51. SPROUTING OUT

Donax Drive in Kei Mouth, where we are now living

It has been a while, but everything is very different now. Living in suburbia, although I do not think suburbia is quite the right words here. Kei Mouth is a small coastal town, probably about 1 000 permanent residents and all the houses are not hiding behind big wall and security fences. It lacks the fear factor of suburbia.

Now the challenge is this; how to stay as green as possible within these surroundings. One thing I have noticed is that each property is only allowed 3 bags of rubbish per week and there are two houses on the property where we live. Seriously they only take 3 and leave the rest. This forces you to watch the amount of rubbish you create, because if becomes a big pain to get rid of when you have too much.

Unfortunately none of the Restaurants or Shops are particularly vegetarian friendly, but nothing new there. Riaan caught a fish the other day, he always catch and release, but sometimes things go wrong and the fish die. He brought the fish home, cleaned it, cooked it and ate it. I could not eat it because it was whole and the eyes where looking at me! How do you eat something while it is looking at you, even if it is dead? Each one to their own, I guess.

We are still using the greener cleaning products and bathroom paraphernalia. 

I still make sprouts, I have learned to love them and you can sprout allsorts. Quite a nice one is mustards seeds.

HOW TO MAKE SPROUTS:

Here is the quick and easy way to make sprouts, no fancy equipment needed. You basically need a glass bottle with a lid.

I am going to use lentil sprouts as an example but the process for the other sprouts are pretty much the same, some take two day and some three or more, that is the only difference. I found that Mung Dahl gives you fresh sprouts within two day. I assume that the warmer climate here does affect this; it might take a bit longer in colder climates.

Put the lentils in the bottle, not a lot; fill about 2/10^th of the bottle. Add water, you cannot add to much, so fill the bottle if you want. Put on the led. Leave it to stand for one day, it does not have to be in a dark room or anything, just let it stand anywhere, next to the basin, whatever.

After one day..

Holes in the lid, for drainage

Leave upside down, to drain

The next day the water will probably be a brownish color; that is normal. Drain the water. Rinse the lentils once or twice with fresh water.

Now make holes in the lid and drain all the water. Place the bottle upside down (lid with wholes at the bottom) on something where access water will be able to drain, sometimes I use the cheese grater, ie NOT on a solid surface. Just let it stand.

Rinse and drain for a day or two or three, until you have sprouts. Eat and enjoy.

50. VISIONS AND MISSIONS

So we are back at KD for another while. As I mentioned in a previous post, we never really got to know Ole and Zanele, because they were in Europe most of that time we were “house sitting” here at KD, they are now back.

There was a very long meeting last night. KD is trying to get their vision formulated and out, the Website is also getting a face lift. These meeting have turned from fun and informative into seriously tedious affairs with long monologues.

Most of the meeting was spend (again!) on the sign at the gate and issues surrounding that. Should it stay or should it go or should we just change the wording. 

The sign 

There are two takes on the whole thing; one is that you should tell people what you stand for and that is it. The other train of thought would like to create growth and how do you grow if you are already suppose to be perfect? I tend to agree with the last one, but if they really do not want anybody to drink, smoke, use other drugs or eat any meat, it is going to be difficult if you do not make it clear from the beginning, because a smoker for example is not going to suddenly stop, just because you say so. Though one but I think KD will save themselves and everybody visiting a lot of trouble if they make this very clear, although then we are back full circle, how do you grow if you are suppose to be perfect, maybe change the name? Khula Dhamma means "to grow on the path to awakening".

The only problem is that people that are willing and eager to live this lifestyle are normally strong headed, eccentric individuals with issues about being told what to do. A bit of a catch 22.

There are these issues, but then again, nobody living here are quite perfect, I mean we all try and where one might fail, the other might succeed. There are a lot of European members and they obviously fly to Europe and back, sometimes up to twice a year and that is not green at all.

Another thing that comes into play is the vegetarian and vegan products, which are very often imported and it is a simple fact that eating locally produced meat, in smallish amounts is greener that importing all your Chickpeas from India, or wherever. There is also an issue surrounding eggs, is it meat of not? Some say yes and some say no. Isn’t this, maybe a case of taking the broomstick out of your own eye before ripping other people’s sprinters out?

I still think this is an amazing space and I have met wonderful and stunning people here and we have learned a lot. One thing we have certainly learned is that a lot of  things are not as green as you might think them to be and what one person find disgusting, another might find quite acceptable.

We will be moving on as soon as we found a place in Kei Mouth, hopefully by this weekend. 

49. SPACE OF FEAR

Morgan Bay Beach, out of season

Hallelujah, Xmas is over and so is the insanity of New Year. Now live can go on as normal, whatever normal is.

By the way, we are at KD again, we did work in Morgan Bay over the peak season and stayed there, made some money and sorted our car. We can still stay at KD for two months and built a kitchen, but the fact remains, if we do that  we will  have to buy a different vehicle, like a bakkie (pick-up truck) or we will have to move to Kei Mouth. Morgan Bay is also not much of a permanent solution because the roads there are as bad as the roads here. 

We simply cannot stay here and hope to survive, that is the bottom line. We can also not drive this road everyday and hope our car will survive.

The last few weeks have been a rough ride. Not all went quite as planned, but we got through it and maybe someday when I feel like totally depressing everybody, I will tell you this story.  When we made the decision to go and work at Yellowwood, we were thinking from a space of fear, we ran very short on money and then our car broke and we panicked, neither of us belongs or should go near the Restaurant business ever again. Been there, done that, time to burn the T-shirt.

I must admit Yellowwood Forest is a very beautiful spot, here are some photos:

Inside or outside

The Tree Pot Restaurant Entrance

Feasting between the faeries

Dave, our partner in crime at Yellowwood, 

he is from England and volunteered for the summer