A Community Development Mountain Trek in Auckland

Letting go another time; the Jobseekers Network Cafe

2009-10-14T14:46:00.004+13:00

It's difficult for people to let go of what's precious, what makes gives them purpose and meaning, especially when they don't really know what it is their hanging on for, or aren't self-aware enough to realise that's what they're doing.

For me, as a Community Development Worker, I get used to these goodbyes and it doesn't make me sad anymore. I get emotionally involved with them, but I don't get emotionally attached with the people I work with. At SCOREscotland, I cried when I left, and maybe that was under exceptional circumstances, but I had driven that project and made it what it is today, and I make no apologies for owning that achievement boldly because it's the truth.

The more times I say goodbye, the better I get at it. Having a grasp of the bigger picture helps too. And having a bright meaningful futures gives me hope in and makes the difference between me lingering on the past or getting on with living life now. We all have our own lives to live and it takes all sorts to make a world doesn't it?

So this morning I had my final session with the group and I'm glad to say it made the first 3 weeks worth it. We had a major breakthrough today and it was with the concept of the World cafe that it happened.

Everyone should be sitting down at a table already, and each table has a different question which is in the middle of your table. We will have 3 rounds so everyone will have sat at each table and discussed all 3. At the end of each round we’ll regroup and feedback.

The 3 questions were:

o What do you think is the purpose of the Job Seekers Network?

o Why do you come to the Job Seekers Network and how has it changed your life?

o How would you like to see the Job Seekers Network develop and how can you contribute to making it happen?

From this, the group identified funding as the priority goal to be addressed. There were emerging leaders in the group that came out their shells today and one of them suggested that the group have a meeting just to make a strategic plan to secure funding in 2 weeks time because the group are having their regular guest speaker session next week which can't be changed.

There were moments that made me want to cry, but that was only one. I had many moments when I felt happy and smiley. I walked into the room and there were red and white chequered table cloths, with pink and white carnations in vases. Cheese muffins, buns, carrot cake, pastries, all homemade and lots of people bustling around. It was a delight to see and the group all made it happen because the week before I had gone through atasks and asigned volunteers. All I brought was the laptop to play the CDs someone else bought. I got two leaving cards and one woman gave me cute wee kiwi bird ear-rings. Shame my ears aren't pierced :-S The discussion was flowing so freely that time ran out for evaluation! Booooh! but I recorded it for my assessed observation for my uni tutor to watch when I get back. What really made me happy was the woman who had a go at me two weeks before, was smiling and saying 'Thank You' repeatedly, like she was saying sorry too for the previous week. I think maybe repitition is a habit of hers...

It's was tough too. The founder right at the last 10 mins was undermining me and saying patronisingly that what I am suggesting is not real life, and that if you want to do it because you need to for university then do it, but I don't think we can say that we can do this in real life...i was just about giving up at this point to her constant barrage of ingratitude when another emerging leader shouted out that could have a subcommittee to talk about the funding. The rest of the group nodded approval and then I began writing this down... A subcom...but then Linda butted in again it's not a subcommittee and I stop writing down someone else's words, and then the other leader says a group then and Linda can't object cause it's not a formal word and so I score out subcommittee and write group. When will the group do this I ask? But next week there's a guest speaker and I couldn't change it because they insisted on it, arriving to do what the group have always done. So let's make it in 2 weeks... and then I realise 1 and half hours has flown by already and we have to pack up.

It's been difficult, but it happened, after 4 weeks of wondering why I do this, my faith wins the day I feel confident they're on their way to becoming the amazing example of community development that they have the potential to be. And if they don't, well, it was always about the process anyway ... I'll show you my portfolio when I get home...

:)

On another note, this is some of my flower arranging. Wendy brought in the flowers from her garden and the green goddess lilies are actually a weed here! Not native and so shouldn't be in gardens... still, they are beautiful.

This Sub-tropical Paradise

2009-10-12T22:01:00.002+13:00

People here go on about heritage: 'In the UK you have so much heritage blah-dee-blah-dee-blah-blah-blah'. Everywhere has heritage, in the beginning was something; we didn't come from nothingness. These stereotypical images of historic grandoise architecture that defines British culture represent most countries as much as McDonalds and Cola do. We live in the Post-Modern age where things signify multiple definitions and in this global village the people that live in a place are not a homogenous community in race, ethnicity, sexuality, bodiedness, age, creed... What people can't get over when they meet me is the combination of Scottish accent and my Chinese face; others don't even notice and maybe they are the ones who are the most enlightened because afterall, does it really matter?

Last Thursday I met up with Brooke from Ecomatters, she's a Community Garden Facilitator and she decided to come in today to chat to the teenage mums. She talked about creating community gardens out of donations from businesses, and being resourceful, reusing waste like glass jars, plastic pots, going through recycle boxes. Why not? One man's junk is another man's treasure; one man's martyr is another mans's terrorist and all that... so she talked about the various projects Ecomatters manages and is starting up. Projects, some of which are run in partnership, such as:

Sustainable Homes Programme
Sustainable Living Centre Come - open to the public and provides information, displays, workshops and an eco library
Water Wise Up Helping schools, businesses and households reduce their water use.

So I've been sick which is why I haven't written in a week; and what a difference a day makes, never mind a week. I went to see a Chinese Herbalist and Acupuncturist, Dr Angela Longo, who I met at and Awakening the Dreamer Symposium last month. I went to see her to explore if Chinese medecine has anything to offer me. Like reflexology, Bowen technique, other holistic therapies, indeed, most interests I have in alternative methods, I neglect longer than I should. A sure sympton of my Western upbringing and one that New Zealand is guiding me closer to...

Visiting a healer is one of the many things that have been on my to do list for a few years. Anyways, she has helped me on that path of regaining balance in my life. Chinese medecine, she told me, has a delevoped understanding of the body and health beyond the Greeks, and more importantly, adapted for the modern world. So I've been learning about Heartwaves which I do everyday and Non-violent communication and will find workshops in Edinburgh when I get back in 6 days. I've been drinking Chinese herbal tea and pills for the last 8 days and had acupuncture. My first treatment was an amazing experience. Shooting pains from the top of my arm travelled down to my fingertips so that it was painful to chop vegetables. I've had a chronic stiffness in that shoulder for a few years and ignored it until then. Debilitating shooting pains are a sure sign of imbalance. Angela put the first needle into my arm and I felt and energy travelling from my shoulder slowly down to my 3rd and 4th fingers, that are my triple heater and pericardium meridians, and my hands going tingly. That was last weekend, this weekend Angela tutored me including how to tell people's illnesses from looking at their tongues.

Anyways, back to the community development... so today I left the Teen mums, partly cause they were still winding up after 2 weeks on holiday and partly cause I'm still sick. I have this chesty cough but I'm telling it to go away so I hope it does before my friend's wedding on Saturday in Macau. Anyways, the fact that they're now in touch with Ecomatters, they have support from Brooke who is knowledgeable in that kind of thing. I was going to facilitate a session in which they write a letter to send to businesses asking for donations but I called up a landscaping company and smoothtalked the manager rather more easily than expected. Also, I didn't want to spread my germs around the babies. So I'm going to see them on Friday morning to say bye before I fly out at midnight...

This is the back garden now. I aksed Averil to email photos of its development. I wish I was staying so I sould see it unfold with my own eyes into a colourful fertile garden for the kids and mums... I know it'll be wonderful. Shame it's moving all to the new premises in Henderson High School next year, but anything worth doing is always challenging...

So last Wednesday was the 3rd session with the Jobseekers Network and i have to say it was a tough day. I felt like I was contantly under attack from a few of the strongest characters, the leaders of the pack. I say that with reservations because any leader realises that the individuals in their team have as much power as each other because they play different, but equally important roles. My methods, views, intentions and person were under criticism and while it's difficult, I enjoy this challenge which obliges me to be resolute and strong in my argument. At times of crisis we become strong or we give up, or die. So I ended up presenting the unemployment code and it went down well. Some of the evaluations were gold. A few of them under Did you learn anything new today. If so, what? ... Yes, but I don't know what... Yes, not to let negative comments let me down and bring down my self-esteem... yes, the root causes of society's upheaval... Success! :)

Also, root causes was a eureka moment. One woman talked about unemployment individualising people which is the opposite of when natural disasters occur, like the tsunami in Samoa, a cause for which the whole of New Zealand donated $500 000 as of last week. I can smell the distinct aroma of creeping critical consciousness in the breeze...

This Wednesday we're having the Jobseekers Network Cafe and celebrating me leaving... yet to decide what questions but one will go along the lines of What can we do to ensure the long-term success of JSN? and one What do you get out of coming here and how has it changed your life? and maybe How could the JSN build on what it currently does to improve the lives of jobseekers now and in the future? What do you think? Please feel free to feedback!

Back to Thursday. After meeting Brooke I went to Shakti Women's Aid Auckland after being invited by the Director to attend a staff and volunteer training. I talked about my insights since being here in comparing the anti-violence movements in the UK and New Zealand. They also found it entertaining, or 'cute' that I look chinese and talk scottish. I think it'll be many generations before the novelty wears off... anyways, I blabbed on a bit about the Maori and Pacfic Islander dynamics, the term Black and Minority Ethnic and black feminist ideology etc. etc. those of you who know me well know what that sounds like, haha! It was really interesting sitting in on the training. I learned how they assess cases and they also do pick-ups of women from their houses and sometimes when there's faimly and partners around. I was so inspired and they sound like veritable super women, speeding off in cars taking women away from domestic violence. I found it also very interesting for the case study sessions on high risk cases with: drugs/gang-relations, Sikh, Punjabi and Somalian communities, the last of which practice honour-killing... Despite the heaviness of the topic, the company contrasted this and were welcoming, curious, and appreciative of what I've done, what I had to say and of my life in general, asking me what my heritage and upbringing is, and you know how much I love answering those questions...

This picture, and the one of me at the top, is of Swanson Train Station Cafe where I met my practice mentor, Meredith, who played a role as a house wife/community development worker in turning this hut into the new toilets in the 90s:

..and transporting this train station from Avondale, 15 odd kms away, because it was getting demolished to make way for a new one. It's a wonderful building, like travelling back in time, with a log fire and chimney (not sure if it works but it's summer so it wouldn't be on anyways).

The community bought the land around it and paid $10 for the building; it was cheaper for the constructors to charge them to take it away than to pay a demolition company. Meredith said it was an empty wreck with human waste, condoms etc. covering the floor and the community cleaned it up. It's still got the original floor which is a glorious weathered wood and oozes character, the whole place does. Hard to imagine it graffiti, faeces covered...eugh! Anyways, the council couldn't afford it but the community raised funds to make it happen themselves and now earn from leasing out the cafe, and pay the council for upkeep of the surrounding land. An amazing example of a community in action!

You gotta go see it if you're passing through. They had a small display board showing before and after. A wonderful and inspiring example of real community development and my mentor began her community development career from participating in it. Meredith now works for the council at the green Waitakere City Council. I've been blessed with being at the heart of a vibrant city with a strong history of community development and I feel glad for the opportunity. It's contibuted to making me feel at home and I feel so settled that I'd be really happy if I stayed longer. I've gained a big extended family imprinted in memory from my time here and I am already planning to come back.

Happy days (..except for my lettuce growing, it shrivelled up to a brown thing last week...)

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

2009-10-06T20:05:00.003+13:00

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on

the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining

the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question,

I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

—ALBERT EINSTEIN

Wise words from a wise man. If only we were so wise, every community development worker would be redundant... I wait patiently for that day. Today I've been attempting to design the 3rd session I have with the Job Seekers Network tomorrow morning. This quotation opens an article about The Art of Powerful Questions, an art I'm ever-increasingly becoming aware of since I've been here. Asking the wrong questions can open Pandora's Box, whereas the right one will be an open sesame to a world of magical possibilities... it's a fine line to walk and the risk's only worth as much as the gain in the given situation... that's the choice i make as a Community Development Worker; Risk Taker and Change Manager could be other names for this job.

Anyways, I'm either:

Presenting a code about unemployment

Facilitating a 1930s british role-play activity

I just don't know which one will be more suited to this group who seem depressed, uptight and lacking group setting skills... bleh.

Yesterday, Monday, I went to visit Shakti, a wee girl got chatting to me while I was waiting for the worker to arrive at the refuge and we drew pictures. These are the ones she gave me:

I think she found my accent funny; she kept correcting my pronunciation of 'cow' when we were talking about what sounds farm animals make. This is a picture of the kitchen.

6 families live there and there are 2 staff and there were 2 volunteers while I was there. It was great chatting to them about the various issues that have come up since I've been here and comparing practices across the 2 countries. Isaw this on the wall and it made me smile.

And my lettuce is definitely growing; that ozone free sunshine's strong and the water's a deciding factor too. It has rained almost every day, sometimes all day, in the last 10 days here. It's good for the plants and better than drought. I've been watching the California bush fires on the news.

At lunchtime yesterday I went to the 'mall' for dim sum; I love it here, there's a heavy Asian influence and sushi, dim sum and asian food is on every street corner. Hmmmmmm.

This is a photo of me being silly in the office at Community Waitakere; it's loads of fun in that office, I'm really going to miss it...

Now let's see what happens tomorrow...

Earthsong Eco-village

2009-10-02T20:27:00.004+13:00

On Wednesday night I went to Earthsong Eco-village with San Ting and it was an amazing example of sustainable living! It's based on a model that began in Denmark. The front garden areas are public space and there are no individual car spaces outside the houses. There's a big common house that everyone has access to and includes a guest house that everyone in the village can have for guests for one week free! In the common house is a laundry room, games room, teens room, kids room, tea bar, activity room, dancing room, TV room, rotunda, compost toilet, solar heated outdoor clothes dryer, food garden and forest and so much more, there was everything you'd need. Joel and Judy moved from the US 3 years ago because of Bush fixing votes. They're radicals and had lots to tell us about the consensus method of decision making in the village. Everyone signs a legal contract before they move in. And it's not cheap; the only flat left for sale is $425,000 dollars, (213,000 pounds) for 2 bedrooms, and they're not big. Check out the photos.

This is the tea bar.

This is the original glass in the door of the building that used to be on the site; it was called Tui House. Tui's are a kind of bird common here. You can see the rotunda in the background. That's my favourite part of the common house.

This is the kitchen; 2 nights every week there's communal meals and there are teams of people who decide what to cook.

This is the compost toilet; i've never seen one before and thought it would be smelly...it was a bit...there used to be a chart behind the door for people to keep a record of how many visits they've paid but it got taken down.

This was the 3 snails on the path walking back to the car after our visit, they look so funny like they're racing to the food garden :)

This is my lettuce I took a picture of today at the Community Waitakere office (Friday 2nd Oct) and it is definitely growing! Yippeeee :)

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

2009-10-01T12:23:00.003+13:00

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...

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

2009-10-01T12:13:00.004+13:00

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...

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

2009-10-01T11:58:00.004+13:00

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...

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

2009-10-01T11:40:00.006+13:00

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.

It's scary moments like these that remind me how small we are...

2009-09-30T15:11:00.001+13:00

A Tsunami hit Samoa and 24 people are feared dead. It reached the West coast of Auckland at 11.39am this morning. Usually, I'm in Europe where the worst we get is flooding. Flooding's devastating, but a tsunami must be terrifying too. Usually, I only see these things on the news, depicting far off lands only reachable in my imagination but today I felt scared because in tsunami terms, we're only 3 or 4 thousand miles away. My colleague tells me that when the Indonesian Tsunami happened, it de-moored boats in South Africa...nature's wrath is a force to be reckoned with.

Cannibalism and Hoani Waititi Urban Marae: my first Maori cultural visit

2009-09-29T21:34:00.001+13:00

So I asked Helen, and someone else confirmed, that there was cannibalism among Maori iwis / tribes. As a demonstration of power the chief would eat the flesh of a defeated iwi's chief... not much more barbaric than the English who beheaded and displayed the heads on spears. All cultures have warfare and killing people is horrific no matter what land and people's perpetrate it.

Check out the pictures.

UNPREDICTABLE: if I had to choose one word to describe Community Development Work

2009-09-29T20:20:00.000+13:00

So I've changed the group I was meant to be working with and now I'm working with 2 but both of them don't know where they are never mind where they want to be and it's my job to support them to get there but how am I meant to do that...good question...again, that would be my job to support them with that too...

Last Wednesday was the 1st session with the Jobseekers Network, made mostly of people redundant during the recession. It's been tough working with this group as it's more a group of individuals who think independantly of each other than a group. Tuckman would say they're between forming and storming. While they have various roles and all contribute to the group, through financial donations, bringing cakes, plants, fruit to share or by doing the dishes at the end, and while the group has grown from 1 to 20+ regular attenders since Easter 2009, they lack a structure to make decisions and take actions collectively. The group's growth is down to committed leadership however there is a power imbalance between the founder and her group, to the point where I proposed a very basic provisional programme for 4 weeks and met resistence; the founder felt that what I proposed wasn't relevant because the group already learn and support each other and function well...maybe, she said, it would be better if I do the programme as a one-to-one...yes, I said, the group does help each other get jobs all the time and learns from each other, I completely agree and it should keep doing what works, but this programme uses different methods which will hopefully support the group's development in other ways that will strengthen what you're already doing... I also had to stress that I am not a personal development trainer or life coach.

I totally understand. It's her baby. It's precious to her and she wants to be the martyr, the one driving things forward. And I know that's true but I've been there too, all community developers go through that stage of taking responsibility for a group when the power lies with everyone in that group equally. We fool ourselves into thinking we're all different, with varying possessions of power, but all we have influence and the power is how we use that influence, to the detriment or improved well-being of any group, which is another art altogether.

Anyways, I realised after that conversation, the founder holds all that power and by rejecting an opportunity to work with me, she would be the bar between me and the group. She agreed to let me work with them and afterwards give them the option of whether or not they want to continue so for another 3 weeks. It takes a leap of faith and am immense trust, to let go of a group you have a key role in developing but when you realise the group takes care of itself, you realise you never really had any power afterall and it was the inspiration, vision, or enthusiasm that was needed to light the spark...we all have our roles to play in the universe and we accept it gracefully or reject it with sever consequences to our well-being.

So after some serious persuasion, I managed to get that one day with the Jobseekers network, after serious reservations that my diplomacy might fail on this ocassion and guess what? The session went down a treat! To my surprise they group loved it, one or two said they didn't learn anything but they didn't say it was a load of rubbish.

I started off with a name game ice breaker as not everyone knows each others names and I only met them the previous week. We went round the large circle of 18 of us and I started: My name is Wishful Wing...but we got to the group of 5 men, and three of them passed, throwing the ball to the next person with a look that said 'this is childish' on their faces. At the of the session I asked everyone to do the same but add feedback on the session. Not only did everyone have praise and positive comments, the men who passed the ice breaker were joining in with incredibles and rockets attached to their names! I was so pleased.

What I found interesting is the evaluation questionnaires that only 8 returned. Some of them said the worst bits were thinking of a word to describe themselves (the ice-breaker) and thinking about the past. My goal setting activity asked them to remember times they were happy in their past and some of them found that made them unhappy... the founder seemed to realise the benefits of this method of group development. The session was far from perfect but they didn't notice, I think because this type of work is totally different to anything they've done before. Overall, it was a success and they enjoyed the experience. I'm looking forward to tomorrow now that group have 'bought into' the community development 'thing'. But as always, I hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

Then on Thursday last week, I did the second session with He Wero's Teen Parents (Mum's) Group. After the Balloon people went down a storm on Monday, I was revved up to go and do a values activity after a quick art & crafty ice-braker but the school holidays began last Friday and all the mum's wre winding down. We only did the ice-breaker, which they loved too, but after predicting that this was the group I'd work most effectively with, and that the Jobseekers' Network would be less successful, in 2 days, my judgement was proved wrong and reality was the total opposite... like I said, totally unpredictable...but I love this work precisely because of it's organic nature: it's unpredictable; you can never predict the future, the weather, reactions and responses, although humans may try until we're blue in the face, nature finds a way and never gives up.

There's always 3 sides to the coin...

2009-09-28T22:33:00.001+13:00

There's always different perspectives to any story. I think that's why I never liked history at school. Black and White. 1 + 1 = 2. Real life, is never so simple. Shades of grey, flashes of white light and pitch darkness punctuate my existence, and 1+1 always = 3...

Following my visit to the women's refuge at Viviana, I had a meeting with Shakti Women's Aid Auckland last Thursday which left me in much more hopeful spirits. They are members of the National Collective of Women's refuges and contrary to what Viviana told me, there is no rule that women can only stay in refuge for 2 weeks. In fact, Shakti reckon that it's a pretty good model and works nationally rather well.

The Director, Farida, actually went to the Shakti Women's Aid in Edinburgh, moved to Auckland and set it up 14 years ago because there was no service for women of Asian, African and Middle Eastern women. The pacific, islanders and Maori women have their own services. There are no 'ethnic minorities' here. The heirarchy are Pakeha and Maori, I'm Pakeha, anyone who's not Maori, is Pakeha. There are no Chinese, South Asian parties in parliament, but there is a Maori party who make a lot of noise....

Anyways, so Shakti brought my domestic abuse research back to speed, in that they were realistic about the seriousness of our task, but actively challeninging, and in a positive way. I liked their energy, their enthusiasm to show me around their organisation and Farida asked me to pass her contact details on to the various people we happen to both know, her through her life's problems and me through my race equality work. It's a small world afterall and in Auckland they're proud that it's 4 degrees less than the average 6 degress of separation that connects everyone in this city. Indeed, for me it's only one because I make the most of my connections...

So Shakti told me that they do have 24 hour refuges and don't turn away women who have additional support needs but have no capacity to support these women separately, as we do in the UK. This was a relief. I didn't want to believe that refuges were turning all these women away. Women's refuges are the only way out for these women sometimes. Also heartening was the size of the organisation with approximately 40 staff, it's the same size as Edinburgh Women's Aid and growing, plus a core group of volunteers that are involved in all aspects of their activity. Really looking forward to visiting them and next week on Tuesday I'm going to the Maori refuge...

On Friday I went to visit Man Alive, another very interesting, active organisation challenging domestic violence from the perpetrators perspective. They started in the 1990 out of a need identified by men who understood that a violence free future for male perpetrators was not being supported by the justice system which put them in jail or community service, only to make them even more violent (if in jail) or set-up to repeat history. It seems obvious to us now, but the shock is beginning to wear off that these organisations have only been around in the last 25 odd years, some only in the last 10 years...anyways, Man Alive have 17 groups across New Zealand with hundreds passing through the doors of their base where I visited. Jim, the Director, explained that 90% of clients are mandated from the courts of justice and thus recieve government funding for their counselling, group therapy or support service uses. The other 10% self refer but are required to pay the fees ($60 to $90 per hour) that are not cheap. A barrier that they are overcoming with a staff member dedicated to funding applications and sourcing alternative funding. I was surprised, but pleasantly, to hear that they have a boys group, from 8 to 13years, then young mens, from 14 up, in addition to the expected men's groups.

Historically, as expected, they were shunned by the women's organisation because they refused to employ female staff. As a Community Development Worker, I believe in these circumstances that this is the best empowerment strategy for men who have lacked male role models through their whole lives. Having cut my teeth on the National Union of Students, Black Students' Campaign, I'm all for self-definition and automous governance. It goes back to that parenting responsibility I talked about before; how can you know others if you have yet to know yourself?

So the good news for Man Alive is that they overcame the barrier to accrediting their counsellors by creating their own body for this and are now becoming more accepted in the gender-biased non-profit and statutory violence prevention sector. United we stand; divided we fall and this applies equally across genders in the feminist movement for equality.

A portrait of Tumai Tawhiti, last of the Cannibals

2009-09-28T15:54:00.002+13:00

I haven't really been able to delve into my special interests whilst here and that's not a bad thing. I have gone back to my green roots (I wanted to be a conservationist when I was a child) and been expanding my sphere's of knowledge in the multi-issued intricaties of that which is Community Development Work. But I've been reading up about Maori history and finding the same old story here as in the rest of the world where the British came and plundered. This is a postcard I found at the weekend.

It's a potrait called Tumai Tawhiti The Last of the Cannibals by a famous artisit Charles Goldie. I like it. I don't know why. I just do. And I was curious to find out about this character but all I can find online is info about the artist. Was he really a cannibal or is this just another derogatory labelling of the Other by the colonisers gaze?

On a lighter note: Pikopiko are the 'young curved fern shoots served as a Maori delicacy' ...yet to try them but they sound sweet and delicious. This is them on the cover of my 2010 diary I bought this morning in the city centre. I went to visit Dr. Love Chile, a Community Development policy researcher at Auckland university (AUT). I'm planning for my PhD in the next 4 years. After visiting here and applying unsuccessfully for the Commonwealth Scholarship just before I left, I realise it's something I'd really love to do.

And this is my desk as it is today. Notice the Peace Lily; just like mine in Edinburgh at home, but bigger. That New Zealand sunshine's good for the green growing things...

Tah Dah! Today I planted my first lettuce....now let's see if it grows...

2009-09-25T14:04:00.003+12:00

They grow lettuces hydroponically (without soil and only running water pumped with nutrients) and you buy them with the roots at the supermarket or local farmers shop. So because we have a food garden in the front garden of the office, I thought I'd bring mine in and see if it grows... watch this space...

Last night, San Ting dragged me along to film fundraiser of 'Earth Whisperers', organised by the West Auckland Green Party. I like it because it tells the stories of various political evo-movements in the last 40 odd years of New Zealand history and explores a variety of aspects of human interaction with the natural environment and how it holds the power to nourish us. However, sometimes we give up that power by forgetting it's there; we give up our rights to the land and it's nourishment to companies when we stop growing our own food in our gardens; and we exploit the environment for profit, and in extreme cases, destroy it completely.

Check out the trailer.

How do you measure Happiness?

2009-09-22T17:12:00.001+12:00

Tomorrow I'm facilitating a session with the Job Seekers' Network on Goal Setting that focuses on times of happiness. But how do we measure happiness? No-one can measure its height, its length, its ph balance, its blood pressure. No-one can define its colour, its molecular make-up, even its nature. Yeah, we know endorphins are a hormonal indicator of its presence...but how do we measure it? We can't. It's like love. If I feel happy, then I am happy and no-one else can measure it, besides the size of the smile on my face and the laughter in my eyes but other people show happiness in different ways, so that indicator changes with the person observed. Feelings can't be measured. Feelings move us. And what about animals? I went to Auckland Zoo today and if it wasn't for the fences and human-made structures, you could easily imagine them in the wild. I felt that they looked happy and healthy. Even the tigers. Anyone who saw then would agree.

And I saw a Kiwi bird! It was dark because they're nocturnal so there's only red light and a green line showing the way. It takes a while for the eyes to adjust after being in the ozone free light glare of NZ sunshine (I actually walked into someone!) That made me happy. That and seeing the white rhinos too. Seeing happy animals made me feel happy. Spending time getting to know the teen mums and their babies made me happy too.

A place in the world to belong and a sense of belonging: Balloon People and Cycling in Auckland

2009-09-21T20:21:00.000+12:00

Today was a day of firsts. Community Waitakere received a fleet of (two) bikes at the end of last week from the council (proper fnacy ones) and I was the first to go on them! It's not that surprising considering everyone but me depends on a car to get around. I haven't cycled for a few years; some of you have seen my bike chained at the bottom of the stairs covered in dust...Anyways, on the way out to work there was a slight incline so my legs felt like jelly and tomorrow I'm sure I'll be walking like a penguin. Serves me right for not regularly exercising.

So today's been the first day I facilitated a full session and it was with the Teen mum's group at He Wero, part of Henderson High School who received government funding to extend a Teen Parent's Unit onto the main building which is under construction and won't be ready until next winter here (our summer). They were absorbed in the activity of making balloon people of another mum in the group. I have a feeling that they get bored having no programme of activities that engages them in other ways other than motherhood... in the evaluations they wanted more time creating their balloon people. It went way better than I thought expected. They leanrt more about each other and I learnt loads about them.

A few things that didn't sit right were that the favourite food of a few of them is Burger King and Mac Donalds... they are young and lack life experience living out in the big bad world, but they have tonnes of experience caring for their babies, a different kind of experience but as valuable as every other. I suspect that they enjoyed that it was about them and each other. Being a parent involves sacrifice, a letting go of themselves and their identity to make space for another that's only beginning to take form. But what if those guiding hands haven't yet found their own identity? A place in the world to belong and a sense of belonging too...we never stop learning. The difference is that some of us are more stubborn than others.

YMCA in Auckland, touring the city with Christine

2009-09-20T22:37:00.000+12:00

Christine had been in touch with me weeks before I left for Auckland, and like many others I had made contact with, offered to look after me and pick me up from the airport. My sister is looking after me already but her kindness like that of many others who have welcomed me here, makes this trip evermore meaningful. Those global connections between people with nothing more than working for a common cause are powerful and they are the ones that create change in the world and nurture that hope, that without, I wither.

Christine gifted me with "Mind, Body and Spirit: YMCA Auckland Celebrating 150 years 1855 - 2005" by Colin Taylor and I'm going to get it back to the UK, somehow; the books pretty heavy and I already came with my 20kg limit of luggage...but there's a will so i'll find a way...The book's not available to buy in shops either. I was considering posting it home but it might go missing and I can while away the hours on my 27hr flight home delving into the history.

There's a big difference between the focus of YMCAs in Edinburgh and Auckland however the values have very much in common. Although some of the Ys here are recreation (leisure) centres only, and other are recreation and community centres however both had that community feel. Kid's birthday parties and artwork line the walls and every centre we went to was packed with people who were in all sorts of groups or using the gym and sports facilities and ususally interacting with others. The core values are not Christian per se but they are ones that most religions would promote: Caring, respect, honesty and responsiblity.

It was a lovely day and the weather cleared up too. Take a look at the photos. Shakespear nature reserve, where the YMCA here have a campsite (retreat) was beautiful and San Ting is probably going to go camping there soon.

http://www.nzymca.com/

Every 12 days, a woman or child is murdered in New Zealand; a woman is murdered every six hours, in South Africa.

2009-09-19T23:37:00.000+12:00

I met an interesting woman at Viviana, skeptic and disappointed in New Zealand's domestic violence services, or 'family violence, as they call it here, and the title was the alarming fact she told me. I replied with that little known and more alarming fact that a woman is killed in South Africa every 6 hours. There's always someone else, somewhere else, who has it worse... I'm not sure if there is a higher femicide rate that South Africa's: does anyone know?

Viviana is not a member of the National Collective of Women's Refuges, the equivalent to Scotttish Women's Aid back home, for the following reasons that Membership Rules dictate (however I can't seem to access them from the website so I go by the worker):

refuges can only house women for 2 weeks only
refuges do not accept women with additional support needs
volunteers run refuges with few paid staff

She said they also are fundamentalist feminists, lacking a grounding practical application of their theory and holistic understanding and approach to anti-violence work. Women aren't supported to leave abusive relationships and re-establish new lives with their children; how can you possibly do that in 2 weeks? Maybe you can, but only in exceptional circumstances; most women need more than 2 weeks to break free from the chains of an abusive partner, and even then, it's only the physical chains. The psychological and emotional damage takes sometimes a lifetime to heal, or never...

Anways, she talked disparagingly of New Zealander's and her colleagues' work ethic. While she's comfortable working with women with additional drugs, alcohol, mental health needs, her peers aren't and it's because there is a mentality resistant to change. It's not just about resources, although that is an issue, she said; staff have no training budget but they wouldn't use it even if they did. The only reason she's different is because she's travelled and worked around the world, Ireland, England, Korea, etc. etc. 9 years after, she was horrified when she came back that things had gone back 50 years... I'm not really sure in what ways because she didn't explain.. She did have an interesting take on co-gender prevention group work. When in groups, there can be no collusion. It's probably more difficult, but it's not impossible... group's have cliques and couples and relationships within aren't necessarily equal... when I work in groups there is the attempt to prevent that from happening, definitely however I believe that where there's a will, a way shall be found, or created and if two people want to collude, they'll make it happen... isn't that how doemstic abuse starts?

Back to the refuges:

weekly rent costs $450 to $600 per week, that's approx 200 to 300 pounds, not including bills, living costs so women do receive benefits but they come nowhere near to covering it
women seek refuge so that they recieve priority when applying for council housing with Housing NZ however, unlike Edinburgh, the council have no obligation to house women presenting homeless because of domestic abuse
some refuges at Viviana are not staffed ie. women don't receive support while there and basically have a building (There are only 5 staff, down from 9 when the previous manager left. Not only that, but those staff are on call 24 hrs outside of office hours...unpaid) ... is it better to have volunteers rather than no staff at all...??

So the picture's bleak for women being tortured by their abusive partners in New Zealand. I almost rescheduled the meeting to next week because the 5 staff were snowed under with court appearances at the Family Violence court each Wednesday. They seem to do a lot more legal support and advocacy work for women here... the staff I spoke to was also of the opinion that the Family Violence Unit were biased towards men, as part of a patriarchal society originating from england. She felt that all the men got programmes and support services for them and very little for women. I'm beginning to see her point; fathering week was a big deal and I've heard more about the men's counselling and parenting programmes that I have for women. I thought that this might be correctly directed towards the men as they're the ones who are at fault, but maybe she was expressing a disatisfaction more with the unequal allocation of resources between men's rehabilitation and women's protection, understandably.

This meeting was different from any other I've had with agencies so far. Partly to do with their stretched staff time and resources I guess. Partly to do with this staff's strange contradictory, ambiguous and indignant attitude towards her own sector. While she complained and compared New Zealand to other countries harshly, she wasn't trying to change it. Indeed, she was criticising in others the very short-comings she displayed herself. This woman's possibly been in this field too long. Or maybe her character's just the kind to look at the worst in people and get fixated on them, despite all the good that's there. Shame, because that's the first sure sign of a dying organisation: people tend to leave organisations with a self-defeating culture. People need to celebrate achievements and have visionary focus on change for the better, together. I'm feeling really sad about the anti-violence sector in New Zealand. the more I learn about it..and I haven't even been to the maori refuge yet...

Forget the Mountain Trek, it's swings and roundabouts with the wee ones, teenage mums and the never-been-unemployed-before-middle-class, plus a few randoms

2009-09-17T22:34:00.001+12:00

Ok, so no photos but there will be... firstly, another reason why I'm not homesick yet is that everyone uses the word 'wee' here, I hear it more here than in England!

So today I spent time with a teen parent group in Henderson, and, as is normal with caring responsibilities, there remains a gender bias and its all young women who bring their wee one's to this group. It was quite funny the first time I met them on Tuesday. Averil , the manager had spoken to me on the phone and of course I have a Scottish accent, so when I turned up on the day she didn't expect a small Chinese looking girl to turn up at the door and said to everyone that it's a 'Scottish' girl turning up so that couldn't be me. Then when I came in and said I am the Scottish girl, they were all in giggles for the rest of time. I forget that my Scottish-Chineseness entertains people until this happens but then I forget allover again until the next time.

Back to the development work: the group have a large empty green lawn in the back where they want to create a food garden and soft play area but one that can be packed up at the end of each day, and when they move to their brand new building (currently being extended onto Henderson High School) in the next 12 months. The handful of mums I met today where very caring of their own babies but of each other, mums and babies. My analysis is that they have learnt to care at a young age, in a mothering role, for these babies and that makes them more considerate of others. I started working at the YMCA one month before I left for NZ where I work with, not teen, but mums younger than me, and I was trying to put my finger on it and now I have. The age, experience and parenthood, of these young mum's who accept the responsibility of giving heir lives to the children with immemse tenderness, makes them naturally more community aware. They are feminists in their experience, their choices and the consequences to care for another life and sacfrifice parts of themselves for their children.

These mums still live with their parents, I gather, and like many others have visions of perfect love, marriage with the fathers of their babies or boyfriends since, chirstmas holidays with the best gifts for their kids, shiny cars, beautiful homes and flawless bodies... they get picked at 10 and dropped off at their parents at 3pm, Mon to Friday, and have a weekly early childhod development session, go to a Barnardos parenting group and chill-out the rest of the time in between changing nappies, feeding, napping themselves, watching their babies nap and doing their schoolwork. I wonder where the fathers are: at work, at school, out the picture, in prison? As a practitioner, I've learnt not to wonder too much about supplementary information unless volunteered. Even then, it's sometimes biased, tainted or falsified. What I'm interested in is where they're at, and where they've been if it's still somewhere they haven't let go of yet...

Oh, and another thing is, people try to guess my age. The teen mums though I was between 17 and 21...thanks for the genes mum and dad.

Right, so yesterday, I also met the Job Seekers Network. A whole other kettle of fish. I went along to 'participate' (read 'observe') at their 2 hour weekly meeting in Te Atatu (an hour on public transport: I wish I tried harder to get my license before I left) where the first half is a blur of information about networking events, announcements and job vacancies, intros of new group members and updates from present, previous members and supporters before the break and a guest speaker. I found it quite difficult to sit through the talk by an NLP life-coach talking about how belief is what enabled her to turnover $20,000 per week at her bar. Hmmm, I think social, economic and political factors had an influence on the success of her business... anways, there were people who lapped it up. Maybe they are desparate for some answers, some a magic formula to depression caused by a loss of job/ confidence/ house/ everything they thought they knew about society/ themsleves/ money/ happiness/ any/ all/ of the above??? Maybe, may be not? But at the end, all I know is that this lifecoach suggests she comes back to do a 2 day version of her course, just for the group, at a special rate... when I'm sitting there, as Community Development worker offering support to the group and asking for nothing but the best of themselves. I have no interest in making money out of other in this job, enough to eat, sleep in a warm place and see the important people in my life is enough. Furthermore, the reason why the members are there is precisely because the cars, the house, the money, the job can't get them happiness...

I found the group individualistic and lacking a critical socialist education perspective that it so evidently is yearning for. As a commonwealth country, built on western ideology, it doesn't surprise me. It's a stark contrast to the Young Mum's group...this is where the real work starts, 3 weeks in to my placement, a few frayed nerves later, and disappointments embraced, I can get my teeth sunk into these two projects that are ready to progress

Waitakere City Council's 4 green star building: there's always a story and if you can't find it, you're not looking hard enough...

2009-09-17T21:28:00.002+12:00

This morning, a lovely man called Mark, took me on a one-person tour at the Waitakere City Council building; there's always a story, and if you can't find it, you're not looking hard enough...or walking with your eyes shut...The building was designed on eco-sustainable principles and as a piece of art work.The Council Chamber has an interesting piece of artwork displaying the decimation of the Kauri forests in colonial times, among other bits of history. Apparently this wood floors many buildings in San Francisco, or San Diego...it's been a long day.....anyways, the building is at the fringe of the city centre in Henderson, right beside the train station and central mall (shopping centre) however it supports local business by having not enough seats in the cafeteria as there are staff and not enough car parking spaces with the aim of 'encouraging' public transport use, cycling and walking... I already mentioned the contradiction in Waitakere's Eco-city status but there more to the story it seems. The air-conditioning system cools from floor level rather than the ceiling and doesn't need cooled because its built with concrete that naturally cools it down. The building's roof has a mini wind turbine but it doesn't really catch the wind, Mark said, because of the Waitakere Ranges (hills). They have a massive worm farm, 3 times the size of the one at Vision Waitakere Retirement Village, with massive worm tea/soup/poo bottles to to match! We went to the garden on the rooftop and I forget the technical term but what it does is the different layers absorb and filter the rainwater to reduce the contaminants from traffic etc. as it enters the stormwater channels, much like Project Twin Streams regeneration of the riparians (streamsides) with native species. Saving water, costs and resources required to manage flood water. All rather clever! Mark gave me a better understanding of the Japanese garden role in this process. The garden absorbs more contaminants and like the roof garden, slows the water speed down more, before it finally ends up flushing down the toilets and supplying the sinks.

I'll mention this for thoroughness but it's not the juicier information: the carpets are made from recycle plastic (they don't look like it but so many things can be made out of recycled plastic these days) and are in tiles so parts of it can be replaced rather than recarpeting the whole floor. And there's wood panelling and concrete, all unpainted to reduce maintenance costs, resources and the environmental impact etc.

NB. I have not photos of any of this week because I left the camera at my sisters (DOH!)

Trials and Tribulations (Rantings) of a Community Development Worker... and for the record, I am NOT a social worker

2009-09-14T20:44:00.002+12:00

So here we go...maybe only the CDW of you will really understand these descriptions of expasperated dialogues with those unversed in the jargon...and before you exclaim "But Wing, aren't you meant to be the bridge between the 'top-down' and the 'bottom-up', the 'haves' and the 'have-nots', the 'elite' and the 'marginalised'"? you know the answers are "Yes, Yes and Yes!" ...but when people just don't get it, I can't help but get EXASPERATED!

Community Development is about empowering groups to take control of theirs lives and the world around them through critical refelection with the aim of social action. It is counter hegemonic, it is decentralisation of power, it is empowerment, it is dialogue based on mutual respect and faith in human beings as creators. It values social justice, self-determination, working and learning together, reflective practice, sustainability and participation. It is organic. It embraces change. It turns conflict into opportunity.

I have been trying since I got here to get people thinking about Popular Education. I'm not here to observe. I'm not here to 'fix problems', do a job and leave, or find the answers. I take action to support groups to work themselves through the never-ending process of change to find better ways to achieve the better things only they can define. I never had the answers. I never claimed to. And people have to get out of that individualistic mentality that traps them into thinking as such. No-one has all the answers.

Rant over... and now I think about it, this happens all the time in the UK... only difference is I don't have only 7 weeks to change it...

Super-size Me: Is Bigger, Really Better, for Auckland City?

2009-09-12T13:19:00.002+12:00

"What all sectors have in common is a growing understanding that the outcomes they're interested in are dependent on engaging local residents to solve problems in local communities. Government, universities, and health systems are all rethinking their relationships to community people, seeing them not just as recipients of services but real co-producers and partners in attaining these desired outcomes." John Kretzmen on Asset-Based Community Development.

This CC4A meeting was attended by numerous groups and individuals concerned with the effects of the centralisation of government and power on local communities, including the local deputy mayor of Waitakere City; locals; and mostly non-statutory agencies. It was hosted by Community Waitakere and held in the Corban Arts Etate.

And in direct opposition to this... I recieved this email this morning:

Saturday, September 12, 12.30pm, Assemble Myers Park (off Upper Queen St) to Britomart.

Protest government cuts to night classes: March from Myers Park to Britomart. The government cut 80% of the funding for night classes in this year's budget. From next year most of the 212 schools around the country will cease their night class programmes and more than 200,000 New Zealanders will miss the opportunity to learn new skills, take up hobbies, meet and mix as community members etc. Night classes have been a New Zealand tradition going back 100 years. Join the fightback to preserve adult and community education.

This is Ethan, the 16 month son of the couple whose my homestay. He has more wisdom than us adults sometimes. Live life simply and live it to the full. Most children, unless severely abused, ususally have this predisposition. Adults have a lot to learn from them. Saying that, crying in the middle of the night and throwing food around is not something I'd recommend we take on regularly.

Apparently the money is going to children's classes...have you heard about that riddle of the Man and child in the desert. They're stranded in the desert with one bottle of water, enough for only one of them to travel to civilisation to get help. What's the answer? The same answer the air steward's give you for putting on your overhead breathing mask if you are responsible for a child...

In response to that, I say that I have met some children and young people who live their lives with more principle than some adults. Physical age, just like race, gender, and all other divisive labels, is not indicative of a person's wisdom or strength of character. General rules, like one size, never fits all.

With regards to the super-city, centralisation of government will have its winners and its losers, its benefits and disadvantages, depending on who you are, what you do, where your money comes from and a multitude of other factors. It's part and parcel of that all encompassing process of 'change'. The more accurate question therefore is: 'Who are the winners in the new super-city and is it for the greater good?'

This is the site where the community garden is being established but mainly due to timescale I'm no longer working on it... in the next week, the hope is to establish a link with a new group that's already established. More about that when I know what's happening...

Waitakere City: New Zealand's First eco-city (where people rely on cars and the trains run on DIESEL!)

2009-09-08T19:31:00.004+12:00

Don't get me wrong, this place deserves the title for so many different reasons but it hard to get over the fact I feel I'm losing muscle on around my thighs, bum and probably putting on fat in those areas.... it's like the US: you can't get around this country without a car. The landscape means houses are spaced out, therefore transport infrastructure is practically non-existent. It makes me appreciate Edinburgh Lothian buses extensive bus network all the more (despite the tramworks, but I'm getting off track...).

I visited Vision Waitakere last week on Thursday, the highlight of my week for a number of reasons. Max, a local resident and community leader who lives there with his wife took us on tour of this retirement village which besides having everything you's ever need in it so that you never have to leave, is an amazing example of eco-sustainability.

On the eco-front, they have community gardens which the residents had to fight for. Max told me that it was their involvement with Project Twin Streams at Community Waitakere that inspired them to develop the area outside the village. Project Twin Streams (PTS) supports regeneration of the riparian (stream side) areas by planting native species. This in turn prevents the storm waters polluting the stream. Wendy, the Community Co-ordinator at PTS told me that fish were dying because people were cutting down plants. Another lady told me that food processors were banned too. Rightly so; of course the fish were dying, wouldn't we if we dranks water with shredded food and all sorts of rubbish in it?

Anyways, Max said that after this successful partnership work between Wendy at PTS and the residents of Vision Waitakere, the idea of a community garden in the area above the riparian came out. Then Wendy suggested applying to the council for a water-tank harvester and a grant to make a huge worm farm. Not only this, the village were drastically cutting their waste down so that they no longer needed rubbish bins anymore and put the new worm farm in the old bins location. And they saved money on waste management too.

He told me lots of stoies of empowerment and resistence from authority, in this case the Vision Waitakere Management but the underdogs here seem to win through and stories of the triumpant always make me smile......

I asked Max 'What's your inspiration?' and his face was a picture. 'I don't know what my inspiration is...?'

The Civic Centre and Council Building here is brand shiny new and also 4 star awarded as a green building. I'm going to have a tour next week of there:

Environmental features

• Solar shading

• Rainwater harvesting (for toilets)

• Stormwater filtering

• Use of sustainable and/or recycled construction materials

• Provision of bike racks and showers

Back to Familiar Territory: 'Family Violence' versus Domestic Abuse

2009-09-05T23:46:00.001+12:00

There is no feminist movement in New Zealand. At least, not by my understanding within the anti-violence sector and in comparison to the UK. On Friday, at the end of my first week at Community Waitakere, I went to visit Debbie at WAVES: Waitakere Anti Violence Essential Services, and was shocked at the poor standard of non-profit and statutory support services available in a country that I've been impressed by so far. It's maybe a sign of the high standard of community development work I've seen all this week at Community Waitakere, an enivironmentally focussed community development project; very different from the violence prevention sector.

There are no 24 hour refuges for women and children with additional support needs, whose experiences of domestic abuse are complicated by subtance misuse/addiction, and/or mental health issues or any number of social factors. In fact, the District Health Boards screen women for domestic abuse but if there are additional support needs they are turned away; the state reaches out a helping hand only to take it away after having stirred up hope in the women who need it the most. The state does more damage than good with their empty promises. Every competent Community development worker knows meaningful interventions require long-term holistic approaches to social action.

Debbie then talked about the state's window dressing of the gender neutralising campaign material of the anti-violence strategy from what promoised to be a meaningful action towards challenging domestic abuse. The 'Te Rito' Family Violence Prevention Strategy produced by New Zealand's Ministry of Social Development in Feb 2002. She said that there is a backlash to feminists who mainly belong to the generation older than mine. 'Women are as violent as men' it says in this hand-out she says she is obliged to distribute in her job. The window-dressing happened 5 years ago she said, when the labour government were in power...

Every country has its strengths and weaknesses and that applies to the UK too. Just like people. Politicians who talk the talk and walk away when it comes to action let us down every day in the UK and in NZ. She works with WAVES to train agencies about domestic abuse (DA) and tells me that while referrals to DA services are normal procedure, unlike the UK, there is little partnership working between network agencies and absolutely no attempt by agencies to meet the needs of DA survivors within services. I didn't want to tell her the truth about agencies I visit who have no concept of the spectrum of DA or its impact on survivors because she thinks that we, in the UK, are waaaay ahead of NZ...

She talked about a mental health organisation who got defensive about a DVD they produced called ''he drove me mad' as they took it as a criticism on their lackings. There's a vitally important website it supports women surivivors through also. I have a copy of the DVD to take home to Edinburgh Women's Aid and a copy of another extremely interesting research from the Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice looking at domestic abuse across NZ in the context of international human rights: "It's Not OK: New Zealand's Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women".

Debbie also brought my attention to the the New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse 'the national centre for collating and disseminating information about domestic and family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand'. An amazing resource. I wonder if we have the same thing for Scotland/UK? I was thinking after I left that I forgot to bring leaflets from my work at Edinburgh Women's Aid and that it's a shame because I've come so far and it adds a little something to to a first-time tran-global meeting of like-minded people....I'll remember for next time.

I was blown away by Debbie's kindness and the common interest and experience we have that made us get on instantly. She's agreed to request invitations for me to see a refuge and visit DA agencies via their boards and I hope to go out to do this in the next few weeks, however she said it probably won't be worth trying to organise a visit to a Maori refuge.

So back to familiar territory and it reminded me of what I left behind in Edinburgh and what I'll be going back to in 6 weeks. This week has flown by....

Left-wing, right-wing.... confused Wing : the Auckland Super-city

2009-09-02T20:46:00.001+12:00

There are currently five 'cities' within the city of Auckland and the recently elected right-wing government are amalgamating the 5 boroughs in the next few years. It's been interesting talking to locals about this. The dad of the home-stay family I am living with thinks that the 'super-city' will centralise the transport, health service and policies to make things easier. He said that centralisation has been discussed before but the previous left wing government were resisting change to keep their electorate happy. The mother said she isn't so interested in lcoal governance because she doesn't own her home. The staff at my placement organisation, Community Waitakere, say that while they are not opposed to the super-city itself, the reforms are being bull-dozed by central government... since getting here, I've been trying to get over the jet-lag, so I've not had a chance to do some of my own research and only been getting biased views.

Besides this, I have been living with a lovely local family and lots has been going on at work...but it has to wait cause the jet-lag is killing me....

Guitar Hero: the best method for staving off jet-lag

2009-08-30T19:46:00.002+12:00

I have lots to write about the plane journey and what I did today, the first day of my adventures in Kiwiland, but although my brain wants to be on 8pm, my body is on 9am UK time after the equivalent of an all nighter....must sleep! Guitar hero worked for a short while only.

When I consider bringing my Chinese dictionary to an English Speaking country

2009-08-28T11:55:00.001+12:00

On a plane to Kiwiland...

I'm flying from Glasgow International Airport tomorrow at 1310 and won't have email access for at least 2 days until Sunday, and when I arrive at 525 in the morning, I think I'll spend the day chilling out...... in the meantime, here's the brief for the project I start the day after:

Epping Esplanade Community Garden Concept

Community Waitakere, Project Twin Streams Henderson Creek proposes to establish a community garden in the Epping Esplanade Park. Residents in this area reflect the diversity of ethnicities that is characteristic of Waitakere, with a significant minority of Chinese immigrant households where non English speaking grandparents are involved in childcare while parents work.

Our vision for the garden is not only to establish and manage a community food garden through processes which involve the full participation of members for the supply of fresh, organically grown food, but to create a learning environment which offers practical hands on learning to the wider community. We expect to be offering workshops on all aspects of organic food growing including food forests, composting, water harvesting, and cooking.

We will be inviting residents in the immediate neighbourhood of Buscombe Ave, Epping Rd, Jubaea Place, Hoya Place and Woodford Avenue to participate in this project as well as the two local schools Nga Kakano O Kaihanga Christian Kura and Sunderland School . A community group, Art of Living Meditation Group have the immediate stream bank as their adopted area which they have planted and maintained since 2007 and they are also keen to be involved.

In summary we aim to engage the community in planning and creating a project which aims to achieve the following:-

• to establish and manage a community food garden for the supply of fresh, organically grown food, to members initially with the potential to widen distribution.

• to enhance opportunities for social interaction among members.

• to provide a living classroom for community workshops

• to function as a demonstration model of sustainability and self reliance

• As well as increasing our skills in growing food we are aiming to nurture and grow a sense of belonging and connection between neighbours and residents of Henderson.

Faith

2009-08-28T11:07:00.000+12:00

Is it strange I love my jobs? Is it even stranger that I love them so much I don't want to leave?

I love the work I do because it's about the people, their happiness and their sense of self worth that is central to everything I do. Part of me wants to stay behind, here in Edinburgh, where people need my support....then the same feeling awaits at the close of the 7 weeks in Auckland. There'll be tears when I have to say goodbye: there always is. And I hope that this is just the beginning of a long career, meaningful, hopeful, and contributing to making the world a better place. And I know it is, and will be, as long as I have faith.

Are you excited yet? Not yet.... I just want to get on that plane first!

2009-08-27T11:34:00.000+12:00

I don't know how many people have asked me this question in the last 2 weeks but to be honest, although I can't wait to get stuck in the project, I'm too busy to think about how I feel except that lonely feeling of exhaustion. You know that feeling when you have too many things to do today, tomorrow's to do list is no longer important? I haven't felt stressfully exhausted now as I have since my dissertation deadline..... I am frazzled.

I just finished packing and I want to go to sleep but I have to sort things out with my flights, with flatmates moving in and others out, making arrangements for while I'm away from my 2 jobs for 7/8 weeks, and preparing for work tomorrow. There's no time to think, never mind to think about how I feel. It's only time for action, and it's relentless. Like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I find myself stuck in a heightened state of urgency at risk of being very very late. Unlike the white rabbit, however, I am well organised and forward planning so despite the stress, I've strangely found this part of my journey a lot less stressful than expected.

Don't misunderstand, I am stressed, but the knots in my neck have only started to irritate in the last few days rather than the last 2 weeks as anticipated. When I'm on that plane, I will be excited because I won't be in the thick of this unrelenting work, study, social, family schedule in Edinburgh where I have so much happening for me already...... now the thought of having nothing to do but watch films, sleep and read in peace high up in the sky where no-one can make demands on my energy or time, is what's making me excited! But then I'll be ready for a change after a day of tortoising it and primed to face the Community Development challenge waiting on arrival on Monday. I get on the plane at Heathrow 1615 on Friday 28th August and arrive 525 on the Sunday 30th in Auckland, remembering the time difference, of course. (The longest I've spent on a plane is 11 hours to Hong Kong....long-haul travel is a topic worth a post of it's own.... as is jet-lag... anyone got any tips for surviving either?)

I have this problem with choice. Desparately seeking a camcorder to document my adventure.

2009-08-23T10:00:00.000+12:00

I have this problem with choice.

If there's more than 2 choices, I struggle.

I've been struggling all day to choose a camcorder to take with me to NZ and each time I think I know which kind of camera I want, the less I'm sure that it's the one I'm looking for because I can't try any of them out. All I can do is look at other people's online reviews and read the specfications. I don't trust my imagination. Or other people's opinions. At least not without a subjective perspective of my own to begin from.... I want to have them in front of me, in my hands, so I can play around with them before I make a decision!

But that's not going to happen, so, does anyone have any recommendations for a relatively affordable camcorder to take to NZ, bearing in mind it rains there as much as Scotland: 260 odd days a year (I was told)?

Argos: the bane of indecisiveness

Dixons at heathrow airport: the bane of indecisveness's sidekick

My life for 7 weeks: Project Twin Streams

2009-08-23T09:53:00.000+12:00

It's one week to take-off and I can't wait to get stuck into this project establishing a community garden and living classroom at an organic food farm. It's going to be amazing!!! Check out The Project Twin Streams Website