Like all of these visits, it starts with one e-mail. I'm always super hopeful when I send them and very appreciative when I get back a reply.
I first found out about Sungkeo and his organization, The Saelao Project, through workaway.info and the permaculture global site. However, hadn’t realized it was one organization until Sungkeo e-mailed me. I met him in the morning and while we waited for another volunteer to join us we talked briefly about the need for sustainability and energy resiliency. I hold these conversations with a little bit of apprehension, but they are mostly very positive. I suppose the apprehension stems from visiting permaculture sites in Oregon and for the most part the people I met were a little too 'out there' for my taste. However, in Asia I feel the sustainability movement has less of a 'hippie' stigma attached to it.
SaeLao is nestled on the road between huge limestone mountains. Contrary to his modest description of the site in his e-mail, I found the SaeLao operation very impressive. It is at once a restaurant, a farm, a school, and a great demonstration site for a fully functioning biogas digester.
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| Floating gardens growing watercress |
The tour itself was short but sweet. To start we looked at floating gardens growing watercress. The classroom and the restaurant seating area are woven bamboo huts. The kitchen and office is made of cob as well as the dormitories. There is a pond, chicken coop, pig pen and a thriving garden. The tour stopped at the biogas digester.
A look of pride was noticeable on Sungkeo's face when we came to the digester and for good reason too. This was the largest and most effective one I've seen. It gathered all of the effluent from the bathrooms and the pig pens to a large holding tank where the methane is then piped to the kitchen. The processed effluent flows out in two troughs where it is mixed with sawdust. The sawdust mixture is then used for excellent, natural fertilizer and fish food. And there is hardly a smell!
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| The biogas holding tank is below ground. Effluent from the bathrooms goes to the holding tank |
Sungkeo expressed his hope that SaeLao could become a learning center for Laotian families and sustainable community development.
He deeply wishes that biogas technology will proliferate across Laos. It was interesting to hear about the struggles and challenges he experienced. He was honest about how hard it is to start a project like this, let alone manage it.
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| Sawdust mixture becomes great fertilizer |
“The Laos people are very relaxed which is good, but frustrating when you want to get stuff done,” he said.
We joined the other volunteers for lunch and I proceeded to bother them with questions about sustainable agriculture and what initially attracted them to the farm.
All volunteers are asked to spend at least a week on the farm gardening, cleaning and teaching English for at least an hour per evening.
It was great to get to know the people as with any farm/renewable energy site.
Two sisters from Australia had just got their Permaculture Design Certificates in Thailand; Asia was reading One Straw Revolution and Mckaila was reading some book by Wendell Berry. Awesome! They are such good environmentalists! Denise from Romania was great to talk to about the urgency of climate change and the need for resiliency. I suppose the most refreshing thing about meeting the volunteers was that conversations weren't these passionate diatribes about environmental issues. They didn't say much because they didn't need to, they are already doing what they can.
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| Volunteers teaching English to local kids |
Since it was a rest day, after lunch we went to a beautiful cave and a blue lagoon. We hiked in the cave, with Sungkeo as our guide, for about two hours and then went swimming. I didn't take one picture of the swimming and I wish I had. Great rope swing and a large tree to jump from.
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| Sae Lao Project's fish pond |
Please support the SaeLao Project anyway you can. Go there! Volunteer! Donate!
Check them out here:
http://saelaoproject.com/
workaway.info (you'll need an account)
Sungkeo has two major priorities he wants to complete this year. First, to purchase a computer for the children's English lessons. Second, to sponsor a family to build a biogas digester. Please help support him complete those goals.
A big thank you to Sungkeo!
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