2008 Visit - First Impressions

I touched down at Oliver Tambo International Airport for my annual visit to South Africa and immediately it began - trying to get in touch with the pulse, recently quickened by xenophobic violence against immigrants, of the rainbow nation.

I discovered that beneath the kinesthetic charisma of the smile and dance of South Africans lies layers upon layers of uncertainty. About the political process. The ability of its' institutions to withstand assault by those intent only on self-service. About the economy and its' ability to deliver people from the poverty that will inevitably undermine social stability. About the health of our natural resources and their ability to survive wholesale plunder in the name of greed on the one hand and survival on the other.

Now, at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, a body clock still on Pacific time, and with the distant drone of the Indian Ocean surf on the night air, I sit here in the Village Inn and wonder how this ecovillage might offer a glimmer of hope to a beloved country crying anew.

The solution, I'm convinced, lies with ordinary people doing the job, leading by example, showing the way...something a thriving ecovillage might do?

Tomorrow people start arriving for the first Gqunube Green Gathering - owners of 27 erven committed to buying in to this ecovillage dream. How I pray that these capable people, most of them professional and disempowered as individuals on the national stage, are bringing with them the solutions often found within the synergy of the whole! Perhaps the new Tricircle Pavilion can help offer a construct for combining the orthodoxy of faith with an orthodoxy of practise. More on this as the weekend unfolds.