“Make work programs”

You would never know we were off grid...

Last night we thought it would be a good idea to watch Che in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles. I need a lot more practice. That was a very sobering experience. Even reading the subtitles, I was having trouble following the finer elements of the plot line. We have all agreed that we need to pump up our espanol.

This morning I was woken much too early by the morning people who come into the Greenhouse to make breakfast. I was none too happy. To be fair to them, they always have a pot of coffee ready for me to appease the angry bear and lots of food, but this morning it seemed as though nothing was helping to get me out of my groggy morning-ness.

I had coffee, sat on the couch and tried not to bite anyone’s head off. I succeeded mostly. I snapped at a few people but people mostly know not to take me seriously most of the time, so I got away with it.

Our morning workshop was a conflict resolution seminar with one of the permanent staff. It came at the right time. Though I was mostly sitting there, silently seething and pissed off at the world, wishing everyone would just stop talking and let me sleep. At the break, I turned to E, said “DANCE PARTY” and we ran to the Greenhouse and rocked out to some loud obnoxious music. It was extremely necessary to blow off some steam. I felt great afterwards. E, P and I just jumped around to MGMT, BEPs and Missy for the ten minutes of the break and returned to the conference centre, sweaty and giggly.

The new WWOOFer arrived this morning halfway through the workshop and so we had to pause to backtrack and recap for him. The seminar was interesting, but again, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t learned or experienced from Kanawana staff training or the mediation books I’ve read.

Lunch was delicious as usual and as an extra treat, we had MEAT! I’ve never been so happy to see a big plate of ham. All the meat-eaters did a happy jig.

This afternoon seemed like more of a make work program. J, the director of the centre, is british and seems to really like well groomed and manicured paths in the woods. So, half of us went to rake the trails. It seemed like a pretty ridiculous thing to do, since we were disturbing the natural cycle of things and disturbing the soil, which could lead to soil erosion. Raking the trails was almost like undoing all of the good we are doing in the gardens. I made some joke about the centre being a net zero site. Good deeds balanced with bad deeds. Half of us spent “two hours” doing that, while the other half were weeding and composting the gardens. I think I got the better end of the deal.

After our raking adventure, we returned to the conference centre for part one of our survival training with our Woodsman of an intern coordinator. Again, review. Though, I never get tired of watching someone make sparks from a metal match or light a tinder bundle from a speck of coal. By the end of the day, I was shivering and my body was going into shell to core effect. We finished our work day and ran back into the Greenhouse where I’m now bundled up in my down sleeping bag on the couch, with a lovely intern warming my feet.

The people here are really making the experience for me so far. One of the M’s said it best today: “I’ve never been surrounded by such an intelligent group of people.” Everyone is from a different background and we all have different experiences in our bags of tricks so it makes for excellent conversation. We are all funny/HILARIOUS and the laughs haven’t stopped since we first broke the ice. It’s a great mix of intellectual, deep conversation and funny, light banter.

So far, so good in the garden of Eden. 

Gettin' Girly!

After dinner tonight, E and I were feeling like our girly needs hadn't been met, so we donned our prettiest frocks, put on our best pair of heels, pulled out the bottle of white wine and had an adult, girly dance party.