Dear Dali

Finally, I have some free time to write!

I don't know how, but suddenly my peaceful village life has become so very

busy.

As you know, William and I recently went to Podlaskie province.

Different region of Poland, 620 km away from where we live with my father.

This distance is nothing in Mexican reality, but here 620 km means that we almost crossed the whole Poland on the bus!

We went there to attend a free permaculture workshop, nearby Augustow town.

This region is in the eastern part of Poland, really close to the border with Lithuania and Belarus. Have you ever heard about these countries? William never has. He was like:

-"Belarus? What is this country? What's happening there?".

Anyway, all the time we were there, we were surrounded by wilderness (Puszcza Augustowska). One of the largest Polish forest complexes, an area of over 1100 km2.

If you want to be close to nature, it hardly gets better than this!

The landscape there is so beautiful and unique. We arrived in the early morning hours and William was very confused. He felt as if he was in Island. There was something mystic in the air then- just before the sun rose, cold but magically beautiful.

It's a shame you couldn't be at the permaculture place. You could have attempted to do your shoeless 'Bethowen's walk' there- taking slow steps on this amazingly clean soil.

Krystyna- that was the name of our teacher and now friend. Her workshop and the whole 'academy' idea seemed to me as if it was taken straight out of my dreams. Really, it was that kind of a study which I had always wanted to take. It was a course that shows you real knowledge in practice. We were learning in real life about plants, animals, cosmos, humans and how we are all connected.

We were able to walk in the parts of the forest where there is no money- driven, human intervention. What I mean to say is, that the balance we saw between deciduous and coniferous trees was as God intended.

I cannot describe how mystique and extraordinary beautiful was an entrance to this forest, with all it's greenery and a carpet of white flowers. I felt as if I was entering a fairy-tail. I guess William felt something similar as:

-"This isn't real" was his comment.

During practical exercises we've made a dry toilet, wheel for the beans and also something

called a potato tower. Potato tower is for growing potatoes, looks a bit like a lasagne only it is huge, it's outside and it's made of sheep shit. In order to make it we had to collect ripe compost and then some dung.

If you want to practice your Polish, you can read more about our permaculture studies on Krystyna's blog: http://krycor.blogspot.com

More later, I am busy again, preparing old clothes, shoes and lumber to sell at a flea market in Wroclaw.

To be continued

Malwina M. Gawron

Poland, May 2017