Sunday in Friedelsheim

Greg Rabus belongs to a car sharing organization and got one big enough for the six of us to drive to the Mennonite Church in Friedelsheim.  

 At the end of the driveway you see the rounded gate which opens onto an old fortress which now houses the Mennonite church, the parsonage and another person's house.  From 1134 till 1571 this was a cloister.  In 1525 (30 yr war) it was badly destroyed.  A count had it rebuilt in 1585.  As of 1665 the Kurfurst Carl Ludwig decreed that the Mennonites, who had moved to this region from Switzerland, could lease the Burg. In 1803, they were allowed to buy it. It is no small irony, that the Mennonites, who so often were thrown into the cellars and tortured in such fortresses, now owned one. The only Mennonite church that does!
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 Inside you see a beautifully sanctuary, renovated in the last 10 years.  Jeni, you would have loved the accoustics!  Oh, I'll try to insert a video of the 16 attendees singing.

 Jack asked to glance down into the basement.  Half the door was amazingly heavy!  They said the temperature in the basement is constant, just like in a cave.  The stairs down are quite steep.

 Here we are leaving and you see the parsonage.  All buildings are attached and around the center yard.

On the right is the sanctuary. We're walking out through a door in the large wooden gate, which can also be opened if needed.

For a delicious lunch of meatball soup, bread and cheesecake dessert we were invited to a family, who live in a neighboring town with their two grown up sons.  A lovely family.  The wife told us that her mother was brought to Paraguay on the Volendam by my parents after WWII.  Renate grew up there but married Gunter (a German) and moved to Germany.

Holocaust commemoration Jan. 27

In a local schoolyard a commemoration of the holocaust today.  Auschwitz was liberated today in 1945 by the Russians.  One school provided the orchestra, another had a group of students presenting information about in which camps Jews from the LU area were sent, along with poetry readings, and dramatic recitation.  This latter school had made the holocaust its focus for the year for all levels.  They pass on a kind of trophy to the next school, which will engage with this theme in an intense way this next school year.

The mayor spoke well and passionately about the need to remember and learn from the past.  She presented this wreath.  Ruthild was pleased that she shook our hands and Ruthild told her why I was here.  I'm glad she took me to this event out in the cold.

Chocolates for all!

At the monthly meeting of Respekt: Menschen various types of chocolates were scattered over the tables.  Of course there was also tea and mineral water.  Lots was consumed over the course of the two hour meeting, but there was also a lot accomplished on the agenda.  Marlene, the lady with the white scarf reminds me of you.  She was also a teacher, has a great sense of humor, a sharp political take, and a good heart.

Respekt: Menschen developed a few years ago when so many civil society groups formed to help with the influx of refugees.  These smart folk decided to send reps once a month to this meeting so that they can keep each other informed about what they were doing, and get help and info from each other. Many of these smaller groups are no longer functioning and RM is now doing much of the work.  Many who come here actually work with refugees in their job as physicians, social workers, etc.  But they find that RM can be much more reactive than their large agencies. It's a huge benefit to have their know-how.

The following will be some notations from this first meeting we attended.
1. At the beginning of the year 2 members went around to all officials at the offices dealing with foreigners, to refugee social workers, and the supers of the camp buildings and brought each person a rose, a card, and a personal thanks for their hard work.  Jack and I got a quick insight into how hard it was for them to be genuine when they were dealing with a particularly difficult official :).  But what a great idea this is!  They plan to do it again next January.

2.  They lamented the fact that while Mannheim, just across the Rhein bridge from us, has land and former US barracks which can be used for the refugees, Ludwigshafen (LU) is lacking any exta land to build on, let alone empty buildings.  Also, we learned, LU at one time was quite wealthy and now is lacking any extra resources.  BASF is the largest employer in the town and they questioned whether the taxes could be raised on it....  "Steuerschlupfloch" = tax loop hole

3.  They discussed, but came to no conclusion, of what to do with the incorrect public perception that the refugees situation is hopeless.  They agreed that the local paper fails to publish success stories.  They really believe there are only a few truly hopeless situations.

4.  The local camp is overfilled.  Refugees stay there until they get papers to live in LU.  Now there is a new problem:  Folk who get their papers cannot find another residence, which makes them homeless.  A completely different part of the local gov't is responsible for the homeless.  Those bureaucrats do not want refugee responsibilities!  So they all had a chuckle around the table and discussed various houses and apartments that will be coming available.

5.  One woman reported having used 300 Euros from RM to help pay for the 550 Euro cost of a DNA test.  The gov't insisted that this man prove he is the father of the child, in which case he gets to stay in Germany. RM said it was a way of getting rid of him and that it's obvious he belongs to this family.

6.  A family from Kosowo has been told they must leave after being here 4 years.  However, their son is 14 yrs old and has attended German school for all 4 yrs.  If his report card in February is good, the family can appeal to stay.  If he fails, they must leave.  If he were not between 14-18 yrs old, they'd have no grounds to stay.  He is sure he'll pass all his subjects. This means the parents may stay till he is 18.  Then he can stay, but they must go...unless there is another child in the family at that point of the right age and already 4 yrs in school.  The woman in the picture with the red hair accompanied this family to the office for foreigners and explained their case.  The official collected their passports, listened, and agreed that once he gets a copy of the report card he'll apply for their right to stay. When they left, the red head took them out to a cafe to celebrate.  Instead of being happy, the mother had a meltdown because they'd had to leave their passports and now were without proper documentation!!  She became hysterical.  The red head explained to us that it was not only scary for her, but actually also a real problem because for certain things they have to show their passports and now they'll be without for a while.

7.  We also heard the story of a politician at the state level getting involved with helping a migrant family and getting in deep trouble because of it.  She found out that a family was being deported because their combined income was not quite enough according to state rules.  They averaged 30 Euro less a month!  She overruled the expulsion.  The public thought she'd overstepped and not followed the law.  When she was able to show that her job gave her that right (she had just never used it before), then the furor died down.  Germans do want rules to be followed.

They invited us back for next month's meeting and wished us well in our work at Friedenshaus.  By the way, they always meet in our LU Mennonite Church building.

Our lovely apartment

Daughter-in-law Rachel asked to see some photos of the apartment, having seen "before" pictures while we were still in the States.  Herewith are some "before and after" shots of our spacious ground-floor Wohnung here at Berlinerstrasse 43:

  

As you enter the apartment . . . carpet removed and handsome tile and engineered-wood floor discovered.

  

Our bedroom

  

The living room - ladders still there from installing the lights and curtains . . . 

  

The biggest change was the kitchen - from nothing to something quite wonderful!

We want to thank the many big and small contributions from members of the Ludwighausen Mennonitengemeinde as well as the family from Frankenthal that gave us their Oma's kitchen (including sink, stove and washing machine) and most of the lights in the apartment. Balil, our Syrian friend, gathered several of his friends to install the kitchen as well as cleaned much of the apartment. He also gifted us with a new light for the kitchen (like the one he uses in his own apartment.) And our neighbor Ruthild Foth (a key member of the Gemeinde and a valuable source of historical information), who lent us many of the towels, tablecloths, sheets, blankets and lots of things one needs every day. The fridge is from Greg's family. The beautiful quilt on the bed is on loan from the Unger family, who thought of many useful items for us. 

We are SO well cared for here at Friedenshaus!

Asyl (Sanctuary) Cafe

Yesterday Marit  (the women in the center of the picture) invited us to accompany her to one of the many Asyl Cafes around Ludwigshafen and Mannheim (and all of Germany). Here the many refugees can come for tea, coffee and assistance with their many needs. This is where our colleague Greg Rabus and the Canadian teacher Karl Langeloz began in September of 2016 to work with refugees - in the work that lead to the ministry of Friedenshaus today. 

We no sooner arrived than we were seated with a couple from Eritrea. They were looking for help to get their family of five out of the large building in the camp. We visited with them and passesd them on to a social worker. Next came a couple from Iran who needed help with their health insurance application. That Ruth could handle. Above, Ruth assists a young mother of three from Somalia with her German language homework. We thought it was crazy busy and very full- and everyone (even Greg later) said how much more calm and organized the cafes are now compared to when the country was dealing with the sudden arrival of 1 million refugees two years ago. We've learnt that every city was given it's portion of refugees so the percentage is the same across Germany. Amazing!

Sunday

Working backwards, here is a picture of the delicious leftovers we were given after today’s church potluck.  The Frankenthal Mennonite Church is always invited to join LU on MWC World Fellowship Sunday.  So the building was full.  Jack says there were a lot of dishes.  It was great to see all the men enjoying their kitchen time.

 

The tables were covered with super white tablecloths and, of course, none of the dishes were plastic or paper.  And no one brought their own plate or cutlery.  They helped themselves in courses.  I almost made a comment when a large man at our table only had lettuce and a piece of bread.  Thank goodness I didn’t!  Then he went back for soup.  After that he filled his plate with the many different foods that were displayed.  I think he might have even gotten some trifle for dessert.

Continuing backwards, the church service was lovely.  Our pastor  (center with black blazer) has a very pleasant enthusiastic way of addressing the congregation.  Jack says she is easy to follow.  She had power-point pictures of Mennonite church work from various African countries.  Her sermon and then various interspersed readings by congregants was excellent.  We sang 6-7 hymns, of which we knew three. In keeping with European tradition, the hymnal is small (6x5 inches and 2 inches thick).  

At the start of the service Jack and I introduced ourselves, also with pictures.  We both spoke and I think it went well, although there were no comments at all afterwards.  We brought greetings from SMC.

After all the dishes, a meeting about our registration challenges at the courthouse, and just visiting, some of our new friends came to see our apartment and at 4 p.m. we waved them goodbye.  A great first Sunday in LU.

laundry

We have now moved downstairs to our spacious first floor apartment. We no longer have to go out into the stairwell to get to our bathroom and this one has a nice shower and lots of cabinets. We have a big living room and a good sized bedroom.  Our kitchen is long and narrow, but functional.  It even has a washing machine under the counter!  It was high time to do a laundry.  We found unscented laundry detergent, but we were missing any place to dry the clothes.  Since we still need to put up curtains and had the borrowed ladders in the living room, that's what we used.  It worked very well!  Today we walked about 2 miles to a home and building supply store where we found a drying rack.  So tomorrow's laundry will dry in style!

Multiple Languages

Profound insights are probably what you expect, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit longer.  

Being in Greg's class today went well.  A few students asked me again how long I’m staying, which either shows they didn’t understand before or they can’t believe it.  There is lots they don’t understand and Greg does a great job of explaining and acting it out, and also speaking to them in Arabic!  Today he even understood what they were saying in Turkish. 
We have students from Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Tunisia, and Turkey.  Many cannot understand the others!  Today’s reading was about getting and setting up a new computer.  It was challenging!
Here Greg is talking with Ghassan.  He is our oldest student.  Students come to Greg with many problems unrelated to class.  Today a middle-aged woman begged him to call the authorities.  She showed him the letter that told her to report to a place to schedule integration classes.  She wanted him to call for a closer place.  He checked it on google maps and showed her it was an easy, short streetcar ride.  By her reaction I could tell she hasn’t ever taken the streetcar by herself.  Greg offered to go with her.  In the break I asked if I could take his place.  By the end of class she’d found out her husband would go with her on Monday.  If she doesn’t take a certain number of class hours her living allowance from the government will drop substantially.  

First free day in Ludwigshafen

Ruth - Jack will write another day.   It’s 7:30 p.m. and we haven’t had supper.  Jack has put up two more lights.  Now he’s on the computer looking for a hardware store.  Nothing like Brilhart's in our downtown LU.  It requires a bus ride so we’ll do that another time. But walking around we found this neat moveable parts fountain.

We made two shopping trips today.  It’s different from at home because every item we buy has to not only be carried home, but then up 4flights of stairs.  So there were some things we left for another outing.   It’s lots of fun to be surrounded by all these German brands.  Even inexpensive chocolate is good!  And at the check out we saw a large can of .5 liter beer for 29 cents.
I just previewed this post and see the pictures didn’t upload.  Jack will add them tomorrow like he did  in the past.  I apologize to the friends who get this via email because the pictures will only be on the blog.

Our first full day in Ludwigshafen

Ruth -  today was our first full day in Ludwigshafen (LU) and it was really a very full day!  I observed the classes and participated as needed.  The two hour grammar class in the morning was very well attended.  There were people from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Morocco.  Fewer (6) came for the 1-3 p.m. conversation & writing class, which was just as well since we practiced the difficult task of writing formal letters.

At 5 p.m. was sewing time in the church basement, a very nice large room with tables and chairs and a nicely outfitted small kitchen, plus storage closets.  Only some Syrian men came and talked upstairs.  In the past some foreign women had attended.  The general consensus was that the Syrian women don’t leave the house after dark.  Two Syrian pre-teens came and explained it was too cold for their mother.  From the German church there were 3 teens, who helped all around as well as with childcare.  Greg’s family, our neighbors Ruthilde & Puran, the pastor Birgit Foth, as well as four other women from the church and one woman who saw the announcement in the paper and likes to quilt.
It was 8:30 p.m. by the time we found a restaurant.  I’m posting this from my IPad and can’t add any pics.  Tomorrow we’ll add pictures and Jack will tell about his day.

Sent from Ruth Scott's iPad

The weekend in Backnang

Ruth - Today's meeting of the south German Mennonite Churches was an all day affair with vigorous singing, admonition and training on data security, a lunch of borscht and rolls, reports about various projects, discussion in small groups about what churches are doing in relation to young adults as well as a bit of brainstorming. 

Jack -  In the afternoon, I joined Rudiger S. for a tour of the many homes built by Pax Boys during the 1950s and early 60's. For part of that time, Ruth's father and mother (Peter and Elfrieda Dyck) oversaw the work with refugees and the Pax Boys in Backnang. 

First Meals

 It's only the second day and we've already had a wide variety of meals and fellowship.  After unpacking a bit we found a Turkish doener restaurant a block from our house.  Delish!

Ruthild and her housemate Puran invited us for an Iranian lunch.  They live in our bldg on the second floor.  Puran is an excellent cook and told us of the persecution of her Bahai people in Iran.  She credits Trump for "support" against the Muslim leaders.  Ruthild told us many interesting stories from her past and her travels.  She has attended 12 Mennonite World Conferences!

We travelled with Greg's family to Backnang (two trains - including five minutes of relaxed conversation on the wrong train! But with fast running we caught the right train at the last minute!)

Rudiger picked us up at the train station and brought us home for a lovely German supper. In the picture you see his wife Karin beside Jack, Rudiger, Ines, Jennifer and son Alex.  Greg was with baby Ian.

Welcome!

After 21 hours of traveling, we arrived to find our apartment in process of being remodeled (happy day!) and a room on the fourth floor all ready for us to rest. On the table were roses and homemade jellies from our Mennonite neighbor Ruthilde. We are using towels and sheets from other members of the congregation, Greg Rabus, director of Friedenshaus, welcomed us at the Mannheim train station and guided on two streetcar rides and a short walk to the Ludwigshafen Mennonite Church, where his office, our classes will be and our new accommodations are located. 

Ach nein!

Oh no!  This is our last day at home and I've already had the biggest breakfast I could (the fridge is getting emptier!), been to school to pick up old grammar texts, dropped stuff off at Goodwill, been to the post office, delivered two houseplants to kind sitters, gotten my hair cut (I should never have told her I'd be away for 6 months!  She kept cutting and cutting!) and now Jack just saw the sticker on our Dodge Stratus telling us it should have been inspected in September.  Jack never misses things like this.  I could give you a long explanation, but that would be boring and futile.  Thing is - during our bitterly cold days Jack thought he'd drive it instead of the minivan, just to keep it running.  The power steering snapped as soon as he started it.  This has been fixed before, but must now be fixed before it can be inspected.  Drama! 

Sign up for email postings from our blog

Jack -   So, we're going to try using the email signup feature for those of you who would like an email each time we write a new post.  It is a feature available via Feedburner to Blogger. We had friends assure us that it works, does not include ads, and hasn't filled their inbox with spam. You sign up on our site, prove you are a human, and you are sent an email.  Click on the email link and you are all signed up.

For those of you who prefer just to follow us by marking us as one of you "favorites" in your browser, thanks for doing that.

As Helen Keller once wrote, "Security is mostly a superstition. . . Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. . . . Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." 

Then, on the other hand, it was Dave Barry who famously wrote in one of his columns, "ERROR, ERROR, ERROR ALL FILES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED YOU STUPID BAZOOTYHEAD HA, HA!  Considering what a wonderful invention computers are, they certainly have a way of making you sometimes feel like pouring coffee into their private parts and listening to them scream."

. . . just sayin' . . . welcome to our adventure!

Can we do it?

My goal for today and tomorrow is to empty this fridge!  Some things can be frozen, others given away, but the bulk of it will be eaten.  I want to turn the fridge off while we’re gone.  I think this is a fun challenge!

Sending Blessing

  

Ruth. -  In this morning's worship service at Scottdale Mennonite Church we experienced a meaningful sending service.  It is good to know our congregation will be praying for us as we head into this experience.  

German books going home

Ruth  - We’re weighing bags and deciding on what to take and what to leave.  See the books in the picture?  Funny story.  I bought them in 2000 on a trip to Germany and used them with my classes. The new teacher doesn’t need them, so I’m taking them back across the Atlantic again.  Jack will use some when he cares for young children and eventually we’ll give them away.

No email alerts

The follow button works, but not the way I'd hoped.  We investigated sending email alerts but it seemed too intrusive.  Jack thinks that "feedburner" would send you lots of ads etc.  We don't feel comfortable with them getting a list of your email addresses.  So, I guess you'll just have to check in from time to time to see if we've blogged.  You can make it a favorite on your browser...  Jack thinks I can announce it on Facebook, but that seems like extra work to me :).  I should have gotten the hang of Facebook before we took on blogging!

The FOLLOW button

Ruth -   We're still in the process of getting the kinks worked out on this blog.  Now Jack has figured out a "follow" button.  We hope this will alert you via an email that a new blog has been posted.  At this point it's impossible to predict how often we'll be posting and this would make it much more convenient for friends who want to know.  We asked Rebecca to try it out and she wrote that you should, "NOT click on "submit" (which is closest) but rather on "follow" (which is below)."
Try it and see if it works.  I'll be sure to submit blogs these next days.  When I submit this we'll see if it sends her an alert.

It's marvelous how computer savvy Jack is and how he'll tackle a challenge until it's solved.  I doubt that I'd be attempting this undertaking in Ludwigshafen if he weren't at my side.