Moanna Quynh Nguyen 

I was brought up in a city in Denmark with no connection to land as a second generation Vietnamese refugee, and growing up was most about integrating the western culture while respecting where my parents come from. I was grateful for the privileges of education and stability, and sought to give back to a society that had given me so much. Freedom and equity has always been fueled my activistic spirit.

When I went to travel to Vietnam I discovered that what I expected to be beautiful, untouched natural places, was polluted and filled with plastic. That’s when I started gaining more awareness about our impact on the environment. Not long after it was hard for me to unsee the destruction behind just a simple takeaway coffee. Half a year later this heightened sensitivity to all life made me feel all the consequences in the production and disposal of our commodities, which led me into apathy and despair. I was completely frozen and didn’t feel my life did any justice to the impact I made.

After many cries and lots of anxiety from feeling the devastating consequences in the production and disposal of what sustained my city life, my mom said, “the world won’t be a better place if you’re miserable”. I changed my travel goals with sustainable as the keyword, followed my heart, kept it open to learn about how to live sustainable and discovered permaculture in December 2019. I was on the right path as only a week after I bumped into a permaculture teacher and ended up at Tom Kendall’s permaculture farm. This city girl fell in love with the land. I spent 6 months milking cows, feeding biodigestors, having dirt between my toes, connecting with other permies on their journey and an amazing community. I felt so alive, knowing that I could not only avoid destroying but actually make space for nature to heal, and knew that humans belong and are one with nature.

Rancho Mastatal is a Dream coming true. I need a deeper connection with the land, a better understanding of ecology and all the resilient, social and practical skills to deal with climate change!