21 Years on this planet . . .

So this is how my 21st went . . .
 At midnight in scream Lowri had asked the DJ to play a Happy birthday song this hapened . . .(photo) 


Woke up, Lisiane came in to open presents with me as the thought of openng presents on your own on your 21st is a bit depressing . . .  She brought me a present too bless here
(List of presents)
Lunch with Mel Caoimhe Wenche Lowri and Clementine - didnt eat much just bread and dips. 
Mel brought me flowers the were beutiful. 
came home and collected more presents and cards (from Kate) from Steve the porter. Kates card and generouscity  made me cry she got me a laptop cover id been admiring for ages 
ate some of my homade cheese cake with johnny jenny lowri and abbie in the kitchen 
Got ready to go to HOST for a meal with N+G. was lovely - went to light night at the anglican and met mel there unfortunately it was raining - but pretty . . . this was my facebook status on my 20th I made it to 20! 6 months ago it that looked unlikely, and on my first day of my twenties I made about 25 kg of onion marmalade, I don't even like onions, (or marmalade) and how much of the profit will I see ? hmm questionable. But it was fun! and now for the generic 'like' of each birthday message I received! Thanks guys! x  


21 is CRAZY - hopfully the future is bright . . .

Adventures logged a year later.

Having done a presentation on my adventures with the Woolman Semester yesterday at Cardiff Quaker Meeting (and am planning on the same for Ross on Wye and at South Wales area meeting) I am inspired to write some more of my trip on my blog.


I paste a copy of one of my best pieces of work at Woolman. It was a creative response to the Mexico Trip concentrating on the subject of "Borders". As I was at home while the Mexico trip took place I wrote mine on a border closer to home.






Dear Traveller,


In this world of border control and the essentiality of carrying a passport, the privileges of being European are vast. As Europeans we are both free to wander the countries of our Union and welcomed as civilized guests into the rest of the world. We have the opportunity to be welcomed into a rainbow of cultures. But Traveler, know this, the biggest cultural difference is right here in the United Kingdom. You will come across more borders in Wales than you would travelling through Europe. I will advise you on three of these borders.


En route west of London the road upon which you travel becomes suspended between over-sized rugby posts across the Severn Estuary; this is when you know you have reached the first border, it is real and physical, it is the border of Wales. On crossing, if you look to your right, through the green spiders-leg suspenders, you will see an identical bridge. One was not enough. There will be no greeting from border guards, no passport to display, no searches or restrictions to your luggage weight. Nevertheless you will have to pay, an extortionate amount for the bridge you just crossed.


Croeso i Gymru! After you have raced the other vehicles past the tolls to get back into a lane, you have entered a country in which every inch of the land beholds a different culture. Beware though as Welsh history is riddled with events which made Wales’ permeable border what it is today. The effect on the Welsh people has been long lasting; many are unaware why they are still bitter towards the English. The Welsh have a tribal spirit, which has not proven to be a very forgiving one; they also have very long memories. So here we have the second border. Their spirit is a border.


When the Norman conquest of England began in 1066, it had little initial effect on Wales. Norman control slowly crept north and west. Llewelyn ein llyw olaf, (Llewelyn our last leader) was the last true Prince of Wales. After keeping the Normans at bay he was killed by the English King Edward I.
In 1272 King Edward I began his conquest of Wales. A rebellion rose up in 1400 by Owain Glyndwr – it was quickly squashed by King Henry IV, English law became once again firmly in place.


Wales used to have the biggest coal mining industry in the world. As mines were owned by English businessmen, the country’s potential wealth was lost, and once the coal had run out all that was left were the black hillside valleys and a country with no economic potential.


The Welsh language is older than English, with Celtic roots there is no similarity to any other widely spoken language on earth. This linguistic border is the third. The protection of the language is fierce; it has created and united a culture. There are festivals in celebration of the language namely Yr Eisteddfodau. The Urdd Eisteddfod is the biggest youth festival in Europe and there are 100,000 young members of the Urdd (pronounced ‘eeerth’). In the times of English dominant rule over Wales there was a “Welsh Not” policy. In Welsh speaking schools today pupils are punished for speaking English.


The borders I have warned you of culminate in long resentment and a history of power struggle over the land of their fathers. It gives y Cymry (Welsh people) pride in their place. These elements come together to form a strong cultural border of which any in-comer should not be ignorant.


I wish you well in your travels,
Cymry am byth.

The plan . . .

So the plan now is to catch up as much as possible with work. There is plan to go on a march on Saturday something to do with supporting an immigration reform. Then we leave for the food intensive on Monday - I will update with the itinerary asap! I come back on Friday then properly get back into the swing of things.

Well that was an adventure . . .

I had to leave Woolman after 6 weeks to have a blood transfusion and I decided to get a student visa sorted out. The visa took six weeks to get back. So now I am on my travel’s again. When arrived at Chicago airport I was held in “secondary” at border patrol because I had to have another form filled out – this meant I missed my connecting flight to Sacramento. But my luggage had already gone. So I was booked onto the next flight which was to be at 9.53 am the next morning. They offered to get me through security so that I could wait in departures for 11 hours. It was 2am on my body clock and I couldn’t bare the thought so I decided to book into a hotel. The women at the desk said that with a United discount I could stay in the Hilton which was across the road for $60 – this was a much better prospect than sleeping on an airport bench! Alas the Hilton wasn’t $60 it was $99 – but there was an offer for another hotel 10 minutes away with a free shuttle at a much better price. So I booked and found the shuttle departure place, waited for the shuttle and went to the hotel. I was a little scared of the quality of this hotel but on arrival I found it was absolutely gorgeous , it has a swimming pool and gym! Not that I was going to use them seeing the only things in my carry on luggage it files of work! Luckily I had packed my pj bottoms! Oh I forgot to mention though that I had a King sized bed to myself with five pillows! I had to force myself to stay awake until I had contacted someone from the school to let them know I wasn’t going to be there. It would have been so easy to have just fallen asleep and slept through the night – but then Brylie and Tsechu would be waiting at the airport without a clue where I was. I spent about $15 on phone calls but it had to be done. I eventually got through to Dorothy and explained the situation. I had a gorgeous shower and slept until now it’s five in the morning here but midday on the body clock.  Besides I’m thinking of getting to the airport soon – even though my wake up call isn’t for another hour and a half.

Service!!!!!!

Monday 22nd February: I imagined a white bearded old man pitchfork in hand with his 'ole straw hat and chewing on a blade of grass. His loyal sheepdog named Bilbo at his side.

We arrived at Soil Born Farm.

How wrong I was. It was really inspiring to see that the farm workers were “young”. The wise old man's spirit and enthusiasm for agriculture was inside them and in the atmosphere at the farm. They were all incredibly passionate about their work. These young people were running a successful non-profit organisation in this consumer driven world and living in harmony. There was however the dog, Porter. He was a black Labrador who dug a hole for half an hour to retrieve a ball he had miss-laid. His main usefulness was allowing the 30 + chickens to be free range, something we all are eager to work out for Woolman's chickens. Whisky the "mentally impaired" (their words not mine) pig who walked sideways entertained us and kept our minds off the poverty and serious issues we were bound to encounter when coming face to face with the people we are helping by volunteering at the farm.The work was physical. The sun shone hard on our backs and the breeze reminded us of the sea side. We pulled up and old metal fence with pliers, thinned samplings, weeded onion beds, pulled up drip systems, got hay-fever and rolled barded wire. Curiously only 5 of their 25 hectors was cultivated.

Tuesday 23rd February: Early morning made crepes . . . British style! We went on an eventful 3 and a half mile bike ride as we weren't due at Sacramento Food Bank until 1pm. About 15 minutes into the ride we had a flat tire and the rest of the ride was shaped by attempting to sort this out. We had a quick lunch before heading into Sacramento. The food bank was a large warehouse. I was overwhelmed by the smell of compost that lingered inside. It was disappointing as it meant that some of the produce donated wasn't fresh. Although it was better than nothing, my heart ached at the thought of the people in need not getting what I would class as standard. We had to bag bread two loaves for each client. They would receive a French stick and a sour dough loaf each. The employees said it had been donated fresh, although it had been on a supermarket shelf for a week. It made me think of the “freshly baked” in my supermarket it has always been made the morning you purchase.We then headed toward the distribution sight. The most exciting element of the whole trip for me were helping people face to face. We took three large vans full of food tables and tents. The produce ranged form fresh and organic to old and mouldy. The rain hammered down. We were in the car park out side a community centre and it was so bizarre to me that we weren't in a sports hall inside. We set up 15 gazebos, lined tables and stocked them with food, doing our best to separate the really bad produce. We were allocated posts by the “go ahead and . . .” lady. I was on grapefruit duty. Clients were primarily black, Hispanic, buck toothed and short. Whomever they were they were grateful and receive their food with a smile. However not everyone wanted grapefruit.I was really curious about the means testing that they had to go through as all we were told was that they couldn't have orange juice if they didn't live in the zip code. The rain was relentless and the gazebos useless. The organisers wanted to pack up but there were still people coming through with their soggy cardboard and the prospect of a wet waddle home.

Wednesday 24th February: To avoid the prospect of another soaking Soil Born put us to work in the green house potting and seeding. We were thinning and re-planting and I sang to them to reduce their separation anxieties. The weather cleared up, so we took down another fence and filled in a trench.

Thursday 25th February: The plan was to cycle 15 miles across Sacramento in an hour and arrive at the farm at about 10am. We had agreed to go at the pace of the slowest although this was a more difficult concept for some than it seemed. We had a few injuries and bumps, bruises and falls. We stopped pretty much at every mile. We arrived at Soil Born Farm in time for lunch, rather than at 10. The workers felt we had done them a favour as the work was limited and they had had a high school group in that morning. We worked weeding the green house inside and out, seeding and then more weeding. Hay fever got the better of me so I joined some people in cutting chicken wire. It was being put around some deer detering fences to stop the rabbits.

Friday 26th February: River City Food Bank was a really impressive organisation. It is the only Sacramento-area food bank open every weekday to anyone experiencing hunger from anywhere in Sacramento County. It offers nutritionally-balanced 3-day emergency food as well as shelter assistance. It was a clean, well organised indoor distribution house. The means test was computerised, asking for ID, residency, dependant information and ID, income sources (if any) and their mode of transport as this determines the weight of their bags. Their information was processed and sent to a computer at the back were the freshly bought food was packed individually. This meant that depending on children's ages or number of people in the family each client would receive appropriate produce. The options included nappies and baby food as well as dairy goodies such as yoghurt. Homeless people would get specifically made up bags from the United States Department of Agriculture. They offered nutrition classes and books for children to take home. It was very clear that not all of the clients were homeless or out of pocket, some had just hit a bump in the road in terms of budget. When food budgets get cut RCFB will offer meals.Empty Bowls is River City Food Bank's major fundraiser. The annual event raises both needed funds and awareness about the challenges of hunger in Sacramento County. A ticket  includes a serving of gourmet soup and a handcrafted bowl in reminder of hunger in the community. The day was the one which most connected to the reading of “Walking each other home” because River City Food Bank was a place of compassion and hope. Definitely the most rewarding element of the week was talking to people, hearing their stories and just being able to spend time with them as they waited upon their food.

Saturday 27th February: The total from our east Sacramento harvest was 4197 pounds! We volunteered with about 30 others to harvest residential fruit trees with an organisation called Harvest Sacramento. We picked an array of citrus including oranges, grapefruit, mandarins, tangerines, blood oranges, lemons and even some kumquats. The fruit gets donated to the Sacramento Food Bank that we had visited on Tuesday. It was a very satisfying to think that fresh fruit we had picked would be given out instead of the mouldy supermarket fruit we had sorted through. As we had been asked to make a promotional video for Harvest Sacramento, the Sacramento Food Bank and Soil Born Farms we were filming and asking people for interviews. The most interesting was with Robin the founder of the Harvest and a Quaker. He had started out donating to his Meeting House but as they received too much got in touch with the food banks.

Woolman: Mendocino "Wilderness Week"

Monday was an early start for our five hour drive to Jughandle. I had to move seats three times! The first time I was unfortunately sitting on a metal bar hidden underneath the comfy looking cover. Maria was kind enough to switch when we got to the house of "Yarn lady" - part of a detour due to a lady giving away 35 balls of yarn. We were speculating what sort ofperson she would gbe and why she had 35 balls of yarn to spare. We concluded she wouyld most definately be a cat lady with nik-naks covering th house and a collection of Gnomes in the garden.

 Alas she was a dog lady and rather alot younger than we had imagined, she was rather unprepared as she was in a bath robe and passed over the yarn swiftly - we assume the yarn was aleft over from a family member.

  From then until the "Switzerland of America" I sat in the middle seat. We stopped in Switzerland for lunch. We all disowned the cold sweetpotato and onion burritos (which wern't as nice as they sound) we crossed the street and went to Fosters Freeze - mmmmm fast food! the 15 of us filled all of the tables in there. For the rest of the journey I sat in what would have been a luxorious seat had our car not been over stuffed with our things and a giant zip lock back full of yarn.

  Napped for half an hour.

  Woke up to beeps from cars attempting to pass our two vans on blind corners. We were in an immense forest which was thick and foggy and dark beneath really really tall tree's. It was so magical and for once I appreciated the vertical rain - it seemes to make everything more beautiful.

We were faced with an massive red Victorian mansion when we arrived it was absolute luxury compared to our cabins. We very swiftly left for the beach after arriving - none of us could wait to go to the beaches we had passed. It took us five minutes to walk to the beach. There was a lonely pelican on the beach. 

We climbed rocks stupidly with out shoes on making it rather painful) My feet met the Pacific for the first time.

  We watched the waves and hoped to spot a whale - I REALLY WANT TO SEE A WHALE!!

  We began doing evening counsel which is like epilougue but more talkative. Sleeping in a dorm room with everyone was such good fun - for us all to be able to chat in the dark is a good way to make connections. Teachers opted for their own rooms with double beds as an alternative to sleeping on the floor of the dorm to keep us quite - sensible! 

TUESDAY morning a woman came to do work share with us. We weeded two tiers if the garden. It was ridiculous how hard everyone had worked, the garden looked amaxing. In the afternoon the weather turned drizzly. We went to Fort Bragg to visit Glass Beach. It was the old dumping site for the town and all the rubbish had been washed away but the glass. It had been worn away and smoothed down. We collected some with the idea of making some jewlery.It was high tide and the drizzle was now a down pour We got drenched and there wasnt much glass other than down in a little cove which was almost unreachable. We jumped down leaving a very unlikely possibility of getting back up. But we made it our succesfully. 

On WEDNESDAY we met Helene who does the educational outreach in Jughandle. Dorothy (head of Woolman) had warned us about Helene's way of communicating. She is used to teaching 11 year olds, and doesn't adjust when talking to anyone else. She even spoke to the teachers in the same way! We potted 500 Redwood trees - mixing the soil in a bath tub and the potting the trees in a very particular way - which Helene more often than not corrected. 

The weather was really nice so we set out on a five mile hike up the biggest ecological staircase in the world! It sounds really daunting but I managed to do it without panting and at the front  of the pack the whole way! The incline was very gradual! 

THURSDAY 

Helene stood us up! She was meant to come and do more with us but she didn't show! We went and improvised - Maria, Maggie and I steralised pots so that no bacteria would kill any new things planted in them - we discussed the obsurdity of Quaker Business method (being three of four Quakers in the group). Did some plotting on attending Californian spring quarterly in May, Yay for Quaker events!

Ended early Helene still wasn't there - ate lunch - Helene arrived wearing a rather odd hat comented on in horror.

  We went to the Mendocino bluffs and some people got hit by a wave. Then we went shopping. I bought knitting needles for all that yarn, Ruthie taught me how to knit - scarves will be shipped home soon for all that bad weather you're having :D

FRIDAY

As we hadn't made up enough work share hours to pay for our stay due to Helene's disappearing act one of the care takers got us to weed another tier of the herb garden. We travelled back toward campus. Had lunch in a park in Yarn Lady's town.

When we got back we went into Nevada City for the first time after dinner to see some old bearded guys playing country music - they dedicated a activist song to us students. On returning to campus we all cramed into the Rachel's cabin for a dance party (there are two Rachels in the cabin - one of whom has now changed their namejughandle ecological staircase  to Jesze to stop confusion).

SATURDAY we were given the morning off. It was gooooooooooooooood! I slept in. In the afternoon the internes had arranged a scavenger hunt for us in Nevada City. It was really thorough, although at my groups second destination we were given the worng clue resulting in us doing the whole thing in the wrong order. But walking around Nevada City wasn't bad. That night the whole school attended the monthly Contra Dance in Nevada City. It was a really good time but by the end we were tired so left early.

On SUNDAY morning I had all intention of going to Meeting, it doesn't take much effort as it's on campus! Never the less I slept right through it. In the afternoon we went shopping in Grass Valley most of the cafes were closed but the used and unusual book shop was open - got frozen yogurt again :D

Coming next . . . a fortnight of inspiring classes before SERVICE TRIPS! x

Woolman: The first few days summarised

I was really unsure on first introduction who were students and who were teachers. I don't feel that short here.
We were introduced to the garden which excited me to sort our garden out at home. I want to plant some edibles! I wasn't very keen to get  muddy seeing as i was in jeans and tennis shoes. The garden chores are going to be well exciting when i get my waterproofs on and some gloves.

We had an afternoon "soccer" game with Micheal, Ravahn, Red and the Runyan brothers. I scored a goal! It was a penalty kick and the goalie was on his knees, but at least I tried! It reminded me of the last time i played football. It was at Foxhill for Nana and Grandads golden wedding, i remember almost all the family joining in. Ofcourse i also fell over right in the mud - that proves how high the effort was!

Had afternoon tea with Angelina, the peace studies teacher and also my advisor. It was with all her advisees so it felt like a bit of a base group she made some amazing chocolate chip cookie, melting and warm from the oven. Had a community dinner (with all community members) played pictionary (chrismas time was good training) headed to bed early.

Saturday morning had a health and safety talk with Genvieve - didn't last long. She attempted to show us poison oak. Saw a dear!
Experimented with loose tea with Micheal - very amusing - i miss tea bags! If you would like to donate some please send to BECKY GARNAULT,  13075 Woolman Lane, NEVADA CITY CA, 95959, other goodies accepted!
Micheal then taught a small group of us how to chop wood YES I USED AN AXE AND CHOPPED WOOD!!! or at least split some wood- and subsequently have sprained both my hands-  He (Micheal) has since enthused us all about cycling and given us each a bike- mine is a little pink one with no breaks just peddle backward, and he also let me cut his hair ( very stylishly might i add see photo http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5202550&l=11f0d4137a&id=516485707).  I have since trimmind Marias hair and we have plans for a style and i put layers in Karinas hair which now looks immense! i was a bit scared as she is a mexican gang member so it had to be right (she is a softy really).

We watched a speech from this Van Jones dude! he is really inspiring and supports Woolman obviously. He works on getting youths into Green Jobs / Industries Economy when they are released from prison. Ravahn is obsessed with him.

On Sunday morning we prepared non-Quakers for MFW (Meeting for Worship). As it was the fifth Sunday it was family meeting which meant that there were a tone of kids, which i found extremely refreshing and there was story telling silence and then singing just the kind of songs which would make mum . . . shudder?? lol! Peace Heroes were read out and people spontaneously continued the list as they thought of people who should have been included. The sun shone through the windows of meeting in a really nice way - ha.

In the afternoon the weather was amazing, we lounged in the sun "catching the rays" and then were told what we needed to pack for our "Wilderness Trip" - it was going to be more of a nature trip.

Piled into the old clunky school bus and went into Grass Valley neither a valley nor grassy. We all binged in the super market buying junk foos and snack to keep us going.  The was a really cute bookstore full of used and unusual books. Frozen Yogurt Place had amazing Pomegrantate and Rasberry flavour with frizen strawberries, gummy worms, caramel sauce, cookie dough and a sugar cherry thing as my toppings - WOW HEAVEN I have proceeded to return every weekend but i have been more selective with toppings and have got the price down from $3 to $1 (its priced by weight).

I played the Settelers of Catan with Rachel and interns Ana and Micheal  - it's a board game about invasion, but we didn't get  to the invasion part. Packed my borrowed rucksack for the Wilderness Trip - dare i say it ????? still havent braved the showers :S.

MENDECINO WEEK NATURE TRIP to COME !!!!!!!! love to all    xx

Woolman: Classes

Classes in Global Issues, Peace Studies, Environmental Science and Humanities & Ethics have started so the work is piling up . . . I will find time this weekend to update. :) xx