Sunseed Trust - sustainable living in Southern Spain

Following our trip to Morocco and back, we vowed never to travel through three continents in four days again. The day we left Chefchaouen, we took a taxi to the bus, then another taxi to the ferry, then two more buses. This route left us in Malaga Spain for the evening. Since the hostals close to the bus station were charging $75.00 a night, we headed down the beach to try out our new tent. Our free camping spot included a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and surrounding city.
The following morning, we went to Almeria by bus to begin volunteering and to take a solar hot water course at Sunseed Destert Technology.

Sunseed Trust began operating in 1986 with the intention of developing low cost technologies to aid 3rd world arid/desert regions. The group, consisting of English ex patriots, settled in an abandoned Spanish village and began experimenting with reforestation and solar energy. Over the past two decades, the project's focus has changed several times. The community is rooted in permaculture principles, an approach to sustainable living developed by two Australians in the 1970s.
Presently, Sunseed occupies four houses in the small village, operates four gardens, and hosts hundreds of volunteers year round. There are nine full time staff residents, and a board of trustees who help operate projects from abroad.

One of the main principles of permaculture is painted on the sign above. The temperatures throughout our stay ranged from 95 to 100 degrees daily. On our first day, we learned how to look after ourselves by locating the fresh water pond in the valley nearby.

The swimming hole was VERY cold and refreshing, and we frequented it daily as it was the only way to escape from the oppressing dry heat and sun. The water was crystal clear, and the turtles nearby mostly left us alone as we swam and waded in the shade.

Bamboo grew near the water throughout the valley. There was also a ram pump to provide river water to the village. The water isn't drinkable because of the high amount of gypsum, but residents use the water for irrigation and dish washing.



The irrigation ditches throughout the village were built by the Moors in the 15th century. It's amazing to think that a system this old functions so well! The river through the
Molinas valley is one of the few that still flow year round. Due to high amounts of gypsum mines in the area, most of the rivers have dried up. This also creates a fire problem in the summer. During our two week stay, we saw three fires and had to evacuate the village for one of them.



The top of the village houses a large yurt for community activities. Canya, or bamboo structures adorn many areas around the village. We taught yoga in the yurt each morning at 6 am during our stay. The yurt also hosted a cabaret show, a movie night, and an acro balance workshop for volunteers. Fun!



Six people participated in the solar hot water course during our second week. It was amazing to learn how easy they are to make! We built the main solar water panel in five days.



First we soldered the copper pipes together (5 long parallel pipes connected together at both ends). Then we attached aluminum fins to the five parallel pipes to increase the surface area collecting heat from the sun. Then we painted the pipes and fins with a primer paint and finally black paint to increase the heat absorption.



Next we built an insulated frame to house the solar collector and finally attached a single glazing of glass across the top of the insulated box. With the insulated box and glass cover, the greenhouse effect allows more heat to be collected. The finished solar collector panel was about 2 square meters in size.

The solar collector is usually mounted on a roof and water is pumped or flows through and gets heated. If the hot water is stored above the solar collector, a thermo-syphon effect will keep the water circulating without a pump. The system can be a pre-heater so that the normal water heater doesn't need as much energy to heat the water or can be the only source of hot water if you get enough sun.



Solar water heating is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to take advantage of solar energy and lower our energy bills. We plan to install one at each of our houses when we return home, and at any of our family members who would like one.

During the summer months, Sunseed's volunteer turnover is quite large. We thought the project had a lot of people during our first week. The communal meals produced massive pots of food for about two dozen people. Then, 22 Belgain boy scouts showed up. Due to a communication mix up, the project leaders weren't expecting the group for another week or so. We were suddenly 45 people, and the hottest days of summer were upon us. The boy scouts camped in a field next to the village the first few days, but then had to move into a few of the project's houses after a fire nearly destroyed their campsite.

It seemed the boy scouts were a bit bored, so we made home made chocolate one night for desert. It was fun to peel the shells, grind the beans and then enjoy the spread on home made bread!



The grinder made the beans into a smooth paste.



Fresh chocolate! Mmmmm! It was exciting to see the looks of surprise on everyone's faces when we told them about where chocolate comes from and how it's made.
Since we had never cooked for 45 people, we didn't elect to cook lunch or dinner during our stay. However, we did learn how to make bread during our stay. We consumed 16 loaves in two days! Those who did cook did a fantastic job, lunch and dinner was a great time to catch up with everyone and talk about the various projects going on.

Our friends Marcus and Marie took us to the beach on one hot afternoon. The Mediterranean was cool and perfect for floating. We spent a few hours sitting on the shore combing through rocks and then enjoyed an ice cream. Thanks Marcus!

Agave grows throughout the valley and has many uses. A local villager and agave enthusiast, Timbo, runs an agave museum in his house. He makes agave drums, lamps, sculptures and didgeridoos. His family works to plant agave in Ethiopia, as the biomass makes great low cost fuel. The plants are hardy and use virtually no resources during their long lives.

Our time at Sunseed was too short. We had planned to stay six weeks, but our schedule changed when we decided to attend the Kundalini yoga festival in France. It was great to meet so many knowledgeable, passionate people. Each day, we learned something new about how to reduce our carbon footprint. Living in an established community showed us that it is possible to live environmentally sustainably and comfortably. We also made great friends and allies for our future community living endeavors. Thanks Sunseed! We hope John, Bex, Rosa, Rob, Vejay (and kids), Jeff, James and Dara can visit us in St. Louis someday! The same goes for all the other awesome volunteers we met during our stay : Fin, Max, Ellen, Shannon, John, Hugh, Lucia, Kiana, Marie, Marcus, Hanna, Hanne, JoJo and all the boy scouts!