How do we live? Click a picture to enhance it. Blue text = a clickable link. Green text - see footnote.How do we live in our world? Lightly? Heavily? Since the middle of last year I have been deep into Ngaio Repair Cafe, a free project run in and by Ngaio Union Church. I'm the coordinator and a member of the organising committee. In essence a Repair Cafe encourages all of us to repair if we can, rather than throw things away. 'Live in our world lightly' is the message. Living in our world heavily is the habit of buying lots, throwing away lots and buying lots more. With so much having to be thrown away in those parts of New Zealand devastated by rain and wind during the last week or two, arguably, there is even more incentive to prevent waste in areas not so afflicted. The first Repair Cafe, 2009, was the brainchild of Martine Postma, a Dutch environmentalist worried as a young mother by all the goods she saw being thrown away. The idea caught on, the Repair Cafe International Foundation was formed and now has Repair Cafes in many countries. Two sets of volunteersNgaio Repair Cafe, after two or three months of preparation, opened in October last year, and has opened three times since. By various means we recruited people from the local area who are competent in electrics, electronics, sewing and general maintenance. We also recruited volunteers who look after morning tea. It is a Repair Cafe, not just a repair workshop. Repairing and showingRepairers not only repair but show how to repair – an important part of the Repair Cafe philosophy.
Something specialAs we can see, the items brought in last Saturday, are mostly general utilitarian – stuff we all have in our houses. But now and then someone brings in something special, something nostalgic. An old jewellery box came in one day – tarnished, broken, decrepit. Dennis, took it and started to work. He didn't have the brass nails he needed, so with the owner's permission he took the box home, imported the little nails and slowly tapped, straightened and cleaned until it began to look as it may have looked when the owner's mother bought it while she was on military service in Cairo during the second world war. Is the mood changing?
John McInnes Friday 24 February 2023 Footnote: The green text is from a story of mine in The Indpendent Herald Thursday 23 February 2023. Photo credit: All photos by Creatif Kate ##########
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