Page 17 - C.A.L.L. #46 - Summer 2020

State of emergency - What about communities?

How are people in (other) communities doing in times of contact prohibitions and distance
rules? As a resident of Sieben Linden Ecovillage, I asked myself this question and assumed
that our readers are interested in it as well. So I wrote to all the communities that present
themselves in the current edition of the eurotopia Directory and asked about it.

Although similar regulations apply to people in communities all over the world, our

"households" sometimes include dozens of people, and our contacts to "the outside world"
can often be regulated so well that a community can almost be quarantined without having to
change its everyday life too much. In many communities, children are looked after together
at times when schools are closed - they live together in a dense space anyway, often as if in a
common quarantine. And if isolation outside school hours is not possible, it would also be
pointless for home schooling.

Often the official guidelines are implemented to a large extent, but cooking continues for
everyone and sometimes meetings or sports activities continue to take place within the
community - sometimes at a distance. One German community wrote quite openly in their last

newsletter that they "move closer together instead of keeping their distance" - so far there
have been no legal consequences to admit this openly, even though it might be against German
regulations (it’s not clear if government authorities would accept communities as a household
or as several households; in the latter case they would be obliged to keep a distance.
Obviously, nobody wants to ask…)

One answer to my mail to the communities was: "...I am sure that you too will continue to take
each other in your arms in Sieben Linden, ... maybe a little less often, but not less warmly
because of that…"

Distancing! In fact, we only embrace each other within the groups in which we live closely
together anyway. The 1.5 m distance has already become a habit for me when I walk through

the village (which I have to sometimes, because we share pantry, washing machine, mail
corner and much more). At the moment I'm pondering back and forth whether I may meet a
girlfriend who is not part of my "reference group" - so you could say: We take the whole
thing quite seriously at Sieben Linden. We are also affected economically. Like many
communities, we offer a wide range of opportunities to get to know our community as well as
seminars, which usually keeps many people in paid employment; in addition, volunteers are
employed in the educational sector (Voluntary Ecological Year, Federal Voluntary Service,
European Voluntary Service). We hope that we will be able to make ends meet with financial
aid for which we are eligible (thank you, government!) - and the volunteers may help on the
construction site of our guesthouse instead of setting up breakfast for guests. In any case,

there will be enough to do for many more weeks.

Some reports from the communities display frustration. Anton Marks from Kibbutz Mishol
writes:

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