News From Rarotonga

This was in the Rarotonga newspaper on January 20th of this year. It was in the personal ads....

'Found 20 Jan 2009
The Village Idiot

A Texas village has found its idiot after 8 years in the political wilderness in D.C., US of A. The rest of USA and the world are celebrating.'

The world loves us.

Earth Hour 2009

Go here
Maybe you can make a difference

Almost Over

It is Thursday evening here on Waiheke Island. I just finished the last bit of painting for the evening and washed out the brush and roller. There is still the upper set of bedroom windows to paint, and a fascia board over the garage, but that will only take a couple hours.

The sun just set behind the hill, and the distant mainland is bathed in a orangish-blue twilight, as lights start to twinkle on. Ashley is in the kitchen cooking dinner-another recipe from Karina's Kitchen-a coconut & chickpea soup that promises to be yummy!

The good news is...We got lice! Unbelievably, somehow we got infested from the two kids, while their parents didn't. Gross. So Ashley and I have been combing each other's hair each night. Yuck.

The family gets back tomorrow afternoon, and we are planning on hanging out with them for a little while after they get back, and then moving into a room that was offered by a woman named Roberta. She has been an interested seeker at Baha'i activities-which is how we met her-and she hosts WWOOFers, but we don't want to be committed to working at her home, so she has offered us a room for $100 a week. That will give us the next two weeks to continue working in the vineyards, and then we will head to the mainland for the Radiant Youth Camp that we will be attending from the 13th to the 21st.

Speaking of vineyard picking, it is pretty easy work. And there is heaps of interesting people to talk with. I spoke with a guy from Vermont for a little while-he took off to travel for a while-when he goes back he will be a freshman in college. He gave us "props on not working for the man like everyone else"...I gave him props for getting out into the world and opening his mind. Crazy kids.

Address

Just in case you want to send us some good ol' American dreams...

PO Box 106125
Auckland City Postshop
Auckland, New Zealand
1143

Thursday

And we are at the house again. No grape picking for the third day in a row.
Yesterday we went out and drove all the way around the east side of the island, stopping and taking pics at all the scenic outlooks. It was a beautiful day and I posted some of the pictures on our flickr site.
We have been cooking lots since we are on our own, just making what we want to eat and enjoying all the fresh, local ingredients available here on Waiheke Island. The night before last we made this amazing soup-pumpkin and sweet potato YUM it was so good. We didn't blend it up like she calls for in the recipe, we left it hearty and chunky and added tofu as well. We also cooked this bread which is soooo good! Ash loved it and there is still a little left. THe bread would be great with some chili. Mom (Karin!), if you have never seen her recipes check em out...but I bet you have.
Then we had some rice and black beans last night, along with chicken fiesta fried chicken tenders...Mom (Teresa!) this was something you used to whip up I guess. Plus we took some of the hummus we made earlier in the week and added pumpkin to it since it was drying out! Yum.
Then for breakfast we had apple/pumpkin/almond pancakes with something that was supposed to be like huevos migas, but was kinda like huevos rancheros...not really either but very spicy. I guess tonight is leftovers.
The sun is out, the rain is gone-time to do some painting.

A little update...

It is almost noon on Monday here, and we just got back to the house, which we have to ourselves for the next two weeks while the family is on holiday! We went to the Te Whau Vineyard for some grape picking this morning, but so many people showed up that we only worked for two hours. We did a bit of grocery shopping and now we are back at the house, getting ready to take advantage of warmer temps and a relativelye clear day to do some painting.

Note on the Maori language...Whenever there is a W followed by an H, it is sounded like the letter F...So Te Whau sounds like Te Fau. Cheers.

By-The-Way

I did the Master Cleanse for five days...I won't give you all the fun details...but it was cleansing, and I realize that I quit if before I purged myself of some of the toxins. Like for instance, I really began to crave sugar the last evening, but all I was basically consuming was sugar! Some of the stuff I read suggested that you would experience a craving for whatever it was that was being flushed, and that it would change over the course of the fast. But if you just stuck it out then the craving would be gone the next morning. I couldn't stick it out, as well as I really wanted to enjoy the feast at the Ayyami-ha party and I wanted to have a couple of days of normal eating before the Baha'i Fast started on March 2nd. I never felt hungry throughout the cleanse, and although I was a little "plugged' up the first two days-even though I did the saltwater flush-it definitely was "cleansing"! Just thought you'd like to hear that...thanks for all the support and comments.

The temple near Chicago...

Ashley...
Originally uploaded by BigBroRio

Ashley and I watched this interview with Oprah today…
Neither of us knew that this hilarious actor, Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight on ‘The Office’, is a Baha’i.
But it is a good interview, and it contains a lot of insight and explanation.
Some of the other interviews at this website look equally interesting, maybe someone else can check some out and let us know which ones are the goodies!
If you are just interested in learning a little more about the Baha’I Faith, Rainn explains a few basic ideas during his hour long interview as well.
Click here to go to the webpage

Daily Life

Our life here on Waiheke Island continues to be very eventful. I want to share our daily schedule because I think it will help give an idea of what our WWOOFing has been like up to now.

We wake up in the morning-currently around 6:30 so that we can eat breakfast before the sun rises a quarter past seven-and Pauline leaves the house around that same time to go catch the ferry in to town. Uwe gets up a little after seven and gets the kids up around 7:45. We come over and just hang out, and then half past eight Uwe leaves to go to the bank he manages here on the island. A few minutes later we drive Bridey to her home school, and then get Michael to kindy.

After that, Ashley and I are free to do what we like, from 9:30 until we pick up Michael at 1 pm. Sometimes we go to the library, or occasionally get some coffee at a café. Usually we come back to the house, clean up the kitchen, do laundry and maybe read or use the computer. Sometimes we start our outside work during that time too.

The island isn’t that big, in fact there isn’t a traffic light here. Some of the larger intersections do have round-abouts, but the farthest place we have driven to so far is less than 15 minutes away. So after coming back home with Michael around 1:15, one of us plays with him-and maybe a friend if one comes home with him-until we have to pick up Bridey at 2:30. There is a bit of a difference in the interaction we have with Michael when he is alone and the atmosphere generated by the two of them together. Pauline usually gets home a little after five and Uwe a little after six.

We were eating dinner around 6, but since we are fasting now, we don’t eat until closer to eight, which is too late for the kids. Sometimes we stay in the lounge with Pauline and Uwe and watch a TV show-they have all the American shows here. Like tonight, we will watch the new episode of South Park. Sometimes we go back to the flat and hang out there, reading, or watching tv…usually it involves eating as well.

Tomorrow though, Ashley is going to start work at a vineyard, picking grapes. She’ll have to be there at 8 am, so I will drop her off then come back and get the kids to school. This weekend, the whole family leaves for a two week holiday. So with no kids to look after, I’ll start grape picking next Monday as well. The pay is almost minimum wage, and most of the vineyards I have seen are on some pretty steep hills, but we are both looking forward to some work. In return for letting us stay in their home while they are gone, we are going to get the entire exterior of the house done-some other WWOOFers started the painting, and now all that’s left is the steep two-story hill side. So we will work the painting in during our free time….