Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 1 – Ringo in Afghanistan
Aid Projects, Podcasts — by Patrick Blampied April 28, 2010
‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ is a new weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.
Episode 1: This week we’re speaking to Paul Kean, aka ‘Ringo’, who is from Perth, Australia and currently working on a project for the Permaculture Institute of Afghanistan, in Kabul.
Ringo has recently arrived and it’s just his luck that there’s been a hail storm which according to the locals is a once-in-25-year occurrence!
He’s having a great time so far and working on water as a priority. The photos below are described in detail in the podcast.
Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker Episode 1 - Ringo in Afghanistan
Editor’s Note: Ringo has taken PRI’s Permaculture Project Aid Worker (PPAW) course, which helps prepare workers for challenging/interesting/rewarding permaculture experiences worldwide, and is now finding paid placements through PRI’s growing network of projects. After Afghanistan, Ringo is heading to Malaysia. Our next PPAW course starts June 14, and after that is September 13.
The earthmoving equipment “which belongs in a museum but does the job”
Some of the local children that this project will benefit
Hope House
Ringo (centre) eating lunch with the local workers
Lunch with the local workers
To follow are other photos of locals and the five acre project site. Stay tuned for further reports:
Comments (12)
Please consider adding a download link for the podcast. I like to listen to podcasts while I’m out gardening, and I can’t take the computer with me!
Thanks.
Comment by Carol — April 28, 2010 @ 2:22 am
Hi Carol – you were fast! I was just fiddling with syntax for this podcast plugin to enable downloads when your comment came in. It’s now enabled. Click on the play button, then you’ll note a ‘download’ link at right side of progress bar. RIGHT click on it (for PC) and choose ‘Save link as’ to download from there. Enjoy the podcast, and your garden!
Comment by Craig Mackintosh — April 28, 2010 @ 2:40 am
Hey Ringo, good on ya for having a go at Afgan aid. Good luck with that dozer, it looks like its a cable job. Heaps of luck dude. No beers for a while. Tsk tsk! Love to have a chat when you finished there,
Steve
Comment by steve cran — April 28, 2010 @ 3:45 pm
It’s good to see Ringo’s rugged smiling face again!
The whole South Asian subcontinent needs to implement initiatives like this one … we need more Ringos!
Comment by Vic Gaffney — April 28, 2010 @ 4:44 pm
Thanks all for your interest and words of support.The second instalment was made for over an hours work of pure gold but the recording didn’t turn out.If anyone else is using skype to record like this,then keep in mind that it only lets you record for an hour.
Good work with the editing Pat.I look forward to our next chat.
Hey Steve,can you send me your contact details so we can have that chat.
ringoplantfreak (at) gmail.com
Comment by Ringo — April 28, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
sorry,that was half an hour of skype recording allowable.
Comment by Ringo — April 28, 2010 @ 11:52 pm
And here I was thinking you were settled in India, Ringo. Did you ever get out to see Gangi Setty?
Comment by Douglas Barnes — April 29, 2010 @ 2:33 am
Hey Doug,no I didn’t get to see Gangi Setty.Heaps of opportunities for projects in India though.Just a hassle getting commitment for sponsorship for long term visa.
Hope all is good for you.
Comment by Ringo — April 29, 2010 @ 4:11 am
Awesome Ringo keep up the good work!
Comment by Daniel — April 29, 2010 @ 6:50 am
Ringo and Pat
Nice work guys – very inspiring.
Did you travel across on your bike Ringo?
Craig
Comment by Craig — April 30, 2010 @ 8:22 am
Thanks Craig,
I had to sell my trusty old Bullet before leaving India which was an emotional time.We had been through a bit together and it never let me down.I had thought I may have been able to ride from India to here but reconsidered after realising the security issue.You don’t want to stand out here.
Ringo
Comment by Ringo — May 2, 2010 @ 11:32 pm
Very nice work.From the swales project by Mr. Douglas, we are seeing the promising results. Looking forward to seeing the results from your “desert-water project”
Cheers
Gangi S
Comment by Gangi Setty — May 4, 2010 @ 10:49 am
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