As a young girl growing up in Czechoslovakia,
I was introduced to and worked with plant
medicine thanks to my grandmother
who passed her knowledge on to me. Together we would collect the plants in the fields, dry and store them and later use them for teas, syrups, sit baths and various other remedies.
I have always enjoyed my skills and knowledge of
living plants as they relate to food and medicine
and other natural uses. I also have always loved
to dance and sing as a form of expression. In
1994 in Prague, I was introduced to and fell in
love with West African Dance with the African
dance teacher Monica Rebcova and the French
theatre artist and African dancer Nizzoucha
Decoux.
In 1996, I attended the Holotrophic Breath-work
Course, based on the teaching of Stanislav Grof,
MD, PHD, whose work accessing the power of
non-ordinary states and shamanic consciousness
to transform your life not only had a great impact
on me growing up but complemented so much of
what I already loved and had learned from my
grandmother. The work opened me up even more
to spirituality, and my own inner journeying and
emotional healing.
During the summer holidays in 1997 and 1998 I
was able to travel to Southern France to
participate in West African Dance and Theatre
Workshops. Moving to the rhythms of livedrumming within a group of dancers and
performing for local villagers brought much
connection, love and joy into my life.
Years later while living in Southern California, I
attended several more Breath-work workshops
and became a Pranayama Breath-work facilitator
myself. After having 2 beautiful children, a boy
and a girl, I relocated to California to study yoga
and eastern philosophies.
In 2007 I moved to Ojai, California ( a small town
in the mountains south of Santa Barbara and
original home of Chumash Indians). It was there I
received the Munay-Ki Rites. The Munay-Ki are a
series of nine Empowerment rites based on the
initiatory practices of the Q’ero shamans of Peru,
as taught by anthropologist Alberto Villoldo.
“Munay” in Quechua means “love and will”,
together with “ki”, from the Chinese word for
energy, and combine to give the meaning:
energy of love. While living on an organic farm in Ojai, I learned all about permaculture and organic food production from the local farmers and supported the “green movement” by being part of a CSA (community-supported agriculture; shares and farmers market culture).
I participated in ongoing Native American Inipi Ceremonies and co-created a devotional singing group. I also led Kirtans, performed at private and public events, participated in woman’s song circles and co- created women’s new moon ceremonies.
In 2009 I moved to the artistic and
environmentally friendly small town community
of Ashland, Oregon, where I experienced an
advanced environmental awareness among the
towns people. I witnessed and continued to learn
from and took part in many sustainable efforts
there. Ashland, OR to this day has the best
running food Co-op in the country (USA),
supporting local small scale farmers and the
surrounding community by providing the best
organic food/products available. In Ashland you
can find public farm’s tours, farmers markets
supporting local farmers and artisans, people’s
support through CSA baskets; and a more local
economy created by the people, for the people,
through the trading of different produce, products
and services.
While living in Ashland, I became ill with Lyme’s
disease. Taking the responsibility in my hands for
how to cure it as nothing prescribed or known at
that time was working, I had to learn both on my
own and thru workshops and extensive research
and experiments on myself, how to make herbal
tinctures and overall, how to be more aware of
everything which effects one’s health in general.
Living in an organic friendly place such as
Ashland, I learned to use only fresh organic food
packed with nutrition as my medicine.
My personal healing journey continued and led
me to the Amazonian region of Peru in 2013 and 2014. It was there I would further work with and
learn about plant medicine. As I experienced adeeper connection with the plants, my desire to
work with them for healing purposes grew. While
leading a session one day, Lucky assisted me.
The whole experience came together with such
ease and grace that I knew then and there that
together we already were and would continue to
make a great team.
In 2016 I moved to Mpumalanga, and together
Lucky and I built our home, created a farm and
met with our local community to offer our skills
and better understand their needs. From the moment we met, we’ve been working
together for the same cause and our love for
each other has grown stronger each
day.
Our home is located at Eastern Mpumalanga
province in the Ekulindeni District close to the
Swaziland Border. It is a 2.5 hour drive south
from Nelspruit and 45 mins to Mbabane
Swaziland. It is a home to some of the oldest rock
formations on earth. Here we have rolling hills,
hidden valleys, wide open plains and forest
ravines, which all support an incredible diversity
of wildlife, plants, habitats and an abundance of
birdlife. You will find us next to Songimvelo
Nature Reserve, the largest provincial nature
game reserve in Mpumalanga, with the highest
plant diversity in the province. It is also home to
4 of the “big five” and Malolotja National Park,
one of the best highland reserves in Swaziland,
offering 200km of hiking trails through genuine
wilderness. You will see zebras here, antelopes, baboons, wildebeests, leopards, lynx, porcupines,
many different bird species and more. There are many tourist attractions in Mpumalanga province such as Bourke’s Luck Potholes, Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, provincial heritage site – Adam’s Calendar (believed to be the oldest man-made structure on Earth) and internationally known Kruger National Park, home of “Big Five” – Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Buffalo and Rhino.
We believe in the spirit of Ubuntu. “Ubuntu” is an
African expression of ancient wisdom, which is
echoed by all ancient civilisations. It simply
means “unity within community” where everyone
contributes their natural talents or acquired skills
for the greater benefit of all. Our greatest vision
is to create a holistically thriving, sustainable
community in rural Mpumalanga with both an
educational and healing centre as well as a food
forest and living working organic farm site.
In 2018 we joined forces with our neighbourhood
farmers Dokodela Nkabinde, Bhudi Mkhonto and
Meicie Msibi and opened Sahhulube Eco Village
NPO – Entabeni. In 2019 we acquired 10 more
hectares of land from Local Tribal Authorities.
Looking Ahead:
Currently there is a high rate of unemployment,teenage pregnancies and HIV victims living in the area. Alcoholism and drug abuse is destroying many families.There is no higher education available here. Nor are there any desired and helpful classes available to the youth or adults in the area such as computer skills, life skills education, sports activities, ecologically sound agriculture or courses on sustainability, art,
dance and theatre classes, healing or counselling
programs. And we’d like to do what we can to
help assist in changing that for the better.
GMO corn is a part of the stable diet here.
Although many are eager to learn, most people
still lack motivation and feel disempowered (in
part due to the lack of opportunity available for
evolutionary learning as well as the history of SA
which is also deeply connected to the current
conditions.)
Due to the conditions that exist now in our area
our priority and main focus is on food sovereignty
and the economic empowerment of small scale
farmers and rural youth. We believe that
permaculture practices will build the capacity of
local people to make positive change and
become stewards of their land and environment.
We aim to provide the community with
permaculture design courses, eco-village design
education, natural building courses, youth camps
and international exchange programs, vision
quest/self-inquiries, spiritual retreats and healing
ceremonies, courses on plant medicine and nutrition, eco tourism and other relevant
trainings.
Our site will serve as an inspirational hub for
sharing knowledge and information amongst the
people, for doing research and creating a library
where we can offer computer skills, cultural
heritage and history, art, spirituality and wellness
classes.
With the community needs in mind, the most
critical and important step will be to build the
community dam in the village and provide the
community members with water. Our goal then
will be to supply the small scale farmers with
organic seeds, teach them the permaculture
principles and distribute their produce.
Community members will then learn how to build
from natural materials by participating in building
the community hall and recreation centre. We
envision youth camps that will empower the
youth to live more mindfully, helping them to
understand where their food comes from and
why it is important to cultivate and care for the
land.
The international exchange programs for youth
will open up the opportunity for the local youth
here to travel, to make new friends, learn new
skills and to expand their consciousness. We also
believe that we can support the local mothers by
creating small local eco tourism; helping them to
make their livelihood while preserving the
knowledge of traditional craft making.We believe that one village empowerment thru
access to water, education and the ability to
apply the various acquired and learned skills to
become a part of their own living, working
community; will serve in turn to greatly impact
and empower others in surrounding communities
to do the same. Together this community will
create a new local culture; one of creating,
sharing and trading which will ultimately bring
more joy, motivation and abundance to everyone
it serves and is an example to others.
At the first stage of the development, we intend
to invite volunteers (both local and international)
who both want to learn and have something to
teach in the developing stages, to come help us
with the ground work on the land, the clearing
and preparing of the permaculture site, the
planting of trees, setting up the water system;
raising fences, green houses and anything which
will involve extra physical labor. This project is
based on team work and the success of its forest
garden also depends on all of us. And that begins
with each and every one of us and you!
So you are invited, welcome and greatly
appreciated and needed. If you feel called to
come and join us, and see South Africa while
being a part of a great project and life
experience, please contact us for more
information at: Mr_kekana@yahoo.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
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