Casa Robino

greetings!

my name is Sky. I found Robino on bewelcome.com. I've spent a little time checking out this site and the house-wiki, and I'm very intrigued. Robino suggested I create a username and introduce myself. This seems to be the best place to do that, so here goes!

I'm from the U.S. (whenever I'm abroad I always feel like I should apologize when I tell people that.) I've spent most of my adult life living in alternative and counter-culture settings, particularly intentional communities, and particularly Twin Oaks Community , a 100 person, 42 yr old commune based on egalitarianism and non-violence, located in Virginia, U.S.A.

My partner Kassia and I have recently left Twin Oaks and have been on something of an informal research tour of interesting communities and other cool projects in select cities in the U.S. Now we have this opportunity to be in Europe to do more of the same. Casa Robino seems to be an example of the kind of thing we're looking for.

I arrived in the Netherlands about a week ago, and Kassia will be joining me in about a week. Currently I'm traveling with several other people who are my intentional family. There are three adults (myself, Hawina - the mom, and Pax - my co-dad) co-parenting one 6 yr old boy named Willow. Hawina is Dutch, which is the primary reason why we've made this journey across the atlantic puddle. Suffice to say, we're a complex crew and I can't really explain it all in this post. I have a couple blog posts that explain the situation in more depth if you're interested (or concerned ;0)
http://peacewithinchaos.blogspot.com/2007/11/feeling-of-family.html
http://peacewithinchaos.blogspot.com/2008/04/trouble-with-labels.html

To say a bit more about what Kassia and I are looking for... We're going to be starting something of an urban commune in the city nearest Twin Oaks. We're also interested in helping form a range of other cooperative groups serving various social and economic functions. We want to bring the basic idea of Twin Oaks (i.e. a cooperative, egalitarian, and self-governed social welfare network that provides for all basic needs of it's members) to an urban setting. So, we've been seeking out and exploring all kinds of different examples, from urban agriculture projects, to NGO's focusing on turning waste-streams into community resources and income, to collective households, to collective performance and events venues... the list goes on. Kassia and I are in the process of putting together a slideshow presentation of the various places and projects we've visited over the last 9 months.

Practically speaking, Kassia and I are looking for a place to stay in Amsterdam from the 14th of this month (october '08) until the 22, and then again from 30 October until 2 November (Pax, Hawina, and Willow have a place set up somewhere else in the city, but maybe be interested in visiting - I'll be staying with them until the 14th.) We are very experienced house-guests. We like pitching in where ever we stay. We especially like to cook. Again, this place seems to be a great example of a cooperative social experiment and we'd love to check it out.

in community,
sb*