Volunteering at Kristoffertunet

Could you imagine living in a big community? And do you think you could manage to live together with all kinds of different people? When I came to Kristoffertunet in 2003 I didn't think that I would learn so much in the following months, as I actually did.

I learned more about social understanding and how to work together with people who were pretty much the opposite of me. I think we never would have met somewhere else, and if we did, we would not have met each other as close as we did. And I recognized after a short time that these persons where not so far away from my own thoughts. I made the experience to discover the human being behind the cloak of talk, appearance and acting. Of course, this wasn't always nice, but I was open to get to know all aspects of people.

 

Kristoffertunet is a meeting place with a continuous exchange of people and thoughts. People move in and out, people come to visit, to take a look; people just come to present their skills or to teach them to others. With Anthroposophy as a basis, there’s a continuous meeting of old and young people. People with extremely dissimilar destinies are coming and working together - simple work - but this work neutralizes the gap between them and gives them the possibility to have something in common, to interact, and finally: to meet!

Young and old Co-Workers from mostly European countries come to this place. Some come directly from school or studies; others have already worked in their professions for quite a long time. Here they are helping where they can. Successful Computer-Specialists suddenly become carpenters, biologists are baking bread for lots of shops in the city and psychologists are driving the tractor and working on the fields.

And everything is happening with the help of people who are rejected of the society. Some have mental or physical disabilities; others had a traumatic past or just can't manage life on their own. Sometimes you can hardly talk to them and only communicate on a very low level, but sometimes you can even have very interesting scientific discussions about topics you never heard about. And in these moments you realize how floating the differences between the people are. You can then hardly put somebody into a category. The difference to me is that I can hide in this our society. But they couldn't. Somebody discovered that they have something “wrong” for the society. I live in constant fear that somebody could discover something in me as well.

Although I can't deny that the work becomes from time to time to monotonous and boring, I have to admit that you have more freedom within the work. No furious boss is standing behind you and threatening you. There is time to have fun at work as well and to develop more creative ways of mastering the tasks. I created new ways of motivation and renewed the definition of work, so that I was giving me my own tasks.

I think that there is a cultural and educational aspect on Kristoffertunet. I heard several lectures about all kind of topics, we made tours to historical or interesting places in the surroundings, and we went to both classical and modern concerts and took a look at Norwegian folk music. But especially the daily chats and dialogs at the dinner table, in a silent corner or during the work where showing me new facets of life and were shaping me in a basic way. I think could add lots of more things.

Finally I want to say "thank you" to the whole community of Kristoffertunet that I could make this experience.

Bjørn, August 2006.

*****

Johannes tells about his experiences as an Assistant Gardener.

Johannes is one of several persons that come to Kristoffertunet to work on a day-basis.

 

Hi, folks!

I am the Assistant Gardener, Johannes. My job is to do all the things that the gardener doesn’t have time to do.

So, what does an Assistant Gardener actually do? That means actually to work in the garden, that is to harvest the vegetables and keeping the compost in order. It smells vile, but so what! Tending the compost is a full-time job on its own. It consists of grinding up all the weeds and kitchen-refuse and mixing it together in the compost-heap. There it undergoes a slow, but absolutely painless death-process.

Working in the garden is fun, and the choice to do so is yours.

P.s. There’s a lot more to living in Camphill than what I have described here.

Johannes