[BanannaMan]

Visited a strange, crazy but nice village today.
Like nothing I've seen in person before.
A small village of poor people but the entire village works together and barters for most of the things they need.
An old friend's granddaughter (he died in a motorcycle crash in 1999 ) got in touch with me today and asked me to come look at her car and tell her what it needed to fix it and maybe she could get me to work on it because she didn't have enough money to take it to a shop but she would make it worth my time to come look at it.
I said I would, I don't mind helping people out when they are down, but did flinch a wee bit when she sent the address and I saw how far away it was.
I fixed one car (easy fix) and diagnosed another that needs parts.
Turns out her mom lives there too and seems to be the person in charge of this place, so we go to see her and she's cooking the largest pot of stew I've ever seen cooked on a hob.
She asks me what would I charge to fix the car if they got the parts.
I told her "how about $25 to cover my fuel"
She said, "No when you work here you work for all of us and we pay good , but we don't have cash, how about $100 worth of goods?"
I told her it was too much but she insisted and made a couple of phone calls and people just started showing up with stuff.
Everything from eggs to a $25 petrol card. I left with a car full of enough things I would have bought anyway to easily save $100.
She also asked me would I be interested in helping other people out there when they need it and I said Sure.
Then she told me they have a plumber, and an electrician and a guy who patches roofs and since I was helping them if I needed any help to let them know and I could barter some future mechanic work if I need something done.
I asked her what she did and she laughed and pointed to the big of stew, "I cook, she said, see all these kids around here? Indeed there were kids everywhere you could barely drive though the place. She said, "I feed all of them supper every night. Some of them more.
Everywhere doors were open, people were smiling, kids were outside playing, and all the cars I saw had the keys left in them. They told me crime disappeared when they all started working together.
Sort of like one of those hippie communes back in the 60's but it really seems to be working for them.
I'm sure the government would put and end to this if they knew, but I'm not telling.
Meeting so many kind, happy people and seeing how they work together to make life better for everyone there really restored my faith in mankind, or at least in Americans.
It was beautiful, it was touching, certainly not the behavior I'm used to seeing these days.
I've got to go back Saturday to fix the other car.
Really looking forward to going.
Just to talk to some good, honest, friendly people, real people who care about each other.