24 hours
We started receiving people on Lucia’s first day at school. It was a family return to school after a month in Ghana disconnected from our routines. I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop and the first guests arrived very early in the morning, Marisa and Camila, both Americans, who have settled in Spain. A few minutes later the bus arrived and I accompanied them to the coworking space. I explained to them the first big change we made to the place. We eliminated the parking for visitors when it works as a rural coliving space. We want them to get to know the town and meet the neighbors, to walk through the alleys and to be able to look at the horizon and only see the mountain.
To my surprise, two minutes later they had already taken out two monitors and two laptops. You can tell they work in marketing agencies. At that moment I realized that this was no longer a simple garage but a space for creation and concentration, a productive workplace, a meeting and conversation place. A simple gesture made our dream come true.
Within a few hours, the rest of the people began to arrive and before I knew it, we were already organizing the first dinner. I was surprised by Cristina’s light life with her husband, working remotely from anywhere with projects in the United States. Time flew by, we accompanied each person to their cabin, helped them with their suitcases, explained to them about the internet and the community house, about the farm and some dynamics, and after a while Lulu arrived with the prepared food. We organized a large table in the kitchen of the coworking space, and the experience was so good that we continued to use that space every night for dinner.
Without having spent the first 24 hours, I had deep conversations with different people, like Ian who is leaving his past behind creating startups to fully dedicate himself to meditation, or Felipe focused on sustainability and the circular economy, starting a new life in Barcelona. We went drinking coffee, walking or visiting different corners while we talked. A router was installed when I realized again how incredible the experience was. I had Javier in front of me, an expert in digital communities whom I had met a few months before, and suddenly he was here, we devirtualized ourselves and we were talking.
The impression of each person upon entering their cabin, discovering their new home, was very special. We made several changes in record time; that morning I was still changing the pictures in the houses, removing plastic tablecloths and brightening up the kitchen with a succulent in its ceramic pot. We placed the bikes on some of the porches of the houses and they haven’t stopped using them for a single day. It was nice to discover so many things in common with some people, like with Paco, with whom we are motivated by regeneration, as well as sharing some friends. With Miguel, an expert in branding, we also have a friend in common, with whom I went surfing the other day.
That afternoon I went to pick up some people by car in the company of others, finding that space to get to know each other very valuable. I loved the arrival of Eukene, whom we met recently. He left his job in Brussels and helped us document the experience. Or sharing again with Gabriela, one of the entrepreneurs from The Break program who stayed to live in the region and who collaborates with us. From an Argentine to a Uruguayan, a person from the USA and another from Brazil, several Spanish people and a couple of Mexicans, a girl from Romania and a boy from the Philippines, we seem like the United Nations. The best thing is the diversity that we also achieve with age, since we have people over 50 and others around 30.
In these first days they have already traveled along the greenway, they have climbed the Piedrona route, we have bathed in the river, we have picked pears and fixed the garden a bit, they have helped us with the chickens and the rabbits, there was a Pizza night and the first after-dinner chats, even last night we had the first Seed Talk after dinner. I remember talking about purpose in those first hours with Fernando who works at the World Bank, a great life story. Or the project to connect migrants with local people, which Pablo is starting as a social entrepreneur, a brave and very pertinent initiative.
And you… What are you waiting for to come work remotely, learn about how to generate a positive impact on society and connect with a community in the middle of nature?
