So here it goes, I’ll just spill my Mexican beans out for the universe and you to know what is going on in my highly active inner world: I would like this story to go next to the creation of Experimental Peace Research & Learning Centers.
Two months and a half ago, this 4-bedroom “co-housing” space had only one couple occupying one of the rooms and NO blender in the common kitchen.
Then, one and a half months ago, we occupied a second room and got a blender 10 days later (unfortunately, getting a second-hand blender did not work out). A few days after that, the other couple got a blender as well – exactly the same model as ours. Total 2 blenders so far.
And just at the beginning of the year, a third room was occupied, bringing a 3rd brand-new blender to the same common kitchen space.
I would guess, having 3 blenders available in the same kitchen would be an uncommon feature of any apartment – even if it was in the USA or Europe. But it is specially weird to find this in a country like Ecuador, where most of the electronic equipment is imported and very highly taxed. Plus, the currency in this country is the U.S. Dollar! So you can get an idea of how having 3 blenders available in one kitchen would be out of the question here.
But that is NOT all. One of our “co-housers” complained that we use the blenders too much, creating too much noise and so it was proposed to ban the blenders from the kitchen and use them on the terrace only! (Good comedy material, right?)
In any case. This is a good lesson for me to pin point the importance of having a vision in common when it comes to living together. Given our actual situation is NOT meant to be an intentional community nor an eco village, this current experience has given us perspective of how clear things need to be agreed prior to moving in together with people that may or may not share the ideals, practices and values that The Noble Peace Tribe people have in common.
If you would like to check out more of what having a vision entails, you may want to take a look at the Living Vision page.
