This is a survival protocol for everyone who decided to stay in Sende. The most important 4 minute read ever written on this mountain. Please read it.
1. Give love to neighbours There are only 20 villagers living here, mostly 75+ years old. They love when you stop and chat with them.
2. Sende attitude works like this: If you see someone carrying something heavy, jump and help out. Next time that you carry something heavy someone will help you. Please embrace this attitude on everything else. Someone struggles? Help out.
3. If you see a job, it’s yours. You are walking around and you see the garbage bin on the ground. Please, just lift the bin, pick the garbage and return it to the bin instead of making drama about one simple problem while posting a photo of this garbage in the group.
When each one of us does one small thing each day you will enjoy so much your experience in Sende because everything will just work.
There are people who have a problem for every solution. Try not to be one of them, it is good for you.
4. Share. You are having a dinner, and there is one last but very small piece of delicious cake on the table. You really want it, but the person in front of you wants it too.
Instead of being very fast to eat it, take the knife and split it on 2 smaller pieces. Like this you will make a friend. Use the same attitude in sharing everything else (your know-how, career advices, skills, deliver a Hat talk...). Everyone learns so much when everyone shares.
5. Always set up the dinner table for a slow food meal. Place a plate, a knife, a fork, a napkin, a glass, and a spoon if needed. Fill up 2 jars of water on the fountain, and bring out the wine. Wipe tables with wet cloth before the dinner, and after the dinner too. We start eating when everyone is at table. It is ok to eat tapas earlier. Put some music in the background too.
Dinners in Sende are very important. It’s time when we all meet to chat and to take a rest from the work. We eat slowly, enjoy the food, and chat with others.
If we don’t set up table for the long dinner, then dinner will end very fast. And that would be sad. If you don't feel like having dinner with others, that's ok.
6. Never push people to do stuff. You are hosting a movie night and you want others to join? Just tell everyone about your movie and who feels like will join. You may attract people with your activities, but never push.
7. Cook or help cooking. Everyone prepares their own breakfast and lunch (you may also share lunch with others), but dinners are cooked in small teams. Please apply to cook at least one dinner per week with someone. You don’ t cook? Then join as a helper. Every night someone will prepare a nice gourmet dish for you, and other night you will do it for others.
When you don’t cook, please set up the table, and clean the dishes after. Cooking is fun. It’s a life skill too. You may even learn cooking in Sende.
8. Use shopping lists
Please use shopping lists (on the fridge in the kitchen) to order ingredients for your breakfasts and lunches.
And then please use the dinner shopping (on the kitchen blue doors) to write separately ingredients for the dinner which you are cooking with a team.
We go once a week to do a shopping for the whole week so please plan accordingly. Let's try to cook food with seasonal ingredients and maybe less international food with difficult to find spices.
However we go once or twice a month to the huge supermarket in Ourense (for international food, e.g. Asian recipes). Also, check the spice shelf in the kitchen, plenty of variety there.
9. Always, but always clean after yourself. You make scramble eggs in the morning, and you leave the cooking tools dirty? That’s a big no, no. Please clean after use. Please clean after use. Please clean after use.
If not, other person will come and they will need your dirty pan. This can cause conflict. Conflicts are bad.
10. Build. Sende is experimental village. Use it to build your projects, prototypes, create art, or help others build stuff. Building in small teams is faster and better. Smalls teams have 2 members, maximum 3. Ask other for a quick feedback.
11. Return each tool that you touch. We are building a tool workshop so you can experiment and build stuff. But, never bring tools outside of workshop. And if you do it, return each tool to its own spot after one hour. Each tool has it’s own spot.
Same rule applies for the office material. If you use something, please return it on the same spot.
Except if you use a dead pen. Throw dead pen to the garbage.
12. Simple coworking rules: When other people work with their earphones on that means: “Please don’t disturb”.
If you do a meeting in any public space of Sende, please put your earphones and never ever put your meeting on a loud speaker. That is a sure way to lose friends around you.
Also, please don’t be very loud on your meetings.
A quick suggestions for meetings, consider switching video meetings to audio-call-only and finish that job with a good old phone call. It lasts shorter and you can walk in nature and talk.
Video meetings tie you to the screen and the chair. Meetings are horrible. Try to escape meetings. Unless you need to share screen constantly and to fix things with your team in the real time.
13. Be inclusive. Communicate in a language that others speak. Help new people adapt during their first days.
14. Daily tasks:
a) Please bring the garbage (from kitchen and garden) to the green dumsters located on the main road. Feel free to use wooden green car/wheels to transport it.
b) Set the table (see the protocol number 5), lift the table, clean after yourself.
Thank you for reading and respecting these rules.
Thank you for reading and respecting these rules.
