Service -- part two
The Hills are Alive… with Retreat Peace
July
4 was "just another day" for Maegan among the goats
and the sheep, the horses and the cherry trees (sour cherries or Sauerkirschen).
Maegan has been working at Schwarzenshof,
a Christian retreat center about ½ hour by train south of Jena
located in an idyllic setting approximately 2km outside the town of
Rudolstadt (famed for being the birthplace of Schiller's wife Charlotte
von Lengefeld).
In existence for at least 75 years, the center hosts many guests over the course of the year. One of the highlights of Maegan's stay has been the group of children from the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl, who spent an entire afternoon trying to teach her Russian. Maegan has various tasks that include cleaning guest rooms, working in the kitchen, taking care of the horses, and accompanying groups on outings.
On one trip to nearby Erfurt, she helped translate a tour from German to English for a Polish group. Maegan says the sunsets over the Thuringian forest are stupendous.
- Maegan and her supervisor, Winfried Florl, director of Schwarzenshof.
Yard Work and Public Relations
July 5 took us to far eastern Germany (near the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic), where Jeremy and Geoff are working for the Council for Foreigners (Ausländerrat) in the Saxon city of Dresden.
The council has existed in its present form for at least 8 years, working toward breaking down stereotypes and combating xenophobia. The states of Saxony (which includes Dresden and Chemnitz) and Saxony-Anhalt (where Charity and Juliet are doing their service in Naumburg) have some of the highest unemployment rates in eastern Germany, and in Germany as a whole.
Two
kinds of populations are particularly affected by these circumstances:
young people (who either have no work or slim prospects for work) and
foreigners (who may suffer from the Germans' anger or dissatisfaction).
In Chemnitz, Megan and Dixie are dealing with young people's issues.
In Dresden, Geoff and Jeremy have been living in the Asylbewerberheim
(home for asylum seekers, three of whom are pictured here, from eastern
Europe and the Middle East), interacting with residents and experiencing
life in the Heim.
The average stay is supposed to be no longer than a year for the immigrants, but it often turns out to be longer because of German bureaucracy.
They spent much of their first few weeks cleaning up the yard at the residence, work which seemed oddly simple until the director of the Ausländerrat pointed out that neighborhood residents had been calling the Dresden mayor's office to complain about the disorderly appearance of the yard. The clean-up was actually an important step in improving relations between the city and the Heim residents.
The
simplest and most tedious jobs can have great meaning sometimes! Geoff
and Jeremy have also been doing some document translation from German
to English for council publications. Meanwhile they try to navigate
around all of the construction in the city, still trying to rebuild
from WWII and 40 years of communism.
