GREEN BUT NO GO

Painting by Jill, Jill is Dale's mother and she also lives at Zuvuya

If we have 100 percent people making 10 percent change to their lifestyle, we will achieve much more than when 10 percent gives 100 percent, not so?

As I am writing this, I am sitting in a house in Johannesburg, which obviously means I am not at Rainbow anymore.

I do want to make it clear that there are wonderfully creative, beautiful and caring people at Zuvuya, it is just the whole Rainbow thing that did not work for me or them… Zuvuya has various residents/homestead and Rainbow is just one of them.

Painting in Thina's house

Maybe I am a softy, maybe I have just realized that you do not have to be extreme to be green, unless you want to, but then some people seem to confuse green with extreme. I mean do you have to be 2 miles from the toilet, I have no problem with compost toilets, but seriously maintenance is important.

Then there is the other story about food, the irony is that I have never been this hungry in my entire life.  I am officially sick of muesli and water! Big thanks to Evelyn and William for sometimes feeding me some “pap”. (Pap is a Maize/corn porridge eaten by very many diverse cultural groups in Southern Africa). My current weight is 46 kg, according to Google that is 101 lb.  I have never been big, but this is ridiculous.

It was not just lack of food that caused this. There is a permanent bitching and fighting between Sam and Shine which makes the atmosphere in the house/communal space (where we cook and eat and work) unbearable and as if that is not enough there is always a desperate for attention Oriah in the mix. I am not saying this to be mean, it is just a fact, I am very sensitive to energies and this was just too much. We sing happy songs about loving each other and circling together, but in reality all I saw was anger and frustration, more like sukkeling together (sukkeling is the Afrikaans word for struggling).

Houses on the hill. Dale's house in the back, with his mom's house to the right and 

Thina's house to the left

Here is another harsh fact, none of the so called eco communities/self sustainable setups I have visited are even near 30 percent there, and I do admire the attempt, but stop fooling yourself.  I do hope I only visited the bad ones, if what I have seen is the future options we have, we are so doomed. Nice to have your own spinach and cabbage, but can you seriously live off that alone?

Here is the bit I do not get - All these communities are trying to attract people, but when you get there you are treated nothing better than a slave, how exactly will that attract people? 

Jo's house

Yes I am very disillusioned with the whole eco living thing. In what I have experience there are two trains of thought about the Eco community. The first group wants to sit and sing little songs and have long meeting where feeling and thoughts are discussed day in and day out - the whole happy clappy moony thing. This is not wrong or right, it is just not for me.

Then there are those that just want to live a more natural lifestyle. They know who their neighbors are and they share certain resources and yes you get together once in a while and discuss things, but everybody have their own private space and live their own lives. This second group is more my cup of tea, but for now I have altogether had enough.

The other problem is that many of the investors in communities in South Africa are from overseas, there are two groups here, firstly those who lost interest, but are reluctant to let go of their property in Africa, these communities eventually just fall apart. The second group see themselves as some sort of “saviors of Africa” while all they really do is re-enslave the locals.

There was also a little incident just before I left. I might or might not have mentioned this, but there is nowhere to keep anything save so I had no choice but to leave some of my packed stuff in a half built Yurt. When I went to fetch it, the contents of the container was unceremoniously dumped and the container was missing. This got blamed on the children and Shine found the contained in the bushed below the house. I know my pillows and some item of clothing are gone, but I haven’t really had time to fully access what is missing, but apart from mentioning it here, I will just let it go and leave the whole thing to cause and effect (karma) to sort out.

The house where Thomas and Carina stays

I intent is still the same, I want to live a more sustainable way of live, but it is not as easy or as cheap as I thought. I can no longer afford this Internship, I am not getting paid and I am paying for the Internet. Bizarre! What are these people smoking?

I am going up to Hoedspruit, where Riaan is making a real difference by looking after our Rhino’s. Then I do not know...