Maybe Searching Is Not the Answer: Tonya on Choosing to Stay
Details
- Interviewee: Tonya Gorman
- Role: Community Member
- Community: Traditional Dream Factory
- Date: 2026-01-14
- Language: en
Summary
In this interview, Tonya Gorman discusses her transformative journey from being a teacher in Switzerland to becoming a vital part of a regenerative community project in Portugal. This shift was primarily driven by her ethical considerations and a growing desire to engage in a system that fosters sustainability and cooperation among people and the environment. Tonya connects her motivations with the themes of governance and conflict resolution as she emphasizes the importance of recognizing individual contributions and fostering leadership that values humility and connection. She articulates a pivotal moment in her life when she transitioned from a mindset of continuous searching in communities to one of choosing to be present and committed to her current community, firmly believing that this act of choice enhances her sense of belonging.
Key quotes
I can't keep participating in the system. This isn't gonna work for me.
What really drew me to the project was this kind of like integration between regeneration and, like, blockchain technology.
Maybe searching isn't the answer. And maybe just like an attitude of finding like I choose something.
How people treat or treated is probably the biggest reason why feelings get hurt and things have crumbled apart.
People have to be feel seen and valued… I think that that's the starting place… but if they are, then that might be the thing that tips them to wanting to commit.
Sustainability actually isn't an individual thing that like, sustainability and moving towards… not destroying the earth actually requires a collective effort.
One of the biggest questions that comes up… is around financing.
Transcript
**Speaker 1:** Okay, I'm coming as well. And, Can you tell me a little bit, like, how do you find this place when you get involved with this place within?
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah. So I met Sam and Luna at the Global Eco Village Network conference in. In Sweden. Summer 2024. And like, at that point, I had just quit my job as a teacher in Switzerland because of this feeling of like, I can't keep participating in the system. This isn't gonna work for me. And yeah, so I met them there.
**Tonya Gorman:** And what really drew me to the project was this kind of like integration between regeneration and, like, blockchain technology, like creating win win win scenarios for like, Earth, humans, communities.
**Tonya Gorman:** But at that time, I was living on a farm in, like, outside of Gothenburg. Yeah, really enjoying that. So it wasn't the right moment to come immediately.
**Tonya Gorman:** But then, in February of this year. So 25th February, yeah, I needed to switch things up. So I messaged Sam, was like, hey, can I come? And so I came as a volunteer for two weeks, and then I did like the three month stewardship program, land stewardship program. And then. Yeah. And took over. Yeah. The mushroom farm kind of project management.
**Tonya Gorman:** And have been working on that ever since. And yeah, so through November then we'll have the mushroom farm and now it's just feeling more and more like a place that I'm choosing to stay in. Yeah.
**Speaker 1:** I was like the first few steps into this.
**Tonya Gorman:** Like, what do you mean, like, how was the experience or what was my inner process for, for getting here.
**Speaker 1:** Or like when you came here, what aligned with your values? What was important to make you feel comfortable?
**Tonya Gorman:** I think like in my life, I've been pretty semi-nomadic, so I haven't stayed anywhere more than two years. And I feel like I've had this, like, searching attitude of, like, in my early 20s, looking for communities and like looking for places that I enjoy doing the work and just kind of not really finding my people or my place.
**Tonya Gorman:** And so I think about a year ago, I just decided, like, maybe searching isn't the answer. And maybe just like an attitude of finding like I choose something like I choose to find what I'm looking for rather than to keep looking for it. And so I think that was like the inner shift that happened for me because I've lived in many communities. I visited many projects.
**Tonya Gorman:** And it was always like, oh, no, next, next, going to keep going. And so I think this time it was just that kind of inner recognition that I want to have the experience of choosing and finding things that work for me. So I think that was what enabled me to start the process of grounding deeper into here, into this project.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think what really resonates me with TDF right now is that it's in such a building phase, so there's so many opportunities to step in. And like the learning curve is just like exponential. You're just like getting into new things all the time. The people that come through here, I feel really comfortable in networks, systems that are networks.
**Tonya Gorman:** And so in that way, like, I just get to be here and be like an arresting, grounded place and still have the transients of, like, really interesting new cool projects, people, artists, creators, coming through.
**Tonya Gorman:** So that aspect really resonated for me as far as community. And I think, like what allowed me to commit more deeply to TDF is the fact that it's meant to be a little bit nomadic and transient. That really works for me.
**Speaker 1:** You try and like, pick a position that's comfortable for you and for you guys.
**Tonya Gorman:** Okay? Yes.
**Speaker 1:** So what do you think was the process between, like, shifting, moving between communities and deciding to stay here? Did this place align in a different way for you, or was this an inner process that you were right?
**Tonya Gorman:** So like the inner process for sure was step one. And the outer process was definitely also in alignment. Like like I said, like having being able to be a land based nomad, is what I was looking for.
**Tonya Gorman:** And so having the kind of community that's built in this way where we all steward the land long term and always have like those comments to return to even as we move that was like a core piece that really aligned for me.
**Tonya Gorman:** And then, yeah, it's also these kind of burner values and principles where radical self-reliance, like, immediacy, radical inclusion, things like that, really also resonate. So so that was another piece. I think we like to have fun here too.
**Tonya Gorman:** Like we like to work hard and we're doing the thing and we're living to build a vision, but we also having fun. So that piece is also important to me of like, as well as having the deep spaces for process, there's a lot of cool individuals that come through here that hold different, spaces of depth.
**Tonya Gorman:** So I feel like there's, like there's the depth and the playfulness. Yeah. And I think for me, the tech blockchain thing really was like, okay, this is going to work. Because I just feel like I've been in so many communities that have fallen apart too, and just seen a lot of those be because of governance issues.
**Tonya Gorman:** And maybe this version of using blockchain and, and making it more nomadic, solve some of those issues. I don't know, because maybe less ownership starts to happen when it's a commons and it's transient.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think it's to be seen. But I think that piece is particularly like unique and for me gives it an edge that could lean towards it working out also like financially.
**Speaker 1:** You know, what happened in the other two communities? You've been part of the mid term collapse.
**Tonya Gorman:** Actually the communities that I've been a part of still exist. The I grew up in a community and these both of the communities that I still know are continuing have like deep spiritual roots.
**Tonya Gorman:** So that is a uniting force. And that's something that I kind of grew up hearing is like most community fails. Like you need to have some like uniting piece around self-growth, inner growth, like willingness to grow together for it to work.
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah. So I've just seen other projects I wasn't part of those communities fall apart. I have a lot of good friends who are community builders, and just through, like interpersonal disagreements, it just crumbles.
**Tonya Gorman:** People leave, usually ends up being like the people that financed it are the ones left with the land. Yeah. So I hope that this turns out in a different way.
**Tonya Gorman:** And I think that some of these decentralized models could really support that. I think as long as we keep doing the inner work of like conflict resolution and having hard conversations, transparency, vulnerability that we can. Yeah, with the systems that we have in place to support decision making and governance protocols.
**Speaker 1:** I wonder if you can speak a little bit about twin, the place you grew up in. The different communities you visited? Yeah.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think how people treat our treated is probably the biggest reason why feelings get hurt and things have crumbled apart, like when leaders maybe, yeah, start getting into like power dynamics, and like drop the like. Yeah.
**Tonya Gorman:** Like when there's lack of humility and leadership and like, true willingness to connect and value. The people I think that that.
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah, I know that like for my parents, for example, like having these sort of conflicts with the leader where people aren't recognized for their, their what they're bringing or their skills or their ideas and just, yeah, decisions are just being made.
**Tonya Gorman:** For example, then people lose interest and they leave. So I've seen yeah, I think a lot, a lot of it has to do with the leadership and how decisions are made and people are made to feel.
**Tonya Gorman:** I mean, it's just like any relationship, like people remember how you made them feel. And so, yeah, that's that's the ways that I've seen, big breaks in communities of, like, not recognizing value and not, like, pouring into. Yeah, building connections. And then it was the other question around what things have made them succeed or I don't.
**Speaker 1:** What did you see. Yeah. That either is special or common between those places. That really brings people together.
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah, okay. It's something that brings people together honestly. Like I've seen like some sort of spiritual practice, like I've been in a lot of spiritual communities and I've seen that like that creates a unifying force, whatever, whatever those practices are.
**Tonya Gorman:** That just kind of self-select the types of people that are interested in the same things on like a really deep core value place.
**Tonya Gorman:** I've seen that work really well in multiple communities. I get really curious, especially with like the land regeneration movement, if that can serve as a uniting force of like, we're committed to, like improving the lands that we live on and tending them.
**Tonya Gorman:** And I wonder what other elements might need to be added to that of like recognition of the sacred? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that of, like, where those things meet.
**Speaker 1:** Any rituals or practices specific that you saw that will especially make you inspired by the things?
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah, I think that's a hard question for me to answer because I, like, grew up in this field where, like, everybody has a meditation practice. And so it created also like an inner rebellion in me that I've had to struggle with, in different ways where kind of having to pick through the and what I felt like could be indoctrination, what was true for me and so in that way, it's had me actually lean away sometimes from those practices because I feel like that and they get sticky or old or stale.
**Tonya Gorman:** So I think that's like on a personal level, that's like my struggle with relating to these things. But I think that ritual can also be simple. It can be in the just like the, the daily moments of like gathering before food. I think I really appreciate how Luna brings that into TDF, like simple rituals that are just around, like, let's just be grateful for like what we've done this week.
**Tonya Gorman:** Let's just gather around this meal. And so for me, that work really works of like simple rituals that still like are point of coming together, meals and eating together.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think what I noticed being in this climate is that, like, land based rituals that I participate in being more from northern climates, like, mushroom harvesting during this season. I think things like that can be really uniting of, like, I think building and creating together is super uniting for us.
**Tonya Gorman:** I see that here that like because we're in this phase of like building and creating, we've all got each other and it's super cool to feel like you've got me, I've got you. I can trust your decisions.
**Speaker 1:** Is that something that you felt you needed to change or go personally to really go up and to this place?
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah, I think that like the beginning of this year, like January through May were like really rough month for me. It was like I'd gone through some big personal shifts recently, with having some like friendship things and just I had like huge insecurity come up for like many, many months.
**Tonya Gorman:** And that was like a really strange experience for me because I have grown up feeling naturally quite comfortable in myself. And like just confidence is not has never been a struggle.
**Tonya Gorman:** Like it's just. Yeah, it's useful to be myself mostly. And so I was really confronted with this, like insecurity that I couldn't really find the source with. It felt like it was coming from deeper, like nervous system, previous things, but it was really kind of unleashed here by some certain events that happened where, yeah, that was just, a big thing for me for a while, and I feel like moving through that and then purchasing the caravan to like, live here and choosing that, that deciding to choose a place like shifted all of it and had like my life and to reflect back of choosing of me like there was almost this like maybe a struggle with worthiness.
**Tonya Gorman:** And as soon as I popped through with like, okay, I'm just gonna I'm choosing, I mean, the chooser mindset. Then it was like it was then reflected and, mutual. And so in that way, like that was a big initiation for me.
**Speaker 1:** What is choosing meaningful?
**Tonya Gorman:** It means not like going into the fantasies of, like, the pastures greener somewhere else. Like this could be better. Let me just keep looking for something that's more perfect. You know, and recognizing that, like, if there's a moment in the future that it seems clear to me that that another option is more perfect, then I will choose that.
**Tonya Gorman:** But I'm not going to fantasize and look for it and yearn for it, because this is great. Now. And so I think it's yeah, I just it's really dropping into the the presence of choosing the energetics, of choosing which could in a future present moment could completely shift to choosing something else.
**Speaker 1:** And maybe you can reflect a little bit about. This culture of society. People. Or this group. And how do you see this? Ability or inability to choose attracting people and also this movement in this budget? Yeah.
**Tonya Gorman:** Interesting question. I think like in this age, this day and age, with so many fucking choices, like a lot of us have quite some privilege around, you know, financial freedom, location freedom, time freedom, like a lot of these people through different routes are solving these issues, but it just makes the choices so many that it becomes overwhelming.
**Tonya Gorman:** And so then it's like there's always this like fear of missing out and like, I'm here and like, maybe it would be better there. Or like, maybe this relationship is good, that maybe there's something better. And this like, feels sort of like agitated, like searching, like, where is the thing?
**Tonya Gorman:** And, Yeah. So I sense that a lot in our age range, our, our the people.
**Tonya Gorman:** At the same time, like, I do feel like there's a nomadic vein in some of us that is just saying that movement and transition is part of actually what makes us feel at home.
**Tonya Gorman:** So I don't know how that plays into it, but, Yeah, I think there's so many people with this vision and this, like, fantasy, but unable to make a different choice than, like the status quo, like costs movement.
**Tonya Gorman:** And I know, like, I have a lot of friends who this is their dream. And I'm kind of like.
**Tonya Gorman:** Let's go. Like, let's do it. But I think there's so much more behind that decision, like the inner work that you have to do to like dismantle the conditioning that you have around what it means to be successful, not only what it means to be successful, but like how to get there.
**Tonya Gorman:** So there's so many layers that you have to kind of go through, to then actually be able to choose.
**Speaker 1:** Also, what do you think for people that places like this and the people are managing these things. And so leaders in the spaces can do.
**Tonya Gorman:** To, let's say make people more aligned or counter certain of dropping in implementing.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think it always comes down to relationships, like people have to feel seen and valued. I know that that's not all, but I think that's the starting place that like someone who might be on the edge of choosing something like this, if they then are not feeling seen and valued, they're probably not going to stay.
**Tonya Gorman:** But if they are, then that might be the thing that tips them to wanting to commit.
**Tonya Gorman:** Because in the end, I think like it's people are just going to be ready for what they're ready for, when they're ready for it.
**Tonya Gorman:** Like, there's there's not really like I don't know about influencing that so much. Rather like creating a ripe environment for a person to, like, make that last 1% shift into.
**Speaker 1:** Yeah, I think this environment.
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah, making people see feel seen and valued and making them feel, like giving them like the feeling of ownership and like, truly like you value. And what you're doing matters. And like, I trust you like, take this and let's work together. But like here, which I know is also a delicate balance from the leaders or like the executive team or whoever to make those choices, because maybe they've been burned by making that choice before, and then the person doesn't show up and they flake out and it's like, fuck yeah.
**Tonya Gorman:** And so I, I see both sides of these things, and it's always a delicate process. But I think at the core, people feeling seen, trusted, loved, valued, like, that's what creates, relationship, which is what creates community.
**Speaker 1:** How do you practice conflict and conflict resolution? Like, what's your approach when something happens?
**Tonya Gorman:** Personal or on a community level? Both. Yeah.
**Speaker 1:** Okay.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think maybe, like, for me, a step one is going to be like, if it's a conflict that I don't feel able to just confront on my own, maybe finding an ally to like, speak to about and maybe creating a collective conversation, to make sure that, like, yeah, everybody's seen and heard and witnessed and, and maybe to create less misunderstanding, that would be a first step for me.
**Tonya Gorman:** And that's worked every time so far in community. Or just like having a direct conversation of like, hey, like I'm noticing this. That's not working for me.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think things that we do in the community as a whole, are also preventative. We try to create as many spaces for connection and sharing throughout the week of check ins, and we're building more of these structures within for people like volunteers or residents that might be more short term of like formalizing kind of how, we take feedback and how we give feedback and how that happens regularly just so that, like, we're all on the same page.
**Tonya Gorman:** So it's not like at the end of someone's time that there's a huge misunderstanding of what should have taken place. So I think we're becoming more and more aware of that.
**Tonya Gorman:** Creating connection circles, sharing circles. When we feel things are live, we'll call a group for that. So I think a lot of it comes down to responding in immediacy to things that could feel uncomfortable.
**Tonya Gorman:** And I think that's something that, Luna and I have talked a lot about of like, we need to trust our intuition if something's feeling weird or off, let's just, like, bring it into the whole and, like, iron it out before it gets to phases that then. Yeah, require a lot more repair work.
**Speaker 1:** And then give me,
**Speaker 1:** Give me an example of something that have happened communally. And how do you deal with it?
**Tonya Gorman:** So I'm just like, I'm thinking about confidentiality right now and just like how to to to share with you in a way that is covers the topic. But like, is it. Yeah. Okay. So the question was a conflict that's arisen and how we've dealt with it. Yeah. I mean, we had a conflict arise recently where there was this an outbreak scenario.
**Tonya Gorman:** It wasn't really a conflict, but it was like an emotional thing that affected several of the volunteers who are here. And so there was just like, we brought a lot of tenderness to that of, like, caring for, all the different parts that in, in the dynamic the person had left. And but just like following through with things and making sure that everyone was okay, and we had multiple meetings, especially with these volunteers that were impacted to just like, yeah, what do you need? How can we support you? So just like meeting them with the spaciousness to express and like go through and process what it what needed to move through them? And yeah, offer them any of the things that can support them. From like where they're staying to what's being asked of them to, yeah.
**Speaker 1:** Yeah, though, how did you how did this affect, trust, you know, for this container?
**Tonya Gorman:** I think it both showed the weaknesses and showed the willingness to, meet these challenges. So I think for us, it was also a process of seeing, okay, what other systems do we need in place to make sure there's support available immediately?
**Tonya Gorman:** And to whoever, like maybe a list of phone numbers, for example. So like some protocol things that we could improve structurally on our side to, to support people.
**Tonya Gorman:** So that was one thing that was great, that came out of this is just like reviewing some gaps in our processes. So that gave us that opportunity.
**Tonya Gorman:** But it really also shows me how well resourced we are as a community because we we knew who to call. Like once we were informed, we knew how to deal with the situation.
**Tonya Gorman:** So it's like we have a lot of really talented. Really. Yeah, great humans, part of our community. So there's a lot of resources that we can tap into if we need for like mediation, for example, or like psychology or, you know, any of these kinds of experts. We would have those people. So, yeah. And then I think just the willingness of the community to show up for the process that felt scary, maybe felt super tender, maybe felt like really vulnerable. That the community really? Yeah. Shows up for those things.
**Speaker 1:** You you. Has, what's the connection to, you know, with the surrounding area of the neighbors?
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah. So that's something that I intend to continue building. Like, I think the main issue right now is the the language. So we've started, like, collective Portuguese, lessons here. So right now the relationship is like, could use improvement.
**Tonya Gorman:** There's a woman language. The language, like, there's a woman who I think she was the daughter of the man who owned this place. Maria. For Amanda. And she comes up here and, like, will ask for help, like, Or she'll bring us gifts or, like, eggs or, you know, plants from her garden or, like, recently, she asked if someone could come and help her move this table from her attic.
**Tonya Gorman:** So two of us, like, went down there and, like, helped her. And she was so cute. Just, like, chatting and chatting. And I understand a bit of Portuguese because they speak Spanish, but, like, it's hard for her to connect to me when I can't respond.
**Tonya Gorman:** But like, afterwards she came up and had, like, made us some bracelets and like, she'll be coming to the art fair. So we have, we definitely tried we're trying to build these relationships more.
**Tonya Gorman:** There's also someone in the village that works here every now and then, and he'll like come through sometimes on a Friday night with his cousin to like have a beer and like, say, what's up? So, we also like if we have like gatherings and parties will invite the people that we're connected to locally.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think one of the relationships I'm really interested in building up is with the school. So, like, we have two kids that live here and I would love to, like, take them for a morning or something, bring them to the school, maybe offer English lessons. And just like, yeah, start building the relationship with the kids.
**Tonya Gorman:** And I just know that I need a little bit more Portuguese before I go that down that road.
**Tonya Gorman:** But the boys here speak Portuguese, so I was like that. Maybe we can, you know, also be really great for their education, for just integrating into other systems with children.
**Tonya Gorman:** And. Yeah, so I think that for me is the next step of like connecting with the teachers and the students and like getting my Portuguese to a level where that I can just like go and hang out with the people and like, have a coffee and have a chat.
**Tonya Gorman:** This is like a lot of the work that I did in Panama was chatting with people on their porches, having a coffee.
**Speaker 1:** So it's really important.
**Tonya Gorman:** Yeah.
**Speaker 1:** If someone is like, what's the behind you in this process.
**Tonya Gorman:** Is one step behind? Yeah.
**Speaker 1:** That's of like, you know, you know, the searching or the just like anchoring in a project or society to kind of step in or not. What advice would you give them?
**Tonya Gorman:** I guess I can only give advice to someone who's one step behind me and operates in the way that I do, because I don't know that it would be true for everybody.
**Tonya Gorman:** But I in my life, have found it really important to, like, follow the impulses that, like, if the impulse is there, it's better for me to follow that and and go down that thread than not.
**Tonya Gorman:** So I would say, like if someone if you're feeling an impulse like follow it like go try it out like go do the thing because if it's staying in like an idea phase, it's just like you'll never have like, the, the actual experiential data of like, does this work or not? Or what needs to be different or why not?
**Tonya Gorman:** Or any of those questions aren't even possible if you don't just jump in. So like if I guess someone who would be one step behind me might be on the edge. And so I like go for it.
**Tonya Gorman:** That's like, yeah, just choose one. Just work on that energetic of choosing and then through that like that will just lead you where you need to go.
**Tonya Gorman:** So maybe you choose this for now. And then three months later you recognize that actually a more aligned choice might be this other project. And then go there like, yeah.
**Speaker 1:** What do you wish more people understood about community like?
**Tonya Gorman:** I guess I don't really know what the misunderstandings are.
**Tonya Gorman:** I think maybe one misunderstanding that I see happening about around sustainability, this whole like, back to land movement is people, like, take on a homestead alone, not realizing that like, oh, now you don't have a 9 to 5, you have like, tending things all fucking day.
**Tonya Gorman:** That I don't know, that just like, it makes it so much easier together that, like, we put more work into relationships and and things that can be hard and feel like a lot. It also gives a lot of joy. But like, sustainability actually isn't an individual thing that like, sustainability and like moving towards, you know, like not destroying the earth actually requires a collective effort.
**Tonya Gorman:** And you can have the impact that you can have is so much bigger and actually, like were meant to live in community, like we just forgot how.
**Tonya Gorman:** So we just have to like, remember. And I think a lot of that work is this inner growth piece of like going through our layers of misperception that have been, yeah, like we've been indoctrinated with, like, yeah, at the end of the day, like relationship, like family, friends, your network, your, your people. Yeah.
**Tonya Gorman:** We're like it's like, so we're not meant to live isolated and like the issues that are coming up because of the way they were living.
**Tonya Gorman:** So yeah, that it's actually like, it's more natural. We just have to move on. The things that are unnatural that we've learned so far. Yeah, but it's what's necessary for us to, like, create truly sustainable, like, future collectively.
**Speaker 1:** Is there anything I didn't ask you?
**Tonya Gorman:** I think, like, one of the biggest questions that comes up in these, in these circles is around financing. Like so many people have the dream. And I think this is what blocks a lot of people, actually. It's like we have this dream, we have a crew of homies, like we all want to buy the land together, but no one has any fucking money and or like remote jobs to be able to like make that happen.
**Tonya Gorman:** So that's where people get stuck. And I think that that's the whole trap because it's like, well, and this is something that I that happened for me like five years ago, I had this whole mindset around, like, I need to somehow make the money to make this happen.
**Tonya Gorman:** And then at one point I was like, maybe that's not my role in this, and my role is to trust my impulse that this is how I want to live.
**Tonya Gorman:** And then you find the people that have the project already started that want to invest money, that like angel investor, that there's so much money and like possibility out there.
**Tonya Gorman:** But if we're not open to that reality, like that's not going to come into contact with us. So it's like there really are a lot of cool projects. There really is enough money also circulating, but it's a matter of getting out there and like starting to connect the threads and without taking that step, then it's always going to be this money block of like, we don't have the money to buy the land, but and that's also this whole ownership mindset of like, yeah, but it doesn't have to be individual. It can be collective and pooling and other ways of getting that together. And other systems that maybe aren't like dollar currency that maybe have more to do with like blockchain things or there's just there's so many possibilities that if we're open to creatively solving that, we can. But so much of so many of us are still stuck under scarcity, that it's hard to even see that that's a possibility.
**Tonya Gorman:** And then and then getting access to that. So, yeah, I would say, like, if someone's really wanting to make this stuff and money feels like the issue, like solve that for yourself for some amount of time and then like go after it so that you feel safety, but also so that you can start contributing and meeting the people and projects and finding your way, because I'm sure the way exists if you start following it.
**Tonya Gorman:** So yeah.
**Speaker 1:** I think if it forgot to start with it for the, if you can tell me your full name and where I was sitting, like.
**Tonya Gorman:** Okay. Yeah. So I'm Tonya Gorman, we're sitting in Portugal, the traditional dream factory regenerative village building project here in Alentejo, about an hour and a half south of Lisbon.