Week 2

Well feedback from last time was that it was long and sounded like we were having a terrible time, which we weren't mostly. So I'll attempt to rectify with just the high- low-lights of the week.

Waikumete Cemetery: imagine trying to find Willy's dad in there!

1) We got online, me on Saturday. Willy had to wait till Monday when his ethernet/USB connector arrived by an asian bicycle courier. Internet costs about $1/Gb, a bit more expensive for us than in CR. So now we can use internet from home, but we'll miss the fantail that used to come and fan its tail right over our heads in the living room at Helen and David's. Maoris say it means someone's died, but it's never anyone they know.

2) I was meant to be replacing Deirdre who we are subletting from on her community meal cooking team but it turned out she'd already cooked but just wanted me to pay her. This didn't seem like it was in the spirit of being on a team and it also didn't seem like they had spent the money on the food (bread, soup, guacamole, salad from the garden, pear crumble for 40 people for $200). I was uneasy - it seemed like we were ripping people off. I offered to make something else for the meal but then I'd have to pay twice. On Thursday's team a couple of people were sick so Willy and I helped and we all made a scrumptious meal of roasted vegies, humous and quinoa and chickpea salad. The next day I went to see the coordinator to see if a team actually needed someone, but they all had their full complement. So I decided I would help on Deirdre's team and cook vietnamese cold rolls and it cost so little I probably won't worry about the money. In the mean time Daniel, the team leader told me not to bother and that Shingo would replace Deirdre on the team. He's going to be away in France next month so I'll probably talk to Shingo about what I should do. There's a weird, controlling vibe to doing the cooking even when you're on the other side of the world, and someone else said she thought it was part of an eating disorder. They all only eat every second day and only completely unprocessed food and wear earplugs so they can listen to their heartbeats and breathe in synch with them. They tried to convert us to this practice when we arrived.

3) I had a meeting with a business advisor to discuss my business plan. He thought it was amazing, extremely ambitious, the way things would inevitably go eventually but way ahead of its time. He also didn’t think I could find anyone to be able to do it in NZ. So that was kind of fun, but didn’t get me anywhere. The plan is to start up a conservation investment scheme.

3) Chris and Joel had a joint birthday party on Friday night. They showed videos, including the wizard of oz, on a back projected screen with music and dancing. Saturday night after the common meal Glenys and David's had a concert by a folk duo they knew from heart politics for their 40th wedding anniversary. They celebrate people's birthdays at the common meal one a month. There's a special birthday hat with candles on top and they ask you what was the most important thing from your last year and what do you hope for from your next year and how Earthsong can help you achieve it.

4) There's a food coop that operates out of Earthsong and has a stall at the small market on the corner opposite. We got a call to help set up because some of the people were sick. We put all the food out, expensive organic produce and had a coffee and brownie at the cafe run by Buffy who also runs the nearby community garden. It's a good place to hang out and meet people on a Friday after work - all the food coop types come and get their food then all the restof the produce goes to the common house for Earthsong residents to buy.

5) There was a site meeting on Thursday night after dinner. The eight attendees checked in and they then went through 9 agenda items, one of which was paying 3 invoices and another was 12 matters arising from the last meeting including the fencing in of the orchard so the chooks can be put there without getting eaten by neighbours' dogs - a working bee then completed on Saturday. They also set up a group (including me) to develop bike sheds for the site and approved a proposal to the full group that one of the members be allowed to build a tiny house on site. All by consensus in hour and 25 mins (MV Friends business meeting take note!).

6) Willy managed to track down his father's ashes which it turns out are in a cemetery 4 stops away on the train. Willy knew his father died in Auckland 42 years ago and no one had been to collect the ashes. It seems they buried them in 2001. We'll go and visit some time soon and get a plaque made. They were going to take the ashes to scatter in Starnberger See in Bavaria, but since they are already in the ground...

Well, this has only turned out slightly shorter than last week. Is it any less awful sounding?

Week 1

Volcano eruption and snow-capped peak just sth of Mexico City

Friday
We had Wendy and Shannon round to lunch to say goodbye, finish the last of the food (weird meal!) and find temporary homes for the guitar, microwave, tent and dehumidifier. Mel and Sarah dropped round to retrieve their luggage scales and new neighbour Renee and her two kids dropped in looking for the greenhouses. It was all a bit of a rush to leave in time for the 2:30 bus to San Jose, especially as I had to go via Patricia Jimenez place to pick up the money for the computer I'd sold her, but it really helped that Shannon gave us a lift. Melody came to say goodbye at the bus and Hugh was also there seeing off some friends. We got to Alajuela and went out for a fairly pricey Peruvian meal - last supper for Costa Rica.

Saturday
Our 4:20am wake-up call got us to the airport on time, and - nice surprise - Aero Mexico didn't charge us for our excess baggage, a saving of $50, but nicked my pocket knife. They also forgot to give us luggage claim tags which we didn't discover till Mexico City. The bags were checked straight through to LA but in these paranoid times everything has to re-go through security between planes. One of the bags was disintegrating and after we secured it with bungy straps the baggage handler threw it onto the conveyor before we could stop him and it took us 2 hours to get it back. It was searched twice, before they gave it back to us and before we took it to check it back in - they clearly don't trust their baggage handlers. We were 45mins late for check-in by the time they did all this. There was no sign that we were in Mexico and we had to get takeaway food from Starbucks.

In LA Air NZ did charge for the bag - $70. We checked in five hours before our flight and went to a terminal that did have some mexican food to wait for the flight. At checkin time we returned to our terminal to find a queue of people the whole length of the street waiting to get in. I went to the front of the line and told them that it was our checkin time but they said the airlines knew that people were backed up and would hold the flight and to go to the back of the queue. We did and when it was 15 mins before takeoff I went in and told them we were going to miss our flight. They said the airline had to take us through. So I ran to the Air NZ desk, and the guy who managed to get us as far as security, which was another lengthy process. All the time they were calling me for the flight. It was takeoff time by the time I got to the gate, and Willy going through security with his pacemaker was even further behind. Air NZ had no idea there was a problem, which was caused by security being unable to handle the number of people getting on flights. We took off at midnight.

Monday
That's right, we missed Saturday due to the international dateline. They gave us breakfast on the plane at about 4:30am. We landed 8am in Auckland, got bus into the city, train to Ranui and taxi to Earthsong. We found neighbours Daniel and Shingo with the key which was tricky to use. Deirdre had left us some of her homemade dried crackers, but that was the only food available and I was not in a state to go shopping. I ate some and crashed. Willy then found that the key was stuck in the lock so Daniel and Shingo took the lock off the door and went and bought a new one. By the time all this was done Willy needed something more to eat but fortunately he had brought oats and raisins. He crashed too and we waited till the next day to get up. It gets dark early and stays dark late. The little room was warm and sunny so I crashed in there. The other room was cold.

Tuesday
We needed food. I thought I'd go to the local veggie shop and find out what can be got locally and then venture further afield to a supermarket for the rest. As I was wondering around trying to figure out where to go I met several Earthsong residents. At one point there was about 6 women in their 60s standing around talking to me - the largest demographic, but especially mid-morning on a Tuesday. One, Glenys, next-door but one, offered to take me to a convenience shop slightly further away because it has organics. It was very kind of her and I went along with it but it really wasn't what I wanted to do. Things were very expensive there and I struggled to walk home with them. Car drivers don't realise that if you live without a car you need to do things much more locally and if they give you a lift it makes you struggle and dependent. So I paid $75 for 2 days worth of food and still didn't have any fruit or veggies! Another of the women told us about a Non-Violent Communication session she was running that night and invited me and Willy to take part. I had a doozy of a conflict to explore having come for my mum's husband's 80th birthday party only to find we weren't really invited by his family and they don't really want me to spend time with my mum either. I got to meet a couple of Earthsong people through this. It was quite helpful too.

Wednesday
Shingo was going to Henderson and offered to take us to we could do some shopping. I had been trying to find out how to get on the internet since we arrived and it's complicated. Earthsong has its own network wired into the houses and you can get an account for $10/month but you need a fixed IP address which has to be registered with the server against your unit number and hardware address of the machine. This took a few days to figure out and in the mean time Helen let us use her wifi. Deirdre didn't want us to have wifi in her house while she is away as she is worried it will do something to the brains of her neighbour's children even though you can't get the signal through the rammed earth walls and two other neighbours already have wifi. Willy lost his network adapter in a lightening strike and has only been able to use wifi since, so this was a bit of a blow. However, Daniel said we could get an ethernet to usb adapter. We asked at Dick Smith and another computer shop in Henderson to no avail. But we stocked up well on food and got the train home.

Thursday
Still recovering from the 28hr journey, we are still wanting naps in the afternoon. Willy tried to get the ethernet adapter online but the shops wouldn't take a non-NZ credit card. Common meals at Earthsong are on Thursdays and Saturdays so this was our first experience of it. A bell rang at 6pm, though we didn't hear it so Daniel came round for us. Everyone queued up for their meal and then went and sat at tables of 6-8 people. There was a space beside Joel, our 'buddy'. You get assigned a buddy to ease your introduction to the community and Joel and I have been emailing for a few months. He's a cohousing veteran and taught for a while at Berkeley High School where I was a student when I was 14. A couple of Maori kids were also our table. Joel introduced us to everyone as new arrivals, though they already knew we were coming from the email list. After that we had a series of visitors including Denise, the only other Aussie and Robyn, founder of the community who apologised for not liking the way I joined, which I didn't know about. People are meant to attend 2 meetings before they join, which is kind of hard if you don't live in Auckland and apparently we're the 3rd lot of people they've waived it for. I found out not to put your hat on the table, it's taboo to Maori.