Alex Demeshko

What I have learned at Son Barrina was truly special. There is this saying: "Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." and this applied to me as well. I chose to design my very own experience in Mallorca. Next to volunteering and learning about permaculture, I had the chance to deepen my hobbies and explore the island through a sporty way. For that, I bought my own bike to ride through the villages to the beach and decided freely about my own style of transportation. Which I learned in talking hours is a principle of permaculture, embracing a conscious relationship to your environment. Working with the seasons and adapting my activities to it was a big part, so that we did puzzles together in the wintertime and baked cakes, did yoga and Muay Thai in the spring and read in rainy days. Flexibility is not only necessary on a finca, but essential for permaculture living.

Our projects were dependent upon our ideas and inspiration, even though we got support, we still had to work with our creative side and get challenged to do a project we were passionate about. Through some reflection I decided to work on my very own insect hotel. After other building projects and introduction into building machinery, it became a fun new learning experience for me. Since I never done anything like this before, I learned a lot about reusing materials which I have at hand, recycling old furniture and especially learning about the living environment of insects and bees. A lot of research helped me do my best to make a comfortable home for them. I was encouraged to do it my way and to add my artistic style to it. So I had a lot of fun making it my artwork. A lot of time, effort and thinking went into it so that I am proud of the finished product and would gladly follow along the development of the insect’s nesting process.

During work tasks, like mowing grass, planting trees, weeding, watering and building a winter garden, we received a lot of information about permaculture, sustainable living and farming, which I will take with me for the rest of my life after the volunteering,