Arrival in Tennessee & A Rattlesnake

I had a brief and wonderful time in London with my brother and good friend Giulia, that I had met on my journey in the Philippines. After about a week however my brother left to go north and visit our family in Scotland. I myself also left London the following day as I had to catch a plane going to Tennessee. This had all been planned some time ago as I had been wanting to learn some more about Permaculture, which by definition is the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. In my words I would describe it as a way of farming that allows me to live in harmony with nature and as I benefit the plants, earth and animals they benefit me in return with the treasures that they have to offer. In Tennessee there happened to be a commune that largely focussed on the topic of permaculture. They put a lot of energy and thought into the implementation of farming practises that would not harm the soil and nature but instead regenerate it. Albert Bates - who as far as I am concerned is one of the more famous and influential permaculturists - has created an 'Ecovillage Training Centre' in this commune. A place that is supposed to give people a "whole systems immersion experience of ecovillage living" and also happens to be the training ground on which Albert offers Permaculture courses. "Please give me your passport and place your luggage below the desk on the band." The dark haired woman at the check-in tells me in London Heathrow. I do as told and wait about 5min. "Right so where will you be staying in the US and what is your waiver id?" The woman, whose name tag reads 'Rachel', ask me in a blunt manner. "It is someplace near Summertown in Tennessee and how do you mean my waiver id?" I answer, a little worried that I must've done something wrong. This feeling was confirmed by her cold eyes. "We won't be able to let you on the flight unless you have those details I am afraid." Rachel tells me, luckily another one of the women behind the counter comes to help. "Just check him in until Toronto, he might still have time to get his waiver with the internet here." The other woman tells Rachel. "Ok that's what we'll do, this means that you will have to check out of the airport in Toronto and pass the border control into Canada. Then you'll pick up your bag and check in again as usual for your flight to Nashville. And you'll have to get your visa waiver for the US now." Rachel explains rather helpfully. I run to my gate, check with my Ipod for an internet connection and luckily find one. I just about have enough time to rush through the online forms and complete the waiver registration to catch the plane to Toronto. What a shock so early on in this journey. I go through the procedure as described by Rachel when getting to Toronto, which ends up being a lot less troublesome than I had expected and from there catch my flight to Nashville. Even as I walk through the airport I see musicians play country music in some of the airport restaurants. It felt like I had arrived in the south, in Nashville. It was pretty obvious now why they called Nashville 'the home of country music' and 'music city'. As I get out of the air conditioned airport the hot humid air hits into my face making me even more drowsy than I had already been. At this point it must've been about 3am at home so I was more than happy to find Albert waiting in an old white car and the 1 1/2h trip to Summertown also came in aid as it allowed me to take a little nap. I arrive with a tired mind and somehow manage to power through the last few hours of the day in this timezone to then fall asleep on a not overly comfortable bed, but nothing could've stopped my eyes from closing at this point.

The next morning I wake up and Aediren, the other apprentice that was there at the time was cooking a lovely porridge. The smell of coconut was filling the air, coconut butter being the main oil used in the cooking. My mind was still dazed from the jetlag and it felt like my soul was still travelling across the Atlantic, trying to catch up with the fast planes I had been travelling in. "You feel like going for a walk man? The forests around here are magical, I love walking around and exploring as it feels like everything is alive and breathing. If you just take a moment every now and then observe what is happening around you notice the sheer diversity of creatures that roams here." He said as a little ringneck snake came crawling out of his front shirt pocket, peeking it's little head at me and then keeping still in that upright position. "Sure, don't mind if I don't talk too much just now. I am still pretty exhausted." I answer, not able to stop looking at the little snake that had just appeared. We start walking, I was wearing my leather flip flops that I had bought in Kenya and they were still holding up strong but I started struggling in the mud of the wet forest. Looking up would allow me to see 'komorebi' (japanese for sunlight falling through leaves/trees) and looking down I would see a thick carpet of thousands of oak leaves which had started to mulch and form new healthy soil. In this new healthy soil you could see thousands of little insects and imagine the uncountable microorganisms which must've penetrated through all of this nature. "Stop!" Aediren says and his lips start forming a wide smile above his wide wild beard. He pointed just in front of us to what looked to me at first like a heap of leaves. "What?" I answer as I wake up from the little trance I was in. I look in front and don't require any more answers. There is a large rattle snake sitting just in front of us, well camouflaged among the brown leaves. Aediren walks towards it and picks up a long stick on the way. Keeping his distance he picks the snake up with the stick and starts gently shaking it. "You hear the rattle in it's tail?" He asks as his happy and excited eyes gaze over to me. I did, every time he gently moved the stick up and down I heard a light rattle coming from the snake. He drops the snake and it is pretty pissed off at this point, meaning that Aediren didn't have to do anything to hear the rattling as the snake started wildly shaking it's tail to threaten us. We walk off and the snake starts to relax again, it doesn't try to hunt us down or anything. This felt like a pretty wild place, Europe isn't really like this I thought - the most dangerous thing in my home village were either the seals or the vicious seagulls. Nothing compared to the sometimes dangerous snakes or spiders that were roaming around here. In the evening Aediren and myself start walking down to the hodgepodgelodge, a strawbale house built by apprentices for other apprentices to live in and which also used to be a living space for Albert. In the dark I see green lights flicker here and there. Fireflies were surrounding us and creating another magical space. "Just wait till we take the golf-cart down to the head of the roads this friday, on the sides of the road you'll be stunned by the light that these little creatures emit." Aediran says as he notices my enchanted face. What a lovely image to fall asleep to I thought, resting my head into my pillow.