ecogyrl

(soundtrack: ani's pick yer nose song)
starting yesterday, in any random order i feel like it, i share with you the amazing experiences and people of my trip Back Home. today, i wanna tell you how much my sistergoddess ecogyrl RAWKS THE HOUSE!! brer and i stopped by her place after a hike at Indian Fort in berea (where that sweet phone of mine decided to part ways.. ). this chica is kickin eco-ass and taking eco-names in the (please correct me if i'm wrong, mz. gyrl) green architecture program at berea college (a picturesque campus in the appalachian foothills, which, among other programs, offers degrees in many aspects of sustainable living). and the madame and her mister (whom i shall call " the chef") are in the process of totally redo-ing their early-20th-century home in downtown berea. rippin out walls an' stuff. the ecogyrl, savvy and pursuasive as she is, talked her berea college professor into making their house the "rebuild project" for a class. SO, as their classwork for the course, 20-some college students are gonna be doing the work on ecogyrl and the chef's house--for ALMOST FREE!! she's redesigning their kitchen as the project for another course. and if all of these don't impress the socks off of you as to this womyn's superamazinglysharp brainpower, she's already got a plan written up, brochure-style, for the ecovillage she, the chef, and some others will build when she's graduated. her idea is to create a community that is funded by teaching green-building techniques. wow, does this lady rock.
when they're not focused on building, ecogyrl and the chef are running their diesel truck, big brown betty, on used veggie oil they get out back of local restaurants.
i remember, a while back--but not too long ago!, when ecogyrl was my manager in the produce section at Good Foods Co-op. she took a weekend retreat at a tree-climbing seminar out in the woods. when she came back, she had a new vision. and kapow! she was signing up to go back to school, to become an eco-builder (at least, that's how i remember it!). when this gyrl moves, ya better stand outta the way, cuz she gon' make fast tracks!!
(photo--that gyrl, she move so fass, the only pitchers you can get are where she already LEFF!)