WWOOFing it Up in Kiwiland: organic farming in New Zealand 2012

3 years later and life brings me back to New Zealand. This time for a longer period, for a different purpose, with a different outlook on life than last time. I hope what transpires from a few years of travelling as far and as wide as possible across this beautiful country is a basic but decent knowledge and experience in organic farming, self sustainable living, and food production. Come and join me, there's loads of room in the car.

Thursday 1 October 2009

today's blog: (the theorist's version ~ CONCLUDE) Activists, Pragamatists, Theorists & Reflectors...




If all the right conditions were in place then the group would become that exemplary collectively active group that it so obviously has the potential to be. And in the meantime there's enough fire driving the engine to keep it going and the group will be fine, it's not like it's a matter of life and death or anything, but it could be great and I hope it will be.


The theorist in me wonders if 4 weeks will have made any difference, well the theorists knows it has... maybe that's the pragmitist in me talking... anyways, theoretically, everything works out doesn't it? In the bigger picture it all fits together; this brief chapter of Wing's adventures in Kiwiland did make a difference in the grand scheme of things. When I look at the bigger picture, it doesn't do anything to make a real difference, nor does it make thing's better, it just makes me feel better for a brief while... and then it's time to start this whole process allover again. It makes it easier after I fall down that mountain, when I dust myself off and get myself back up, to start all over again like a proper reflective practitioner...

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today's blog: (the activist's version ~ DO) Activists, Pragamatists, Theorists & Reflectors...




What upsets me most, is that when I'm gone no-one's here to take up the baton and I'm sure I'm exaggerating the loss, which isn't really one for the group because I believe in Linda, the founder; in her resolve, commitment and enthusiasm, I have no doubt. She is an example pioneering community leader however the fire in her belly outweighs any latent abilities of strategic planning, bigger picture envisioning and reviewing of the group's activities. A group moves as fast as it leaders are able to take it.

Like any pure activist she's a 'Do now; think later' kinda gal. I used to be like that. I burnt out, I still do on ocassions but I'm working on it...

The 3 groups were competing to build the highest tower out of nothing but paper. They relaxed and had fun, they laughed and felt human. That's enough for the activist in me...but the miserable woman sapped some of my energy, threw me out of focus, and it wasn't the best I could have made it.

It's about the passion and the commitment to making things happen that makes a good leader but having healthy balancing levels of the other 3 learning styles helps heaps. That's what I'm learning this week... and work life balance, that helps too...

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today's blog: (the pragmatist's version ~ PLAN) Activists, Pragamatists, Theorists & Reflectors...



So yesterday was another successful session with a group that needs it and doesn't even realise how much it needs it. Impatience for development is a familiar anxiety surfacing my conscious practice of community development work. The founding member's inability /resistence to plan development, seems to be strangling the latent collective action of the group to create a better deal for the unemployed...it's a shame but what can I do in only 4 weeks when the founder was only asking me last week to proceed on a one-to-one basis with her? Like I said, I am not a personal development trainer nor a life coach.

As a result, I seriously doubt/ predict that it is impossible to evidence the performance criteria in my portfolio required to pass this unit for 3rd year. The portfolio is lacking multi-dimensionality; it's mainly strengthening groups. Ok, yes, this is very important but this group is nowhere near getting to the next stage and I am meant to evidence working with a group at a later stage of Tuckman's group development.

The pragmatist in me wonders what's the purpose of starting something that's never going to get finished. And frustrated that it's never going to get finished. And then the activist in me tells the pragmatist to shut up...

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today's blog: (the reflectors version ~ REVIEW) Activists, Pragamatists, Theorists & Reflectors...



There's always one (or two) who'll have a go at you at some point, it's part of the job. Isn't it just common knowledge that good intenders get the odd kick in the stomach from the beneficiary from time to time, and might I add, totally undeserved... then why is it always still something that shakes me up and surprises me?

We're only human.

However that's no excuse and while whatever's done is done, it would be nice for society to take some collective responsibility for the mess Community Development Workers selflessly choose to make their business and try to demess. It's a selfless occupation this so why do I sometimes still feel like I'm the one who's wrong?

Yesterday I facilitated a session with the Jobseekers Network and a woman had a go at me a number of times. Why do keep asking me how I am? Go on. Ask me again how I am. I think you're the one who needs to learn something! You're telling them how to do it. I don't think you should be doing that. But anyways (patting me on the shoulder and looking at me condescendingly), it doesn't matter now. Everyone in the group is silent listening to this woman who is not feeling well mentally or physically or both laying into me for including her in the activity instead of ignoring her. I didn't ask her how she was once. I was going to say before she lay into me that 'here's your bit of paper in case you want to join in again.' The more I reflect on it, the more upset and angry it makes me.

The unamusingly funny thing about it is, that she chatted away glad on on the bus I caught out to te Atatu and like nothing had happened in the car on the way back to Henderson when we got a lift... some people are unhappy for other people's mistakes, or their own, but there's no need to perpetuate the cycle by making more people miserable, especially Community Development Workers like me... if I'm miserable it has a substantial knock-on effect on many others. It's just not fair.

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