Nina Rinkes's Photo

Unverified Profile

  • Payment not verified
  • Phone not verified
  • Government ID not verified

Maybe Accepting Guests

  • 50% response rate
  • Last login 26 days ago

Join Couchsurfing to see Nina’s full profile.

Overview

  • 21 references 15 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English, German, Norwegian Bokmål; learning Chinese, French, Portuguese, Spanish
  • 48, Female
  • Member since 2008
  • Independent Midwife
  • Mostly Self-Educated. Also: attended Midwifery School and...
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

We are three: my two daughters aged 14 and 9 and me. I also have a grown-up son who's already left the nest.

Please note that our profile pic is from around 2016 and the children have grown since then, hehe... There is a new picture of us in the pictures section.

We are "Worldschooling", which is the fashionable term for when you are travelling around, not knowing yet where to settle down again.

My older daughter is into arts, crafts, Anime, Japan, Korea.

My younger one is into computers, animals, India, Japan, Korea. (So we should be heading to Asia, really...)

I am a travelling homebirth midwife and I teach birthkeepers and bring them together. I love good food and cooking it, too. Other passions include permaculture, gardening, reading, natural building...

...and finally co-creating one of those villages that we all long to be a part of. I am still trying to become "villageable" enough for that vision.

As a family, we speak German and English. I speak a bit of Spanish, Norwegian, Chinese and understand some words of French. My older daughter is studying Japanese.

We’d be happy to help you improve your German or English. Or just share some good time.

We are in Italy for a bit and can welcome guests and thereafter we'll travel more ourselves and might ask for a couch.

P.S.: In our current World I understand that there are some people who are afraid of vaccinated people and other people who are afraid of unvaccinated people. In the spirit of openness and caring I share with you the information that we are not vaccinated and generally unafraid.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I joined Couchsurfing in 2008 both to bring people of the World to my home and to visit people in the World in a spirit of exchange, interest, adventure, care and love.

I was active on Couchsurfing for many years, mostly hosted, but also surfed, and it was a great experience, meeting many wonderful people.

When Couchsurfing started to charge a fee, I stopped to use it, but I just decided to re-activate my account. So hello back again!

Interests

We would like to meet and mingle, both as hosts and guests, with homeschooling/unschooling/free-learning/alternatively-schooling families and alternative schools, projects and communities that involve children. How do you do it? What can we learn from each other?

  • arts
  • books
  • dining
  • cooking
  • cheese
  • baking
  • crafts
  • gardening
  • reading
  • knitting
  • homesteading
  • agriculture
  • freedom
  • personal development
  • unschooling
  • permaculture
  • cheese making
  • love
  • happiness
  • community
  • midwifery
  • homeschooling
  • seed saving
  • joy
  • cob building
  • natural construction
  • free learning

Music, Movies, and Books

Here are some favourites:

FICTION
Alice Walker "The Temple Of My Familiar"
Chinua Achebe "Anthills of the Savannah"
Wole Soyinka "The Interpreters"
Buchi Emecheta "Head Above Water"
Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O "Wizard of the Crow"
Ayi Kwei Armah "The Healers"

NON-FICTION
John Holt, "How children learn", "Instead of Education"
Bill Morrison: "Permaculture"
Ivan Illich "Limits to Medicine", "Deschooling", "Debilitating Professions"
Ina May Gaskin "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and "Spiritual Midwifery"
Jean Liedloff "The Continuum Concept"
Christopher Alexander "A Pattern Language"
Weston A. Price: "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration"
Sally Fallon: "Nourishing Traditions"

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most amazing thing is love.

Teach, Learn, Share

In the spirit of the village: Let's share!

Some things I can teach: midwifery, birthkeeping, cooking, baking, herbs
I want to learn: more about natural building, pottery, permaculture, herbs.
Above all, I'd love to learn more about how to help our children grow into loving, confident, happy adults.

My older daughter can teach: different arts and crafts, e.g. Origami, crochet, drawing
She wants to learn: pottery, building, blowing glas, sewing, metal work.

The younger one wants to learn programming computers and more about animals, taking care of them, riding horses.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Good food. Long conversations.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Germany, Norway, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom

Old School Badges

  • 3 Vouches

Join Couchsurfing to see Nina’s full profile.

My Groups