Week 10 - 3.11.23 - Halloween

I've been looking forward to this week for a long time - because Halloween was just around the corner! 

I have memories of celebrating Halloween parties with friends as a child. We went around the houses, shouted "trick or treat" and collected sweets from the neighbors. Afterwards, we ate delicious scary snacks at home, such as jelly with eyes and sausages with fingernails. Halloween originated in Ireland, but was brought to America by Irish immigrants. Halloween is more important in the United States than in Germany, so I was very excited to experience this spooky and beautiful festival in New York State. 

We volunteers were really looking forward to it and started getting into the Halloween spirit two weeks beforehand. So we met regularly after work and watched the "Scary Movie" series. After a long day at work, watching the over-the-top horror movie parodies was both relaxing and extremely amusing. 

The volunteers, who have been at Triform for several years, have a friend in the neighborhood. We met there the week before Halloween and played games and danced together. On the Saturday before Halloween, we drove to Springfield (Massachusetts) after work. A friend of the volunteers had a party there in a rented room with a kitchen and TV, where I had my first opportunity to get to know Americans outside of Camphill. As a surprise, a participant fell over covered in blood, so we as guests had the task of solving the murder case. Once again, delicious food and a fun program awaited us. Because we work until 21:00, I had to deal with a lot of tiredness in the days that followed. However, I enjoy every opportunity to do something with my colleagues and get to know Americans outside. 

On Monday, October 30, the theater group presented a spooky play. "The Witch who Stole the Moon" is about a witch who stole the moon. A group of friends then set off on a journey to get the moon back and encounter ghosts, elves and fairies along the way. I was part of the theater group and got to play a ghost who accompanies the friends on their journey and plays pranks on them. The whole Camphill community was in the audience and the reactions were overwhelming. After the play, so many residents, colleagues and householders came up to me and the other actors and thanked us for a wonderful evening. I haven't stood on a stage and taken part in a play since my drama course at A-level, which was a fantastic feeling! But what impressed me the most were the students. Some were very shy at the beginning and couldn't get used to the idea of being on stage in front of a huge audience. Others had difficulty speaking out loud or remembering the dialog. We met and rehearsed once a week for almost two months, and each time the residents' self-confidence and enjoyment grew. We tried to give each resident a role that suited their abilities and interests. By the time of the performance, all fears and worries had vanished, every single resident had surpassed themselves and developed personally. Hats off! The performance was recorded, but cannot be shared publicly. However, I can show the recording privately, please send me a message.

On Tuesday, October 31, we celebrated Halloween together with the residents. Of course, Halloween is not complete without scary Halloween pumpkins, so we carved scary faces with the residents. There is a huge costume store in the basement of my house in Triform, so all the residents and coworkers were able to dress up. I dressed up as a ghost, but unlike in the play, I wore a mask, necklace and hair. Three residents and a householder didn't recognize me and asked who was wearing this costume. The Halloween event began with a pumpkin competition, where the most beautiful Halloween pumpkin was chosen. We then went on a Halloween walk through Camphill, for which some of the houses had prepared spooky surprises. One house scared the people passing by with light effects and monsters, but also gave away delicious sweets afterwards. In the second house, a coworker sat in the open garage and played the Michael Myers theme song from the movie "Halloween" on the piano, which created a nice atmosphere. Delicious cupcakes with white chocolate were also handed out. The third and final house had a screen set up outside showing stormy waves with the soundtrack from Pirates of the Caribbean playing and pirates guarding a treasure of sweets to share with the residents.

After the hike, we returned to the sports hall, where all the residents and coworkers in costume celebrated and danced together. Two microphones were set up at the front and the song lyrics were projected onto the wall so that the residents could show off their karaoke skills. From Nintendo's "Bowser" character to Frankenstein, Michael Jackson, vampires, hot dogs and chainsaw killers, there were so many different costumes here that together made for a very entertaining picture. Singing Abba's song together and dancing wildly was a wonderful experience that brought us all closer together.

Week 11 - 10.11.23 - Catskills & Taconic Mountains

Week 12 - 17.11.23 - Cooking

In addition to my work on the farm and in the garden, I also work in the kitchen twice a week. Because of my family's good food and later the university canteen right next to my dormitory, I haven't been able to gain much experience in cooking so far. I am all the more grateful to finally be learning to cook at Triform!

On Wednesday mornings, I cook in another house together with the householder and two people with disabilities. The householder is originally from near Cologne, but we only speak English with each other, and the fact that we are both from Germany is probably obvious from the sayings we sometimes use, which only make sense to us Germans. I learn something new every week, we particularly like to cook roasted vegetables and beet with pork stew. Here we have to pay particular attention to integrating the two residents into the work and finding out which tasks suit them and where they still have difficulties. For example, I pre-cut the apples and beet so that one resident can chop them up. Three hours and four cooks sounds like a lot of time for the dish, but as I'm still learning a lot myself and at the same time have to pass on my knowledge to the residents and distribute tasks, it can get stressful at times.

I enjoy cooking on Fridays the most. Here I cook without a householder together with a resident who loves working in the kitchen and has written a cookbook as his final project. He is known in the community for his perfect salad with homemade dressing and concentrates on that while I prepare quiche. Right at the beginning of my time at Triform, I was shown how to do this and now I really enjoy cooking this specialty from the Lorraine cuisine.

What do you need? (9 persons) 

• onions

• tomatoes

• Cheddar cheese

• 4 ready-made quiche crusts from the supermarket

• 16 eggs

• Milk (4 cups / 1 liter)

• Sweet potatoes 

• Red peppers

• Lettuce leaves

First, wash the onions and tomatoes and chop them into small pieces. The more onions and tomatoes, the more intense and flavorful the quiche. Then fry the onions and tomatoes in a pan with sunflower oil over a medium heat. Stir them regularly until you can smell the tomatoes and onions. Then the filling is ready.

Beat the 16 eggs and place them in a container. Add 4 cups of milk, the equivalent of 946 milliliters of milk. Stir the custard until the milk and eggs are completely mixed.

For the salad, chop the red bell pepper and lettuce leaves. We have a "salad spinner" that mixes the salad. Then add the balsamic dressing.

Cut the sweet potatoes and cook them over a medium heat for 30 to 45 minutes. You can find out if they are done by poking them with a knife. To add a little variation, you can also eat them as wedges. To do this, mix them with oil, salt and paprika spice and bake them in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit or 200 degrees. So you have a nice side dish. 

Now is the time to take the four finished quiche crusts out of the fridge. Grate the cheddar so that you have enough to cover the base of the four quiche crusts. Then spread the quiche filling evenly over all four crusts and cover the filling with the egg custard.

Then place the four filled quiche crusts in the oven. Set the oven to 450 Fahrenheit (232 degrees) and wait 35 minutes. If the filling wobbles when you move the baking tray, you should wait another 10 minutes. As soon as the filling stops wobbling, you can remove the quiche crusts. 

Enjoy your meal!

Week 13 - 24.11.23 - New Home

In the evening, a resident came downstairs to see why there was so much noise on the ground floor. She saw all the packed suitcases and looked at me with big sad eyes. I was about to move out of the house I had been living in for the last two months.

However, I was able to reassure her that the time to say goodbye had not yet come. The volunteer from the Caribbean left the Triform Camphill Community after six months, so her room above the pantry is now vacant. The building consists of a pantry, a freezer room and a toilet on the ground floor, with two apartments above. All supplies and deliveries from the supermarket are collected in the pantry, the houses can stock up here and enter their "purchases" in a list, which are then deducted from the houses' budget. The advantage of the new room: more privacy, distance from the workplace and the residents, the ability to listen to loud music and a larger space that also includes an armchair. I'm also a big fan of attic rooms, as I find the sound of rain pattering on the skylight very relaxing.

The new volunteer comes from Turkey and gets my old room. Especially as a new volunteer, it makes sense to live directly in the house, so you can get to know the residents better and get a better feel for how things work in the house. That's why the pantry apartments are preferably given to experienced and older volunteers. I am very grateful and really enjoy the space, which is bigger than any of my previous dorm rooms. I feel very comfortable here and have started decorating my room. When you walk out of the door, you stand on an outside staircase and have a beautiful view of the Camphill community and a small waterfall and surrounding fields.

Week 14 - 01.12.23 - St. Martins Day & Kingston

Thanksgiving Break & Great Barrington 

The Thanksgiving vacations were my first vacation. There wasn't much time to travel, as the vacations from Wednesday to Sunday were comparatively short and as a farmer I still had to provide the animals with food, water and straw in the mornings. I usually work on the tasks together with three residents, so working alone was a welcome change. Caring for the animals to the music of Johnny Cash, Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival put me in a good mood! 

As befits Thanksgiving, one year we organized a Thanksgiving dinner for the employees and coworkers, and everyone was asked to bring something. We were able to enjoy a large buffet of hot and cold dishes as well as delicious desserts and take the opportunity to talk to colleagues with whom we otherwise have little contact. The turkey was excellent! In the evening, we coworkers got together, played games and got rid of the stress of the past few weeks.

The next day, I went to Great Barrington with two colleagues. This town in Massachusetts is 40 minutes away by car and is best known for its ski resort. We went shopping there and strolled through the town. Afterwards, we visited friends of a colleague who work at the Cadmus LifeSharing Association. A participant from my preparatory seminar is doing her voluntary service there. Although it is not a Camphill, it is also an anthroposophical community for people with disabilities that works very similarly to our Camphill. It was exciting to talk to the volunteers about the differences and similarities in their work. 

The house parents were at home with their children so that we coworkers could gather in front of the fireplace in the evenings and make ourselves comfortable. I noticed that we had hardly spent any time together without residents. Due to the long working days from 7:00 - 20:00, sometimes 21:00, there is little time and energy left to do something together after work. As all areas have to be covered every day, we all have different days off. While the residents are present, we also have to make sure that we include them in our conversations, which means that in-depth conversations rarely take place. 

I also used my vacation to explore New York City. I will present my highlights separately in individual posts. At the end of the vacation, we had to clean the house before the residents were gradually brought back by their parents.

The children of many of the house parents go to Hawthorne Valley School in Ghent. It is a Waldorf comprehensive school attended by children from kindergarten to grade 12. The school is probably one of the oldest and largest Waldorf schools in the United States and is also attended by students from Mexico, Afghanistan, China and Europe. The school is located on a biodynamic farm and integrates agricultural courses (biology, economics, nutrition) into the curriculum.

One day, we were invited to watch the son's play, which he had prepared with his drama class. As I was in a drama class myself for years during my school years and chose drama as my fourth examination subject in my A-levels, I was particularly excited to see the Shakespeare production. 

With "Mudsummers Night Dream", the 8th grade has chosen a challenging play, both in terms of the movement on stage, the emotions to be portrayed and the amount of text to be learned. It is about the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta in ancient Athens and the resulting conflicts between the lovers. He prepared very intensively for the play and I usually found him with his script in his hand. 

What can I say, the effort was definitely worth it! I was very impressed by how much passion, emotion and energy the students showed on stage. As I myself implement theater projects with residents at Camphill, I was delighted to take away lots of great ideas and inspiration for my work. The housemaster introduced me to one of his son's teachers and gave me a tour of the school. The school places great emphasis on art and music, so pottery, paintings, glass art, wood carvings and other works of art by the pupils are on display everywhere. The classrooms are very creatively designed and have little in common with the gray and bare classrooms I often had to experience while working in Berlin schools. 

On another day, we visited the "Yuletide Fair" at the school. The pupils exhibited their artwork and sold it for a good cause. There was also the opportunity to try out the various crafts, pour candles or create glass mosaics. There was a wide range of hot food and desserts on offer in the hall, as well as live music. Each coworker was assigned a resident with whom we were free to explore the grounds and try things out. My highlight was the "Gingerbread Village", a space with numerous beautiful gingerbread buildings. These included not only classic houses, but also exciting constructions such as an off-road vehicle and a Converse shoe. It was a competition, with prizes being awarded by a jury in the categories "without adult help", "with adult help" and "by adults". The buildings were then auctioned off to the highest bidders and the proceeds were donated to a good cause. The children of my house parents won first place in the "with adult help" category, and their "Snowy Village" will be displayed in the window of Camphill in the town of Hudson during the Christmas period. Congratulations!

Winter Walk Hudson & Monet Exhibition in Schenectady

Every December for the past 27 years, the city of Hudson has organized the "Winter Walk" on Warren Street, the city's main shopping street. The stores decorate their windows and open their doors, bands play music on the street, clubs present their work, the fire department showcase their equipment, schools exhibit their students' best artwork, children are made up and numerous snack bars cook delicious dishes from all over the world. A Triform office worker offered dance classes for children in her spare time, and the children presented their rehearsed choreographies on stage. Each coworker was assigned a resident as a partner, with whom we then explored the many stalls. I was amazed to meet a man dressed up as "Krampus". The Krampus, half goat, half demon, is known to many people from Bavaria and Austria as a frightening figure in Advent customs. St. Nicholas gives presents to the good children, while the naughty ones are punished by Krampus. The person in my tandem was afraid of the creature, so we moved on after taking a photo with him. At the end, there was a big firework display, which we enjoyed together as a house.

On my day off, I went to Schenectady with three other coworkers. It's pretty unknown today, but until the 1970s the city was known as the headquarters of General Electric, one of the largest conglomerates in the world today. Schenectady was also the site of the first regularly televised news program in 1928. The name comes from a term from the Mohawk tribe and means "behind the pines".  We drove to the Schenectady Armory. Built in 1868, the arsenal was used by numerous military units until it was finally abandoned by the National Guard in 2008. Today, the building is used for exhibitions such as the "Claude Monet Immersive Experience". Unlike my companions, I am not a great connoisseur of art, but I was very interested in the exhibition concept. An exhibition with VR glasses and immersive 360° projections of the digitized paintings was promised.  At the beginning of the exhibition, numerous text panels presented Monet's life and explained what makes the French Impressionist's paintings so unique. In particular, the way in which he captured moods of light distinguished him as an artist. It was a great introduction to the subject and explained in a way that was easy to understand, even for laypeople.  This was followed by a reconstruction of his study and a room designed in the style of the painting "Japanese Footbridge". A beautifully designed room that perfectly captured the atmosphere of Monet's paintings. This was followed by the promised highlight of the exhibition, the immersive 360° experience. It is a large room with numerous beanbags and canvases on each wall. Pictures of Monet were projected onto the walls, such as a train leaving the station. A background matching the picture was projected onto the floor, such as a meadow, factory floor or water. We sat on the beanbags and watched the changing projected images on the walls, which were more reminiscent of a slide show accompanied by music and created little sense of immersion. The advertised VR experience was hidden behind an area for which we would have had to buy extra tickets. The museum employee tried to convince us with the words "It's really worth it", which we were less than enthusiastic about. When we pay 40 dollars for an exhibition, we expect to be able to visit the entire exhibition, especially when the VR glasses are so heavily advertised. In the last room, there were many painting templates with paintings by Monet as well as numerous pencils so that we could be artists ourselves. The pictures were then placed under a camera, which took a photo of the self-painted pictures and integrated them into the projected gallery on the wall. 

The Monet Immersive Experience is available in numerous American and European cities. After our visit, however, we cannot make a recommendation. If you are a Monet connoisseur, you will not gain any new insights from the exhibition. If you want to familiarize yourself with Monet's work for the first time, you will get a successful introduction to Monet's life and artistic work, but there are plenty of other places to go on the Internet. In our opinion, the two designed rooms, the painting room and the disappointing 360° projection do not justify the 40 dollar entrance fee, especially as you will have to pay extra for the VR experience.

Youth Guidance Program & Journeyman Dinner

At Triform, there is the so-called "Youth Guidance Program" with three developmental stages.

When new residents come to us, they have often (but not always) previously attended a school for children with disabilities, such as the Camphill School Beaver Run in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania. They start as "students" and go through all the work areas at Triform: farm, garden, landscaping, pottery, weaving, bakery and housekeeping. After they have completed all the work areas in a 6-month rotation, the students specialize in one work area. As an "apprentice", they pass on their knowledge to students and take on more responsibility in their work. Finally, they complete a final project, which they have to design and carry out. In the past, these have included gardens created in front of houses, insect hotels or the Triform logo, which was made from wood and now adorns the barn. After the final project, the "Apprentice" graduates to "Journeyman". Many residents leave the Triform Camphill Community, which specializes in young adults, after graduation. Most become part of Camphill Village Copake, which is 20 minutes away by car. There are only a few places for Journeypersons, who are particularly active in the Camphill community and act as mentors for the residents. 

To honor their commitment, the "Journeyman Dinner" takes place regularly. Here we go to a restaurant together and offer the opportunity to share experiences. I was able to accompany the outing and listened with great interest to the Journeymen, who told me about the past and development of Triform. It was a very nice evening and also an opportunity to get to know residents from other houses better.

"Verse to the Berlin Friends" -  Lecture by Richard Steel

Charity Concert -  Jutta and the Hi-Dukes

We took the house on a trip to a charity concert. The band "Jutta and the Hi-Dukes", a band consisting of mother, father and daughter, performed at the community center "Mettabee Farm and Arts" in Hillsdale. The daughter works as a librarian at the Rudolf Steiner Library in Lorenz Park and organized a concert followed by a group dance to raise funds for the facility. I was incredibly surprised and delighted by the band's music, which they described as "folk world music and jazz". In fact, they have traveled the world as the Distler family and have learned local songs that they brought back with them. Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Spanish and other European sounds took us on a journey through a wide variety of cultures, with the three band members seamlessly switching instruments and telling us about the background to the songs in between. A real joy!

If you are interested, I will be happy to share videos of the performance!

All Souls

Advent Garden & St. Nicholas