It’s been a week today since I’ve landed in our little prototype co-working co-living space. A lot has happened. I feel like I’ve been here for months already 
First of all, the first week of my stay was marked by constant arrivals and departures. Many of the residents went back to their countries to work on their regular jobs or renew visas. There was a parade of guests and passers-by as well, providing us with a lot of unforgettable moments, but didn’t help to establish a routine. It took me a few days of introductions, movie screenings, late dinners, bicycle rides, morning sport, cooking sessions and visits to Essaouira, to finally feel like I’ve satisfied my need of an explorer and a social being to finally sit down and really concentrate on work. We’ve had a fantastic night with a couple of musicians who dropped by our home and played a concert for us - pure pure magic. It was an unplugged, singer-songwritter night with two duos with both quite different estetics and energies. We’ve got plenty of Cohen’s, Fleetwood Mac’s and Amy Winehouses, in excellent interpretations. Beautiful!
We’ve been also visited by a fellow nomad, Esteban, who travels around the world and makes ends meet with some juggling, playing and social work. We’ve hosted a couple of friends from Germany who intern in Marrakesh at the moment - at the hospital and in a permaculture project. All these meetings brought a lot of energy and great discussions to the house.
Now I can tell it seems possible - to work in a community, share one home and quite successfully carve out space and time for both living and working, together and individually. Right now, as we’re back to a modest size, it’s even easier. We know who’s cooking and cleaning, we’ve learned the efficient shopping, and we juggle very well moments when we sit down over unpeeled coffee beans or lunch to talk and spend time together.
In terms of work we’re doing on our own projects, there are a few ideas we’re collectively and individually developing. There is the very interesting business idea of @Sofien-Dahem who’s trying to establish a nomadic project that will document and modernize traditional African crafts. So far, we couldn’t help with much - and his idea seems pretty decently developed, based on his experience in a similar project before. Yet we could have helped him with finding the right place to register his company by recommending him Estonia and it’s e-residency.
@HadeerGhareeb is struggling with intriguing Moroccan bureaucracy that makes it difficult to organize workshops in schools or even with volunteers from local organizations. She’s planning on making an art project from waste - there’s plenty of material around (Brrrrr), and we’re now trying to both get the confirmations from authorities but also find alternatives to make it happen, in case there is no permission anytime soon.
@islem will tell us tonight in detail about her idea of opening a coworking space in her town in Tunisia. This might be where my support can be a bit more visible, as I’ve been busy for the past 10 days sparking interest in my Polish friends and then working on several applications to open a coworking space in Lublin. This is an exercise for us - the city offers a decently sized office space in the center with a grant of 40.000 zl (a bit under 10.000 eur) to be used between may 2017 and the end of the year, to test ideas for social businesses and coworking space. I’ve teamed up with a bunch of great old friends who are active in human rights, education, and arts in Lublin and who dream of a space we’d have for our use. The application is bloody simple and fast, and it would allow us to try out the team dynamics and the idea, as we’re planning to apply for further grants for innovation and social businesses in the same city, and try to convince Velux to buy with us a property for that purpose *(we’ve spotted already a fantastic space). If that succeeds, I’d like to dedicate a significant amount of that space to the creation of a very first biohacklab in Poland - and invite our fellows edgeryders to help us explore the topic and find the right course for the space for the future. The funding of the space could also be connected to what we’re working on with @Nadia - crowdfunded, co-owned properties.
I’m also supporting a little @Matthias with his optical coffee sorter by using a very avant-garde tool (smartphone strapped to a halved plastic bottle, plus a white sheet of paper, plus a plastic box) to make high resolution pictures of coffee beans that would be later cut up by @anu and fed to machine learning software. I am calling this part of my experience The Future of Work - humans supporting machines. I’ve done some of that yesterday while guiding our pool-cleaning robot in areas he ignored…
And @alex_levene is experimenting with remote work, while providing us with cultural food for thought.
I’ve always wanted to live in a community, despite the fact it would sound like a total failure to my parents. I really enjoy the experience.
