Music Week in Dingle

For the first week of November the Blasket Centre on the Dingle Peninsula resounded with music. An inclusive group of about 70 musicians, made up of members from all the different Camphill Communities of Ireland , practised music under the baton of our patient conductor John Billing, whom some of the readers might remember from the Celtic Lyre Orchestra.

It was a truly wonderful experience to sit in the bright and spacious Blasket Centre, which the OPW generously made available to Camphill for that week. The orchestra was unique; it was an ad-hoc orchestra made up of the talents and abilities of the people present at any given time. Some of the musicians were accomplished players, some humble beginners. There were hand bells, various drums and percussion instruments, polychords, lyres, violins, a cello, flutes, and even a saxophone and a trumpet. Each instrument had an important part to play and each voice, however humble, contributed to the sound of the whole; a true and wonderful experience of Community.

The members of the "Camphill Orchestra" stayed in cottages in a courtyard in Dingle; this was a great opportunity to meet old friends and to make new ones. We went out together for meals, listened to music in the pub and danced together at a ceili. With so many Camphillers in town the music week definitely was the talk in town.

The Community in Dingle, together with all their friends, looked after all of us so well. Tea breaks with delicious homemade cakes appeared miraculously just at the right moments, and a local chef cooked our lunches for us in the local youth hostel.

Next to practising in the orchestra we all had the opportunity to do some singing, drumming, dancing and bell ringing. Some of us discovered our talent in salsa dancing!

At the end we performed the fruits of all our hard rehearsing at a fundraising concert organised by the Dingle community. The sound of the music, the memory of the wonderful time spent with new and old friends, and the sound of the waves on Dingle Peninsula will live on in me for a long time.
Thank you to all the friends who helped to bring about such a truly inspiring week!

Claudia Brave

My time at Camphill Dingle

During the summer 2012 I came to the Dingle Camphill Community as a summer co-worker for 3 months. In the beginning I hadn't had a concrete idea of what was waiting for me. Because I'm not from a religious and antroposophical background I was a bit afraid not to fit in the community. But this was not the case at all. Between all the members there was and is a big respect and acceptance!
Speaking of the people there : they are all so great. I met so many good, interesting, funny and kind hearted people and we built some true relations with each other.

For me, it was the first time that I was so far away from home for such a long period of time and it was also the first time « working » with adult special needs. The first days of giving care were a little bit difficult but quickly I realised that the person cannot do it by herself and needs my help. It came more and more natural and in the end we had the greatest fun in the bathroom.

Of course my English got better and better every day because we just spoke English together. Even with the people who knew the same languages as me.(because we met in English, it was so natural to continue in this language. Mostly I learnt the vocabulary for the household, garden, kitchen and daily life.

As a community we did many things together. For example : cooking, cleaning, working in the different workshops and we even had to run the house (when the house parents were on holy days).
A very special thing for me was food. I never ate so healthy! Nearly everything that we had on our plate came from the garden, from the farm and from Daisy (milking cow). I was so amazed by that!
A big difficulty was to think of all the little things that I was supposed to remember and in the end I forgot 3/4 of them. But of course you are never alone and the people are offering their help a lot!

There were some situations where I thought I was a bit too young for this experience and I missed my freedom at some moments. For example to have just one day off (this means ONE sleep in) was a big change to my student way of life.

But all in all it didn't matter because I had by far the best summer that I ever could imagine to have!
During those 3 month I learnt to always be aware what's happening around me, to think for myself, to cook regularly for 8 or more people, to spin, to knit and a lot more!

I'm so thankfull to all the residents, co-workers and employees for this wonderful time together.

March 2013 News

Time seems to be flying at the moment - and I can hardly believe that two weeks have already passed. The community seems to be buzzing with activity - as spring has really arrived and everyone is getting ready for the months ahead. Even the cold spell of weather that we are experiencing does not really seem to bother so much.

Two of the Dexter Cows have given birth to two gorgeous little calfs that are happily running around the field and we are expecting another one in the coming days.Darren , Tomas and Dominic are all excited and go up to the field whenever they can. We also have ten lambs - and over the next few days are expecting a few more.

The chickens are producing an incredible amount of eggs - and everyone is blowing them out so that we have lots of eggs to paint for Easter.

Even on the building front there is some news. The workshop building has gone out for tender - but we are still waiting for a few details to be sorted out before we can move on with the actual house . But hopefully there will be some news to tell in the coming months.

Easter week is a very rich time in Camphill. We try to experience the festivals and do lots of activities in holy week in order to get an experience of all the things that are happening. Every day we look at the events of holy week so that we can prepare ourselves for a big festival on Easter Sunday where we usually have a sunrise breakfast together before going on an egg hunt in our garden in the afternoon.This year we have lots of visitors at this time of year - and is very nice to see some of our past co-workers popping in to say hello.

This coming Friday will be the first day on the market for this year - and lots of things are being still produced. Catriona is making new chair cushions - a new line that we have developed and Ann Marie has made a lot of scarves. Stephen and Thomas are very busy in the garden getting the beds prepared for planting - and we have managed to plant all our potatoes for this year the day after St. Patricks Day.

March 2013 News

It has been a while since I have written so there is a little bit more news than usual. We have had some lovely spring days and have all been enjoying being outside - and have welcomed a few new members into the community.Valentino -our new pet ram - joined us on Valentines Day and has grown enormously since then and n the last few days we have also had the first of our own lambs - and it is lovely to see them running around the fields.

A group of the community went to England to visit one of the first Camphill Communities over in Yorkshire - and they had a great time and came back full of stories.The last few weeks have seen a hype of activity in the garden - people were preparing the vegetable beds and there was some planting going on in the tunnel.Some of the cows have come out of the barn - and seem to be enjoying to be outside again. Klemens - one of our co-workers from a few years ago has come for a visit - and it is great to see the enthusiasm he always brings along.

We have been registered for the Dingle Mini Marathon - and if there is anyone out there who would love to run or walk for us - please feel free and let us know. I also would really like to thank Neasa and Radville from the Pobal Scoil who did a fundraiser for us before Christmas and raised €731 for the community. Well done - and thanks a lot.I also would really like to thank the children in the school in Lispole for doing a few fundraisers for us and raising €240. All of the proceeds will go towards our building fund.

We will be joining the Farmers Market again on Good Friday and there is a lot of activity going on producing lots of new products.

9 Year old Sinéad Ní Chonchúir from Ballymorewest and 9 year old Ailishe Finn Ní Shé from Dingle, decided they wanted to fund raise for our community here in Dingle

They created and made hair jewellery and even T-shirts that they sold from their stand. They spend a lot of time thinking; organizing; creating and selling their lovely products.

At the end of their fund raiser they were able to bring home the incredible amount of € 50!!!.
They dropped by the office where they handed over the money in person to Betsie Konink who gladly accepted it on behalf of the community.We were very impressed! Not only because of the amount they fundraised but also the fact that 2 such very young people can find it in their heart to dedicate their time and put in a lot of effort to help a charity organisation and in this we were the lucky ones!

Dear Sinéad and Ailishe

From the bottom of our hearts

THANK YOU!

My Camphill Experience

Camphill Dingle June - August 2012

On my last day at Camphill Dingle I was asked to write a blog about my stay there, so that future volunteers would be able to read up a bit on what to expect. But how to prepare you for what lies ahead? Now, all I can do is relate my own story but hopefully you will find it reassuring and helpful for the adventure that is about to commence.

During my journey to Dingle I was extremely anxious about what lay ahead. I had no prior experience and, yes, it was also my first time away from home for longer than three weeks. As soon as I arrived however, these feelings vanished immediately. Even though my arrival coincided with the preparations for the annual Open Day, I was welcomed warmly into the community. The first few days I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing but it didn't matter. The full-time co-workers were extremely caring and gave me time to arrive and get my bearings.

However, this did not mean that I was the new girl only allowed to watch. Oh no. As soon as I said that I would like to help wherever I can they gave me small jobs and responsibilities to keep me busy and get to know the people of the community. The Open Day itself was absolutely lovely and well worth a visit if you are around for it. My job was to give children donkey rides, which was immense fun. Walking around in donkey poo and mud all day, trying to pull reluctant donkeys across a field. Fun.

Seriously though, it was amazing. The people in the local community are so nice and supportive, something I had never come across before coming to Camphill. The aftermath of the Open Day felt like the whole community, even the walls of the farm and the vegetables in the garden, breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a huge success and everyone was very proud of what they had achieved. In the following weeks I learnt more about life than I had every learnt at school. Every day I did something new, different and exciting. Whenever I was unsure of what to do and whenever I felt insecure, someone more experienced was by my side to guide me. Very soon I did not need this guidance anymore as they helped me grow in confidence a huge amount. As for the residents of Camphill Dingle?

I have never met nicer people before in my entire life! Of course they have bad days as you and I do too but you pretty much instantly fall in love with them and then you just try to make their day better.
You can expect Camphill to be full of life changing experiences and you are definitely not the same person when you leave as when you arrived. But that's a good thing. As someone who had just left school and had no idea of what they wanted from life, Camphill gave me the opportunity to explore my strengths as well as my weaknesses and discover things I didn't know about myself. You must surely think that I am painting a pretty picture and leaving out all the bad parts but I can promise you that I am not. Whenever I felt frustrated or sad I had someone to talk to. Of course you will be tired at some point in your stay because one day off a week really isn't much. But even this doesn't affect you too much because you're having such a good time. Now as you are applying to go to Ireland I'm sure you have one burning question: What about the weather? Well, as I was only there during the summer I can only give you a small insight but know this: it does not rain all the time.

Granted, July was incredibly wet but there was glorious sunshine in June and August - on some days anyway.

By the time it came for me to leave I really didn't want to. Having thought at the start that three months would be far too long, they ended up going by too quickly. I met some incredible people in Camphill Dingle and am still missing them an enormous amount. I am definitely thinking of returning someday and I hope, that after your stay you will feel the same way.

*Cue cheesy line*: For someone searching for the meaning of life and their purpose within it, Camphill Dingle is the place to go!

Fiona

January 2013 News

It seems a while that I have written about all the events in our community . The new year seems to have started well - nearly everyone is back from their holidays and slowly getting back into the swing of the normal routine. The few nice days we had this week have been thoroughly enjoyed by all - and there even have been moments when the feeling of spring was felt.

We have welcomed Samuel from Germany into our community - he arrived to replace Hangul who will be sadly leaving us after 1 ½ years to go back to Korea.

January seems to be the birthday season in our community and we have been celebrating the first ones.Otherwise work seems to get back into swing. Steven is busy in the garden preparing the compost for the coming year and Tomas and Dominic are busy on the farm. Catriona started to help Katharina in our new food processing workshop which was started after Christmas and is also busy with weaving a big order of seat cushions that we got. Ann Marie has joined the gardening team in the afternoon and is still making sure that the weavery can produce products in the morning. Thomas R. had a good holiday at home and is now awaiting some new projects for the coming year while he is working in the garden.

All the animals got through the winter - though it seems to be the ducks that seem to be having the most fun as the rain does not seem to bother them to much. Tom and John ( the donkeys) seemed to have been spending little time outside these last few weeks and are longingly watching the world go by from their shed.