mOrE viSiTs, mUcH fUn & mUcH wOrK...

I haven't been so present with the updates of life in the land...it has been quite busy with guests and work and I haven´t got  so much time to be online...

The work keeps going well on the land, and the bath place is not finished yet... it's becoming a 5 star bath place now...
Many have been helping on this project too...
here's Hannes and Sven...







Hannes (from Berlin) testing the bath and showing the view from the still unseen window...

Marcia, Andrea and Miri are busy with the mosaic work...

very nice !
The design is Luka's... unfortunately he had a serious infection in one of his teeth, so he was not in the mood to do anything... I don't blame him!

I was in Lisbon for the weekend to meet some different friends... especially Maureen who has a chronic disease and had a relapse while Denny , her husband, was away ... she could not come to the land with her kids, Alana and Isaac as she wanted  and she didn't have much support for the domestic tasks without Denny... she was feeling a bit bad because she couldn't do much...most of the time she had to stay in bed, or lay down on the couch... It was nice to be with her and help a bit..

I met Sara as well, my old house mate in Lisbon, and she went one night to have dinner at the Hurst's... Isaac was on duty!

He's a great kid... actually he's amazing !!! I would say, unique !!! Apart from his talent to speak and tell stories in a really fun and dramatic way (which often makes me laugh a lot), he proved to be an excellent house keeper... he cooked for us once, he set up the table, he showed us where things are and how his mom usually does things, he went shopping with me, and he knew exactly what to get...well, impressive for a little boy !

He came with me and Sara to the land and spent some days...Marcia was going to Lisbon on Wednesday, so he went back with her... We all miss him here already... he definitely leaves a mark on everyone... he 's one of those people that if you meet him once you'll never forget him...

The work at the garden keeps going and it's becoming so beautiful !!! Actually, the hardest part about making a garden is to prepare the soil... taking out weeds (there is couch grass everywhere), stones and making it loose ... planting the seeds is actually the easy part... harvesting is fun and rewarding... Trish, Hanna (a german woman who came for 10 days to rest), Marcia, Isaac and Julian who was with us last year and he came now for a few days to help.. he's just a servant, he can't help it...

Julia and little Hanna have been some of the tough ones who have been helping to prepare our vegetable garden... we've been doing this for more than 2 or 3 weeks now...we are not just working, of course, and with this many people we spend a lot of the time in the day cooking, washing dishes and keeping our only common space a bit tidy...

We also had some more visits after Sara and Isaac left...

Julia and little Hanna, her daughter, came from Stuttgart for few weeks...

Lucy and Eileen came from London also for a few weeks...
Lyna and David are finally back to stay ...

their baby is about to come as well, and it will be so nice to have a child around...
They brought Taini, their friend who will stay for a few days... and Agneszca from Poland
She is a friend from my Polish friend Agata, who was also here for the weekend... she's also part of the Provizorka community in Poland together with others I also got to know on my journey in 2005...

we're getting a bit crowded... but it's good !!!
Finally there is a feeling of having a more permanent group who will stay for longer than just a few weeks, days or months... I hope so,otherwise,as much as it is nice to have all these visits,  it´s also too exhausting, especially when we don't have so many conditions to host big groups.

nEw bAtH pLaCe...

I know some of you might be concerned that you won´t be able to have those nice baths under the stars, but don't worry as it will remain  without a roof for now ...

We're making better walls with wood and the floor in cement... it's not my favourite material, but it's good for the purpose and to require less maintenance...

I think many times that we do need a good bath place for everyone... and it's becoming very nice...

Miri is helping, Lukas too and also Sven and Andrea who just came to visit from Switzerland...


Now we'll have a 5 star bath place.. we are keeping the same system with fire underneath to warm the water, and we can open or close the roof whether we want to see the stars or not, as it is not possible to take a bath on rainy days...

We also had a nice "talent show evening"...

it was very funny to listen to Sven playing the "blues" with the guitar...

Lukas, more punk style, used a kitchen funnel as a megaphone... we had lots of fun !!!

rEjOiCe WiTh mE fOr I hAvE FoUnD mY lOsT eArRiNg... :-)

Maybe this will sound totally silly to you... but you can't imagine how glad I was to find this earring I lost some weeks ago (the top one)... You might think it's just an earring... and yes, it's true... but you don't know the meaning it has for me (as everything else I wear), and all the story behind it... so let me share with you if you're interested...

This goes all the way back to India, 11 years ago ( wow, it's been a long time already)... I went there alone, with a sleeping bag and an empty book which was my only company and a way to express all the thoughts and impressions I was experiencing... At that time I was starting to know God as a Higher presence that was guiding me and protecting me... I didn't know God personally yet, but that presence was so real and intimate,that I just kept following the signs I was given along the way... I would speak with it, I would follow signs like eagles in the sky (who would show me where to camp), feathers which would lead me the way, etc... 

At a certain time I lost an earring my cousin had given me...it was a sun... so I thought, "well, if I have to replace it, another one will come my way" (I never buy stuff I wear, usually they are gifts that "come my way")... I don't know if on the same day or a few days after that thought, I was going to a new place and I was waiting for a sign or direction to show me the place I would camp... it was a beach with nice cliffs and jungles... Om beach... I went for a walk, and the eagles came...my favourite sign...there were 2 in the beginning, then 3 more came along... it was a family, 2 big ones that I presumed would be the parents, and 3 youngsters... I was amazed with their flight, I ducked down and simply contemplated the beauty of it... suddenly, something deeper touched my heart... I was bursting into tears, and I was feeling some sort of healing happening deep in my soul... I have no idea how long that lasted... it could have been minutes, but it felt like hours... I knew I had to make that cliff my new home for that time... the eagles went away, I was filled with gratitude to this Higher Presence that became closer than ever before... When I stood up, I turned, and laying on the rocks, right in front of me, this earring was shining to me as saying "it's for you" ... I thanked again to The Spirit that led me there... I was in awe...

One year later, in Angola, where a civil war was as old as I was then, I was introduced to this person, Jesus, who claimed to be God, The Great Spirit incarnated... I was in a community where many people were following Jesus and saying with full confidence that they knew Him personally because He was still alive today... Hmmm...I had my struggles with that "christian stuff" and any kind of religion, but these people were really honest and I could see it was not only coming out of their mouths, but it was real in their lives...

I was given this book to read, a Bible, which told the story about a God and Jesus, and many other things I didn't really relate with... Ecclesiastes was the book that most attracted me because it was more philosophical and I related a lot with many of my thoughts about the world around... I was alone in my room, with this book in my hands, filled with questions and doubts in my mind... And I asked the question that probably many people ask one day "O.k God, if you are the one that this book is speaking about, show me"... 

I felt a voice deep inside of me saying: "remember this?! ", and in my mind I was led to remember this specific story with the eagles and the earring I just described you... "yes, I remember" I said, and the same voice replied : "It was me" ... and "remember this?!", another crazy story with a dog who was protecting me...yes, a dog...and in the end the same words : "It was me" ... and one more time I was reminded of another powerful story when I was inside of a tree trunk, and the same voice was reassuring me in the end, "it was me!"...

 I was amazed, thrilled, in awe, in ecstasy... 

it finally made sense... I finally connected that guiding Presence that I was following with the same God of that complex book that Jesus called Father ...

This earring was a present from God... It became a symbol of my commitment to follow God all the days of my life... 

Now you can understand better why I was so sad when I lost it...and why I am so happy now that I found it again...

I was not eagerly trying to find it... I let go and gave it back to God and said : "If you want me to have it again, bring it my way"...
and so it happened... I was building a new bath place together with Andrea, another visit from Switzerland... 

the old place had been partly destroyed and we were closing the sides to pour cement in... 

Andrea needed some help and I went there... what a surprise when I found my earring, in the middle of the dirt... it would be like finding a needle in a straw pile...a miracle...a sign...
I'm really happy !

When I was alone I went to put it and thought it was going to be hard...rings are often harder, with no mirror and no one to help... but it was like God was helping me... it just went in straight away...

It felt like a renewal of my commitment with God now in this land... Last year was full of trials and struggles, but now I'm at peace again...

I rejoice today that I 'm found by God to be special... I might be special to many people like my parents, family, friends, but only God knows how precious and significant I really am... How precious and significant each human being is, each animal, each tree, each plant... 

God knows every single one of us as no one else does... God created us... God watched us being formed in our mother's womb...God watched us grow... God watched us getting lost and confused...God watched us making a lot of mistakes in our lives... 

God is always part of our journey, whether we recognize it or not, God is always around, sending us signs, giving us directions, protecting us, guiding us, loving us... until the day our eyes are opened... maybe many different days when our eyes open a bit more at a time...