 how are you all doing Merry Christmas in advance but hey don't forget that I'm also waiting for my Christmas gift and don't forget that we have a trip that is coming on on the 1st to 8th February if you ever want to visit Ghana this is the best time for you to visit Ghana it's called the Maya experience happening February 1st to February 8th so check the description box and book your trip to Ghana with me. A year ago I came in here to meet a young black man who decided to live off-grid you know living inside a forest he was born and raised in Italy and decided to return to his motherland and when he returned to the motherland he didn't want to stay in the city he didn't want to stay in the village but decided to live in the forest My name is Joshua Cucuerciedo I was born and partially raised in Italy so yeah I'm just gonna see how is it doing because I love checking up on people yeah to know if things are improving or he wants to give up and go back to where he came from I finally go here and I feel like a lot has changed he's telling me I should ring the bell and wait whoa why is it all coming because of this guy I don't even want to call myself the village boy again the village boy or the village boy I'm the village boy and I think you're the forest man man hey okay let's put it down this way let's put it down this way hey how's it going everything's fine how are you doing man yo a lot has changed man so far I mean this is just a little piece I'll bring you inside you see what changed hey you came long time ago one year one year ago you guys don't know him he's the guy who is living off-grid like I go here a year ago I'm like what is wrong with this guy I'm skeptical also I remember I remember also the way you drink ton the way you drink ton today you come inside you drink it oh I'm telling you he he woke up me with rain water and he's like dude just enjoy yourself hey they said me look wow so brother first of all this is the kitchen and please come you feel the freshness sit down and chill me pacho thank you so much I appreciate it would you like some water definitely hey here hey walk in here must not be easy oh so let me give you ton one in ton you know ton ton is rainy water it's like uh-huh oh I need to feel it oh it's okay tastiness you feel hey it's it's sweet oh like me look I'm like this one it doesn't taste like me look bro all right man oh this is the entrance yeah this is an entrance yes by the way yeah there's also the name of my great-grandparents ociame yawesiedu abranian core they are the one actually that got this land a lefty heritage for the upcoming generations so whatever is done here is of course thanks to them whoa go in go in you're welcome you're welcome no no please go ring the bell and before I open it I feel like a lot has really changed man see I think people don't know who you are maybe someone is seeing this video for the first time I've been here before so this is like trying to check up and see what is going on with him but can you do a bit of introduction okay so my name is is Joshua Cueciedu and yeah the video that you placed was a guy that left Italy in order to come to Ghana exactly why in Italy because I'm also from Italy also from Ghana but I was raised up partially there and then at the age of 20 I left and I went all around the world and I kind of looking for myself everything self-sponsored of course and sometimes even with no money so it was a full-on experience and eventually what I realized through the journey is that the way is nature so came up that my great-grandparents had land here and I came here a couple of years ago so back to nature yes I don't even know why I need to wear this yeah ah back to nature man correct man whoa okay yes man yes man like it feels so good knowing that your feet touches the ground in here man my brother see a lot has changed I keep on saying that a lot has changed why you have tents in here so because I told you I mentioned I mentioned that to you about people coming for retreat programs eventually was corona time was was a plan but we actualized it and actually we already have four workshops so there's tents here there's accommodation there's a dome also I will show you there's also something as they will build with airbags so we had already four workshops and there's a fifth one coming next week and some other will come next year also so we went for it we went for it people are coming learning how to build sustainably how to grow food sustainably how to even work with clay how to healing themselves with with herbs so also people from the close by village are coming having some sort of also micro business for themselves while teaching the ancient way so we went for it this was not here yeah it's true this was this is now the open shed is the place where we chill we sit we feel we eat and you might remember the water well though of course that's the only thing that you had here when I came here it's true it's true and even daddy he wanted to give me well what I'm like I would just accept the rain water hey what am I yeah the water is still here still we will do some work around it but right now it's so basically it's not a water well but it's worth it's a water tank so we collect the water from the roof that's why we build this one also so everything has more purposes but is this eco-friendly yes yes so basically these rocks are from the area but mainly is what is built with is earth bags so there are recycled bags those where people might place inside cassava or rice bags rice bags so we fill them with soil and soil is everywhere of course all around the world and then there's a certain techniques to use and boom we have it and these bags instead of going somewhere in the ocean are staying here plastic lasts for thousands of years which will make this building lasting for longer professor let me understand you know why you decided to choose a place like this to stay because I mean it's not only peaceful but especially is in connection to our needs you see what's happening here last time you didn't come so I want you also to see what's happened with the house and with the garden yeah so in this very area I planted 30 plus trees this is just like a two plots right I planted a bunch of trees a bunch of plants a bunch of herbs because we are from nature it's not just a philosophical way or like I'm trying to be you know a poet or whatever but we are nature you know we eating from nature we are getting our nurturance is coming from nature so living in an environment that feeds nature and therefore feeds yourself so it's a healthy environment it's a wealthy environment that's why I choose to live in a place like this why Ghana because it's subtropical and it's very it's very very wealthy very well see can I ask you a question somebody should I said I should actually that living in a place like this you don't get bored oh how can I mean look in one year you remember how it was yeah looking one year much has been done every day there's something to do you know especially even if you have don't have nothing to do I mean you you sit with yourself which is it will not hurt yourself you know I guess most of the problems in the world are coming from the fact that what is the advantage of living off-grid is the fact that you are self-sustainable you know you don't rely on anybody's you don't need to wait anybody's you know you don't need to pay anybody's rent you don't need to wait for you know you are not concerned at the end of the month or what's going on is your work is directly paid off by the land and the disadvantage of living off-grid is advantage it eventually I would say there's none except for maybe because of subtropical environment here living so close to the element also expose your body to different diseases and so on but also it's part of life so I mean I don't I wouldn't call it disadvantage I would call it uh is the journey of life you know we live and we die that's for sure yo see is this a walk path no yeah yeah that's the last time I came there was no walk path man this time today I can see you enjoy the walk path of course man walk path okay let me enjoy the walk path man and when I came here he was building this yes yes and now it's done now it's done so this is the house we took about six months to be built was myself and Damensa a man from another close by village but let's say he came for three months then the other three months was mainly myself it was a full-on work was a full-on work full of trials and mistakes but right now we have a house I want I want to show you the house why not I want to show you I mean this is my room so that one but I want to show you the the living room there is a you know it's a cozy fresh place I'm proud of it is a proper place now I think I can go for the you remember this right yes if you hold here hey go over the way it's going for you this much you look at all that right this is rainwater we live in off-grid hey all of it correct correct one this one it tastes like milk hey it looks so good man so I like the fact that you don't have like windows being covered and all that you just wanted to live in open space yes for this one my room is closed because when I sleep I want to be more protected also for mosquito and so on but that's where this one is the sort of living space living room so I like it to be fresh here I sit down I read books I cook I I feel it's the meditation station so I want it to be very fresh there's a couch yes yes it's also self-built with a wood recycle from different projects and so on this was built out of recycle yes yes yes whatever was used with different products there was a bed that I did a while ago that eventually didn't need anymore so I reuse that in order to build this sofa hey what am I hey is that a special chair yeah this is I will say it's the proper meditation station chair this one yeah oh so it's a one bedroom yes yes living room yeah I mean depends if you also consider veranda is a bit of another room per se you know but here yeah there's a shower right here okay so it's a simple shower but it here is fresh it's cozy so as we made also with the with the same rocks and then the water is directed on the back and yeah I mean it's a bucket system so it regulates the the waste of water instead of having a something that you open it you shower you just think and the water goes in this case you wash yourself properly with the water that you have and also there's there are solar lights right now you cannot see them but there's a there are solar lights on top of the roof yeah on top of the roof they are feeding the two lights in the room also there are some strings also they are kind of creating a sort of a vibe and not necessarily like flashing lights but a nice vibe they are created by this solar light so we are sustainable we are sustainable man here's the garden right now you don't see it because it's been harvest but a lot of groundnut peanut tomatoes okra is still there it was a bunch of this season was next level so also there was so much that I needed to storage it so I dried some tomatoes I did some was full on was full on this one here is a toilet there's been built and this is the toilet yes you want to go for release yourself back back to nature you want to go back to nature now is a I mean whatever you actually going to deliver there is going to go back to nature that's for sure it's a regenerative system so it's not just something that comes and goes you know it's it's a cycle you know so this one is a squatting toilet you do you go you deliver you enjoy yourself and then you cover with sawdust and then it will go back to the land wow and creating fertilizer yes and this one here on the back is a dome that has been built also with urbex and is a function as a room for the guys when they come in you can also go inside if you want to build with a box yes yes pull on this is all urbex from from down to top is all bags so it is a quite of a technique it's not that easy it's rough also because it's heavy but it is it's very cheap you build this by yourself yeah this was me and Joana Joana maybe you might see me Joana Joana came over here yes yes in German yes I don't have to say that but I just then if you don't know that oh wow it looks so pretty yes yes yes if you go it's always it's fine and it's incredibly fresh because of the thickness of the walls you know wow oh nice so it's a sleepy room cozy way what am I just going to do so you can literally enjoy yourself in here but this place is literally for two people well I mean why then we open up for one person you know but I also two people can stay two people can stay hey get and then yeah so one thing I would like to mention is that this one here see because it's complete it's coming from I mean the soil is coming from the soil right I mean the soil is coming from the the bags are recycled here you some people also sell rice bags in order to be recycled and so on but the whole cost for this one like without labor because we build it ourselves but the whole cost we didn't go further beyond 180 dollars the whole yes for this when it comes to material not even actually it's 150 euros so I don't know how much is in dollars so you see this is a room is a legit room and that's what you can get you know so right now also some people started to contact me asking if I could go for them yes and then before I was too busy because here I still wanted to create more but now I feel more accomplished so I dig more into these dms and so on emails and then I guess if you're looking forward to build something like this at your backyard anywhere in the world contact you quasi contact you guys even if you want him to build in America he will come only if you get a match yes in America the Mamele there's also people asking me if I know somebody here that owns land and so on and I know people and here the land can be relatively cheap cheap yeah because of this not like a great crowd this area is a bit different actually one hour 30 minutes drive from a crowd if only live one hour 30 minutes from drive from a crowd definitely it's the best place to buy land I mean as you could see it is not place where you can go to the shopping mall behind the corner you know it's a place that leaves no choice than living an off-grid life so whoever is really willing to live their life then to those I can show my support maybe into you know finding land but it's but it's not a easy task I'm not a middle man and I don't want to be one that one that thing is a different deal but what I wanted to say is that there is the possibility to build something that can be with airbags or we can be with mud we can be with different natural as long as it's a natural way and but only two people that really are willing to live a sustainable life therefore you know buy land not to gain that monoculture farming or to build a filling station or whatever they can people that really want to work for the land because you know the african land has been you know our african land has been abused already for too long yeah so whoever wants to invest in the land needs to work for the land that's the point about the whole thing is working for the land that eventually will give everything back to you so it needs to be a regenerative system where we we price the land that it gives so much to to the whole world leeching you know so instead of coming abusing again start working for the land and the land will give everything back to you make no mistake about it this was the the prototype that I did before starting the bigger dome so I was like let me see how it is just to come up with the structure so I took all the plastic bottle that I gather here and all recycled items here and I put it up so was that just a small scale model then I reflected into a bigger scale so you might wonder what are these trenches yeah what are these little? Kama show you Kama show you so now this area is a bit I left it a little bit growing a little bit more the trenches were deeper and now the rainy season came and filled them with sand so there are two reasons one is to gather sand but the main one is right here oh wow what are you trying to do? it's a water reservoir so it's a it's a water collector so in order to gain to preserve all the rain water instead of going elsewhere I collected all here but not only to collect it but also to create a swimming pond so right now what's happened is that it started to leak from one of the points so I need to empty it and as you can see there's also a lot of a lot of sand so we'll eventually we'll see maybe soon we'll make a filter that will bring the water clear and also we're gonna you know plaster in a way that it will not get the water inside but there was a point here where the water was flowing I was just swimming inside beautifully oh wow yes yes so this has been built also with a group of people the Contumere Contumere you can take them you take them you enjoy them yeah Contumere and here's also popo everything's been planted this is cocoa yeah yes this cocoa this is this one was here this is a mirror I used to use it oh hey this boy he just rolls around he does his own things so I'm not aware of it last time I came that was the mirror that he was using this was his kitchen oh yes yes now it's the storage room now now the kitchen became the storage room yes yes that's incredible soon it will go down I mean it's almost two years this thing this thing here so but as far as function is the storage room so our tools are here yeah man and it's all pretty much yeah see if you haven't seen cocoa before this is cocoa you know the water is stealing from Africa they make the best chocolate but we struggle here aha from this one from this one yeah we struggle here but don't you think the water is stealing from Africa man all right that's the story the story of Africa you know so that's what I'm saying also investing in the land sustainability is there talks about that matter you know instead of growing to sell cheap to somebody else that will actually gain the bigger piece of the cake for example myself this cocoa I don't sell it so what we do do in the workshop I use it we I show people how to make chocolate themselves without even machine so it's the most organic natural chocolate you can do from the cocoa forest so this part of our workshops also that by the way will come yeah very soon also and so that's the point of it is trying to be sustainable meaning that if you want you can sell but you don't have to you know because you have all the knowledge that allows you to provide yourself whatever you need also whatever you want so that's the ideal of this life and also what I try to push people towards you know investing in the land the energy the money also invest them in the land but fully not to make a big farm or not invest them in order to be with the land you know and look it's still sprouting this this cocoa has been planted by my great-grand parents you still stay here do you use it anymore sometimes million is the gas when they come in they chill in here you know that's for myself not much I just I use the toilet this one is what I enjoy when I come here in the background you remember this I moved it here let's see let's see let's record it let's see give me the coconut okay you get it now one shot eh we'll see it really okay what am I y'all this is here this is here you're almost one million followers yeah do it for them for them oh no you went in you went in are there are there you just try it okay try again try again no try again see I'm trying to get ah what is this looks so easy man hey look let's see let's see man what am I you drop in bombs right here drop in bombs I give up I give up oh don't never give up in life I was about to give up a lot of time here but then I went the butter just like that just like that you're going back on your cocoa so Olivia all the time yes yes that's the place I hardly go outside I don't really need to do that sometimes I need to go maybe to the local markets happens you know but now especially after this season I had a bunch of you know food so I actually ate a lot from the length you've done a great job maintaining this place and at the same time improved on what I saw the last time and I know and believe that there are people who want to I mean get a chance to come here and see what I have seen where are they gonna find you then so there's a the main one would be the instagram page the instagram page live to learn underscore learn to live is where most of the news or most of the action takes place but also right now we're working on a youtube channel so also that one is just to see some progress and more in details shared knowledge and the last but not least most importantly somebody wants to have our support or make a usage of one of our services as a workshop was also building a natural home then it would be the website itself also in the website you can find whatever also there's also a donation link so in case somebody want to support the vision without being able to eventually being physically here it also can be done so the website is live to learn to live dotnet and over there you can find all the information because what are you doing here to give back to the community like the community in here what are you doing to give back to them thank you thank you very much because that's one of the point also of the whole supporting others in order also to be supported so the thing about the workshops is that of course it creates some jobs for some of the community for example Antiem as the chef Antidor as the pottery master comes and teaches and so on and also we have the building process so the building process as i mentioned this one here are being helped by a few guys from the village okay and they generally ride in bikes you know i call them boys earning a few literally a few hundred ganasis a month so since they came here and there was this request from this person from like diaspora from the states willing to build something i couldn't do on my own i was not willing to do on my own so i called them so four of them plus me we went there we started to build and first of all was a blessing was actually a very nice experience challenging of course but with them was very much of a blessing but also the thing about this job are two one is that it preserve also their ancient knowledge about natural building because they have it it's just that it's fading away because of westernization so with this one it preserved this way of building but also adding up some knowledge about recycling for example recycling techniques and so on but also increases their wages right now instead of getting a few hundred ganasidi they get a few hundred heroes you know so and as as the skills are increasing also their wage will increase so one thing that we like to mention is that you know land here can be also in this very area can be quite cheaper you know we talk about a month rent for a land and people like not gania they cannot own land apparently they can they can lease it for 99 years which is still like benefit for yourself your children the children of your children but the thing is that you know as i mentioned you know something like a dome 150 euros this house for the materials all this house only for resources without labor we talk about 500 euros you know for the whole house but what wouldn't be cheap is our labor and that's the thing usually in africa cheap labor you know so that's definitely what it cannot happen definitely what we don't want and that's also what i want to bring back to the boys you know that we are working together and give them back some wages that would allow them also to do whatever they want to do with them what they will learn one thing that if you had a chance to change about a continent africa what will you change to be honest i would just think more of how can i change myself in order to learn to be embraced by this like incredible and huge culture you know of course every culture every nation every area it's we're all humans so we all have our you know ups and downs but i know in the history of africa and other countries how they how africa has been exploited me you know i didn't grow up here so i'm i'm from here but it didn't grow up fully here so my concern is how do i need to change myself in order to be functional in this reality and that's for me what was my learning process you know because all of us having nice talks especially diaspora oh yeah you know africa pro africa you and then we come in here and we live the most privileged life because in the end we hold a sort of privilege when we come here uh our skin like for example myself here i'm a white man can you imagine you know what i mean i've been called obruni every time and abroad i've been affected by racism next level then i come here i'm a white man how and you know it's a step on my back yet is the reality that i'm leaving um so because of this area i'm not having as much privilege as i could have in a crowd let's be honest actually i get i got a lot of you know mocking comments every now and then you know look at brunico for me you know brunio go the bank you know i imagine i'm in italy somebody say oh look at black man eating pizza and i'm like but yeah you know but it's a different context that personally could be harsh for me but for me is important to understand how can i change uh my way of seeing it you know to be functional in here especially because i'm not here for holiday i'm living here this is my place you know so yeah that's maybe what i was saying you know all right so thank you so much for coming along with us if you watch the previous episode you definitely know that he has done a great job so book a retreat with him come learn something and trust me you'll never be disappointed because i am not disappointed at all thank you so much and then i'll see you all in the next one don't forget to like the video subscribe and be part of the million family i am my million hey