Greenhaus Community

Brett and his excellent CRANE!

2011-06-28T18:37:00.004+12:00

Here is Brett sharing his latest lego creation with Asher and Iris. Awesome!

The big house has 2 rooms free...

2011-06-05T12:00:00.000+12:00

Is your flat a train station? Flat mates are ships in the night...? Then we are here to help you!
And... if you call in the next 15 mins, we'll even throw in a free set of knives!
Well, maybe not the knives... but call us on 0800 Greenhaus!
Well, maybe not call... try email, we're a little easier to contact that way: mdshearer at gmail dot com
(hopefully that'll fool the spam bots...)

Greenhaus Easter banner

2011-06-05T11:32:00.001+12:00

Not long before Easter, the Greenhaus Community was commissioned by Lifepoint to produce a banner for the Sunday morning service. This video gives you a bit of an idea what went on to make the banner you'll see at the end of the vid.

Community night

2011-05-18T22:14:00.014+12:00

Monday night, community night.

The big house control panel: some good looking kai coming up!

"FLUB BLUM".....

2011-05-17T20:39:00.006+12:00

The other afternoon Malcy went to get Iris out of bed after her afternoon sleep, only to discover that much to her own amusement she had coined a new term.... "Flub blum"... I particularly like

ending of the video. Enjoy - Hannah DC

2011-05-11T21:33:00.005+12:00

Josh and Debs, last leg of the trip - Cambodia and Laos

So here we are back in New Zealand. Sorry it's been so long before we posted an update on the last leg of our trip. Coming back home can be a busy experience.

The last 20 days of our trip were essentially a high-speed dash through Cambodia and into Laos with the aim of making it up to Hanoi, Vietnam. However we had our second failure in trying to secure a Vietnam visa – the Vietnam consulate in Laos was closed for most of the time we were there (due to a combination of Laos New Year and the birthday of some official in Vietnam). So we slowed down a bit in Laos and got to explore off the beaten track a bit. This part of the trip was mainly about visiting and seeing the sights and getting a brief taste of culture along the way, so there are lots of photos.

The two main aims in Cambodia were to visit Angkor Wat (wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat) the mystical temple/city complex of the ancient Khmer empire, and to visit Becky and Efren Roxas, Servants workers living in Phnom Penh. A third main aim was to get through the border to Laos.

Some of our impressions of Cambodia:
- It is very orange. The earth is orange, which means the dust is orange, which means a lot of other things that are exposed to dust (which is most things outside) are orange. A lot of the buildings have also been painted orange which probably does a good job of disguising the effects of the dust.

- It is a lot less developed than Thailand. The roads are mainly sealed but are in poor condition in a lot of places. This turns long bus into an extended massage chair experience.

- The people are very friendly and also very good at talking you into “deals”. On our first day, after being connected by several people all the way from the border to Siem Reap, we found ourselves booked into a guesthouse that we really didn't want to stay at. After collecting ourselves we checked out straight away and went to find somewhere better. We didn't find that people were really trying to scam us (apart from selling us a can of Sprite for $4.00), it's just that at each point where you need to make a decision about what to do someone will be very persuasivly pushing one option. Being new to the country it was very hard to figure it all out. Everyone helps each other out with business so we learned.

- Knowing the political history of Cambodia (wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields) gave us a sense of heaviness as we were travelling through. Thirty years ago the country was just starting to crawl out of the clutches of a muderous, and deluded, regime. Most of the rice paddies we saw stretching around us for kilometers would have been built and farmed under supervision of machine guns. Some of the people on the busses with us could have easily been either victims of the time, or Communist party cadres with the machine guns. The country appears to be recovering now, and tourists are flooding in to bouy the economy. However we later learned that the Cambodian government is essentially selling off large areas of the country to foreign owners in a frenzy of capitalistic fervour (although they still claim to be socialist). This is causing thousands of residents to be displaced from their traditional homes (guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/26/cambodia). It was sad to learn about this because the country has a lot of potential to host tourists in a more equitable, people-focussed way.

We caught up with Becky and Efren Roxas for an afternoon in Phonm Penh (Cambodia's capital). They are Servants workers who have come to Phnom Penh from Manila. They are in a unique situation of having grown up in an urban poor neighbourhood, worked for change in their own lives and squatter community in Manila, then following the call to go and work for change in a squatter community in Cambodia. They have been working with their community on the banks of the Mekong for seven years. They currently run an English school there and Efren is involved in supporting several churches in Phnom Penh. They were very warm and welcoming to us and showed us around where they live and work.

Then we left for Laos. Our trip from Phonm Penh to the border was broken by a one-night stop in the town of Kratie. It was in Kratie where we became properly aquainted to the Mekong River. It captured our attention for a whole evening as we watched the tired, red sun set slowly over it. The next day we caught our ride to the border. We thought we had orderd a minibus but the driver turned up in the family sedan, which was already full. After getting a tire changed and picking up two more passengers we left town. All up there were 10 of us in a standard sedan, including two in the driver's seat! Fortunately the ride was only an hour as the child next to Debs was being sick for about half the trip. We got dropped off by the side of the road with our connecting person and waited for the bus. When the huge bus turned up there was only us, one other couple and two local guys on it. Talk about a contrast to the sardine-style family car!

Time for some photos... (click on the slideshow to get captions on the photos)

The border crossing to Laos proved very straight forward, in contrast to the crazy stories we had read on the internet. We traveled by bus and boat to the island of Don Det. Don Det is a beautiful farming island in the middle of the slow-flowing Mekong. It is probably one of the most idylic places we've ever been to. However it has become over-run with backpackers and the backpackers have all but erased the local culture, replacing it with their own. We found it hard to fully enjoy our stay for this reason. Other islands in the area have imposed strict rules for visitors, such as modest bathing attire, no marijuana etc, because they don't want their villages to turn in “another Don Det”. We did have some fun exploring and relaxing. A highlight was taking a boat trip to see the rare Mekong freshwater dolphins, well their fins and blowholes anyway (apparently they are lazy).

After Don Det we headed to the capital of southern Laos, Pakse. Pakse doesn't really have a lot going for it apart from some nice river-side restaurants and a massive hotel that used to be a palace. It does have ATM machines though, and a supermarket. In Pakse we witnessed the start of Laos New Year. We knew something was up when the Electricity Department and the Agriculture Ministry around the corner started setting up big tents and massive speakers. Several days later we were well aquainted with Lao party music, at high volume. We tried to escape by hiring a motorbike and doing a tour of the Bolaven Plateau – a high-elevation area with some beautiful waterfalls. We did find some amazing waterfall and Josh did plenty of swimming. We also thoroughly enjoyed whizzing around the place on a motorbike. However, Laos New Year turned up everywhere we went. In the town of Paksong we drove past the Police Department in full swing with more Lao party music. That day we found ourselves eating fried rice with a drunk policeman at a local restaurant. The situation became more bizarre when one of the restaurant's goats wandered on the road and got flattened by a passing truck. The only one seemingly worried about it was the goat's sibling which wandered around bleating for the next 20 minutes.

At our next stop the town was only just gearing up for New Year celebrations. We booked a room at a relaxing looking guesthouse by the river but we were woken up at 8:30 in the morning by two local concerts, both equally as loud, playing Lao party music at us from both sides of the guest house. We decided to move to avoid going completely mad.

The journey back to Pakse was unforgettable. The ultimate event of the New Year, both in Laos and Thailand, is the national waterfight. This meant that in every town we passed through there were crowds of people beside the road armed with buckets, hoses and water guns. The aim was to get everybody as wet as possible. So we were well and truly saturated by the time we were halfway home. The event also involves people piling onto the back of a 4x4 and then it's a battle of the trucks versus the roadside crowds. The trucks also got us wet while we were driving and it's fair to say a bucket of water at 60 km/hr gives you a decent whack. As much as we tried to avoid getting doused at every turn, it was a fun event to be part of. Everyone just really lets go for a couple of days and has a big party before getting into the hard work of farming in the rainy season.

After leaving Laos we spent two nights in Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand. There we chatted to a retired American Bhuddist who has set up a fish farm in the wops of Eastern Thailand. We also experienced the start of the rainy season which meant epic thunder storms and heavy downpours. It felt like a good time to finish up the trip. After some last minute gift shopping in Bangkok we were on our way home.

Coming back to NZ has felt really good to both of us. We've got a lot of thinking to do about what this trip has meant for us. For now we don't feel any great need to head back over to SE Asia. We do love the connections we have made made and grown with the people we visited. We also want hang on to the sense of perspective we have gained from spending time with our friends in Manila. We feel like we experienced almost overwhelming amounts of neediness, and at times felt simultaneously fully responsible and completely helpless. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. And possibly what we are called to do is be faithful with what we are given to meet the needs that are in front of us, and let go of our egos in the process. It's one of those things that's easier said than done, but God knows it needs to be done.

Hope you enjoyed reading our stories. It's been fun putting it all together.

Love, Josh and Debs.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

2011-05-09T16:03:00.001+12:00

Sharlene Johnson and Stephen Maslin are engaged! Woop Woop!

Mia wins in the Newtown News!

2011-05-02T17:08:00.002+12:00

He is risen

2011-04-24T09:22:00.000+12:00

Passover

2011-04-21T22:23:00.006+12:00

2011-04-16T14:16:00.008+12:00

Quezon City, Manila, Philippines.

We're now in Laos and nearly at the end of our trip. We made a quick dash through Bangkok and Cambodia after a bad mistake not pre-applying for a Vietnam visa. We had to forfeit our ticket to Ho Chi Minh City from Manila and also our plans for a leisurely trip up the Mekong. We also had three of our four credit cards stolen. Anyway, this post is really to fill you in on our time with Servants in Quezon City, Manila. So without further ado... We spent 1 month in Quezon City with a couple from our church who are working with a NGO called Servants. Servants work with urban-poor communities across Asia. They work with the people in their communities to develop cooperatives, schools, pharmacies, micro-enterprises, community leadership programmes and whatever else needs doing. However, their main focus is, before doing anything, to learn the language, culture, community dynamics and most importantly to make friends with the people they want to help. This means all of the workers live in urban-poor communities. Most of these places are "squatter communities" where people have moved in and built shanties on unused government land (of which there seems to be a lot). When we talked with Murray and Shona about visiting them in Manila we agreed that instead of coming to volunteer the best thing for us to do would be to get some exposure to life in a squatter community and to use our time there as a 'retreat' to read and think about how we could respond to poverty. It would also be a chance for us to build a relationship with a family who were worlds away from us in all sorts of ways.

Melchor, Clarisa, Micheal, Meliza, Nanay, Tatay

Murray did some scouting and arranged a family who were keen to take us for two weeks, spoke some English and had a sit-on-ish toilet! We were very nervous about meeting our hosts as were they. While entering the community for the first time we were struck with plenty of unfamiliar sights, sensations and smells. It was an odd feeling traipsing through crowds of busy Filipinos with our pack and sleeping rolls with every other person yelling "Hey Joe" or "Welcome to the Philippines!" It was hard to tell if that last comment was supposed to be genuine or ironic, given the place we were visiting. The community, called Nia, was crammed into 3 or 4 hectares of government land that ran alongside the moderately busy Nia Road. The housing was more dense than we expected and most buildings were two or three storeys, although a short storey by NZ standards (Josh spent a lot of the time walking around with his head bowed). There were clearly no standards applied in the construction of Nia. It is basically first-come, first-served for a piece of land and if you can cram an extra building into an un-used space then it's yours! The density of buildings means not much sunlight can get in and a lot of alley ways were dark all day round. (Not as bad as you might think in a culture of sun-adversion. Dark skin colour it seems, comments on your socio-economic status and people with 'white' skin (Americanos) are looked up to... far too much. We recieved an uncomfortable amount of attention and special treatment just for being us.) The basic infrastructure, however, seemed pretty sound; all the alleys and houses were founded on concrete, most places had legal electricty and water and some had broadband, and everyone had some sort of septic tank (however, these just somehow seep into the ground - no connection to the city system. In the wet season it can all come up again!). Apparently there is a rubbish collection system but it's hard to see.

Debs negotiating for mangos at one of the many road-side stalls

The community was unexpectedly industrious. The whole frontage along Nia road was lined with vendors of all kinds from the local Bingo shop and Karaoke machine to fruit and veges, jandals and hair cuts. Down every major alley way there were people selling food or running a 'sari-sari' store (translate: "all sorts of different things"). Even the family we were staying with, who lived down a secondary alley way, ran a small store. Our reception when we finally met was very warm. We were greeted by 'Nanay' (mother) Remi, who was the grandmother of the household. We also met her daughter 'Ate' (older sister) Clarisa who was our host. Clarisa and her husband 'Kuia' (older brother) Melchor have two children, Michael and Melissa. The household also includes 'Tatay' (father) Patea. Tatay is in charge of the dog, Brownie, his three fighting cocks and the egg-laying native chicken (manook). The two-storey house was built by Nanay and Tatay 20 years ago and still seems to be sturdy. Our 'bedroom' was the upstairs lounge, separated from the family bedroom by a curtain. There was just enough space to squash our two single mattresses in and hang a mosquito net. We slept well although we did have a few incidents that took us by surprise. It took a bit to get used to the large rat that used the planks on our ceiling for his daily commute. He liked to fight during the night about a metre away from Josh's head. Fortunately he never invaded our bed unlike the mice. Josh woke up one night to hear a scratching sound coming from his pillow and discovered that a mouse had managed to get inside the mosquito net. While trying to get rid of it it ran up his arm and over to Debs. It then woke Debs up by running over her forehead! We managed to banish the mouse and had patchy sleep for the next few nights. The mice and the rats soon became our friends as we saw them each day. The bedbugs were less friendly and claimed Josh's back as the new local restaurant.

Punishment for losing a game of chess

Our days were spent waking up, having breakfast (typically rice, dried fish, tomatoes and coffee) chatting to Nanay, having lunch, sleeping and reading for a while, hanging out with Clarisa and her friends while she sold food on Nia Road (in the island in the middle of the road), hanging out with the kids in the evening, watching lots of T.V. in Tagalog, having dinner about 8:30 (we were treated to many Filipino favourites) and going to bed. Most days we also went for a trip or got up to some activity. One day we learned to wash our clothes by hand. Our incompetence was a source of hilarity up and down the alley way as we were enthusiatically taught to "make it dirty-clean" by our teacher Bernadette. Josh got introuduced to chess Filipino-style which meant that the loser was painted in lipstick (see picture of the loser)! We went for a trip to take the kids to school. School starts at 7:00 which means we were up at 5:30 with the kids and into the school bus at 6:30. The school bus is actually a converted 4WD with an extended back section into which they manage to stuff about 40 kids into. Clarisa had to hang out the back door all the way there as we'd run out of room. We also visited friends around the neighbourhood and got to learn their stories and chat to them about their lives and ours. These times of hanging out and sharing (kwanto-kwanto) were really the most special. We had lots of good laughs and learned plenty of Tagalog. In fact, the kids on the street were probably our best Tagalog teachers. We sat with them for hours at times describing our favourite foods and music and learning games and words. Hanging on the street in the evenings were some of our favourite times as the day had cooled down and people drifted past to chat, pass babies around, paint their toenails and keep tabs on their kids. We were able to feel like we were just fitting into the rhythm of the community rather than being the strange white people. One of our most enjoyable events was when we attempted to cook NZ's national dish for our family - fish and chips (served with rice of course)! It was satisfying to be able to serve and provide for our hosts for one evening as they had put in so much effort to serve us. The dish went down OK we think, but we learned never to try deep-frying battered fish in a wok; it was more like batter and fish, rather than battered fish.

Washing clothes by hand, "mano-mano"

One evening we went to a party for Clarisa's cousin's daughter's seventh birthday, an important event in Filipino culture. We had a good time chatting to some great people but found the attention we received a bit difficult to handle. We had the same experience on several occasions and tried to be gracious while not drawing more attention than necessary to ourselves. The most difficult times for us where when we felt like we were being an imposition, or if we felt like we had offended our hosts by turning down offers to go places or eat more food. Because we were staying for two weeks it was easy to feel like we were a burden for the family although we were paying them good board. It was also difficult for them to host us as they were always conscious that we were well fed and entertained and it was also hard for them to speak English all the time. Sometimes it was hard to communicate that we were content. We realised, though, that even though it was a challenge for the family to host us they really enjoyed having us stay and would much rather we didn't go at the end of two weeks. Our last day with them was lots of fun. We went for a day trip to the local Eco Park which would usually be too expensive for the family to visit, but it was cheap for us to shout everyone plus friends for day of fun. We ate lots of good Filipino fiesta food, swam with the kids and chatted for the afternoon. We said goodbye, although promised to visit them again before leaving Manila. Our next two weeks were spent reflecting on our experience at the Servants team centre and also visiting a few Servants-related projects. We spent three days at a rural retreat centre run by Lilok, a partner organisation of Servants. It was a very peaceful place with only solar electricity. We also visited Kamay Krafts, a large women's cooperative that creates bags, jewellery and other products from recycled or discarded packaging material. It was great to see how the business is growing and able to provide an income for more women. We also visited a Servants couple (from Wellington) staying in a nearby squatter community. Murray and Shona also showed us around the community they lived in until recently. It was a real privelege to meet their friends and chat with them. The community itself however is looking rather sad as a recent fire (which was devestating, given the cramped living conditions) paved the way for the government to order a demolition. We learned that many of these communities get demolished and the residents are offered houses at a relocation site. However most relocation sites are over an hour away and most families can't easily afford to travel to their jobs each day. At the end of our time in Manila we went back to visit our host family for an afternoon. It was a very special time and sad for us knowing that we are unlikely to see them again. Hopefully the opportunity will arise in the future for us to visit.

Hanging out with Murray and Shona and Grace at Eco Park (photo by Grace Shearer - 4 years old)

The garden at Tanay rural retreat

There's so much more we could have written, but it's already a very long post. Our time in Manila made us think a lot about our lives. Of our many thoughts we came away clear that we want to follow Jesus' call to always serve and show love to the poor, whoever they are around us - see the Sermon on the Mount.

Details on our quick trip through Cambodia and Laos to come...

Happy birthday Josh!!

2011-04-11T23:11:00.000+12:00

All the way from your community in Welly to South East Asia...

GH Cornucopia

2011-03-31T16:17:00.001+13:00

At our autumn soirée we put together a little cornucopia of some of our garden produce...

The infamous mini-deck!

2011-03-30T16:47:00.005+13:00

Chiang Mai and the Philippines

2011-03-02T19:35:00.004+13:00

So here we are in Manila, Luzon. We've been in the Philippines for nearly two weeks now. Firstly, we hope everyone who reads this got through the earthquake alright. It's hard being overseas at times like this, and when it hit we didn't have easy internet access to get updates. As far as we've heard our friends and family are fine, but our hearts and prayers go out to those who lost people and whose lives have been derailed by the quake. At times like this, things like travel updates seem a bit trifling, but I guess in the end (from a quote I saw yesterday) life is only real when it's shared, so here goes.

Since our last blog we also spent a week in Chiang Mai, so first, Chiang Mai.

Train to Chiang Mai - photo op when it stopped to cool down

Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand and is a little cooler and less polluted than Bangkok. The city is quite big, but the central part of town (the 'Old Town') is where most people visit. It is surrounded by a moat and the remains of the old city walls. It was a lot more catered towards tourists than where we were staying in Bangkok, so it took a bit for us to adjust. We found a nice guest house next to the river which served as a great wind-down spot after busy days.

Our aim in Chiang Mai was to meet up with Partners - a Christian N.G.O. doing some very inspiring work with the Burmese. They work both with refugees that have fled to camps in Thailand, and also with tribes in the rebel states of Burma. Partners' aim is to 'bring full, free lives to the children of Burma'. Their work includes all sorts of relief and development projects ranging from (in partnership with the Free Burma Rangers) dropping supplies to villagers fleeing the Burmese military, to sustainable development training, e.g. farming, establishing schools and healthcare centres. They also take time to build friendships with the people they support and encourage them through the traumatic experiences they face. We both felt the urgency of their work and it's fair to say it would be fairly tempting to work for them if we had the opportunity.

Hanging with some of the Partners crew

This is a good point to pass on the message that
the Burmese government and the military really do need to be held to account for the crimes they are exacting on the people of the country. They completely neglect the wellbeing of citizens by diverting funds from civil needs to the military. They brutally suppress any sort of anti-government sentiment. Secret police are everywhere to spy on the actions of citizens. They violently force villagers to shift camp and also often force them to work on large scale projects (such as military or gas piping, where most of the production heads out of the country). By all accounts the Burmese government has ambitious plans for its military and there is evidence emerging that they are pursuing nuclear armament. One of the strongest weapons against the government is information and international pressure, so being informed and participating in protest action counts for a lot.

We had a short but rich time with Partners and learned a lot. We felt very welcomed and enjoyed the passionate but down-to-earth attitude they had to life.

On the days we weren't visiting people we explored the city, the markets and the country side. By hiring a motorbike we were able to experience Thailand traffic first hand. It looks chaotic at first but actually driving in it feels reasonably straight forward once you get the flow. Granted it's still dangerous, we saw plenty of fresh accidents, but it's definitely less agro than rush hour Wellington. We zoomed up the local mountain, to the botanic gardens and through a few villages.

Manila and Palawan

Our first night in Manila wasn't quite what we expected, but it's silly to expect anything when you are new to a place. Our room we had pre-booked was about 100m away from the red light district and its roadside location meant we had a steady chorus of motorbikes and jeepneys all night. After finding a quieter place we decided to head to Palawan to fill in our time before visiting Servants in Quezon City.

Jeepney - public transport in Manila. Very awesome.

The island of Palawan is listed in a National Geographic list of top 10 destinations because of its beauty, relative pristine-ness and its high biodiversity. We arrived in Puerto Princessa, the capital, and took a 5 hour minibus ride North to the town of El Nido. The El Nido area is stunning, we'll let the photos do the talking. Sadly however, even though it's a protected area, it's at great risk from poorly managed "ecotourism". The town is cramped and pristine beaches are slowly getting claimed by resort developers. The Palawan ethic of sustainability is great but it's clear that the ethic needs to get turned into action, which is hard when basic corruption is still rife. We stayed with a Nora, a hospitable, warm woman who previously ran a dive shop in the town. We listened to a lot of stories from her and also her boarder Rene, an Austrian developer who was waiting for a permit to build a resort at a local beach.

We had an interesting experience which confirmed that even Josh is afraid of spiders when it really comes down to it. While searching for accommodation we were kindly offered the free use of a bamboo hut on a farm just out of town (we expressed we were looking for cheap lodgings). Rosa took us to the beautiful farm where she shared a large field with several neighbours. Rosa had told us that the animals to look out for were snakes, scorpions and spiders, which included king cobras and tarantulas that could be in the bush. After proudly showing us around she took off back to town and left us to mull it over. We were just about to settle in to try it out when Josh noticed a massive black spider. Debs left the hut at this point. After bravely killing six, Josh discovered that one interior wall of the hut was basically a nest of giant Huntsman spiders. The last straw came when we found the biggest one of all on the roof, right over our bed (sweet dreams). Having experienced our fair share of biodiversity for the day we decided to gracefully high-tail it and head back to town. We later found out that the spiders really are harmless and we could have got rid of them with some 'Bygone' spray, apparently.

We found some more peaceful biodiversity on the coral reefs while snorkelling. We kayaked around majestic, ancient lagoons and swam with schools of irridescent tropical fish. We also went for a couple of decent walks around the coast from El Nido and discovered plenty of hidden-jewel beaches and eye-catching seascapes. All up a very satisfying jaunt on a diverse, tropical island.

Tomorrow we are heading to Quezon City to meet up with Servants (an organisation that assists Asia's urban poor). We will be staying with a family in a slum area for a couple of weeks and then checking out a few of the projects that Servants are running. Really looking forward to it, but a bit nervous as well. The aim of the time is to be like a 'retreat', entering into the lives of the poor and refelecting on how we should respond. We won't be 'doing' anything while we are there apart from making friends with the people we stay with. More later!

Ingat ka,

Josh and Debs

A perfect way to end a day...

2011-02-22T12:55:00.000+13:00

Community night 21/2. Skies: clear. Wind: still. Water temp: warm (ish). Wharf jumping it is!

Debs and Josh in Bangkok

2011-02-12T02:14:00.004+13:00

Bangkok

So here's our first official blog entry after about three weeks into the trip.

Our time in Bangkok began with a rather exciting and almost overwhelming schedule of tours, visits and English classes. It finished with a beautiful farewell party from the church, with a feast that included fried squirrel - sling-shot and cooked for us by Noinon (the ultimate urban hunter-gatherer).

Our main challenge in Bangkok was definitely teaching English. We taught four classes all up and preparing for them took a lot of our spare time and thought-energy during the week (thanks for all your great idea Sharon!) The 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' song was a definite hit, alongside 'Simon Says'. Josh's partial rendition of the All Blacks' haka to the 6th graders also drew critical acclaim. We got very creative with wordfinds, story jigsaw puzzles and other games that could be organised with paper and pen. The games were fairly chaotic in the end, and handing out stickers to the winners was even more so as cheating abounded. We hope the children took something away from it all, even if it was just associating English learning with fun. In our time here we have been able to see that having a decent command of English can open a lot of doors for young people. It also sadly illustrates the pervasive effect of globalisation on Thai culture, some results good, others really not. (Sorry this is a bit of a left-wing blog... But we think it's good for you!) ;)

Debs' class of 5th graders

It was Kanchana's hope that our time at the school would help build the relationship between the school and the Fa Sai Club. The Fa Sai Club is one of the primary activities of the Nonthaburi Church. It gathers children from a diverse range of backgrounds and ages (slum children to reasonably well-off children) and provides a warm welcoming environment to feel supported in their Christian faith and/or to have loads of fun. The Nonthaburi house where Kanchana, her foster-daughter Ney and Noi-non, Jean and their daughter, Fa Sai, live (and they gather for church) is open every afternoon for the children to play, hang out and chat - it's an incredibly busy communal environment almost like the Greenhaus three times over. The Sunday morning service makes space for them and most of Sunday afternoon involves lunch and more hanging out. Monthly activities gather nearly everyone involved in the Club (nearly 60) for a Saturday afternoon outing such as the Bangkok bike park that we joined them for. We both felt very inspired by the Fa Sai Club and the hope the offer to children in Nonthaburi, particularly some of the poorer children who have had very hard backgrounds. It spoke to us of a sense of fun, belonging, and freedom from fear.

Bike park excursion with Fa Sai Club

We also had some time out to explore Bangkok area. Our first trip was to watch a movie called Hereafter at the local 'Esplanade' - a lavish (although mid-range) mall down the road. The movie wasn't very good, the Korean BBQ meal was great, and the discovery that you can only get a decent flat white from McDonalds was bizarre and disconcerting. We also took the Skytrain into Bangkok with Kanchana and Tospon to wander around the truly lavish Paragon Siam. However with Josh feeling the revenge of some bad tempered digestive bacteria it was a bit of an endurance window-shopping experience. The Thai Cultural show at the massive theatre of [insert name] was amazing however, can't say we've ever seen such a spectacular stage performance.

We visited Pattaya (the closest nice beach to Bangkok) with Kanchana and Tospon to have a swim at a tropical island. Pattaya is a remarkable place mainly for the concentration of "farang" looking to have a good time on the beach, in clubs and however else they feel. The majority of the crowd are retired Europeans that, from all appearances, seem to enjoy imposing their culture on everyone around them. I'm not saying we're exempt from complicity in this either, but we do at least try to be subtle rather than, for example, treating everyone at breakfast to our favourite dance club tunes from a portable stereo. The beach at the island was really nice to swim in but probably the most crowded beach in the world, and the most extortionate. Debs felt pretty crook both ways on the boat trip but cheered up significantly upon landing.

A visitor from China celebrating New Years at the beach

We self-navigated our way to Ayuthayya (ancient capital of Siam) to check out the extensive city ruins. The city is amazing in the way it has developed its modern sections around the old structures. Plenty of parks and quiet streets make it a very peaceful place. One highlight was catching a glimpse of a komodo dragon slithering from one canal to another.

One of the many impressive ruins in Ayutthaya

Our time in Bangkok wrapped up with Nonthaburi Church throwing us a farewell party! We have felt entirely honoured and humbled by their hospitality. The evening consisted of the girls of the church performing traditional dances for us and then getting us to join in. A game of 'Who Can Guess the Most About Debs and Josh' resulted in a lot of laughter, excitement and the victor receiving a tube of Pringles. This was all followed by gift giving, thankyous, a lavish meal and special Thai
desert. We felt very honoured by the evening and an overall sense of real connection to these people.

We're now in Chiang Mai making connections with some more wonderful people and getting adventurous in our explorations.

Lots of Love
J&D

P.S. Hope the births go well Moo and Lou! We're thinking of you!

Xmas 2010

2011-01-21T23:00:00.000+13:00

The GHC et al. xmas dinner, 5 days before Christmas.

Community gardening

2010-12-26T19:27:00.000+13:00

In early December, the community decided it was time to give something back to our GH parents, Gavin and Carolyn (Hannah's folks). So we cruised over to their place one Monday evening to do a bit of gardening...

Gardens weeded

Compost bins emptied, vege seedlings planted

Trees pruned, weeds moved

According to the few photos I took... The Dangers pretty much did it all! :D

Blind portraits

2010-12-26T19:16:00.001+13:00

This is what happens when you get a community (circa mid Nov) to portrait each other without looking at the page they're drawing on...

Summer Soirée 2010

2010-12-08T17:54:00.002+13:00

The last soirée of the year is done.
Every season we have one of these evening performances in GC1's lounge. Its potluck. Bring a plate or a performance of some kind.

Much fun was had.
Contributions given.
Food eaten.
Life shared and enjoyed.

Visitors pile in through the front door

The suspense builds as 60 people crowd into our lounge...

Entertainment was had

The "Notorious Newtowner" Nathan, gets his groove on

Intermission and time to eat everyone's tasty treats

Musical bliss

Christmas Soiree, 7pm, 5 December

2010-11-27T07:47:00.007+13:00

Come and enjoy great company, food, entertainment and Christmas carols.

The Christmas soiree is the one you don't want to miss!

Remembering the Pike River miners

2010-11-25T21:10:00.002+13:00

At 9pm, 25 November 2010, hundreds of thousands of people around the world, lit a candle to demonstrate solidarity with the families of the 29 men who died in the Pike River mining tragedy.

Uncles...?

2010-11-23T20:20:00.001+13:00

Jackson Davies and two, not quite uncles.

Almost ready for a 1989 themed 21st...
(Its no accident I've cropped out the shorts we were wearing... oh boy)

Castlepoint album

2010-11-17T21:34:00.001+13:00

Here's a few more pics from the weekend.
Clicking on the big play button opens picasa web for some reason. Click the bottom button.

Greenhaus Community Weekend Away 2010

2010-11-16T19:59:00.014+13:00

Destination: Castlepoint, Wairarapa.

Highlights of Friday:

Emma being the most awesome car packer ever!
Maria (Master and Commander) going the extra mile to get our food supplies listed, separated (into what needed to be bought and what we had), purchased, listed again on the whiteboard, categorized and ready!
Eating quiche and chips (although a little too much potato overall inducing a few gas stops along the way) supplied by team Malcy and the Brettservice in a beautiful park (yes that's right it was actually lovely despite it being located in the Hutt).
Arriving at our accommodation to find that there truly was a spa pool!
Eating Ambrosia a la Emma.
Andy's highlight of the whole weekend was playing Scruples a rather NON-P.C. game from the 80s. (Josh, if you were a Homo...wner...).

Some of Saturday's Highlights:

Eating lovely pancakes made by Nic and Fiona
Going out to the beach in weather that felt like summer.
I'm sure for those that did it climbing Castle Rock would have been up there. Apparently it was rather gusty but there was a great opportunity to take in the "sweet panamarma". You can see that some males chose to scale the side of the hill, adventurer, macho, prove-your-worth style, while most others were happy to either go on the beaten path, sit and watch or sit with a bag on their head.
SWIMMING! Even if I had to swim in my clothes and my fellow swimmers were men in ill fitting undies (that should have been replaced ages ago).
LAMB CURRY from Chef Chris, a man with a very specific and tasty master plan!
Singing, praying, crying, getting over ourselves and being with God together.
Being in the Spa until well past the prune-ing hour.

Highlights of Sunday:

Eating French toast made by Nicy and Andy.
Playing a rather robust game of Mafia (which only took 4 tries to actually start)
Sort of playing and sort of learning the rules of touch rugby.
BBQ, oh so much food! Thanks McDs (NOT Mac Donalds) McLennan-Deans
Sharing our highlights of the weekend each other
Not getting car sick over the Rimutaka hills!

If you are wondering what the strange hexagonal light is hovering over Brett's face, it's the Holy Spirit descending on Andy in geometric form.

Thanks everyone for a team effort. I'm sure there are lots of other more stunning photos to post and other peoples highlights to follow.

Love Hannah DC

Soo-Young is a married man!

2010-11-07T21:46:00.002+13:00

Congratulations Soo-Young and Sharon, married 6 November 2010!

Mia turns 6

2010-11-07T16:21:00.000+13:00

Must be time for another community party!

Cake.

Mia's little sister Iris calls everything cake but this is actual cake! Yum.

Game time in the lounge

Danielle and Aunty Bekah, negotiate the straw with their mouth...!

Andre takes on Aunty Ruth at her specialty... the rubber band over the nose

Blessed be the mulch pile!

2010-10-19T19:12:00.001+13:00

Ooh yeah, there's nothing better than a whole lotta free mulch for the compost! Woop woop!

So... some of us had a mulch party to celebrate :D

And just in case the photos weren't enough...

Happy birthday neighbour!

2010-10-18T16:50:00.002+13:00

Hello, this is us!

2010-10-14T17:27:00.000+13:00

At our most recent community night we farewelled Soo Young from the community and went bowling to celebrate his time with us.

The community and our neighbours John, Bex and Jack. Not often we

get a group photo of everyone!

Bit of bowling action

Afternoon tea at GC1

2010-09-29T12:18:00.000+13:00

At least half of the pop-corn did actually get in our mouths!
Malcolm even had the delight of eating a piece of pre-sucked popped corn. Yum yum. Part of the family now!!

Andre has a growth...

2010-09-18T19:01:00.000+12:00

Jackson AKA Buba

2010-09-16T12:50:00.000+12:00

Here's some pics of our new neighbour Jackson Davies. He's AKA'd as Buba since thats what Iris calls him. She's prolly his biggest fan at the mo, even though she's only 12 months older than him! Ha

Jackson, showing off his moves

Waving to his fans

Congratulations!

2010-07-15T12:05:00.000+12:00

Our neighbours, John and Bex, have just had their first child! Woo hoo!
Welcome to our world Jackson Davies. :D

If Bex allows a photo to be taken... no guarantees! You may just see it here.

A new look

2010-07-06T14:49:00.002+12:00

Bout time for an updated look. The wall paper here was looking a little tired. Hows this...?

Cook off!

2010-07-05T13:59:00.000+12:00

In a semi-recent flat night adventure, we pitted two teams of cooking extraordinares, with limited ingredients, against each other. It was a recipe for mayhem!

The rules:

Use only the ingredients your team draws out of the hat, plus 3 bonus ingredients of your choice
Prepare your baking in 15mins
two of your teammates must stay behind the table at all times
You cannot use a recipe
You get more points for using all of your allocated ingredients
Make Malcolm (ed: hey nice, you spelt my name right!) happy by being quiet and cooking gluten free food.... :D

Team 1 making chocolate peanut butter muffins

Team 2 making Walnut and Feijoa cake (while hypnotising the opposition with a top-secret spooky striped shirt...)

Baking action in the kitchen - team 1 is about to whip up some magic!

Emma is trying to look like the innocent, impartial adjudicator but what you dont know is...

I (malc) slipped her a twenty and Hubby Chris (from team 1) is attempting a not so subtle kiss up! ;)

Andre, from team 2, is mad that they lost...

And the pictures of the final product are...
not here.

Oops sorry, forgot to take those photos.

But the Feijoa cake was Yum (except for the eggyness (its a technical term))! Nom, nom.

P.S. This post took awhile but the important thing to note from this one and the last, is that we don't just do birthday's and farewells at the GH! :D

Severely Amateur Cheesemaking

2010-06-14T18:25:00.005+12:00

One of the things I have been wanting to do for a while is make cheese. Here is a post about batch one of this endeavor. I attempted to make a French cheese called Coulommiers (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulommiers_cheese) which is similar to brie.

Day 1
4L of milk produced more cheese than planned cheeses set to drain in improvised cheese moulds.

Day 5
The large cheese has morphed into a large blob, and the small cheese into a pancake. Both growing healthy quantities of white penicillin mold. I repressed the large blob into a cheese shape and removed some of the whey.

Day 7
The re-pressed cheese is now growing some white penicillin mould, the un-pressed cheese is also growing mould and the small cheese is even more pancake shaped.

Day 12
We gathered round for a tasting. The verdict was that the re-pressed and un-pressed cheeses tasted a bit salty and yeasty (they may have picked up some yeast from the air) and the pancake cheese tasted the best.

Lin's farewell

2010-04-05T21:43:00.001+12:00

The Greenhaus is losing another valued flat mate! Its one of those seasons...

This time its Lin. Lin's quite a fan of meat, so with an affectionate tongue in cheek, the GH community put on a Meat Festival!

Grey Lin meat market

There was plenty of different selections of meat, including this fish and chicken. Mmmm

Fish eyes anyone...? Nom, nom, nom

Hot (meat) drink...?

Farewell Lin!

Enjoy my old flat. :D

Debs farewell #2

2010-04-05T18:52:00.001+12:00

Some footy, fans looking on...

Debs unwraps her leaving presents

Stories around the fire to end off a great night

Debs is farewelled from the big house after 5 years!

2010-03-24T22:50:00.004+13:00

So if you've been following the posts you'll know that Debs and Josh fell in love at the Greenhaus and got engaged, now as of two days ago they are married! VERY EXCITING STUFF! Anyways, we farewelled Debs in style, taking her on a mystery tour out to Kaitoke national park for a bbq and bonfire. I'm sure Malcy will have some cool pics of the bonfire posted at some stage. We love you Debs and I will miss your eccentric loveliness around the big house.

Andy got a job!

2010-03-20T16:46:00.019+13:00

Woo hoo! The GH was rather excited to celebrate Andy scoring a sweet job at 4Dice who service EFTPOS terminals. Go Andy!

4Dice owners Rob and Mandy and Elizabeth from Emerge

The workplace

Terry the team leader

Andy's work bench

Box slide!!

2010-02-11T13:21:00.002+13:00

This weeks flat night was an adventure...
Sliding down a hill on boxes! It gives a whole new meaning to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Coffee n Chat with Malcolm

2010-02-11T13:03:00.000+13:00

Last week Malcolm put on a wee event to tell everyone about his travels in Sth America

There were some Latino tunes

A nibble or two

An interview, to keep things structured :) and a couple of travel videos to watch, which you can find buried somewhere here:

http://malcyb.blogspot.com/

Asher's birthday

2010-02-01T13:41:00.000+13:00

Recently Asher turned a big 03! We celebrated. Dressed up in appropriate clothes. Played games I haven't played for a long time... :D

Asher in his Sunday best

Some of the males... I think.

Josh and Debs

GH neighbours, John and Bex

Pass the parcel competition, munch down a bunch of (gluten free)

cornflakes and whistle happy birthday!

JC vs MS

MS goes for the slow option, then the waist tickle once JC has started whistling...

it doesn't work.

Pass the parcel comp 2.

Piggy back race (in opposite directions) around the house.

AB+JD vs KC+DM

Collision happens at corner, team with greater mass wins!

Of course, GH parties aren't complete without the

chocolate game!

Drums

2010-01-27T13:30:00.000+13:00

On Sunday, we collected a few drums together and had a bit of a post-dinner jam. What a racket! And a whole lota fun! :-)

Lunch at the GH

2010-01-27T13:27:00.000+13:00

By random chance, it just so happened there was a whole lot of people around for lunch one day. It was almost a party! Good times

Plastic free living...?

2010-01-27T10:18:00.000+13:00

An interesting article about living without plastic...
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/plastic-free-living-interview.html

...and the blog of the woman in the article:
http://fakeplasticfish.com/

Brett's brithday

2010-01-17T22:10:00.000+13:00

On Saturday we celebrated Brett's birthday. He's had another significant milestone as well...
10 years in the Greenhaus! Whoa. Thats impressive!

Bretty!

Happy birthday to youuuuuuu!!!

Bretty's gettin a serious feed in the chocolate game...

Yah Josh got a 6, no, Nate-Dog got a 6, no, Cush got a 6... go go go!! Someone get the chocolate!!

Yum, yum, yum - let's chow down on Brett's favourite... Butter Chicken!

¡Feliz Navidad!

2010-01-13T13:06:00.003+13:00

Just before everyone took off for their Christmas holidays, the GH had a few peeps over for a xmas party!!

End of year barbie!

2009-12-22T21:16:00.000+13:00

We recently put on an "end of school year" barbie for the surrounding flats.

Good times were had. Kids played, adults connected.

Wedding time

2009-12-22T00:05:00.000+13:00

On Sunday the GH headed to Irskine chapel in Island Bay for the marriage of James C and Debs Mahuta, both ex GH flatties.

Compost at GH

2009-12-21T23:52:00.002+13:00

It needs some work...

2010 will see Mr GH Gardener (yours truly, this post author) fix the compost!

Feeding 5000 for free...

2009-12-21T23:45:00.000+13:00

This is impressive:

How do you feed 5,000 people in the center of London for free? It doesn't take a miracle. Just use all the perfectly decent food that wholesalers, specialty shops, and grocery stores throw away every day. The Feeding the 5,000 event, held today in Trafalgar Square, offered up free curry, fresh bread, and smoothies to citygoers using food that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill...

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/how-do-you-feed-5000-people-free

Josh's farewell!

2009-12-16T11:33:00.003+13:00

On Monday night the GH crew headed out to Brett's boat shed digs for Josh's farewell. We had a barbeque to celebrate his time here. He's heading on to newer pastures... (next door).

The crew minus kids - Where's Andy!? (Hannah in mid flight)

Josh getting excited about new opportunities...

Some paddling was done

And a personalised album was given to Josh

Debs and Josh are engaged!!!

2009-11-09T17:43:00.004+13:00

On Tuesday the 3rd of November Josh finally popped the question... Can you guess where it happened?

Ski Trip 09

2009-09-22T13:58:00.001+12:00

Most of us went on a weekend away to Ruapehu to ski/board in September. I (Malcolm) saved my pennies for other trips but had some good down time (with Brett and Andre) and took a few sweet pics along the way...

We stayed in a great lodge in Raetihi. It had the works. Large fireplace with chopped firewood, gas heater at the other end of the passage, enough beds with linen and electric blankets for 10 of us, pool table, large living area, fresh roasted coffee waiting for us and I could go on! All for the measly price of 69 bucks each for 2 nights! Very nice.

Kellie's Birthday Dinner

2009-08-13T22:15:00.007+12:00

July has been a crazy month of birthday's with Iris, Kellie, Hannah, Lin and Andy all celebrating their birthdays! Here are some pics from Kellie's bday dinner.

Cheers Maria

Baby Iris Cara is born

2009-08-04T18:44:00.004+12:00

The newest addition to the GH was born on July the 6th at home!!! It was a Monday and I had told Maria I was in labour in the afternoon. She looked after the kids while I was in the early stages. By the time Nic got home I was getting grumpy, focused and pacing around the house. At 6:30pm our lovely housemates had set Mia and Asher up with the dinner and Nic and I went and set up a tarp, some mattress and towels upstairs. When we sent the message down stairs at 8:55pm that we had a baby girl no one believed us. They were waiting to hear screams and wails from upstairs late into the night. It was a straight forward and quick labour. Praise the Lord. I can't believe she is already 1 month old! Iris is doing really well and getting chubbier by the feed.

Greenhaus "Learning to Knit" Flatnight!

2009-05-05T21:02:00.004+12:00

Hey, so here are some pictures from our recent "Learning to Knit" Flatnight. Cheers to Nic, Debs Mahuta, Lin and Emma who showed the rest of us all how to knit:)
Maria

Greenhouses

2009-04-27T16:51:00.006+12:00

I have been thinking about the possibility of building a greenhouse. I thought I would see if there are any other designs out there that are better than the standard. Here are a few that stood out:

Energy Efficient
The university of Missouri-Colombia in the US has put out an excellent design for an energy efficient greenhouse. It involves using raised beds to maximise heat received by plants and black drums filled with water that soak up the heat in the day and release it at night.

Foldable Plastic
Dutch designer Daniel Schipper has created a greenhouse design that could possibly be made out of recycled plastics and is also completely foldable.

Plastic Bottles
REAP, a sustainability group in the north of Scotland came up a design based on plastic fizzy drink bottles. They cut the bases out of each bottle and fitted them inside each other along a garden stake. These are then assembled onto a frame. They have put an instruction guide together, and you can get it here. There is also a good photo of it here.

The Garden

2009-04-25T14:48:00.006+12:00

We are slowly converting to a winter Garden. Today I pulled out the acid-free tomatoes and pumpkin and planted garlic. I am also endeavoring to raise some new lettuce, radish and rocket plants from seed. The lemon tree is constantly flowering now with the addition of a fish to the soil and the cherry tomatoes are coming up in droves.

SOIREE

2009-03-15T22:07:00.002+13:00

GREENHAUS SOIREE, this Sunday March the 22nd, 7pm.

Please come with an item or some food. The Soiree is world famous in circles of people who know about it, and it comes with fun time guarantee!

THE GREENHAUS IS FULL AT LAST!

2009-03-15T21:55:00.004+13:00

We now have 4 new/newish flatmates and they are all female HIP HIP HORRAY! Debs McLennan, Emma and I had been praying for some new blood and it came in the form of: Zhou Lin (her family name is Zhou, and we actually stole her from Nic's folks), Kellie and Maria Kirkland (please do not get these two very unique people confused on account of them sharing a surname) and Debs Mahuta (who added of course a very difficult naming element to the community which has been resolved by referring to her mostly by her surname).

This photo was taken at a recent flatnight where kayaking did not occur, although it was planned, but fish and chips were consumed. I was happy. Lin was happy because we went dumpster diving on the way home and found pork, its hard being Chinese in a nearly vegetarian home.

I am not in the photo above, nor are Asher or Mia or my ever increasing bump, I am now 23 weeks pregnant, so its not a complete representation of the full house but it comes close.

With love (as much as I can have for an anonymous blog surfer) from Hannah

Get to Dev Zone Resource Centre

2009-03-03T14:57:00.002+13:00

I found out the other day that Wellington has it's own specialist library for learning about Fair Trade and other development issues - and it is right in the middle of Wellington.

Dev Zone Resource Centre
Level 2, James Smith Building,
PO Box 12440, Wellington,
Aotearoa New Zealand

http://www.drc.org.nz/

The Garden

2009-01-26T15:42:00.005+13:00

I (Hannah) haven't looked at the blog for a wee while, but today I noticed there was still an entry saying that nothing was growing in the garden. I am happy to say that this is no longer the case. We are still, by many standards, novice gardeners but we have been really enjoying growing and eating our home grown veges.

Also, the other night I was over at my folks place in Crofton Downs so Dad and I went for a wee lookey in the Williams Garden Centre dumpster. I was very happy to find lots of pretty things to plant, sadly nothing edible, but I'll settle for some free flowering plants to brighten the place up (see the petunia). I'm keen to check out what other garden centres are throwing out...

Nic and I have also found that tyres are really are good for growing things in, we are looking forward to eating beans, tomatoes, basil and celery (that's if nothing kills them first) grown inside their free rubber gardens.

The Psalters

2009-01-23T13:21:00.002+13:00

I was looking at the webpage of a nomadic band of christian musicians from the USA thay I am fond of (the Psalters) and I came across the lyrics of this song called Dumpster Divers, and I rather liked it, so I decided to post it. I haven't actually heard the song.

Dumpster Divers
Come now and join the feast,
from the greatest to the very least,
come now & join the feast,
right here in the belly of the beast.

Cops & soldiers you can come too -
lay down your guns & c'mon thru.
Rich people get rid of your stuff.
Poor people there will be enough.

Mighty ones come down from your thrones.
Little ones you will not be alone.

lazy man come to the table
make some food for those who ain't able
pretty winner swallow your pride

drink the ugly loser who for all died
make sure everyone gets some
then we'll see the kingdom...

Better T-Shirts Launch

2008-11-17T16:45:00.005+13:00

Better T-Shirts launched on Saturday evening. This project aims to import and screen print Fair Trade T-shirts. We kicked the project off with an evening of dessert, wine, music and a presentation. The order form will be up on our blog shortly.

Food savings to buy food

2008-10-15T22:05:00.004+13:00

Since we've been dumpster diving more and more, we have started to save a lot of money on our food bills. This got us thinking, how crazy that just because we are lucky enough to live in the developed world we can get perfectly good food for free that is considered "waste" by our society, while some people are starving to death from lack of even basic food.

As a result we decided to give the money that we were saving to some people who need it in the majority world. At first we were just going to give it to folks we know through our church, but then we heard about the food crisis in Burma where in the wake of the recent cyclone the Burmese army is preventing food from reaching minority ethnic groups in the effected area. We decided to give our savings to Partners, an organisation that is helping get food to these people. You can visit their website here.

Dumpster Diving

2008-10-06T20:08:00.003+13:00

We at the Greenhaus have been going "dumpster diving" for a few months now. We find good food that the supermarkets discard. Check out the video below for a good overview . Thanks for the video Jeff!

Joelle

2008-05-24T15:39:00.003+12:00

Here is a photo of Joelle, she felt left out of the last post - when Nicola got such a great photo - and she's so beautiful so why wouldn't we have a photo of her too? So here she is with Hannah at Andre's orange party:Two beautiful redheads!

recent happenings and other ponderings

2008-05-24T13:45:00.002+12:00

Well its been some time since any of us here made any contributions to the blog so I thought I'd take the opportunity on this crappy Saturday - it's cold outside and wet, but toasty warm in the GH lounge.

Some sad news for us recently was that Nicola and Joelle moved out. Nicola is studying full time and the demands of this coupled with challenges around the care of Joelle have led to a decision to move. While we will all miss them a lot, luckily for us they are only 10 minutes walk away - and Nicola walks past the GH most days on her way to nursing school.

Here's Nicola "tidying" her room during the move:

This morning we had our neighbours over for a shared morning tea - there are eight two bedroom flats which share a drive with us, and some outside areas - and over the last few years we have shared morning teas, BBQ's welcomes and farewells, and occasionally children. It has been a great experience having neighbours that we know and we would thoroughly recommend it. Having said that, sharing spaces (like our lawns and driveway) does make it easier.

We are still plodding away with our t-shirts project (see below) but the busy start to the year certainly slowed things down there for a while. Maybe - like the garden-box, we'll be ready in spring. Speaking of that, although we got the garden-box finished by the end of summer, we never got any crops in - due to a lack of compost - i was planning to get a trailer load from living earth (which is a massive composting place at the tip) but I never managed to get a trailer organised at the right time (they're closed on the weekends - how stupid is that!). Anyway - there were a couple of self-seeded potatoes growing up but the main thing we've got in there is a whole lot of weeds. Another job for when the weather is finer - and I finally manage to make my rabbit proof fence rabbit-proof, which is another matter of time-consuming frustration! I built this enclosure for our rabbits - which currently run wild and eat anything we try to grow (including spring bulbs, strawberries, cape gooseberries; parsely, and even the lemon tree) - and the blighters keep managing to get out. It's surrounded by concrete (so they cant dig out) and over a metre high so the must be great jumpers.

Now I must go and do some tidying - my cousins are coming to visit!

Nic

Welcome Andrew

2008-03-30T21:07:00.003+13:00

The greenhaus has a new member - Andrew Brown - Andrew is 21, a keen skater, and a born and bred wellingtonian. He is looking forward to living with a whole lot of other people and we are stoked to have him. This is what he looks like:

Goodbye Peter, Welcome Josh!

2008-02-23T23:27:00.004+13:00

Peter has been farewelled Check out the photo's on the slideshow - let's just say our arses' were sore that night - Oh, and so was Peter's Toe!

And... Josh is here!!

Garden Box Complete!

2008-01-24T15:02:00.000+13:00

On Monday the Greenhaus crew gathered to finish building the lasts bits of the garden box. With the help of new wood, TJ's awsome building skills and a chainsaw, the crew assembled the lower tier and one side of the box. Surplus clay soil was used to fill in the bottom of the box and fresh compost (from the last two years) was added on top.

Fair trade cotton shoes for nic!!!!

2008-01-20T21:26:00.000+13:00

Nic is now the proud owner of a pair of 'Veja' shoes made in Brazil. They are the first available brand of fairtrade organic shoes in the world and they are currently on sale at 'Starfish' on Willis Street for $149 (usually $250) anyway he's happy and so is the environment!

Check out www.veja.fr

Comings and Goings in Feb '08

2008-01-17T13:47:00.000+13:00

In February we will loose two, but gain one.

Sadly, for us, Peter Jackson and Sinyee - our last remaining Asian international member, will be leaving.

Sinyee has lived with us for almost two years, but, after taking Sam (her man) to meet the parents in Malaysia, she has decided to move in with him - sad for us, but exciting for her - we just hope that she doesn't get a house too far away, and that she still comes and has hot pot with us and maybe makes sushi with us occasionally too. We all love Sinyee - especially the way she laughs at my jokes, and she will be sorely missed. God Bless you Sinyee.

One of Sinyee's special skills is entertaining the GH kids - here she is with Asher, the youngest GHer - this leads us to suspect that she may have plans with Sam...

Peter (aka Guns) has only been with the GH for about 6 months, but has brought a lot of love - here he is washing our car and taking care of our kids - and a lot of character - like the container filled with noodles in the fridge one day when he had drastically overestimated the how many were coming to tea. On top was written "What a hilarious misunderstanding" - you have to have watched Flight of the Conchords to get it but we thought it was hilarious. Peter isn't leaving because he's sick of us, or because of a woman (so far as we can tell) but because he feels called to do community somewhere else - Vic Uni. The good thing is he'll still be around and can bring his new flat over for dinner. Peace Peter - Thanks for joining us for a while.

Our new addition to the Greenhaus family - sounds like we're having a baby - is Josh, a fully grown south-islander who cares for the environment through urban planning at MFE, and who plays the bass. Stoked to have another musician in residence! We've been courting Josh for a while now, but up till Feb he has had other living commitments. Welcome Josh. We look forward to some good times.

Nic DC

2008 the year of Green!

2008-01-09T15:43:00.000+13:00

This year is set to be a green one at the Greenhaus.

Simply Good Food
We have recently joined the Simply Good Food CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and are waiting for the fresh organic goodness to start flowing in!
This scheme is the first of its kind in NZ and (I hope) is the beginning of a return to the old way of buying food - from farmers instead of supermarkets.

Our Gardenbox
Late 2006 the Greenhaus team spent the day hacking slashing and digging a thick row of agapanthus on the sunny east side of our house, at the top of a steep slope. This was preparation for the gardenbox we were going to put in so that we could run a shared veggie garden with the flats next door.
After the clay was exposed, the GH crew got busy with the festive season, and then with all the activities of the new year (including the birth of Asher DC) and suddenly the growing season was over and it was too wet to build anyway.
Come spring '07 and with renewed frenzy holes were dug and filled with concrete and 100x100 posts. Last weekend we began to nail landscaping boards to the sides (which to our severe frustration were severely warped from lying in the rain all year - bad form Nic) and with any luck we'll get the thing finished and filled with dirt and veggies before winter.

Better T-shirts
Last year we talked extensively about what we could contribute as a community to our wider community, and how we could support friends of ours in the developing world. The idea we eventually struck upon was sourcing t-shirts which had been made using fair trade and organic practices and printing and selling them through our networks.
Clothing is not classifiable as Fair Trade - there are simply too many steps in the production process, and consequently, ethically produced clothing is hard to come by. You can however- and we have - source t-shirts that use only fair trade organic cotton, and that are manufactured following fair trade principles. We got our through a little company based in Linton near Invercargill called Micah Clothing. Check out their website here.
Anyway, over the next month or so we will be selling a limited range (under 200) which will be printed to order. If it's a roaring success we might repeat the process.

Nic DC

Ever wondered where your tea comes from?

2007-11-22T11:56:00.000+13:00

Ever wondered where your tea comes from? I have.

I emailed Twinings & Co Ltd earlier this week. They said that they didn't own any tea plantations and were in close collaboration with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP). They also said that ETP contracts PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct audits for ETP.

Check out the suitably vague description of the ETP programme at:
http://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/index.asp

I am still waiting for responses from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and ETP..

Chris Dangerfield

Nich goes Bush

2007-08-14T14:32:00.000+12:00

Nic DC has gone to Whakatane for a week to help out with a programme helping offending youth learn bush skills.

Peter and Javier Move In

2007-08-14T14:30:00.000+12:00

There have been two new additions to the GH in the last two weeks - Peter and Javier. They have already made themselves at home.

Men of G.House Tramp

2007-04-03T09:31:00.000+12:00

On Saturday the 31st of March the men of G.House set out for Mt Holdsworth. Armed with an array of necessary and unnecessary gear the four man team of Nic, Andre, Brett and Chris scaled the majestic Holdsworth with little difficulty. The tops were covered in mist and sporting a stiff breeze - prompting the team to stay at Powell Hutt amongst 70 other trampers. After a night on the wooden floor and a good breakfast the team was recovered and easily managed the decent.

Key Quotes:

"The worst that could happen is that we get to see Jesus tomorrow"
Nic having just entered the stiff breeze at the top of Holdsworth

"Scroggin..."
Andre, on frequent occasions

The Greenhaus - a community with a mission

2007-03-26T10:01:00.000+12:00

The Greenhaus is a community of people living in Newtown, Wellington. We aim to support the community we live in, and are really amped about social justice and sustainability.

We are currently seeking people to join us on this journey. If this all resonates with you - we would love to have you over for dinner!

Phone: 389 7770