NHESP 2009 Update 1

Hello everyone!

It has been over a week since we arrived here at Kroka. So much has happened, I don’t even know where to begin.

I guess I will start by introducing myself. My name is April Littell, and I will be writing the weekly updates for the 2009 New Hampshire - Ecuador Semester. I am 19 years old and the only student here who has never attended school. I’ve always followed my own interests and passions, which include farming, wilderness living, designing and creating things, spirituality, food and cooking, the list goes on and on. I am very excited and happy to be getting involved with Kroka and connecting with the like-minded people I find here.

Imagine, a group of young people from all different walks of life. Naturally it has been a little bit of a rough start, getting used to living with simplified needs and in such a close knit group. At first, we were pretty discordant. The first night when we were all in the big yurt, our classroom and meeting place, everyone picked up a different instrument and started playing a different song. It sounded awful! But slowly we are starting to get in tune with each other and learning to sing and play in harmony. We really are all for one and one for all.

We are twelve students in our group, 2 lead teachers and 2 assistant teachers. Our teachers are some of the most caring people I’ve ever met. They are all really cool and wise beyond their years.

We are still in the beginning stages of forming what has the makings to be a very powerful and supportive community. Every morning we wake up at dawn and start the day with chores. We rotate between cooking, getting water, farm chores, gathering and splitting wood, and gardening. It is brilliant waking up to a beautiful sunrise and the smell of the cold fresh morning air. Most mornings, after chores and before breakfast, we bike to nearby Gustin Pond for an early morning swim. It is so beautiful and enchanting to see the mist swirling over the water. Sometimes on chilly mornings, jumping in the water is the last thing you want to do but once you get in, it feels really good. By the time we arrive back to camp the cooks are ready to serve us a hot tasty breakfast. A couple of mornings we had yoga class instead of biking. It felt good to relax and stretch our bodies and learn of the benefits of yoga and meditation. (Thank you Nicole!)

All of our meals are cooked over an open fire. All our water we carry up to the camp in buckets. Eating together is a big part of the day and we always begin with a song and a moment of silence.
The food has been “muy delicioso”, and a lot of it comes from the garden here. I am pretty excited because yesterday Ross went to Pitcher Mountain Farm for some meat, which many of us are craving for.

Our days have been packed with chores, lessons, and projects. The projects started small with sewing our own pillows. Next we carved wooden spoons, from which we’ll be eating all of our meals with for the rest of the semester. We have almost finished sewing our own backpacks. Learning to work with the sewing machines was challenging for a lot of people, but in the end we all have made something we can be proud of. Our next project is designing and building a wood shed, as well as incorporating some timbers that we have cut from the forest here.

We have regular lessons, both with our main teachers and with guest teachers. Lily taught us to sharpen our knives, and Marcea is teaching us Spanish. We have had classes on soil science and done some soil and compost testing with Marina Belenky, who teaches at Brandeis University in Boston. We’ve learned from Lisl about weather science and how weather works. We’ve also been learning about forestry and bike stuff from Ross. Thomas has been teaching about permaculture and he shares with us ideas about living in community. My mom (Sandy Littell) came and talked about nutrition, and we’ve started to incorporate some of the principles we’ve learned into our cooking. Misha is teaching us about watersheds and the water cycle, and of course the forest. He is also going to teach us to make birch bark baskets. The other day Misha took us for a long trek through the woods and swamps across the Grassy Brook flats to gather spruce roots for sewing our baskets. We had to wade through chest deep water and muck, and through beautiful rustling dry grasses and sedges. It was unbelievably fun. On our walk Susanna found some clay and spread it across her face. I was walking ahead of her, and I jumped up a foot when I turned around looking at this gray-faced little wood sprite behind me. By the time we returned home with our spruce roots we had a new appreciation of the water and forest.

On Saturday we had our first “big” expedition. We walked seven miles through the woods to Bill and Katie’s house in Gilsum, NH. It was fun and exciting to find our way through the woods. Joey, our Navigator, did an admirable job of not getting us completely lost. We mostly followed the brooks and swamps because water is a good reliable landmark. Finally, we arrived at their house. Katie is a Waldorf teacher and Bill is the famous “Badger Bill” of the Badger Balm Company (at least that’s what I have known him as a kid growing up in Gilsum.) We stacked and split some wood for them, and in exchange they fed us a delicious dinner.

Katie taught us some new songs, and Bill told stories. We each got to take our first shower in over a week. Everyone exclaimed about how much they

now appreciated hot running water, after a week of bathing in ponds and icy cold streams.

This week we are on a weeklong expedition, bringing only what we can carry on our bikes. We are riding to various farms, camping and working at each one for a day or so. Everyone is busily preparing while Hannah Miller is stepping into her role as Food Manager, trying to plan out and pack our food for the trip.

Enjoy!
Until next week when we return from our adventure, Hasta luego!
For the New Hampshire-Ecuador Semester 2009, this is April, the scribe.