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16 January, 2004 Friends, families, and interested members of the community, Looking back on this first week of Kroka's Vermont semester program, we can truly say that we've been working hard and enjoying ourselves. Since you left us in the yurt, we've started to get to know each other, set a daily schedule, get our gear in order, and find and deal with all sorts of little problems. It is a full time job to simply live a good life. We began the week by setting a schedule and general day flow. You may have seen the beautiful job wheel that Rebecca made. This is how we decide the daily chores. All the chores are around the outside of the wheel and each of our names is on one section of the wheel. At the end of every day, we rotate the wheel one turn clockwise. At the end of the week we skip one job so that we do not have the same chores on the same day every week. The chores are water, cook, firewood, bathroom, and sweep. Two people cook meals, and two people carry firewood for all the dwellings. The other jobs are all one-person jobs. At least one hour a day is spent doing these chores. For some chores, it is more. Our basic daily schedule would go some thing like this: 6:00 a.m. Wakeup callThat is the basic every day schedule for 6 days of the week. Sundays are the exception. We spend Sundays wrapping up the week, tying up loose ends and preparing for a new week. Sundays are also the day when we get ahead or catch up on our main job that we will have for the whole trip. These jobs are a huge part of what we are doing. They are as follows: Director of operations and communications: Emily TurnerWhile we are preparing by working on our main jobs, we are also working on our skiing skills and equipment. We are working on our tent, knives, drawing skills, and math. We are also spending a lot of time looking at how other people undertook trips of similar magnitude, as well as other peoples' point of view on how we are living and what we are doing. Some of us continue to develop our math skills with help from a tutor, Shawna. We have also started classes with Margaret Stearns to learn how to draw. She taught us several different techniques, including contour drawing, and gesture drawing. During lunch, Doug Brooks told us about a nearby quarry where we could go and get soapstone to carve or use as bed heaters. A few days later, he came and brought us some. We are all very thankful. We went on Saturday to make our own knives in the woodshop of Mike Kahout. We got a good start on the blade and handle. On Sunday, Malcolm Moore came to talk to us about his mountaineering trips in Alaska. He presented his slide show and stayed for dinner to continue discussing what it was like and what worked best in the really cold parts and what were the problems. On Monday, Jim Merkel and Rowan Sherwood came to talk about their book Radical Simplicity, and talk about how to reduce our ecological footprint, or how much of the earth's resources we use, and how much of them we deserve. And Tuesday, Susan Keese from VPR came and interview us. Peter Marques also came and helped us to begin to make our tent that we will be living in on the trail. As you can see we have been very busy getting settled in and making our life ready for the next 6 months. We have had amazing help from several people outside of the Kroka community and wonderful help from those inside of it. A huge thank you to all the people that have helped us and are supporting us, this trip, and our dreams. |
| Kroka Village/Programs - 767 Forest Road, Marlow, NH 03456 - phone (603) 835-9087 fax (603) 835-6738 |