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 Editorials | Environmental | January 2006 
Reishee Sowa: A Man and His Island Dream
 Suzanne Bandick - playamayanews.com
| | It took Reishee 6 ½ years to create this island. | 
| | Showing the solar cooker on his roof. |
It looks like an island, it feels like an island, it has the beautiful vegetation of a tropical island, but it just happens to be made of spiraling pop bottles. Who would have known, and more importantly, who would have thought it possible?
A man named Reishee Sowa - that is who. This island is his inspiration, his baby, his dream. With the help of friends met along the way and a lot of hard work his dream has become a reality.
It is an amazing sight. You see a house on the island and you think wow, how lucky for someone to be able to live out there...
You can see it for yourself as it currently sits in Puerto Aventuras. Take the turn into Puerto Aventuras and then take your first right, go passed the school – down to the end of the road and walk out into the field and look across the water. Oh, just ask any local.
He has a passion for a better world; a desire to create a self sufficient paradise that it ends up is made with all recycled materials. Everything from plastic pop bottles to construction leftovers of wood and bags of leaves go into making up his island, house and yard. This island took approximately 250,000 pop bottles.
Reishee, originally from England, is a musician and an artist and as it turns out a visionary. He spent so much time talking of his dream his family finally pushed him to just go out and do it. You will find a way they encouraged him. He has been in Mexico for 8 years now. Seven of them spent in the Riviera Maya. He is very happy here and feels he was lead to this spot by the various people he has met along the way.
It took Reishee 6 ½ years to create this island that was built right in the channel it now sits in. For the first year he lived in it in a tent – then he built his first house and it fell apart in a storm so he tried again and once again it fell apart in a storm. Never a quitter as you might have guessed he built a 3rd time. Now his little house stands strong and it is complete with guest room and a deck on top where he still pursues his love of painting. Future plans include adding yet another level.
The plants once very small have grown and matured over time. As has his cat population. He now lives with 8 cats and 1 dog. They show up and don’t want to leave.
This is an idea that might just be catching on. Xel Ha is actually planning to build their own island and they have asked Reishee to be an advisor on it. He is looking forward to it.
“Things all seem to come in threes for me”, Reishee says “this is actually my 3rd try at an island and my house fell twice before I got it right.”
He started his first trial for the island on the west coast of Mexico where he started an eternal cake that cooked in a solar cooker with the help of an old satellite dish. His wanted to build awareness for his project. It actually did not get the response he had hoped for, so he ended up building a smaller starter version of his island in a Mexican lake. This time as they really did not understand what he was up to he was stopped by the locals and asked to leave.
Were there challenges building here in Puerto Aventuras? “Oh yes,” replies Reishee “You see not even the president is allowed his own island in Mexico – but technically I don’t have an island I have an eco space creating ship – I can move after all. The locals have been very understanding and helpful.”
What happens in waves and storms? Reishee replies, “Most of the wave goes under the island only about 10% comes on top. The part of the wave going under actually makes it flip down again and stay level.”
Reishee continues “The spiraling pop bottles that actually make the base for the island are very fitting because spirals are the shape of all creation – microcosms, macrocosms, DNA, galaxies; the oldest forms of life were spirals. It is the eternal circle.”
“We are being faced with a population explosion and maybe building islands is the answer. This island is an example of something that could be built worldwide. You could be totally self sufficient with it. All is as natural as possible. I catch rain water for showers, the toilet naturally composts, and you can grow your own produce,” adds Reishee.
 His desire is a simple life and to share his environmentally friendly, planet saving, maybe even life saving ideas with others. The door is always open for you on Reishee’s little tropical paradise. Also, his eternal cake is still cooking with local fruits and their juices added periodically.
What does the future hold for Reishee and his island? “Wave powered flippers and sails and a journey through the Panama Canal,” says a very enthusiastic Reishee. Now that is a man with a vision!
Want to find a way to become involved? Reishee will gladly accept donations of old plywood, solar panels to run a fridge, money for solar panels, wind generators off a boat or anything to make the island more beautiful and more self sufficient.
To contact Reishee to see how he weathered the storm or for donations please e-mail spiralisland@hotmail.com |
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