Casa Robino

Once upon a time, there was a man on the road. He meet a poor man, he invite him in his home. I am very happy that you are here !

Taking my break last winter I had quite some free time to float around and recap. So I also used my time to write for shareable.net the article Every Guest a Host on what this casa is all about: What is it that makes me wanna do this, why do people like it so much, and what are the little things that make it a challenge to live here?

But more important, how do I find the right words to actually describe something that is so fluid, so creative and so dynamic? Is it possible? Well, let's say I got pretty far with this article and that for a large part it sums up at least how it feels.

Late afternoon, Friday and the doorbel rings. It is the mailman, "Hi, is this Casa Robino, I have a package for you". I feel surprised and wonder what it would be as I walk down to the front-door. The amazement grows tremendously as soon as I open the door and see the mailman with a GIANT package in his arms.

While walking back up, my excitement increases too. What could it be? What would be in it? While I slowly walk the stairs I check the box but there is nothing really on the square thing that reveals its contents; I can hardly wait to know and the curiosity grows even more.

It is almost 4 AM and while reasonable people would be heading off to bed, this is a life style which inspires “unreasonable” behavior. Some vignettes:

Great introduction video made by people involved in what we here sometimes call the "Talinn House".

They are currently in progress of making a website with tools (based on Drupal7) to enable communities to come more together. I am sure you will hear more about this later!

More info at http://communitytools.info/about-us/

Two years ago we introduced the concept of "sustainable hospitality exchange", as an approach to understand hospitality and as a framework to see how we can be hospitatible 'sustainably': on a personal level (that we can remain hospitable), on a group level (host-guest relationships) and on a network level (the social networks behind hospitality exchange).

Late at night it's slightly cooler than during the day, birds from the forest speak together.
Running water has been cut for some days now so I go to public shower.
It is a waterfall which die into the river, it has been converted into a shower with the addition of a concrete basement.
Down is the big river coming from the Andes and running in direction of Amazonia, I can see it's brown gleams.
Washerwomen are working together few meters away.
The waterfall beat my skin, there is a smell of humidity, a light drizzle also.
I'm drying myself, suddenly a huge warm rain comes.

Somewhere in Bolivia between Cochabamba and Sucre

When I get out of the car, I see nobody on the place, is that a ghost village? I ask a kid; ¿Que pasa aca? He tells me to go to the cemetery. Sure! now I remember, today is "dia de todos los santos". We have it also in France. Over there it is a boring rainy day where you put some expensive flowers on graveyards.

when:
Tuesday April 28, 2009 19:00>21:00ish

where:
Henriette Ronnerplein 5 - III (no bell)
Amsterdam
[little square somewhere between Van Woustraat, Joseph Israelkade and Ferdinand Bolstraat - better to google it up!]

Guys! Men! Male power!

In this mood of spring cleaning, let's meet for a clothes swapping evening for guys.

To get rid of the shirt that your ex-girlfriend got you (that you have always found ugly), to change the colors that we wear, to refresh style and look outside (and inside)...