The military returned today with 3 trucks full of people. the Commander told me of the plan the government had put into action to facilitae survival and adaptation of the masses. It sounded alot like feudalism to me.
There were 3 families, only one had a man at the head of their family with a wife and 3 kids bewteen the ages of 4 and 13 the other two families were a woman in her 30's with 2 kids, 9 and 7, and a young mother with 2 babies, ages 2 and 4. There were also 4 older gentlemen and 5 older ladies.
The Commander told us all men between the ages of 16 and 50 had been conscripted into the military to maintain order, The two single women's husbands and the one's older son were in a local unit and may be coming by to check on them from time to time.
The one family had 2 older boys who were in a unit nearer to the border. The older folks were winter visitors who stayed in town longer than usual.
They all came out of one truck. I was wondering what was in the other trucks.
Some soldiers were unloading what looked like prefabricated housing and the other had all sorts of boxes . before the day was over they had set up 5 "emergency domicile"s, stacked the debris from our caved in storage sheds, constructed a new storage building as big as a barn, and unpacked enough food and medical provisions to last us for a month, if we managed it well.
I spent the day answering questions and getting information about the new folk while the soldiers crawled all over our farm like ants with ADD, restoring, rebuilding and setting things up. We just kept out of their way and watched the "Ballet in Fast Forward". The only thing missing was background music.
The new "Villagers" wanted to know things like what kind of rules there were, who was expected to do what and when, where were they going to sleep, who was going to be in charge of what, and which building was going to be the "church".
Just then the commander was loading up his trucks to leave, and I ran to ask him not to go just yet. That I was more than willing to take on "villagers" but they had to be willing and wanting to stay, so before he left to please give a chance for those who may want to leave after they heard my response to their "church" question. At first he didn't want to, but when I explained the foundation of our faith, he agreed.
We all met in the kitchen/dining area of the main house. I told them I had one thing to tell them that they may not like and they were free to leave with the Commander to find a new village to dwell in if they chose.
I said," One of the greatest reasons why we have survived as long as we have here is our faith. It is not something we practice weekly, but daily, hourly.
It is apart of everything we do.
One of the tenants of our faith is NOT to force our beliefs on others and to accept alternate forms of faith and be tolerant of others religious habits.
We expect the same respect and consideration from those others as well.
The faith we practice is Wicca.
Sheltered space is a precious commodity, a survival issue, therefore no one building can be consecrated for church activities alone. If you wish to practice your religious services in your own living space, feel free to do so.
However as Wiccans, most of our ceremonies called Rituals occur outdoors, when weather permits, and tolerance is required from you as much as it is given to you for your faith practices.
If you feel too uncomfortable in a village where most of the inhabitants are witches you should leave now while the trucks are still available."
After some discussion, the 30 something woman, her kids and one elderly couple left. The Commander said he would be back with forewarned and prescreened villagers soon.
We spent the rest of the day settling in, leaving one building empty for the newcomers so no one would have to reshift everything. Going to spend tomorrow figuring out how everyone can fit into this new place, still function, and hopefully thrive.
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