SHOP TILL I DROP

Here's a recent post from Katarina Eller at the Brot und Rosen Community in Hamburg, Germany: 
I would probably write more blogs if I thought my life was interesting enough, but actually my days mostly consist of cleaning, chopping vegetables, and food shopping. Our day begins with devotions in the chapel, with a simple prayer-song-Bible-reading-silence-song-prayer model.... Like a sandwich, or an Oreo cookie. Almost all of the songs come from the Taize movement. (You know you live at Brot & Rosen when most of the songs stuck in your head are in Latin.) Sometime after breakfast and light cleaning or email-checking, I might start with lunch prep. Leftovers from the night before are warmed up, and some type of salad is made. More often than not, it is a green salad. My favorite part of lunch prep is making the salad dressing (I never want to buy premade salad dressing ever again). And the worst is washing the salad. It is usually donated to us from an organic food store and can be very earth-filled and/or sometimes tiny-insect-infested. It can be the case that there is no green salad. But not to worry, other variations are possible! Carrot salad with grated carrots and apples, and oranges with oil and lemon juice for example; or red beet salad with chopped onions, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and caraway seeds. Or Chicory salad with apples, oranges, bananas and a yogurt, lemon, curry dressing.

I usually don’t cook dinner. Dinner is very intimidating. Often around 15 people show up, and the children don’t eat anything that might contain nutrition for healthy development. So I leave dinner to the professionals (unless of course they’re not around), and chop vegetables for them. We may be unofficially part of what is called the Slow Food Movement (correct me if I’m wrong). Since I’ve been here, I have made/or experienced the making of: salad dressing, bread, jelly, orange juice, tomato sauce, pralines, mixed drinks, pizza, vegan chocolate, vegan cheese, mashed potatoes, African chili salsa, guacamole, fufu European style, applesauce etc. I’m not gonna lie, one of my initial thoughts during my very first week at B & R was: uh-oh. Yeah, sometimes I still feel like that, but it’s all good, that’s why I live in community, so other people can take over when they see me start on a crazy culinary maneuver. 

It is my job to buy everything that is not donated by the food bank, organic food store, or ordered from said store. So, a large portion of my shopping includes cooking oil, lemons, noodles, tomato sauce, and toilet paper. Sometimes I have to make more than one trip, even though I use a rolling shopping-hamper-thingy. (I don’t know what we call them, but they are all over Germany.) And sometimes the cashier is like, “Oh it’s you again!” and I think “ Yeah, because if you only had a wheely cart and two little chicken-bone arms you’d be back again too.” Then there’s the whole discussion of what we should buy fair-trade, regional, and organic. And, if organic tomato sauce from who knows where is worth the price, or even really organic, and whether it’s better to buy organic sugar or the normal sugar that says on the package that it’s made in northern Germany from sugar beets but is probably not organic etc. As usual with Brot& Rosen, as soon as I ask a question as to what I should buy, I get eight different answers. So as usual with Brot& Rosen, I just do whatever I want to. 
That’s Christian Anarchy for you!

"merci, plus s'il vous plaît"

This is yesterday's comment from BVSer Kirsten Stopher who works at the Association-Centre Abbé Pierre Emmaüs in Esteville, France:

Today I gathered some of the heberge to help me clean the chalet because it is being rented this weekend. One of the men who is physically handicapped and walks with a cane asked me if there were things he could come and help us do. I honestly could not think of anything that would be easy for him to do but I told him he could come along with us if he wanted.

When we got into the chalet I listed off the things I needed to have done and told everyone to choose what they wanted and get to it. To my surprise, each and every person found something they could do. When we took a break to come back to the house to eat lunch I overheard the man who walks with the cane proudly telling my coworkers the things he did to help us in the chalet. He didn't do much but he did what he could and he was included in the group. That is the spirit of Emmaüs :)

 

 

From a former BVSer's blog:

Ligeia Smith, former Berlin BVSer, wrote about volunteering on her blog "Bounding Over Our Steps"  (Here's the link in case it doesn't copy very well here: 

http://www.boundingoveroursteps.com/volunteering-traveling-a-different-way/

Volunteering – Traveling a Different Way

April 26, 2013

Let’s face it, travel can be expensive! Remote locations such as Antarctica or places like Tibet, where in order to get a visa you must sign up for an expensive tour, are extreme examples of costly vacations.

There is a better way…

Traveling does not have to drain your bank account. Consider the more affordable (and arguably the more rewarding) option of volunteering. Such opportunities range in type of service, from working with disenfranchised peoples to technical support for an NGO, and vary in length of time commitment, from a week to a month to years.
So often, the only way to sign up for volunteer support is to go through agencies who charge exorbitant prices and, of course, take a large cut for arranging visas, flights and accommodation. There are a few exceptions, however. A small number of places will charge either nothing or a nominal fee, that often is actually a donation to the NGO. Here are a few organizations we’d like to recommend (in no particular order):
1) The Peace Corps: This can be a great way to travel and reach out to non-vacation spots around the world. A background in city planning, agriculture or healthcare, for example, can go a long way here in helping communities set up a water system or educating people about diseases. These are just to name a few. All applicants must be US citizens (and at least 18 years old) and the application process takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months so you will need to plan ahead. For more information, including the location and type of projects and the application process, check out their website at: http://www.peacecorps.gov/

2) United Nations: Many of the positions offered require specialized skills, including leadership and project management, providing the unique opportunity to travel the world and volunteer based on one’s professional career. Peruse their website and find out if you have what they are looking for: http://www.unv.org/how-to-volunteer.html

3) Action Reconciliation Service for Peace: ARSP is a German-run NGO that began in the 1950s by a group that felt the need to “set a sign of atonement for the Nazi era”. The volunteer projects available with ARSP involve working with disenfranchised groups directly affected by the Nazis. These groups include mentally-challenged people, Jewish communities, Sinti and Roma and LGBT communities. German citizens can volunteer in twelve various countries, mostly in Europe but also including Israel, Russia and the United States. In addition, citizens of those countries, respectively, can also volunteer in Germany. For further information, check out their websites:

• Volunteering in Germany: http://www.actionreconciliation.org/
• Website for Germans: http://www.asf-ev.de/

4) Brethren Volunteer Service: For those of you who might not know, “Brethren” is one of the three peace churches (the others are Quaker and Mennonite) whose members are exempt from military service in the case of a draft, because pacifism is at the root of their ideologies. You do not need to be Brethren to apply to volunteer with BVS and there will be no attempt made by the organization to convert you. Their mission is “Sharing God’s love through acts of service, by advocating justice, working for peace, serving human needs, and caring for creation.” Project placement is worldwide with most of their assignments in the United States, Europe, as well as Central and South America.
I did a year of volunteer service with BVS and chose my project in Berlin, Germany. I worked in the office of the Aktion Suehnezeichen Freidensdienste (ARSP headquarters). This also allowed me to volunteer with the Judische Gemeinde (Jewish Community) visiting Jewish elderly, most of whom were Holocaust victims. I encourage you to browse their website for additional information: http://www.brethren.org/bvs/

Are you too old too volunteer?

You are never too old to volunteer. Princeton in Asia has a program just for seniors. Often some of these positions are paid to help offset ongoing costs you may have at home. Check out if there is the perfect project for you at: http://piaweb.princeton.edu/

Where have you volunteered? What projects do you recommend?

Volunteering

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Written by Ligeia

Ligeia is from the east coast of the United States, having lived in Baltimore, Hartford and Florida. She loves traveling, scuba diving and being around animals. Ligeia was raised vegetarian and became vegan in July 2012. She plans to visit every country in the world before she dies and so far her country count is 40.

A Declaration of Love, OR, A Volunteer's Manifesto

I don’t know how to play backgammon. It’s raining and the roof is leaking. There’s no electricity, so no espresso… Let’s have some rakija.

Oh we ran an extension cable over from the neighbours. Espresso. Open the sugar packet, stir the sugar in, put the plastic stirrer back on the saucer. Ritual #1.

Sardonic commentary and witticisms on some recent event—politics, art, football, something stupid some friend did last night in the bar. Ritual #2.

Make the receipts somehow match up to send to the donor, even though we have to stretch that one grant to cover a host of other expenses. Sandra is a genius. We all sit on the couches or at the tables together with our laptops and cables all mingling together.

Every now and then we all pitch in to sweep up the courtyard or clean after a concert. Every now and then Arma freaks out because Nani does the most cleaning. “What, like Nani is the only one with a ‘diploma’ in picking up the darn broom? Right???”  Arma starts a sardonic facebook group, ArtBeit, with hilarious photos and captions of Nani welding, hammering, etc.

[[Today I work in an office where my coffee is brought to my desk. I have my own desk. Also I have a phone, a work computer, work email account, intranet. I have an assistant, who is supposed to interpret for me, but I learned to speak Bosnian with you, so I feel confused and don’t know what to do with her.]]

I spent three years and three months (2007-2010) as a BVS volunteer in OKC Abrasevic in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am still discovering all that those three years meant to me, but it is no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

If I’m being completely honest, sometimes I freak out about the fact that I spent 3 years not earning/saving any money, or at the very least interning at some international organization which would look good on my resume. I spent a frantic year+ after BVS interning, working and not getting paid, job hunting, etc. During that time, Abrasevic, with its tiny budget, paid me TWICE! I was moved to tears by their solidarity. (Also, Kristin extended my health insurance and BVS stipend by an extra month, at the last minute. Thank you KF!)

But really, I would NEVER take it back. This is who I am. This is how I become who I want to be.

In Abrasevic, the most important thing is to show up and to be present. To talk to people. To make jokes. People are an end in themselves. When Arma stopped being a member of the management team, he spent even more time at Abrasevic than he had before (he had already been there ALL the TIME)—but now he was in the café talking to people, rather than up in his office working. (Nedzad, a longtime volunteer, took on his tasks.) Tina said, when we discussed it, “what’s important is being here; that’s more important than what you do here.”

[[I’m tearing up again thinking about all of them and longing to jump into a car right this minute and visit them!]]

Everyone in Abrasevic has their own artistic dream. Even the waiters are all DJs or musicians or doing street performances or graffiti. People are so supportive of dedication to artistic dreams. We’re always going to the concerts of Mostar bands to hear the same songs and going to the book promotions of Mostar (Abrasevic) poets. I also had a poem published in an Abrasevic literary journal (Kolaps) and showed my videos in the main hall.

One of the main things that I learned in Abrasevic is how important PLACES are for cities. It’s like “a room of one’s own” for urban spaces. It’s essential for Mostar to have an Abrasevic. It’s essential for every city to have neutral urban spaces that encourage people to come together. Like Italo Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities” (which I studied in-depth in a video journalism course at Abrasevic), where Marko Polo tells Kublai Khan the stories of a hundred cities, only to reveal that “all cities are Venice”; now to me, “all cities are Mostar, and must contain an Abrasevic”. When I move to new places, I am always looking for an “Abrasevic”. Of course I can never find another Abrasevic, as it is irreplaceable and unique. But in my life I combine the elements which made Abras so dear to me (solidarity, creativity, espresso) to try to live an Abrasevicy life.

There’s nothing like putting a camera in the hands of a young person. So exciting to see what they come up with. I have to do this again! My life will not be complete unless I can make videos and help young people to make videos! About Roma, skaters, beautiful ramshackle monuments, artists, poets, musicians and activists.

I learned to film and edit video footage.

I also got some experience in grant writing.

I learned about challenges in project design and implementation.

I was so inspired.

I learned about the impact of political conflict on daily life.

I was filled with hope.

 
- Katie Hampton, BVSer at Abrasevic from October 2007 to December 2010 (currently working in Bratunac/Srebrenica)    

Volunteering in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Here's a BVS project opening in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. For additional information, please contact me at brethrenservice@worldcom.ch or see www.brethrenvolunteerservice.org

#1110: Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Abrasevic Youth Cultural Center believes that positive change is possible in post-war Mostar and offers programs and resources to promote social change, develop civil society and a cultural scene in the city and region. Website: http://www.okcabrasevic.org/

OKC Abrasevic is a youth cultural center which started in 2003 as a response to the need for an active and safe space in post-war Mostar.  It offers youth a place for creative expression, cultural education, and open-minded social discussion. Abrasevic currently consists of a café; an Info Center for HIV/AIDS education; Abart, which uses art to address the issue of divided cities; and AbrasMEDIA, our in-house media center.  AbrasMEDIA includes a news web portal (www.abrasmedia.info) and video production activities (available on the Youtube AbrasMedia channel).  Each of these projects offers programs and resources to promote social change as well as develop civil society and a vibrant cultural scene in the city and region. Regular activities include cultural events (films, concerts, exhibitions, and performances), festivals, and forums.  International Volunteers are welcome and are expected to find their own place in the Abrasevic community as they become more familiar with the center.  Requirements: Good communication and interpersonal skills, willingness to learn the local language, general computer skills, high level of autonomy/independence, flexibility, adaptability, patience, ability to work under stress as well as to enjoy relaxed social atmosphere.  Other useful skills: Education and/or experience in the fields of finance/accounting, management, computer technology, cultural activities, fundraising, video, radio, journalism, graphic design, IT/web maintenance.

Forty Years of BVSers in Northern Ireland and Ireland!

When we met 10 years ago for the 30^th anniversary event of BVS in Northern Ireland, Rev. Harold Good, the Methodist pastor who invited us in 1972 to send volunteer youth workers to the Shankill area of Belfast, said:

"When the full story of all these years in Northern Ireland is written, sadly you probably won't be recorded or mentioned - not BVS or you individually. Sorry about that. But more important, in ways that can never be measured, is that you've made a huge contribution to the lives of so many people here and to our overall situation - by your coming here you have encouraged us, by helping us to realize we are part of a great world family who are concerned about justice, peace, and people.  It’s important that we’re not alone in that. … You’ve come to share that.  You’ve touched the lives of so many people.  Thank you for that, and we want to encourage you in return.”   
 

We didn’t stop with sending a first BVSer to that community center.   BVSers were placed in different corners of Belfast and beyond.   Back in the day, we were generous with more than sending volunteers, too, by giving a minivan to a group in Ligoniel, and even a house to another volunteer service organization. (I would love to still have that house!)  One interesting placement was in the mid 1970s when the general secretary of the Irish Council of Churches, who talked to paramilitary groups on all sides, arranged to bring one of our previous BVSers back to Belfast to work as a receptionist in the office of the think tank group of some Protestant paramilitaries on cease fire.   David Stevens, a more recent ICC general secretary, told us at the 30^th anniversary:   “That was an imaginative thing to do. Peace requires you to work with people who you might not like to associate with.” 

 

Forty years later, we’ve sent about 160 volunteers to over 40 different organizations in Northern Ireland and Ireland.   Some are still going strong – Quaker Cottage has had 24 of our volunteers throughout the years –but other groups have changed, folded, or no longer work with international volunteers. 

 

Along with the memories from the 30^th anniversary event in Belfast in 2002, I’ve rummaged through the Geneva office files, amidst early BVSers’ project reports and photos, and found other gems of information.  I kept travel notes in the past 25 years and re-discovered some interesting things in those.  Here is a small sampling:

 

My early annual meetings with David Stevens (then assistant general secretary of the Irish Council of Churches in Belfast) often gave me insights about the ongoing situation.  In the late 1980s he was fond of saying that “the situation is desperate but not serious.”  We got news that one of the BVSers who worked as an administrative assistant at the ICC had tried to attend the Milltown Cemetery funeral in 1988 for the IRA trio who were killed in Gibraltar, and a guy named Michael Stone started shooting at the Belfast funeral-goers.  David S. and I both agreed after that, I needed to have some serious talks with some of the BVSers. 

 

Occasionally we held joint meetings of the BVS and the EIRENE volunteers from Germany, not only discussing heavy issues like The Troubles, but also topics like “the role of foreigners in Northern Ireland.”

 

Year after year, I arrived at the international airport and took the bus in to Belfast, always seeing a banner along the motorway admonishing that “Ulster still needs Jesus.”  It disappeared a while ago.  As did the “Belfast says no” banner on the top of City Hall.   Did Ulster find Jesus?   Belfast did eventually say yes to the peace agreements.     

 

In 1992 we held a BVS day for the volunteers in Belfast and invited Mairead Corrigan-Maguire of Peace People fame to speak with us.  She told the BVSers to not get lost in the issues in Northern Ireland, but to concentrate on one-to-one relationships, to help people feel important about themselves, and to “be happy.”

 

One newly arrived BVSer in 1993 told me that he had “not been prepared for these kinds of kids” he was working with in a local youth center in north Belfast.  Hmmm.   

 

And the peace lines separating the two communities grew higher and looked ever more permanent.  

 

I’ll never forget the summer 1994 phone call from Vincent Bent, director of the Ulster Quaker Service Committee, who shouted “Kristin, we have a cease fire!”!   That was the first of the IRA cease fires, leading up to the peace agreement. 

After that a church executive asked me if we would leave Northern Ireland because peace had come.  Do cease fires really mean that everything’s changed?   By then we had worked with youth groups, with community organizations, with individual congregations, with the Irish Council of Churches, with children and their families, with prisoners, with the Peace People, with other peace or mediation or cross community initiatives and organizations and centers and farms.  Not only focusing on the causes and effects of the Troubles, we had also had volunteers in Women’s Aid refuges and with briefly with the Travelling Community. In 1996 we took on a placement at the Multi Cultural Resource Center.   In 1997 the first BVSer headed to a L’Arche community in the Republic of Ireland.  To this date, 20 BVSers have served at the L’Arche communities in the Republic and in Belfast.  

We started holding annual weekend retreats for the Northern Irish and Irish BVSers in the mid 1990’s at various places around Northern Ireland.  One highlight was when our BVS group climbed Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains.

After the on- and off- and on-again ceasefires, the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.  By 2002 I noticed that taxi companies had suddenly flourished and some cab drivers would venture all across Belfast.  Taxis as a sign of peace?   And sadly more peace walls. 

 

We were caught off guard by stricter UK visa requirements in early 2004 and had to send two newly arrived BVSers home to the USA to get those pesky visas, without which they could not enter the UK as long term volunteers.  We’d previously always successfully avoided visas because of a handy letter from the Home Office that allowed BVSers to sail through UK Immigration – which was the work of MP Enoch Powell, but that’s another weird odd story.   It’s been an adventure keeping up with the new demands and requirements.  In 2006 one BVSer could tragically only spend a weekend at her project because her visa had been rejected by UK immigration.  And we still today encounter unexpected glitches in the UK visa process!  Fortunately it’s much easier for us North Americans to get volunteer status in the Republic of Ireland.  

 

My first ever visit to Northern Ireland was to attend my very first European BVS retreat in September 1978 before starting my BVS project in Austria.  I flew from the USA directly to Northern Ireland and joined the other European BVSers at the Corrymeela Community retreat center on the northeast coast; we visited Belfast and other areas, too.  I never imagined then that I would later get the opportunity to see so much history up close – well, from the vantage point of accompanying all the BVSers and annual visits with friends and projects over the last 25 years. 

 
While I have often been preoccupied in recent years with visas and other volunteer adventures, you BVSers have done so many great things in Ireland and Northern Ireland (and everywhere else!), and like Harold Good said: “you’ve come here to share and have touched the lives of so many people.”  Thank you! 

40th BVS anniversary gathering in Belfast, 15 September

The seven current and seven of the former BVSers, their children and partners (and I) celebrated our 40 years of BVSers going to Northern Ireland and Ireland.  We converged at Quaker Cottage, overlooking Belfast, on 15 September.