One of my volunteer placements is with the Federal Government in Germany as a BFD. The actual word is long and my spelling is poor so let’s just stick to the acronym. It is a year-long programme with five individual weeks spent in the North of the country in a town called Barth.
For our first week we were developing our social, team and life skills. As a group we have carried out many different activities such as a trip to a coal fired power station. There we had a talk about green energy and got to tour the plant which was really cool.
But our best trip, well you have to hear it to believe it! We took the minibuses out to the middle of nowhere, pile out and begin a long, long walk up a muddy track to halt on the cliff top above the sea. There I am on the edge of a cliff the sea roaring beneath me, the wind howling around me and what do you think our leader says to do? No it’s not go back to the buses, it’s: “I'll meet you at the bridge which is a 30 minute walk that way!”
So we begin the trek I am having so much fun. Following the path we come to a split one path carries on straight but the other goes downwards. A few of us took the path less travelled down to the beach at first a simple but hilly decent then a straight drop down for a couple of feet. Walking on sand in gale force wind blowing in your face is not fun. It feels like forever before we glimpse the bridge and manage to get on a tarmac path. As a bonus I got a cool rock which was apparently washed up from Scandinavia.
After School Hustle
Since I have quite a bit of free time I have ended up joining a new charity but this time as a participant, not a volunteer. It’s called After School Hustle and is run by Pawel, he’s great. https://www.instagram.com/pawelmordel/?hl=en The programme is free and offers different workshops on Saturdays. I’ve been on three so far: writing, illustration and film making. The writing workshop has inspired me to start developing more of my short story ideas.
I’ve also have a lovely new friend called Sindhiya, and we have been to two different movies recently, the last Maze Runner at the IMAX and Black Panther in 3D. Both of which were enjoyable to watch and it was nice to discuss our thoughts afterwards. Speaking of airing thoughts about movies who’s seen Maze Runner? I like the action opening scene especially as I had not seen the others in the series. Black Panther worked effectively for me showing tradition and futurised technology which I thought co-existed effectively.
Talking of films I also ended up organising my first meet up between a bunch of people from so many different countries. We went to a free Okinawa Japanese film at the smallest cinema (Kino in German) in Berlin as part of the Berlin Biennial Film Festival. The main film was quite bizarre and fun but I really liked the first one Born, Bone, Boon about honouring dead ancestors by washing their bones.
An update on Refugio
Rufugio is still going strong here in Berlin, providing a Sprachen Café to teach Refugees English. One of its participants is an eighteen year old Syrian tailor who has in a year learnt German, retook his A levels in German and shortly starts an apprenticeship as an engineer in green energy, all so very impressive. It is an interesting experience for me to teach him and others English, as he is nurotypical as is 98% of the population, yet having Asperger’s I am not. Normally socialising and communicating can challenge me as I have to look people in the eye, as this is both physically and mentally painful for me as I do not know how long to look, how direct my eye to eye contact should be and often I get so confused and drift off to think of something safe like dragons and cannot track conversations I am involved in. Here the refugees and internationals embrace difference and find it both acceptable and respectful if I just look at them once to acknowledge our conversation then look away as we continue to chat. Such an enlightening and confidence boosting experience where I am accepted and allowed to be me.
Until next time,
Immy
