An attitude of gratitude

I happened to be awake with my toddler in the small hours yesterday morning. A significant day for people in Christchurch - 4 September. I found myself reflecting on what has been going on in our lives during this journey around the sun, and where we were this time last year. On that cold morning back then, I remember sitting in the dark listening to Radio New Zealand, my then 1- year-old-son playing with a torch as we rode out those first few hours of rockin' and rollin'. A story in today's newspaper entitled, 'A Lone Voice In The Dark' describes the experience of the Radio NZ presenter who happened to be working that day.

But even with no power or landline phone, we did not feel alone. Texts flew among our Lyttelton-adopted whanau, making sure everyone was ok. Neighbours went out on the street in the minutes following that first quake and checked on each other. At dawn our friends arrived to have breakfast cooked on the log burner, cold from being in a house with no working heating. Later in the morning, the Lyttelon Farmers Market got going, a chance to lay eyes on friends and faces from the street and check in. And while that first day was not as 'big' as events that followed, it set the tone for how we responded: taking care of each other.

In the last year I have become acutely aware of things to be grateful for. The rhythm of our lives these days is driven by things that keep us grounded and firmly connected to each other: Wednesdays at the community garden... wandering the farmer's market;...craft groups among friends where there is often not much actual craft going on but plenty of love as we share a cup of tea...walking through town and realising I know many more people by name than a year ago, with real heart connections abundant...Friday afternoons at the Top Club... trading on the Time Bank..random hugs from a friend bumped into on the street who really means it when they ask how you are...going for walks through the town and admiring the view...enjoying wood fired pizza at the new Brewery ...listening to songs from our town on the Harbour Union...checking out theatre on London St, relocated from the damaged Loons to the ruins of the Lava Bar...being together. 

It hasn't all been fun, this last year, but the bonds between us are stronger than before, we know each other better and we know all about what resilience means. Have a listen to this great story on Radio NZ.

Yesterday morning I was happy to snuggle back in bed to snooze and think about the many things to be grateful for.

Written by Jodi Rees

community resilience workshop coming to town

Kotare Trust invites you to a workshop on:

Building Resilience:

Community Organising now in Otautahi/Christchurch

Saturday 17th September - 9.30am- 4.30pm
Sunday 18th September - 9.30am – 3pm

The earthquakes in Otautahi-Christchurch have highlighted the need for communities to build their own strengths. Excellent community leadership has been shown in responding to the quakes and ensuring community needs are met. This workshop is a place to gather the learnings from the last 12 months and strategise for the immediate future.

The aims for this workshop are:
•To share learnings from participants experience of community building in the context of the quakes
•To envision rebuilding Otautahi-Christchurch in ways that are sustainable, enable community participation, and grow stronger communities.
•To share ideas about how these visions can be brought to fruition and plan collaborative next steps
•To learn and share ideas about community organising principles and practice

Kotare is a research and education centre for social change. We are a national organisation, based in Hoteo North near Wellsford, that supports social movements through the provision of workshops (www.kotare.org.nz). Kotare acknowledges that we are not on the ground in Otautahi/Christchurch. We are working with local people on the organising and design of this workshop. We hope facilitating and hosting this gathering will enable those directly impacted and working within Christchurch communities to share learnings with one another and that this workshop will usefully support your important and inspiring work.

Who For:
This workshop is for people engaged in community organising and community building in Otautahi/Christchurch and the surrounding area. Suggestions of people to invite are very welcome. Numbers are limited, so get in quick!
Venue: To be confirmed. The venue will be in Christchurch.
Cost: $0-$150 sliding scale for each workshop. Please self-assess your payment and consider your means when deciding what to pay.
Registration: Registration is required. Please register as soon as possible and no later than Monday the 12th of September.
Facilitation team: Tim Howard and Tanya Newman
For more information and to register, please contact Tanya Newman at education@kotare.org.nz or phone 02102769112.

we the people

I am excited. It is about something new that I am learning. For some time I have been searching for a way that allows every voice within a community to be heard. I think I have found it! I am just at the beginning of the discovery, but I have a gut feeling that this is going to be significant.

The Sumner Community Group which has been doing great things in their community since the earthquakes, sent out an open invitation to meet John Buck.  They sent the podcast link with Kim Hill interviewing John Buck on National Radio.

I wanted to be there.
Jacinda (one of the other Lyttel town bloggers) and I went.
The meeting was just for one hour – in that time Manfred Friedrich whose firm was sponsoring John Buck trip here introduced the concept and John ran an exercise with us using the methodology. I was hooked.

I’ve had this experience before in my life where you hear something, don’t fully understand it, but you know you have to follow through and learn more. So as I write this blog entry I am aware that I am quite naïve on the subject of Dynamic Governance or Sociocracy, but I am hungry to learn more.

As I read ‘We the People; consenting to a deeper democracy’ I can see why a lot of what we do in Project Lyttelton works so well – we are already engaged in a form of sociocracy. We could develop this far more.  Often we haven’t exactly known why what we are doing works, this sociocracy explains why and also shows us how it is possible for us as an organisation to become even more successful by tapping into the knowledge, creativity and engagement of all involved.


written by Margaret Jefferies, chair of Project Lyttelton

lyttel stitches and a giveaway

The latest edition of extra-curricular is out with an article on the heart stitching that happened here in Lyttelton after the February earthquake. This issue has a stitching focus so the lyttel hearts project and sharing the goodness that happens when people gather together and create is a perfect fit for the "crafting for good" section of this little mag.

A tutorial on making a gorgeous foraging bag by Melissa of tinyhappy is also in the issue.

Perfect for the Spring treasure gathering that is about to begin.

I have a mag to giveaway so leave a comment here and I will draw a winner at the end of the weekend.

This has now closed.

And by the way, Sunday 4th September lyttel stitches will be down at the Petanque club stitching up a whole heap of "hero medals," commemorating the first earthquake that shook these parts a year ago, thinking of those we have lost and celebrating our resilience and shear stickibility.

Have a good weekend people.

Posted by Jacinda, also at watchingkereru.blogspot.com

Weaving a Timebank a thread at a time

What is Timebanking?

Time Banking is a way of trading skills in a community. It uses time, rather than money, as the measurement tool. Members of a Time Bank share their skills with other members within the community and are given time credits for the work they do. With the credits they gain, each member can ‘buy' someone else's time, and get the service they need.

With Time Banking everybody's time is equal, no matter what type of work is done. 1 = 1. If you give one hour's work, you receive one hour time credit. If another member does one hour's work for you, they are paid one hour time credit. Every person is equally valued.

Time Banking adds a richness to Time Bankers' lives. As a concept it brings ‘wealth', in the form of friendship, caring for one another, having our needs met from within our own community and getting help with things we can't do.

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Lyttelton has had a Timebank for 5 years now, having grown in this time to 400 members. Below some reflections on the role of TB in Lyttelton, illustrated by July's Timebank activities:

Imagine that every Time Bank transaction is a visible thread connecting two people.

All around Lyttelton threads are being spun by people cooking dinner for each other because someone in the family is sick or by driving each other to health care appointments.
One Lytteltonian is sitting in his garage fixing a broken gazebo. 
A family with young children have gone for a fun afternoon to learn how to jazz up their clothes by felting designs on them.  
A couple of women have rolled up their sleeves to dig through all the bags and boxes of garage sale items donated, to get the space ready for the next sale.
Slowly a fine lace work of threads is hovering over Lyttelton, connecting not only neighbours, but also people in different parts of Lyttelton. After every Time Bank trade two strangers have become two trading-buddies, another bit of community building has happened.

 In the weeks and days leading up to the Festival of Lights, Time Bankers hunker down to plan the event, liaise with stall holders, get permits, posters, entertainers organised, cook up soups and  juices for sale. On the night dozens of Time Bankers turn up to collect rubbish, manage the road blocks, organise the masked parade, work fundraising stalls, paint faces of children and float candle wishes for Lyttelton. In only one night, the threads of Time Bank connection have multiplied into a gauzy spider web, spanning more and more of Lyttelton, even ensnaring some Christchurch people.

 The next day it's back to normal in the Lyttelton Timebank office. Telephone calls and emails pour in from individuals and groups who want to start a Time Bank in their corner of New Zealand. Leaflets and emails get send with information, hours are spent on the phone listening, advising and encouraging people in Upper Hutt, Rangitikai, Kapiti Coast, Levin and other places. Those Time Bank threads shoot out of the phone, connecting people across the islands.

Next an invitation to a Time Bank Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, USA,  drops into the computer-inbox. Every two years a four day World Time Bank Conference takes place in August. Sixty Time Banks from across America, from Chile to Canada, Israel to Taiwan, Spain to New Zealand are invited. On offer are workshops on a wide variety of subjects : 'Time Banks and faith-based organisations', 'Research and data evaluation in Time Banking', 'Youth Court and mentoring for success'. Ideas from Time Banks around the world will be discussed and aired. I like the new initiative from a London Time Bank: Time Bankers get vetted and trained to become 'commuter tutors' to teach skills to other timebankers during the many hours a London resident spends on the train travelling to and away from work. Over a hundred people have already enrolled in the program!

                                          Timebank collage activity on Lyttelton London Street: 'Joy'

We hope that by the time the next Timebank Conference comes around some timebankers from New Zealand will be able to attend. But for now more threads have been catapulted right across the globe.

written by Bettina Evans.

This article has appeared in similar format in the July edition of the Akaroa MAil 

Lyttelton's electric cargo bike

Sometime before the hot topic was earthquakes, Project Lyttelton had the forethought to fund an electric cargo bike project. At the time the idea was to use it to assist people in Lyttelton, particularly the elderly, to make use of the delivery service to get their Farmer's Market goodies back home up the hill, and thus avoid driving their cars to the market to shop. We managed a few test runs on Saturday mornings, and things were looking good.

The bike proved its worth in the weeks after the February earthquake. It was used to deliver food parcels all over the steep streets, and to deliver prescriptions from the pharmacy. An electric bike could go where cars couldn't, as many streets were partially blocked by debris. And lots of people were riding out the aftershocks at home and could not have made it down to the shops or civil defence centre. Lyttelton was reasonably isolated at this time, so using the cargo bike meant people could conserve petrol.

Now, some of you may be interested in the nuts and bolts of it. The prototype bike was handbuilt by Josh Harris of pedalOn mobile bicycle services, using part of an old adult bike frame, part of a child's bike frame and some steel tubing from a washing line manufacturer. It was adapted to its current electric form by the addition of an electric motor and battery unit from The Electric Bicycle Company. The battery is a 10 amp hour lithium ion and can be charged from either mains or solar power. At full charge it lasts for up to 30 km. There are two batteries available that can be interchanged to allow continuous use. The gear ratios are sufficient to get up even the steepest streets in Lyttelton, and are capable of carrying quite a load (two bales of pea straw are the biggest so far!).

 

Project Lyttelton is now looking for a working group to take the prototype bike to the next level. If you have an interest in electric or cargo bikes, please get in touch with Josh. Ideas for future incarnations of the cargo bike might be something like these European examples:

Future use of the cargo bike could include deliveries from the Farmer's Market, pharmacy, supermarket, Lyttel Piko, garden supplies, pizza, fish'n'chips, moving house:

Written by Jodi Rees

Thoughts on What Could Be and What Already Exists

Sometimes I find myself dreaming away…envisioning what could be of this community and what we can create for future generations.

We can enrich the community through local food systems. What if we had a system where we mapped out where all the fruit trees were and had volunteers/time bankers going around and harvesting it all? What if we could Spin Farm (Small Plot Intensive) certain parts of the land? What if we had a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm? What if we had market gardens right here in Lyttelton? What if we had festivals celebrating abundance of produce, tomatoes. plums, pears, or one of my favorites, black boy peaches? What if we had a Co-op Restaurant that the excess flowed into? Sound like a dream? Well, now this is becoming a reality with the funding that Project Lyttelton has recently secured.

Now I know to achieve this level of abundance it is going to take a master plan, a diversity of systems working together, time, teamwork and development. This is all very exciting!

For my family and I after the earthquake the three best things were food that we had growing in our garden, our immediate neighbors, and the community of Lyttelton. The earthquake may have destroyed a lot, but our food was still growing without a problem. Imagine not having to go to the super market, just to the garden to get what you need. It definitely saved us from going out into crazy Christchurch for a while and even more importantly we were still eating really well. Our neighbors even shared food from their garden with us. Imagine that sense of security amongst all of the chaos. We all checked on each other making sure we each had the basics water, food, and more or less a safe shelter. Our neighbors brought us flour, we made them bread. They brought us black boy peaches and we made them black boy peach jam. The night of the February quake we went and camped on the grassy as we were afraid to be in our house and felt safe with the people, the community. That night people played music and sang all night, which helped to drown out the aftershocks and gave out the vibe that everything was going to be all right. This sense of community is deeply felt here in Lyttelton.

For more about SPIN Farming.

A video example of a beautiful CSA in the USA.

Written By: Christy Martin