Sharing can Save Us

Sharing homes & community JHC early years in NC

Sharing stuff is a great way to protect our environment.  For example: when our Community was at its largest number... 20+ people (only 3 were children)..., we had one lawn mower, 4-5 cars depending on what was running, 3 houses, 3 washing machines and 2 dyers, 3 refrigerators,  2 freezers, and no dishwashers.  One of the houses was where the night-time staff for the shelters lived, which means it was a working home.

The three shelters had 2 washing machines, 2 dryers, 1 dishwasher, 1 commercial stove and 1 regular stove, 4-5 refrigerators and 3 freezers, and the mower and the community used also was used in the work of the shelters.   We pooled all groceries together so we all ate cheaply. The shelters grew until they housed more than 20 people per night.

When I go to see my mother in SC, her home is on a cul-de-sac, there are 6 houses on that cul-de-sac.  Two homes are families with 2 children; the rest have 2 people in each home.  Except for Mama's home, each house has - at least - two cars, some three.  Each house has a mower and edger ( Mama, my brother, nephew, and in-laws share a monster of a mower and weed wacker).  Each house has a washer and dryer because clothes lines are not allowed.  I suspect each has a dishwasher.

Besides not needing as much if you share, there is a camaraderie in sharing.  If all the people in Mama's cul-de-sac shared mowers, then they would have to work together and get to know each other.  Mama tried several times just to get her neighbors and those on her street to come to the house as a group.  As a whole, they were not interested.

Working together means that you start helping each other.

I admit that here in Nicaragua we do not know our neighbors across the street very well.  When we moved here, we were geographically isolated.  By the time neighbors came to us as Ciudad Sandino expanded, we were swamped with work and delegations and volunteers and getting to know more people was just too much.  But we still share within our Community and our work.  

The CDCA has three fuel efficient cars for 9 people, 1 car for Paul, Becca and the girls to get up to their village and three working 4 by 4 vehicles for volunteers, delegations, construction work, etc. and one 4 x 4 that only goes to and from the clinic...it is on its last legs.

JHC food sharing today

We have two washing machines for our community and no dryer or dishwashers.  One of our staff has a mower and weed wacker and we pay him every once in awhile to cut the growth. We pool most of our groceries together so we feed people fairly cheaply.

Pooling resources is good for the environment and good for the soul.  Helping each other out means that when you need help it is not so hard to ask for it  or to give it.  So much of the culture in the U.S. is individualism and getting what I and my family...and only what I and my family...needs or wants.  

In poorer countries that is not the case.  Why?  Because without each other death is close at hand.  

For the earth, sharing makes sense.  Becoming more of a community with our neighbors, our larger surrounding area, with the world is the way we survive as a species, because death is close at hand. - Kathleen