Written by Tes.

I’ve been living here at Kotare for 4 years now, Since August so you may have seen my name pop up here and there if you have followed Kotare Village for a while.

I’m Tes, I was born in NZ and have family mostly in Tauranga, as well around Aotearoa and the world..

I live in a 1980’s Bedford school bus with Shaked and Geshem on our section.

My day currently fits a weekly routine where one of us cooks eggs with lots of butter for breakfast and makes a pot of herb tea.. then we all go to work with Geshem and I feeding three rabbits and 10 Chooks before taking a walk to check out what else needs attention..We might head to the Koanga Institute Urban Garden to check the seedlings or maybe check in with the office to make plans with someone who I want to meet with in the afternoon. Three days a week I cook soup for a shared lunch and Thursdays I cook dinner for everyone for after seed packing at Koanga. After lunch we swap and Geshem goes off with Shaked and I spend my afternoon doing all sorts of odd jobs, for Koanga as well as the village or just stuff for us.. I could be answering question on email, skypeing people, writing stuff like this, gardening, sending seeds out to customers, gathering herbs, making herbal preparations for people, cooking, cleaning, reading and sometimes just sitting in a quiet spot.

In general I keep busy and always have something on, sometimes its great and sometimes a bit tiring but that seems to be the way things are, mostly I feel pretty privileged to have access to the clean water, the land and the air here.. I believe this is what’s really important for me, that is why i’m here, living my life at Kotare.