Seatbelts Everybody! It’s The “Free Tea” Bus!

Thinking about buses –  it can be hard not to think about the show “The Magic School Bus”, a cartoon in which Mrs. Fritz, an elementary teacher, takes her students on numerous field trips including the likes of outer space and inside the human body. The bus could go anywhere and do anything. Mrs. Frizzle was the dream teacher and that bus was the bus. These days there is a bus roaming around to maybe match the level of awesome that was Mrs. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus. Giuseppe Spadafora drives a short bus, named Edna Lu, where he offers free tea and food to share with and bond with people all around the world. Edna-Lu is perhaps the most fascinating short bus anyone has ever stepped foot on- with wood floors, benches and cabinets, a stove, sink and a bed that folds up. It is so much more than a bus. It is powered by solar panels on his roof and has recently been converted to run on 100% vegetable oil. Edna Lu is not only a wonderful meeting place to drink tea in, but very sustainable. He calls his calling, this movement the “Green Tea Party” and updates about it regularly on freeteaparty.org .  The mission of “Free Tea Party” is this: Traveling the land, this free tea house cultivates community, health, peace, sustainability, and genuine human interactions.

Spadafora, through the “Free Tea Party”

 -Serves free tea to people on city streets, at parks, and at events from a traveling tea vehicle.
– Provides information and resources for people who are interested in learning more about tea, community, peace, health, and environment. We have a small library onboard the tea bus as well as a great links section on our website.
– Works symbiotically with organizations, people, and events creating a comfortable space for dialogue, readings, film screenings, music and tea..
– Rideshares both long and short distances, to and from events, cities, farms, and more.
– Documents tea party conversations, performances, and people’s stories, with permission, using video cameras, pen and paper, and cameras.

He is touching lives and sharing tea, as he rides that bus the world becomes a little smaller and a little calmer and nicer. Imagine what can be accomplished over sharing a cup of tea, what can be shared, and ultimately what can be learned. It just makes you think, what more can tea accomplish? What else could it facilitate? If anything, as Magic School Bus always had a lesson, we glean that sharing tea is better than drinking alone. You can make connections, hear new stories, make new discoveries, and maybe even find your true calling. Giuseppe Spadafora did – you never know.