Workcamp in Deutschland
My Fairytale Bavaria oder Vaterstetten 2010
von Alena aus Weißrussland
Last summer I had a lucky opportunity to participate as a volunteer in the international summer workcamp which took place in Vaterstetten, Munich, from 31.07.2010 to 21.08.2010. There came 13 people from 8 European countries to give their time and effort to achieve the common goal. Since I had never been to Germany before I wanted to go somewhere in the northern part, but now I am happy that my acquaintance with this amazing country started with Bavaria. This was really a fairytale holiday for several reasons.
Alena explores Vaterstetten
Vaterstetten is a lovely small town situated just within a 20-minute’s ride from Munich. We lived in the local youth centre where there were two big bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, and all entertainment facilities were also at our disposal. So many things in German everyday life are strikingly different from those in my home country, Belarus, that I constantly felt like Alice in Wonderland, it means I was all the time asking questions but our teamers and friendly local people were always eager to explain everything to me. Not only this did camp allow me to brush up my German and English, but it was also a great intercultural experience because in the group we exchanged a lot of information about our national traditions, cuisines and attitudes. As a result I has got rid of many stereotypes and brought home a thick notebook full of exotic recipes, songs and games.
Each week a new work
The camp in Vatterstetten has an interesting peculiarity: each of the three weeks is devoted to a new type of work, so the participants have a chance to try many things and there is no monotony. During the first week we were helping somewhat about 120 (!) local children aged from 6 to 14 to build wooden huts on the youth centre ground. The children favourably impressed me by being very self-organised and independent. Building huts was a lot of fun; we deepened once again in a fantasy world of childhood. The week ended in a huge bonfire and a barbeque with traditional Bavarian sausages. The second week was devoted to the environmental work like making hay, repairing fences around local fruit gardens and taking care of forest plants. Doing something in the picturesque countryside was a refreshing change. Having lived my entire life in a big city, I hardly ever work with fork or hammer, so it all was very new to me. Maybe we have not done much, but at the end of the week we were proud of our contribution to the environmental protection. And finally, in our third week we also worked with children, but this time there were about 30 of them. The task was to make short theatrical performances based on three different fairytales. First we watched them on DVD, and then the exciting process of creating decorations and costumes, rehearsing and playing different games began. On Friday the children proudly presented their plays to the parents.
Our exciting free time activities
Although we worked all three weeks there was still plenty of free time to organise various exciting activities, like going to Munich museums, clubs and open-air festivals. On the week-ends we also travelled to more distant places, for instance, the town of Regensburg on the Danube. This beautiful medieval town is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it proved its name, because it was raining there on the day we came (‘regen’ is the German for ‘to rain’). We even managed to explore another country – Austria, luckily it was just two hours by train. The bustling city of Salzburg dominated by the impressive castle, the native town of Mozart, is really worth visiting. But for me the most exciting part was the tour to the mountains. When we got to a tiny landing at the top, it was all covered with fog and it gave you a peculiar feeling of being lost in the middle of nowhere. And then all of a sudden the wind blows the fog off and you are struck with the breathtaking view of unreal and eternal beauty stretching for miles around you. Isn’t it magic?
Germany and Bavaria
All in all, Bavaria is the land where the pace of life is very different from other places. You can feel it as you go across its vast green fields with pasturing cows and hear tinkling of their bells in the evening air. Time stands still in little Bavarian villages where people live in traditional houses, brew bear and men wear leather trousers on Sundays. Later I get acquainted with another Germany, industrial, modern, the one of high speeds and technologies, but I am happy that my first impressions (which are said to be the strongest ones) will forever be connected with this fairytale part of it. Many thanks to IJGD and Vaterstetten Community!