kassel welcomes us

this was really nice and i feel kinda bad for what i'm about to say but oh well.

basically, i am working with a volunteer organization SCI that does work with communities all over the world. you develop the program and they provide the people and some of the money for operating costs. There is a wide range of things that they get involved with. I am here working in Kassel helping to build benches to help turn used green spaces into someplace where people can gather and stuff.

on the first day we were welcomed by the community we were gonna be working with and were invited to a get together with us as the guests of honor. Last year, a community got and received a SCI group to come and help build a wall to create a garden area from a parking lot for a group of apt blocs. its also a space they use for things like neighborhood barbques and such. so they decided to welcome this years group. it was really really sweet but a bit of torture.

first we got lost cause em the directions included looking for a large wall with holes in it and nothing about street signs. then we get there and the neighborhood puts on entertainment for us. dear lord!

there was a woman who recited poetry - in german. half of the group has no knowledge of german and it seems like to brought out every poem she had ever written. i am not a big fan of poetry and it loses whatever charm it had in a foreign languges. interspersed with the poetry wa music. again sweet but em . . . again in german. the singer reminded me of Dieter - you know the mike myers character from SNL but with black glasses and a red shirt. the band consisted of Dieter on keyboards and some dude on clarinet - need i say more?

they went on with this for an hour and the food was on a table only a few feet away. sometimes i curse the fact that my mom managed to drill a few manners into me since it would have been nice to just reach over grab some food and tell them to quit it. but they looked so happy doing it and it was so sweet to go through all that trouble for us, so i sat and paid attention during the poetry and pretended to feel the music.

here's a pic of us waiting for the performance and other party goers to come. Dieters in the back.