Trade Aid!!

Oh yes, before we go....
Yesterday Helen and Debbie from Trade Aid came to give us some info on the Fair Trade store.
They talked briefly and adoringly of the empowering position that we are in as "consumers" and gave us to lowdown on fairly traded goods, why we should think about purchasing those goods, and the empowerment of women and craftsmen all around the world. This was hardly a salespitch, rather a presentation on the state of most of the worlds workers, and how we can support them through our purchasing.
Thank you so much Debbie and Helen!
http://www.tradeaid.org.nz/Home

Upon Samoan Departure

In just a few short hours, we will be departing for the Pacific Island group known as Samoa. No folks, we know what you are thinking. This is not Somalia. This is not your beloved girl scout cookie.
Samoa (pronounced Saa- mowa, by their people) is regarded as the most pristine of the island nations in the Pacific island chain. Still holding on respectfully to their tradition and to their land. We get to experience the village based, subsistence farm way of life that these Samoan friends have been living for many moons. But we also take a look at how this "developing island nation" is responding to pressures of modern economics and the pressures of tourism.
The villages of Safua, Faga, and Lalomanu will provide us with a home, heaps of smiles, lots of singing and dancing, beautiful ocean surroundings, and lots of love. We are extremely fortunate to get to spend 3 weeks of our semester in this blessed place.
No doubt our families and friends will be on our minds and our hearts as we continually drop our jaws in reaction to the beauty of people and nature in abundance all around us.

ps. That is Kevin
pss. Hey Gretchen and Pete - how are you doing? love, Julie and Matt

Sustainable Development!

This week students have embarked on an adventure in the study of development with lecturer Mick Duncan. Entering into discussion of the stratified, touchy, and very complex issues of war, politics, poverty, and development, students have been challenged and empowered by Mick to explore the specifics and to develop compassion for others.

Mick's teaching has been through narrative, and the students are often times asked to "speak with the person next to you," about what they think of what is being discussed. The first night students divided up and debated stances on war, and last night theatrical representations of different development frameworks were performed. Mick was impressed by the willingness of American students to comically act out ideas in front of everyone. The acting was impressive and hilarious, and I think indicative of the willingness of the students to actively engage in this material.

This is not only a creative way to teach the material, but it turns out it is great practice for what we are going to need to do in Samoa in the coming weeks. We have begun practicing our song performances for the fia-fia celebrations in which we will be participating in Samoa. The Samoan fia-fia is a village wide gathering and party during which songs or "items" are exchanged between the Samoan village and CCSP. It is lively and it is crazy. Matt and I have been impressed with our group's boldness, creativity, and energy in coming up with the songs and dances we will be sharing with the Samoans. Yesterday we crafted a five minute long choreographed performance to the praise song, "Days of Elijah," which from start to finish has been gathering the momentum needed to create the stuff of fia-fia legend.

Other than that, spaces between classes are filled with ultimate frisbee, darts, good sleeps, late night talks, and good eats. We leave for Samoa in a few days' time, and we will be away from computers. Blogging will cease for that short while and will continue in full force when we return on the 15th of March.

Rainbow madness

Rainbows are not cliche...they are unreal, they are fantastic, and they seemed to be following us around this weekend. On a few separate occasions members of CCSP SoPac had reported seeing double rainbows, bright bands of otherworldly light stretching high above our human heads. As the week came to a close and we enjoyed some time out of doors together this weekend, these rainbows brought smiles to our faces, and hoops and hollers from our mouths. This one stretched right over our chapel/art room.(the view from the porch)

So, we've had a wonderful first couple weeks full of stream exploring, eel discovering, Dave Mahan chuckling, and Auckland exploration. People are healthy, the birds are singing, and the rainbows are exposing themselves to us. We are taking these things as the best omens as we prepare for this week with Mic Duncan and Sustainable Community Development class. Prepare to be stirred.

Whale Rider

Students and staff watched a significant New Zealand movie this weekend: Whale Rider.
Thanks to our dear neighbor Simon for lending us his "proper movie screen," we got to watch the film on the big clear screen, as our viewing was accompanied by the hum of cicada, crickets, and the faint calls of the Morepork on the hills. This was one of the first chances for students to be exposed to some of the contemporary cultural obstacles that the Maori community is facing today.
We've also been sneaking in late night episodes of Planet Earth - awesome! Don't tell our parents!

Introduction: Julie Blue, Jessie, and Aidan

This here is Julie and Jess - the lovely women who nurture us in many a way. Notably, whipping up healthy, local, and yum yum yummer food - also being the sweetest, being the best, and running like the wind. That young lad is Aidan. He is the son of Aaron and Ginny- directors on sabbatical. He is selling "chotlat" to raise some money for his kindie (kindergarden) How could you refuse that face?

Go Rigid!

Beside the fun and freedom of games such as "murder in the dark" "settlers of Katan" and eel stalking, a new activity has emerged this past week. Go rigid!
check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imsv_gB1nmc

Phone Box Mural....

We have a little room, with a telephone for the using. The walls were plywood. Kevin got the white paint out, and took to the those walls like Tom Sawyer giving a good whitewash to our humble booth walls. When our new canvas had dried, we went to town. Beautiful birds, Maori art/design, bouquet's of wildflowers, words of wisdom, even a Little Blue Penguin with a beachball - now adorn our humble little phone box. Best!

Biggest Day Ever continued....Ode to Mahan

With the gentle and good words of professor Dave Mahan from the esteemed Au Sable institute, we were introduced to the basics of stream study and the importance of understanding and striving to protect the streams that are local to all of us, for "all of us live near a stream." What none of us knew however; was that we were in store for what Mahan called his "biggest first day ever" with a plethora of NZ stream species. The waters were crawling with shrimp and eel and crawfish among many other critters. The bugs were shaken off easily by the students when they caught the enthusiasm of Mahan as he giggled at the shrimp hopping around his nets and SQUEELED with delight as he caught sight of the first freshwater crabs he'd ever seen. Thanks to our students, this weathered instructor laid eyes on a new species today! Check out how excited Michelle was!

There must be something said about loving what you do.....This is what Dave Mahan does for work - he studies streams. But when you love what you do for work like Dave does, we all easily catch the bug of excitement! Khalil Gibran comments on work:

"And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth....it is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy....work is love made visible."

Dave, thanks for working with love and exposing us to the wonder of stream life. And this is just day one!!!

Stream Ecology - Day 1....."Biggest First Day Ever"

Donning the iconic "gumboots" of New Zealand students took to the stream on the first afternoon of classes in this youthful semester. Thankfully, the property we reside with has a vital stream that runs along the Southern border. After a masterful introduction and lecture by featured professor Dave Mahan...we are gradually understanding the importance of "knowing your place" and being able to understand the critters and habitats and ecosystems around us.

After a wander through the forest, ancient ruins (?), and hopping a few fences we reached our first site. Jen was keen to pose as she easily made her way over the fence. Christy was pumped also to stand with her boots in the water, check out her stance. Ali also beamed with curiosity and ferociously participated in a discharge test, and a rustling up of critters like crawfish, freshwater shrimp, a large short-finned eel, and heaps of caddisfly, mayfly, and stonefly larvea. Not to mention a rare breed of freshwater crab (a first for dave mahan) that is endemic to our stream system.

Community Wreath 2008 SoPac Spring - unique!

As we continue to grow together and learn what it means to live in community, we will inevitably become vulnerable with one another. On this night, we concocted a community wreath, an ornament unlike any other CCSP community wreath. This weaving contained the finished products of us creatively expounding on our hopes, fears, expectations, and reactions to the upcoming semester. The wreath was made of Supplejack, a local vine that is known to grow in spirts. It is brilliantly green, but also changes its color and it's maleability - there are all kinds of community growth symbols to draw from this wreath - but mostly, it was just good to let ourselves be artistic for a little while as we learn more about each other.
Using natural elements, an assortment of art and craft supplies, and our own honest imaginations, students and staff shared briefly on their creation and then attatched it to the wreath. The finished wreath now hangs in front of our porch picture window, where we will be reminded throughout the semester of the hopes and concerns it symbolizes. (this is also my first ever blog post! Yes - love,matt)

Student Trip Intro

Friends.

The student trips just ended this past weekend, and we hounded the students to give us pictures and stories from their time on the road. There were plenty of adventures had, many a stunning sight seen, and all together the students enjoyed their time away from campus.

The following three posts are blurbs on the trips. Enjoy!

"Waiheke, I don't know."

We took the ferry to Waiheke Island. We caught the bus to the only supermarket on the island and got food for the night. We took the bus to Rocky Bay and hiked (backpacked) to our campiste. We were very proud because we were going for at least two hours on a very complicated hike. When we finally got to our campsite we were all tired and hungry, so we set up camp and made dinner which consisted of chicken, hot dogs, kumara, and potatoes. Later that night we met some local kids who were camping next to us. It was a lot of fun talking to them and getting some info on Kiwi life.

We woke up the next morning and went to the beach. We ate lunch at a place called Charley Farley's. We went back to the supermarket and got Tim-Tams (which are very good with Nutella!). We went back to camp and got ready to go in the morning. The night was ended with an awesome round of telephone pictionary.

Yeehaw For Piha (The Chronicles of the Small Tent)

We three students (Emma, Christy, and Brett) entered our student trip weekend wide-eyed babies with little to no experience in the harsh reality of northern New Zealand... full of youthful optimism and high expectations, little did we know we would leave our three day adventure at Piha (pronounced "PEE- HAH!) as weathered travelers, experienced outdoorswomen and men, and humbled ocean-goers.

We feared for our survival in the harsh wilderness of Piha, where we had to make the treacherous 50 meter trek down the campsite parking lot to our little plot. Secluded from civilization save the surrounding major road which hummed with traffic all night, the many established eateries and surf shops, and not to mention our many Kiwi comrades who spoke to us in a bizarre New Zealand tongue - and openly scoffed at our "venerable" standard issued CCSP tent.

The Epic Coromandel “We’re all grown up and renting cars” Trip

This weekend Ben, Cutter, Allie, and Rachel road tripped to the little town of Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula in search of hot springs and adventure.

The trip got off to a rocky start with Ben losing his wallet on the train and having to backtrack to look for it (it was found thank goodness!). So with Ben’s wallet and a ’98 Hyundai with squeaky breaks and a backdoor that didn’t lock we were off for the weekend.

Although the hot springs weren’t so hot the views were spectacular. Hiking to Cathedral Cove was definitely a highlight of the trip. We ate a lot of peanut butter, jelly, and Nutella for our meals but we did have a high class dinner of wormy apples and hot dogs with Wattie’s on bread slices eaten off plates we picked up off the side of the road in a box that read “FREE.”

Student Trips! Orientation Ending.

This is a picture from our Iconic New Zealand Food Night, hosted by our interim director Mark Pierson and his lovely family. Iconic New Zealand foods from candies, unique drinks, a number of different main dishes (steak and kidney pies!), and a variety of desserts were served up. A bit of entertainment was provided by Mark's friend Pete afterwards while we leaned back and let our bellies expand.

The Orientation period has come to a close, time flying by quickly as usual with CCSP. We have spent the week settling into our new residence, getting to know neighbors, visiting local beaches and waterfalls, and getting to know each other a bit better. One of the goals of Orientation has been to allow students time and space to explore this new country, acquire a sense of place at our curren home, and spend some recreational time in some of the beautiful places nearby. Oratia is small area in West Auckland, at the eastern feet of the Waitakere Range. We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful land!

A few notables:
We live next door to a winery called Artisan. Julie coordinated with the vintner Rex to have our students help with putting nets over a few sections of the vineyard in exchange for a nice lunch. One of the sections of the vineyard borders up against our driveway!

We have visited the Auckland Museum, Piha Beach and Kitekite falls, visited a well known Marine reserve called Goat Island for some snorkeling, participated in a few heart pounding night games of murder-in-the-dark, and even enjoyed a traditional Maori feast called a hangi. We invited a few Kiwis to the hangi to talk to us a bit about Maori culture as well as New Zealand culture. It has been a meaningful albeit quickly passing Orientation period, and after this weekend's student trips, classes will begin on Monday.

More Iconic New Zealand Food Night pictures. It's too nice outside at dusk to stay indoors!