Internship Interview

Discover the uniqueness of the Internship Through the Heart at Jiwa Damai through this exclusive interview with our intern, Rene!

Find out more about our internship here!

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Internship in Transpersonal Psychology

“During my six weeks of internship with Lagu Damai Foundation while staying at Jiwa Damai permaculture center,  I was working on a psychological self- exploration focusing on personal growth and self-development.

My personal growth project included five main dimensions: the mental, the emotional, the physical, spiritual and nutrition. Through tools such as the daily HeartSelf-Intelligence meditation, yoga and garden work I was able to explore and experience myself in a very new way. I received excellent guidance and supervision throughout the whole time of my internship. I am deeply satisfied with my internship. I didn’t expect such an in-depth personal growth process. I feel that this internship has been a wonderful opportunity to expand  my horizon on many levels and will be a huge benefit for my future.”, Natalie our intern.

Find out more about our internship program here.

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Barong Festival

In the banjar(village) of Wira, our Foundation president, many ceremonies unfolded these last few weeks. Here is our intern Natalie with the village ladies carrying the Barong, a type of a lion-dragon monster, through the whole village. In the next picture you’ll see our Volunteer from New York dressed in traditional festival garb with Wira in the front of a beautifully carved door at Wira’s home. Kevin being very tall, the sarong is a bit short on him.

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Our intern ran the Bali Marathon

Natalie, our intern in psychology at Jiwa Damai is an officer in the German army and a great athletic woman. She ran the famous 21 km Marathon in Bali with over 5000 participants. Next week she will also go to Java to participate in the Mount Bromo Nationale park marathon. Congratulations Natalie!

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Internship at Jiwa Damai: Living the difference

Internships at Jiwa Damai are a special experience. Our interns are invited to really live the difference. The focus is a personal growth process offering people an in-depth learning on several levels: personal inner growth, conceiving, designing and implementing their own project, cross cultural interaction with a very different Hindu culture, as well as with our international interns form all around the world. In addition to the personalized support, we offer daily morning yoga classes and evening Heart meditation.

Each intern designs his/her individual project with supervision and based on the aforementioned in-depth learning. The internship can cover a wide range of topics. See more about topics, application procedure and more details  here.

We talked to Marie Thimm our intern from Germany about her experience. It was not really an interview but more of a discussion about her project and about how she lived the difference at Jiwa Damai.

Why Jiwa Damai?

I wanted to make a change; I wanted a shift in my work path. Jiwa Damai attracted me because of its variety: a place to do an internship, a permaculture farm, a retreat, the Lagu Damai Foundation and also the work of Dr. Margret Rueffler– the peace psychology. I wanted to experience it and see how they were all working together, how they are inter-connected.

I was also very much interested in foundations because I didn’t want to work in money making oriented companies but in places that take care of the surrounding: be it the nature, the community or the planet, in general.

The location had no impact in my choice, but it was a nice side effect

It was already dark when I arrived at Jiwa Damai but from the very first moment it felt like being in an oasis. When one comes from Denpasar, with all that terrible traffic Jiwa Damai unfolds like a peaceful and beautiful oasis.

A process of connecting with the inner most self

My internship consisted of a personal project. What we developed was a process through which I could really differentiate all the skills I have into the ones relevant for my future work by applying the Heart-Self Intelligence method. At the same time, I defined my values and I put them into an application letter so that gained a different power and energy.

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Christmas gifts at Jiwa Damai

We are all searching. We travel around the world, we talk to people, we experience new situations, we learn and we do all these things in order to make peace with ourselves, with our heart, in order to align with our potential.

At Jiwa Damai we received a different gift this Christmas: knowledge. Dr. Margret Rueffler invited the interns, volunteers, staff and friends for a one-day seminar on Heart-Self Intelligence.

We could describe it in carefully crafted words on a blog post but it is something one can only experience it if one allows its heart to do so. Come visit us, you’ll understand why! Or find out more about our internship program that individually guides our participants on their path to self-development while completing their project.

More photos on Jiwa Damai Facebook Page.

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Tropical Christmas at Jiwa Damai

No matter how far, how hot or how different it may be from where you usually celebrate it, as soon as the last week of the year approaches you start longing for Christmas. So even if you are in the tropical parts of the planet, as we are here, at Jiwa Damai, in sunny Bali, there are still things you can do to calm that wish of a white Christmas.

But since we’re pretty short on snow and Christmas trees, we’ve got our decorations on another beautiful tree, just close to the place we’ll have our Christmas dinner, almost as, or even better than in a colder climate.

Christmas it’s great in itself, who said you have to be freezing to enjoy it!

But we are in Bali and each year we also celebrate the Galungan – Kuningan. Therefore, our interns, volunteers and staff have prepared also a Balinese Penjor. Here are some pictures.

Find out more about the Balinese celebration here.

See more photos on our Facebook Page! 

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The Art of Learning by Doing

Permaculture in Practice – The Art of Learning by Doing
6th – 30th January 2014

Jiwa Damai encourages a combination of theory and hands on practice in a supportive environment as an important approach to learning and growing. Our internships offer the possibility to design and actualize a project, either as a group or on an individual basis. Our interns receive expert support and guidance while being given the chance to take responsibility for their own learning outcomes.

At this time we are offering places for up to 6 interns to take part in a one-off group permaculture, aquaculture design project, facilitated by our in-house permaculture design trainer Stephanie Garvin.  The project will involve designing and implementing an aquaculture project, including building a chinampa system, a technique used in Latin America by the Incas to successfully grow food in wetland areas.  We have several swamp areas at Jiwa Damai which lend themselves ideally for such a project. To our knowledge it is the first of its kind to be implemented in Bali. It is an exciting pilot project.

This project includes free theory sessions on permaculture design for chinampa systems.

Following this internship the we offer a Permaculture through the Heart course www.jiwadamai.net/education-activities/

Our offering The Art of Learning by Doing is open for people interested in permaculture, sustainable food production and environmental conservation. No previous permaculture knowledge or experience is needed. We also invite Permaculture Design Certificate holders desiring to expand their practical knowledge and design skills. Participants need to be in good health and physical condition since the project will involve manual work in a tropical environment.

Skills that participants will have the opportunity to learn and practice during this internship include:-
Permaculture design methodologies
Assessing needs and yields
Building a stable, productive ecological system
Nutrient recycling
Using local and on site resources
Water management
Aquaculture systems
Creating energy efficient systems
Planning for diversity and habitat creation
Using edge effects to increase yield
Teamwork and task management
Plant propagation techniques
Soil building and composting

For more details or information, or to apply for a place on this internship programme, please contact us at info@jiwadamai.net or using the contact form attached.

Optional Extras
We can provide on-site, basic accommodation and meals at Jiwa Damai Retreat Centre and Organic Garden at a discounted rate.

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Building a new pond at Jiwa Damai

Our volunteer Shoshi from the US and our intern Andreas from Germany are working close to our parking lot on developing a new pond on our premise.

They were digging very hard and now they are preparing the pond lining which should prevent the water from being re-absorbed into the earth.

For that purpose a lining of newspapers and green banana leaves are left for a few days. Then this is covered with earth  tightly compressed on top. The underlying layer will then create a water resistant lining.

Building a natural pond by using the old Russian method of ‘gleying’: 

The different steps:

– Dig the pond and compact the soil really well.

– Clear the pond of stones and rocks.

– Cover the bottom and sides with a thick layer of organic material (fresh grass cuttings and bananas leaves) and waste paper

– Spread out EM all over to add the bacterias which are necessary for the process

– Add a layer of soil and press down firmly all over.

– The soil keeps out the air and allows a biological process known as ‘gleying’ to take place (its an anaerobic process)

We shall see how well that works. Lets hope for the best 😉

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Internships for international students

We are offering individual internships to national and international students and post graduates in various fields. 

We at JiwaDamai, (LaguDamai Foundation) are an Educational Institution which offers trainings, internships and practica to international and national students and graduates.

The fields can be bio-agriculture, permaculture (including construction, sustainable energy, fish and pond maintenance etc), psychology, marketing, hospitality, alternative health care, environmental research and much more. The actual application of the project in a practical setting is an important part of the internship.

Usually this setting is at JiwaDamai permaculture and retreat center located just twenty minutes outside of Ubud in the district of Mambal.  The lush surroundings of the retreat center include a diverse array of Flora and Fauna that make it an ideal environment for students to be exposed to many different learning opportunities. The cross cultural interaction and tropical climate will give an extra dimension to any internship undertaken with us. Students will have access to local and/or international experts  in their respective fields.

To apply please contact us at: info@jiwadamai.net

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