We have just had two fascinating visitors come to stay for two days from the UK. They are our ‘global travel experience’.
1. [u]Genealogy[/u]
These are the second lot of recent Servas visitors who have brought us a family history gift. The last ones lived within 10 kms of the tiny hamlet on the southern Victorian coast where my great-great grandparents lived.
These ones live within 10 kilometres of where my great-great-great grandparents lived in Cornwall in the UK. They went to the church where there are a lot of ancestors buried and took a lot of photos and also photos of the old family farm and they have brought them as a gift.
2. [u]Top climate science and policy perspectives[/u]
It is not everyday that you have people come to stay who have had leading roles in national climate policy and science but this couple fall exactly into that category for the UK. Suddenly we have had a front-row seat to the inside story of what is happening in the UK and how the science and policy debates have been unfolding there. We have also felt valued by them – we’re not doing a bad job on keeping abreast of developments and bringing them to a local focus here. Valuable to have that affirmation. Discussions over the breakfast and dinner table have been absolutely vibrant. Amazing.
3. [u]Poetry and song[/u]
Jackie is an excellent poet and Roger a delightful singer of traditional folk-songs to guitar. Roger pounced on John’s guitar which is a good one and played and recorded for Radio YYY listeners. Jackie also recorded a series of her poems which are on a range of themes with profound understanding. Having visitors come bringing the gifts of their culture and creative talents and then leaving them with our valley community as recordings that we can all listen to is an aspect of “Local Tourism” that seems to keep happening.
4. [u]Tour of The Grove[/u]
Yesterday we took them on a drive around the “border” of The Grove. We started out driving over Lochinvar Rd then circled back to Samford Rd and re-entered our valley then turned left up Patricks Rd along Plucks Rd down Dawson Pde then over Settlement Rd to Mt Nebo Rd. We visited Yooralla St Community Garden in The Gap then went to Walkabout Creek zoo and saw the quoll the platypus the wombat the kangaroos and other animals and walked down the Eucaryia Track to the Enoggera Reservoir. Then we continued out Mt Nebo Rd detoured down Brompton Rd continued along to Camp Mountain and looked at the views from the lookouts there then came home via Mt Nebo and down through all the forests through Samford.
It was certainly a wonderful afternoon and having visitors encourages us to do it. Having the car full of people is also better use of the petrol than the car half full of people.
5. [u]Community meeting[/u]
Jackie and Roger are going to Crystal Waters Eco-Village up at Maleny and visiting distant relatives. They are part of an Eco-Community (Co-housing) in Cornwall and having been key players in setting it up have a lot of knowledge to share about co-housing.
They are returning to The Grove this coming Monday to give a talk at the Ferny Grove State High School Resource Centre on the Transition movement in the UK. They are part of a Transition Town in the UK and have also had good contact with the original founder of the Transition movement Rob Hopkins.
6. [u]Gardening and reed beds[/u]
Jackie and Roger will be staying a little longer here and they have asked if they can get out in the garden have a garden tour of the food forest and do some work in the garden. Roger knows quite a lot about reed beds and we have asked him to have a look at our reed-pond. There is always a lot that can be done in the garden especially after all the summer rains so we are very much looking forward to them getting physical.
7. [u]Hospitality[/u]
Having house-guests stay for a few days is always a lovely opportunity to play hospitality. The house gets a (little bit) spruce-up. We buy and cook some treats that are nice for us as well as for guests. We sit around over wine or tea/coffee and cakes and have great discussions. Breakfast is a full-scale affair and an excuse for the full bacon eggs mushrooms tomatoes toast & marmalade etc. Jackie made a golden syrup pudding and it appeared as if by magic (we’ll get the recipe).
8. [u]A window into life and culture elsewhere[/u]
One of the first things we notice with our Servas visitors from overseas is that they do not seem foreign. They are more like us than many people here! Our ancestors share a common ethnic heritage and it shows. They tell us about what life is like where they live. The weather here is cool and crisp but fine. We have good doonas on the beds. For them it is the equivalent of a summer day. They tell us about Cornwall the economy in Britain (they are very concerned about the global financial situation) integration of multi-ethnic communities in the UK the lifestyle in their co-housing community. We discuss oil and energy and sustainable energy options a lot – the debate is advancing fast in the UK. Jackie runs workshops for people to develop scenarios for sustainable energy futures for their regions. They sound fun and effective. We wish she could run some here. We debate for hours about how to make energy supply sustainable. They talk about dying – a friend who has breast cancer. Education of women. The role of men – Jackie is campaigning for men’s role as wise dominant community players. We talk about alcohol food urban versus rural communities…
9. [u]OXFAM GROW campaign launch The Hills Uniting Church Men’s Shed and a walk by Kedron Brook[/u]
As always with Servas we take our visitors to events happening that we would normally go to ourselves. So we all head off together into the city by train to the launch of OXFAM’s GROW campaign and afterwards we discuss world food security is detail in our four-pod on the train home. Next day John takes Roger along to The Hills Uniting Church Men’s Shed day on men’s health and they have checks and mingle and hear talks. At dawn they all head off with John for his regular ramble up Kedron Brook to his favorite haunts returning delighted with the local environment and ready for breakfast. Later in the day they listen to podcasts of some Transition The Grove Hour interviews and talks.
It is lovely to share with people who are delighting in the experience.
Servas is a world peace organisation. By providing hospitality and sharing making friends and discussing deeply we remove barriers to trust and understanding. For us it is the best form of tourism. We are sure our visitors will go home to their community the richer for having stayed here and they will take away ideas and understandings that they will weave into their lives there. We are all part of making one world better.