SCI camp (english)
Sennrüti from 8 – 22 August 2010
Service Civil International (SCI) is a volunteer organization dedicated to promoting a culture of peace by organizing international voluntary projects for people of all ages and backgrounds.
On 8th August 2010 we all embarked on an adventure. We, the people living in our community Sennrüti, and the 10 young people from all over the world, that came to be and work with us.
Beforehand we made a lot of plans. How can we help our visitors? What do they need to know about us to feel at home in Sennrüti? What kind of work is and good for the community and also rewarding for our helpers? How will those weeks enfold? So many questions!
Yasuhiro and Simon arrived already on Saturday. The others swept in with rain and wind on Sunday. After finding roommates and a warm meal in the cafeteria, we sat together with quite a few from our community to share a first round of names and a “to-get-to know-each-other”. From SCI there were: Akiko from Tokyo, Anna from Barcelona, Daniel from Solothurn, Dilyara from Moscow, Simon from Antwerp (Belgium), Yasuhiro from Miyazaki-ken(Japan), Zaneta and Pavlina from Czech Republic. As two further people of the original group didn’t turn up, we could invite two young men, Albert and Rob, from the Netherlands. They phoned on Sunday morning and joined us for 5 days.
On Monday morning we took our time to introduce the house and the surroundings and to give all the little and big information, which is useful in one way or another. And especially we took our time, to listen to each other. We started every day and every shift with this kind of sharing in order to become present in the group, in the day and at the work we were planning to do. After sharing we were singing together. It took some time, but with help of our songbooks we got better and better and developed our favourite songs.
Because the weather, other than the forecast told us, was quite good, we could work almost everyday in the garden.
After 5 years without much gardening in the west corner, there was a lot to do: freeing the place around the wagons and yurt from roots of wild brambles and nettles and to make nice paths with strawberries at the side. Anne and Levi were part of the group work every morning. Levi wanted us to hurry up with sharing and singing, as he loves to be “Usse” (outside).
With help from René R. we made a willow fence on the west side meadow, that already has new leafs growing as I am writing this. Next to it, we prepared a space with shredded material for all the berries from our garden.
Unfortunately Pavlina and Zaneta had to go back home earlier, as a member of their family had a car accident. Rob and Albert also left us on Friday; they had already stayed longer as they planned. After a few days, on the garden-day, we felt brave enough to start with the “Love-hut”, as we called it. This willow-house is also part of the fence and is made with fast growing willow, with a beautiful roof (with holes to see the moon and the stars) and two big hearts.
Other jobs were:
- Filling the shedder-machine with everything green we were cutting.
- Building a snail-fence around the two high-beds, before the snails ate all pumpkins, that Berta had planted.
- Finishing the tipi-place and planting flowers on the south slope.
- Making of a sandpit for the little ones of the community.
- Putting a lot of shredder under the climbing tree.
- Starting to build a tree house for the older kids.
- Making of nice paths and a red place with reed grass on the side.
- And we went “back to the roots”: removing roots, we found everywhere.
During the weeks some members of the community worked morning or afternoon with us, so that some of us could help them with that part of the garden they are looking after: Yvette with the garden around the cafeteria, Veronika with the stairs down to the next building, Monique with the greenhouse and the garden next to it and Berta with the tomato plantation.
On the free afternoon Monique, Pietro and Berta went with the group to a cheese factory, where they were shown how to make “Appenzeller” cheese. And once the group took bikes and made a hike to the Necker for a swim.
Every morning one of the group helped a member of the community with cooking lunch and every night two prepared a beautiful dinner, often a speciality of their country.
In the evenings, we did all kind of different things: walking above Sennrüti, seeing a movie together, making a fire, singing together, bodywork with Veronika, disco nights, one with René H. and one with Andrea, juggling with Markus, you name it, we did it. Pia and René R. prepared a cheese fondue on the campfire, one evening we had a swiss raclette. Sitting at the fire was something also community members, such as Annette, Wolfgang, Berta and Guido and many others got used to. As soon as the fire was lit, they came and there was music and talks until midnight.
The last Saturday Monique, Berta and Lucia climbed with the six remaining SCI-people on the Säntis, a hike of 1500 meters height. It took them 5½ hours to get there. Everybody was proud and happy; Yasuhiro managed the walk even with walking shoes without soles.
On Sunday we enjoyed our last brunch together and then one after the other went to their next steps, back home or on other adventures. We in Sennrüti do miss the laughter and the music. The piano is quiet, no running and dirty shoes in the entrance, no happy noise in the cafeteria in the evening. And who is lighting the fire at night?
Yes, we are grateful for those wonderful weeks, for the chance to get to know such special people. What stays are the memories and 2000 photos, which are banned on a DVD by Daria and Marcel. And a Mieke, who is looking forward to see those miracle-workers back here in Sennrüti. Thank you all! And thank you SCI (www.sciint.org and www.scich.org) for organizing this kind of camps.
more pictures: SCI-Lager