Myanmar Youth Sustainability Training Centre

Dear friends and family,

We trust you are all doing well and staying healthy and strong.

We are sad to share with you that the situation in Myanmar has only grown worse over the past few months.

As many of you may be aware, we are currently, facing a devasting 3rd wave of Covid 19. Over the last few weeks and days, the situation gets more serious with a lack of oxygen throughout the entire country. With lack of staff, medical supplies and no vaccination program in the country there are so many challenges people here are facing and will continue to face in the upcoming weeks. Along with all of these challenges the country is in its 6th month of political instability. It is hard to imagine things being worse!

The good news is that we are still able to travel to Whispering Earth Training Centre and continue the development of the land and buildings. Although it is still extremely challenging, we are spending as much time out at the farm as possible.

Greening the Training Centre
With a very early monsoon season this year, we have already been able to plant over 500 trees and bushes throughout the 14 acre training centre. With a variety of fruit trees, flowering and medicinal trees, herbs, and veggie gardens the centre is really coming alive with the rains.

Earthen Buildings are back!
After a long time coming, we are so happy to have almost completed our first earthen building on the land!!

As we mentioned, early rains this year (almost 2 months early!), really took us by surprise. We thought there would then be a break in the rains, by the rains kept falling!

After several months working slowly on the few sunny days we have had, we finally have completed the roof. Now with the roof on we are working on the first base coat of lime and plaster and looking forward to choosing fun colors to paint the final plaster coat! This allows us to be able to stay at the farm when necessary.

When the rains stop and all things permitting, we will continue building and start another few buildings on the land including a permanent kitchen and more! We are so excited and thankful for this lovely space and opportunity to have the time to develop the project further during these challenging days.

A New Water Source for the Centre
Due to the situation over the last half year, we were unable to start digging the well at the farm. We hope to raise funds over the next few months in order to start drilling the bore hole in November and December when the rains have stopped.

Having our own water source will change things completely at the farm and allow us to live there more easily as well as be able to plant and care for more veggie garden space and all of our trees throughout the long dry season.

Each year the water source we currently use is drying up faster and faster as the local village access the water. A new water source will ensure more security for not only our farm but also the village we are working with.

It is an extremely challenging time here in Myanmar and we hold all those suffering in our hearts. We hope that the situation will change soon and people can begin to move forward with their lives.

We are grateful for all the support we receive and the opportunity to continue building Whispering Earth Training Centre to better serve the people of Myanmar in the upcoming years.

Warmest wishes and best of health to you all!

Whispering Earth Family

Dear friends and family,

We hope you are all staying and healthy and that the situation in your country begins to improve.

As many of you know, towards the end of January, Myanmar was beginning to contain the 2nd wave of Covid which has spread through the country. Unfortunately, Myanmar now faces new challenges. On February 1st the military gained country of the country resulting in a very unstable country and civil unrest. If you are unaware of the situation please check your international news in order to see the current political condition of the country. We pray for those brave youth have lost their lives of over the past month working to restore democracy to the country and keep them and their families in our hearts.

Due to the current political situation and unstability in the country we have chosen to focus our energy and time in the village at Whispering Earth Training Centre.  Regular phone, internet and power outages contribute to the many challenges we face once again here in Myanmar. 

Treated Bamboo Viewpoint Meeting Hall
We are so pleased to share that we were able to build our first treated bamboo house on the new land over the last 2 months! The building was the first experiment with treated bamboo, a technique using borax treatment to prolong the life of the bamboo. We also worked with local village carpenters to teach them new techniques of building, joining and working with this treated bamboo.

It took some persuasion to convince the villagers that the bamboo would be strong enough with the new design, but they have been quite pleased with the new learning and the result of the building. We still have some finishing touches to put on the building over the next two months before the rains come.

First mud building at Whispering Earth
We are also so excited to share with you that we have started our first mud building on the training centre. Due to the political situation and uncertainty of security, we have chosen to start with a smaller building in order to ensure the completion before the rains in case we cannot easily travel out to the farm.

Together with the villagers we have been making bricks over the past year and have over 5,000 bricks. We have completed the foundation and are almost complete the first floor of the building.

It has been so fun to see their faces as we tell them that no cement, concrete, steel or wood support beams are needed….only mud, straw, rice husk and sand!!

We have been inserting recycled glass bottle windows and teaching them a variety of techniques in working with natural building including; adobe, cob and much more.

We are so pleased with the result so far! We will continue to work for the completion of the building for the next two months prior to the coming of the rainy season. We cannot wait to share with you the final result in our next report.

Dry Season Fire Break and Struggles with Water
As some of you may remember, we have at forest fires over the last two years at the farm. This year we have been working hard to plant a green or living fence around the property and to create a small fire break to combat the fires during the few months of hot dry season here in Kalaw.

Because we have been unable to stay easily in town and run Sprouting Seeds, we have spent more time out at Whispering Earth. With more people staying here and building this year, along with an exceptionally dry hot season, our water source which we borrow from the neighboring farm has almost completely dried up.

For the last month we have been researching and visiting various sites around the farm to see what options we have to get more water.

We are pleased to share that we will start digging a bore hole in the next weeks! This is process becoming more popular in the local villages.

This will guarantee us a sustainable and endless source of water on our farm. This will completely change life on the farm! We are so excited as we will not only have more water for building and simple living on the farm, but we will be able to care for our trees much better and also will be able to grow more vegetables, fruits and herbs on the farm throughout the entire year!

Although we face extremely challenging times here in Myanmar once again, we are focusing our energy as best we can on the development of our training centre. Our aim is to be able to continue to support the people of Myanmar as best we can and make our small contribution to the development of the country.

With warmest regards,

Whispering Earth Family