Shalom haverim!

Finally I find time to write to my non German speaking friends out there. For those of you who didn't know, I'm staying in India since the 19th of December and presently working in "Friends of Camphill India" in Bangalore.
Right in the beginning I met with Philipp and Susi whom most of you know from Kfar Rafael. They were already touring India for a few months and now moved on to Thailand. We spent 3 Weeks together exploring the south Indian state Kerala. It was nice having companionship in the beginning of my time here. Very helpful also in terms of organization and integration in the Indian culture and chaos. In a few months Stephan and Miriam with whom I also worked together in Kfar Rafael are probably also coming to India as a part of their round the world journey. So we who got to know each other in Israel and still have a very close friendship now all meet in India again.
After spending a wonderful and relaxing time in Kerala (which I needed a lot after my exhausting job in Munich) I went to the place of my final destination here in Bangalore.



"Friends of Camphill India" is a residential community for mentally handicapped adults (although there are also pretty young villagers). The community has two houses and is home for 45 people from whom 24 are villagers with special needs, along with me there are 10 co-wokers from abroad (mostly from Germany and Austria) and 3-4 permanent Indian co-workers and 2 kitchen staff. There is only one family living here, Francis from Holland who founded the Camphill together with her Indian husband Anantha; they have 3 children. In the daily work the house parents are more or less not present, that also explains the need of 5 meetings every weeks. One for the whole community, one for every house, one for the Indian co-workers and one for all the co-workers. Due to that fact there is a lack of guidance for new co-workers and everybody has to carry great responsibility.
But on the other side it's a good challenge for every one. Since I'm here I played already the main part in a parsifal drama the community did together with the people from the social therapy seminar which takes place twice a year here in the camphill. I'm also working on a movie about the community. Francis asked me to do one after she saw the one I did about the Kfar because she wants to use it for reasons of fundraising abroad.

On Monday I'm going to make the final decision if to stay here half a year or a full year. My tendency is really going towards half a year since I want to explore the rest of the country and maybe want to work in other places as well. At the moment I don't have clear plans, but in June I anyway have to go abroad to expand my visa. For that reason I will go to Nepal and maybe also work there on a organic farm and do some trekking in the Himalaya. Afterwards I maybe want to work in a place that's going to be a Camphill soon. It's located in Goa next to the Sea and two former Co-workers are just leaving today to live there and built up the place for the future. To visit the Auroville (near the Southeast Indian City of Chennai) Community would be also an opportunity for me. I will see where I will end up...

Right now I'm enjoying my day off in the city of Bangalore, one of the richest and biggest cities in India. Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of South-East Asia, it's per capita income is the highest for any Indian city. But that just makes the contrast between the poor end the rich, the modern and the simple-traditional even bigger and is on of the biggest challenges for the future.