Hello to all!

I have started work this week after an introductory chat over coffee with the market manager. He was very interested in my experience as a manager as this market just opened in September! So they are looking for any tips, suggestions and guidance, although i visited again on Sunday and what an impressive community effort! There were musicians, educational tables on home-growing, child care through the Samoan Baptist church that also uses the Grey Lynn Community center. This all to accompany the table of fresh produce, honeys and jam, fresh bread and pasta, eggs and even a sausage stand! It felt really good to be among the vendors and customers and live music, meeting people and helping out where i could. As a newcomer, i like to just contribute in the most straight forward way, which meant that i gathered trash, folded up chairs and tables and mopped at the close of the market. I am attending a committee meeting tomorrow evening, and working at the twilight market on thursday, and have already had a very receptive welcome from all those involved!

Recently, i have adopted an attitude towards working with established organizations and committees. When you are seeking work, to contribute to an organization, a cause that you believe in, i believe it is best to adapt yourself, mold yourself to the need of the organization. For example, after graduating, i have often thought that i would find an organization that i felt was doing the best work possible, and then ask them what kind of people they needed. Then i may go on to seek further education to meet their need instead of trying to find something that best fit the skills i already had.

Having said this, and still believing in it to a certain extent, this experience has already shown me how this attitude is not always the only route to take. Everyone who i have talked to have insisted that i do projects for the market that i would like to do. This came as a surprise to me since i kept insisting "i would like to help in whatever area you need". However, when i mentioned some of the projects Lots to Gardens has been doing through the market, such as featuring local restaurants and cafes and hosting community dinners, they have been very enthusiastic and are looking to start similar things in this community! Again, having only been here a month, i dont feel i am in a position to do outreach or connect people through the market. I would expect to do more manual labor, putting out fliers, setting up vendors, clean up. However, the manager has been keen on getting me onto some of these more conceptual and communicative projects!

well see how it goes!

Hello...

Ok, i have made progress. After what seems like thousands of unreturned emails, an experience many Bonners are familiar with, i went out to our local farmers market and began to meet people, talk, explain myself and i am starting to work for them next week! The Grey Lynn Farmers Market, which is my towns farmers market, is a new and struggling market, something i am familiar with. I have been a few times to buy produce and began to notice what a community effort it was, with musicians, children's care, etc., all taking place within the community center. The center is a beautiful new building that hosts community gatherings, art classes, senior classes, events, community dance classes etc. Since i have been looking for this kind of venue, gathering place in my new community, i was very eager to become a part of it and was very excited to hear that they needed volunteer help at the markets!

I am going to begin by attending a committee meeting, and go from there, although i suspect my work will be somewhat related to outreach, market set up/breakdown etc. What i do know, is that it will put me out into the community, meeting people and finding out where the local food is grown and who it is grown by.

I have been feeling a bit of a lacking in my classes. Most of my classes are about Maori human rights and are very rewarding so far as the actual class content and the quality of engagement. However, everything ends when you leave the classroom, there is no bridge between what we learn and what we encounter in our daily lives as students in a diverse New Zealand. I am starting to realize why CBR and service learning was created.

more later....after i begin work.

all my best!

Dani

still in transition

Well i am into my second week of classes here at the university, and am already immersed in Maori hisotry, arts, colonialism, post-collonial politics...it is so incredibly interesting to step back and compare these studies with my Native American studies classes that i take at Bates. wow. How different our lives as Americans would be if the colonial period had not devastated the Native populations as much as it did.

In terms of finding work, i am slowly, slowly making progress. To be honest, it would be so simple and straightforward to have an equivalent to the Harward center at the University of Auckland. Just walk in, tell them who i am , what i am interested in doing, and recieve helpful suggestions, and a list of potential community partners. Unfortunetly no such thing exists here. It is all a bit of a patchwork opperation as i meet with these people, walk into this office, email this organization...and im not sure right now what direction this seeking will take me in. Not yet at least. I am meeting with an organization that is very similar to Hohepa where i was farming. I am looking to do some short term volunteer work there. I also went to my own towns farmers market! And am working up to talking to the farmers and manager, to seek potential work, or to find out more about how it works here...exciting yet very uncertain. In the mean time, i am getting to know my community, a small suberb of the city.

i will keep you posted.

Dani