaps those of us who signed up for the opportunity were mixed with excitement and anticipation.


Perhaps, we may have also had little fears and anxieties about what the work might entail, if you were good enough or skilled enough to build a house or just simply brave enough to pause things in your routine, and plunge into the unknown - a unique modern experience of ‘rewilding’ in the Caribbean forest; returning to some ancestral practices and wisdom. 


A man stands outside a make shift pool of mud and rubs mud on his face. His face looks like he is wearing a clay mask at a spa.
One participant enjoys the benefits of being dirty
Essentially, we were all on a journey of remembering that invaluable information like earth building is still stored in the land itself and the elements. We too are ‘unearthing’ our connection to nature and tapping into what is stored in cellular memory

Essentially, we were all on a journey of remembering that invaluable information like earth building is still stored in the land itself and the elements. Acknowledging that, we too are ‘unearthing’ our connection to nature and tapping into what is stored in cellular memory. Driving this understanding home, so to speak, one of our facilitators, one fine day, magically brewed a herbal potion of sorrel, ginger and 'other bushes'.


This was to revive us during one of our ‘hydration sessions’ while working in the tropical heat. He quietly revealed that we were “eating the site” as he intentionally picked medicine on hand. Needless to say, harmonious living was certainly a major theme throughout the immersion.  


Natural Building: Homes and Communities...


Side shot of a 2 bedroom tiny home with partially finished mud walls called cob. Some of the wooden panels still show exposed wires that have been reused for weaving the inner structure if the walls.
Forever Home, tiny house in Freeport

Incidentally, as the journey moved forward and initial fears dissipated, it became clear that in the most Sesame Street-like way, a group of like minded, kind hearted people, had met up in the bush. We kept on gathering to build the cob walls of a tiny ‘retirement’ home, for a couple of well respected and admired permaculturalists. We gathered to learn and apply skills to what may seem an endearing little project but what in actuality, is a very big, important undertaking here in the Caribbean, with far reaching impact.


In more than one way, affordable and comfortable housing is a challenge for many in the region, young and old alike. Why is this and how can a simple mud house adddress this situation? These are timeless human questions that our ancestors came to terms with. There is enough mud and fibre for everyone to have a happy home. It is simply a process of cutting down waste and observing how nature does this. Our ancestors used their powers of observation as a tool to observe their place in the natural world. In some ways, we are both looking back and forward. Home is at the core of safety, regeneration, belonging, resilience, community and many other important aspects of human life. Natural building adds self sufficiency, dignity and ecological balance to this already dynamic equation.



Earth building was now an option again that came fully loaded with the added benefits of not compromising the ecosystem and doing so in artistic and even whimsical ways. It is not surprising that the phrase 'vertical earth' was coined to describe earthen houses and structures. It perefctly describes and alludes to the non invasive approach to building your Caribbean dream home.


This is the power of regenerative design. For me personally, it was evident that everything I was seeking was seeking me. My heart and soul had brought me here. I was desperate to get my hands in clay, desperate to meet souls who had freed themselves, if even in part, from the madness of city dwelling and I was desperate to be immersed in nature. I was gifted more than I could expect. My soul was nourished. I had received, bountifully, all that I had needed and I was regenerated; anew. 


One day my garden boots were completely stuck in a bed of mud and I keeled over, resisting the fall but falling anyway...I had no idea how much my soul needed me to fall in mud nor any idea that I had come all the way to Freeport to heal

My inner child too was laughing and healing. One day my garden boots were completely stuck in a bed of mud and I keeled over, resisting the fall but falling anyway. Instead of irritability and defeat, it was joy, freedom and ease. Finally exhaled my soul! I had no idea how much my soul needed me to fall in mud nor any idea that I had come all the way to Freeport to heal, while lying in mud that we had harvested to make cob. 


Then again I had no idea that by the end of 7 days I would be eating delicious, authentic, Italian pizza made by chefs in a Chilean dirt oven, during the best forest music jam session of my life! I had already been enjoying the daily thrill of live trumpet music played by a talented participant, sounding through the open pastures to an audience of unseen caiman in a nearby pond. A couple of times, our immersion group had also enjoyed the pleasure of masterful drumming by professionals as we traditionally danced the cob with our feet in a friendly circle or mixed samples of wall plasters for the first time. 


Two chefs stand in front of a dirt oven and they contemplate two large pizzas that have been laid out in baking pans to go into the oven.
Chef Maleah and Chef Carlo collaborate their pizza making talents
A large chilean dirt oven sits under a bamboo shed to protect it from the rain. There are a couple cement bricks on the ground in front the oven, a couple of wooden sticks lean on  the right side of the oven and a crocus bag sits on the ground near the sticks.
Pizzas are baked in a large Chilean dirt oven

The healing continued. There was the hosing down, the getting bitten by ants, running from a centipede, walking through the rain, eating lunch with friends, and watching friends fall asleep on themselves, especially those burnt out by their own chatter. There were jokes, smiles, bruises, lots of sweat and being stalked by the sun. Subsequently, there was involuntary sun tanning and pure feel-good tiredness at the end of a day, playing with friends. Yet, a home was being built together and we were at the same time learning how to build our own homes. 



As for mud pies and sandcastles, we had now graduated to cookies. Making a cob cookie is the best way to test your mixture and experiment with your formulae/ratio of clay, sand and fiber before making a large batch of cob to create walls. While I didn’t bite into the cookie, be assured that in playing hard, some of that mix in fact landed in my mouth from time to time.


So I ask you, are you dirty enough to eat some mud? What about dirty enough to live in some mud walls? I dare you to be dirty. I dare you to build a house with cob and adobe. I dare you to live in a dirty home.






 

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