Penny Govedich

penny.govedich@gmail.com

Who am I? Who was I? And who will I be?

Wow! A year (or even a few months ago) I wouldn't have dreamed that we'd be involved with an intentional community in Costa Rica and planning to live some months a year there. We visited Verdenergia to see what was happening with our daughter and her family (Samantha, Mike, and Willie). We were convinced that not only was it good for them but would be good for us (and I hope good for everyone we interact with).

I've spent my life following various interests. I never knew what "career" I wanted during the years that other women seemed to be pursuing theirs. I worked in "jobs" off and on but always enjoyed being home; although not necessarily doing "home" things (ie. sewing, cooking, etc. - I do like to knit and crochet though) I loved taking college classes, Cultural Anthropology being an early interest. I had married early and after working to pay my way to Okinawa to live with my husband (Steve) who was in the Air Force then, I enjoyed living in a different culture (actually two different cultures: the military and the Japanese.)

When we returned to "the States" I worked for several years to support us while Steve finished his M.S. During that time I also volunteered as a "suicide prevention" counselor and started taking classes that interested me. After Steve received his M.S. we took off for southeastern Colorado. I went to the community college there, taking required classes and discovered that I enjoyed many more subjects than I'd ever thought I would (I'd hated school as a child and teen.) I didn't commit to working on a degree of any sort though and spent some time doing volunteer work with Head Start (which was kind of ironic - Steve would find himself as a director of an all-new Parent-child/Head Start program a few years later.) Soon, I added motherhood to my interests.

During my "motherhood years" I worked outside of home off and on, sometimes for income, sometimes as a volunteer. I'd say my volunteer work was more important to me. I helped develop and coordinate a "hands-on" nature program for 4th graders sponsored by our local Audubon Society for a few years until we turned it over to 4H where it died. I was the editor of Prescott Audubon Society's newletter, Wingtips, for over ten years and am still the webmaster of their web site.

I finally buckled down and completed a couple of Associate degrees at the local Community College - always enjoying learning more about a lot of subjects, my favorites always being social sciences, computer science, and "the natural world". Somewhere along the way I became a bit of a geek when I discovered linux (and try to encourage people to become part of the "open source" community if they are going to use computers.)

Eleven years ago we decided to move out of the small town where we were living because it was growing too much. We bought ten acres of "high desert", juniper-pinyon, limestone ridges on the edge of miles of public lands where we could watch "nature" first-hand all the time. We tried to keep the land as natural as possible and I think we did a pretty good job. We've enjoyed living here, but always "on edge" as land developers began buying up adjacent properties to infringe on our "private nature center"; scraping up the natural folliage and animal habitat to build second and third homes for people who don't need them. (Fortunately, that seems to be on hold, at least for now, with the present economy - that is one good thing about it.)

Now where will life lead? To part-time life at "the farm" and part-time here? I look forward to meeting the rest of the tribe, learning from their interests, and becoming a member of the community. I look forward to learning about the "natural world" in and around the farm. I'm studying Spanish so I can communicate with the Lanas community. Maybe I can use my experience with the hands-on nature program to offer somethng to the children there. I guess we'll see...