[strawbale] Another Introduction

It's high time I introduced myself. My name is Jan Martin Bang, I grew up in England where I was active in the Cooperative and Trade Union Movements in the 70’s. I moved to Israel in 1984 and was a kibbutz member for 16 years. Since 1993 I worked on environmental projects within the Kibbutz Movement. This took me on extensive travels within the region, teaching Permaculture courses and visiting ecovillages in Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus and the Palestinian areas. I completed the first modern strawbale building in Israel, a tiny toolshed, just 3 X 2 metres (hardly worth it with bales, but a good exercise!), and worked closely with Kibbutz Lotan, helping them set up a major Permaculture Field School, incorporating a good deal of strawbale and adobe work. I have now moved to Solborg Camphill Village in Norway with my family, and am part of the teaching team at the Bridge Building School. We teach strawbale building, with a major project each year in Eastern Europe. Last year we worked on a large house at the Rozkalni Camphill Village in Latvia, and this year we will spend nearly two months at Svetlana Camphill Village outside St Petersburg in Russia, building a small family house for the Steiner School attached to the village. We work closely with the Norwegian Strawbale and Mud Building Association, and spend time on a number of sites here in Norway also.