'Pay what you want courses' follow-up

Our Permaculture design course

I was told that “the proof of a pudding is in it’s eating” it took me a while to understand the expression, I hadn’t realised that ‘proof’ wasn’t being used in it’s mathematical sense ■. “Over-egging a pudding” was even harder to grasp until I tried it. Anyway, as I got a lot of support, some questions and a little bit of criticism I thought a proof of the pudding follow-up to this article might be useful:

Why my Permaculture courses are 'pay what you want'

I’m not just saying this, well I am, but the course went pretty well, at least that’s the feedback we got from the participants. The staff were pretty pleased too and definitely not just because they got paid.

As an aside, it’s always interesting teaching Permaculture design courses because of the mix of people who come along. Musicians and artists hygenically rubbing shoulders with town planners and builders. I would say that over the years I’ve probably seen representatives of most professions on my courses. When I say most professions I really do mean that!

So a whole bunch of people turned up for our Permaculture design course in the Ardèche. Nobody had to take a jet plane to get here and quite a few car-shared which is well fine. The weather wasn’t however and decided to give everyone a welcome which involved a storm and heavy rainfall. At least it let up the next day and we got some pretty nice weather.

Another aside, I was pretty chuffed when we stopped speaking about ‘global warming’ and started using ‘climate change’ instead. I’ve lost track of the number of times I found myself discussing ‘global warming’ during a warm season when outside it was as cold as a well-digger’s arse. This is a technical expression meaning a temperature colder than ‘taters in the mold’ but warmer than ‘freeze the whassnames off a brass monkey’. The English language isn’t as simple as some people seem to think.

We here are not convinced by the idea that the body’s main purpose is to transport the brain around so the courses always have a practical element. Because it can get well hot, they happen in the morning before the courses when it’s cooler, radical stuff.

We had :

A bit of bodging

Bread and meal preparation

Stone wall building

Gardening

Courses and studies

OK, I’ve just been told that the photo above isn’t actually a course but everyone in the local bar, which explains the smiles. The bar is hidden in the photo and definitely isn’t the building in view, in case you visit the village.

Courses and studies

We also had Dr Mamady Diawara live by video from the Republic of Guinea who presented his portfolio for his diploma in applied Permaculture. I was his main tutor with Karine, Permaculture designer and architect, as seconday tutor. Good stuff and very inspiring. Yes, he got his Diploma!

Anyway, once again it all worked out well. The courses run so well that people regularly come back for a second go! This is part of the tradition that I encouraged over here, if you’ve already done a PDC (Permaculture design course) then you can do a second one just paying for your food (and lodging if you choose the dormitory or a bedroom, camping is free). This doesn’t necessarily mean at the same place with the same teachers, it means anywhere in France with other teachers. I imagine that it’s the same in your country.

We’ve got about 35 people booked for the next course which is in August. That’s more or less full but maybe we’ll open up a few more places. It means I’ve got a month and a half to redo all my courses, I do this each time because I like finding new ways to present stuff and to add in new research, experiences and recent findings.

BTW

I asked everyone on the course to guess how much I spent on materials to build my vardo but I forgot to follow it up. Anyway if you’re reading this the answer is around 1300€, it’s 5 metres long. I tidied it up for the photos.