Greetings from the Tribe of Issachar, a member of the Twelve Tribes Christian communes, a Christian community about an hour outside the city of Buenos Aires.
In case you think we've gone totally loco, rest assured that "Issachar" has visitors all the time who help around the farm and the bakery, most of whom are just looking for farming experience.
Right now there are about 40 people, with 20 more due to arrive tomorrow from the beach, who work in the kitchen preparing the food, in the garden growing food to eat and sell, baking bread, doing landscaping work around the community, and for the next two weeks, preparing feverishly for their first wedding. It's the day we originally planned to leave, but this is a BIG deal here, so we're definitely going to stay.
The groom is my roommate, a serious bearded Argentine who speaks very good English. He's been a member of the community for about 10 years, as has his fiancée, who's from Ukraine. Tomorrow I think I'm going to help him tile the bathroom in his new house, which will give us lots of time to talk more about the community.
From what we have learned so far, they try to model their community after the early church and have all things in common. The money they earn is put into a communal pot and whenever someone needs something it is procured, either independently if it's a small thing, or through the approval of a council if it is a larger item.
We're having a good time so far and Seth, I think, is a potential Martin Luther for the Twelve Tribes. His planned reformations include meat everyday and an optional 7am meeting (it's mandatory right now), with closed-circuit television for those who want to "participate" while remaining in bed.
We'll keep you posted on the wedding preparations (11 days to go!) and on other potential reformations.
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