Goodbye Meppen, hello Cloppenburg!

Today we left Meppen...Time to say goodbye to Jeannie, Irena and Bernhard :( All the times we had playing in the garden and hours of scratching n’er to be forgot!

Irena made us another breakfast, with lovely croissants for a small treat. Bernhard seemed to feel our anxious mood of travel as he was very active this morning. Running all around the garden and barking at the birds. We brought all our luggage to the car to make sure it fit and went back into the garden to take some pictures, but he wanted to PLAY!! He barked at Jeannie as if to say, “Come on! I bet if we are active enough they won’t leave!” But without success...Our pictures were taken and off we went to Meppen for a small shopping excursion before transfer to the Cloppenburg team of BMWs.

Our transfer was easy with the requisite exclamations at how heavy our luggage was. We enjoyed just sitting back and finishing our lunch while watching the men talk, talk, talk and try to lift our luggage while talking, but nope...we are having none of it. Our luggage is such that you must stop what you do, brace yourself, take a breath, hold the luggage with two hands and HEAVE it in the truck, truck bed, gangway...etc.

We took a brief drive to a clinic where they treat Austic children. The center was amazing with a kindergarten that leads to a school that leads to a company. Germany has a rule that all German citizen are entitled to attend school and to work, even handicapped persons, so they fund schools and companies like the one we observed today to fulfill those rules. The kindergarten is for ages about 6-10 and then the school begins where the ages range up to 21 or so. They consider it a success when the children can leave the school and become a member of society. The school itself was impressive with wonderful facilities, like a ball pen, swinging hammock for those inclined to air flight which all austic children seem to be, numerous gymnastic equipment and a staff that was so full of knowledge and love for the

children and their job that it was beautiful to see. I really enjoyed getting a chance to look further into what Virginia does for a living. It makes us closer teammates and I am really grateful to Rotary and the Cloppenburg Club for the opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t have been afforded to me.

After our visit to the school we went to the company. At first I didn’t quite understand how they worked, but I learned that the kids who “graduate” from the Sophie Schule eventually all end up hopefully at this company. The company finds persons who have trained in a certain skill, like metal working and uses them to teach handicap persons a trade. The persons have two years to find a trade that they enjoy and then they begin work just like any other person. They earn a paycheck and sometimes have their own apartment, or live at home or assisted living in an adjacent building. We were able to see the austic portion of the company as well , considering that austic person have trouble with too much stimuli that they can’t separate their quarters are housed separately from the rest of the company and are free of clutter and any extraneous materials. They use materials provided by the company to package other wares for sale. I asked the “teacher” if she though the persons were happy with a completed task and she said that is clear in their activities that just like you and me, austic persons definitely like it when a job is completed.

This post is a little technical, but I felt important to experience my teammate’s job for at least a little bit.
After our visit to the clinics and company we made a short excursion to a 1,000 yr old church that had hand painted pictures discovered on the walls.

Now we are safely ensconced in our host families’ homes. I have a room on the second floor of what looks to me like an art gallery. It is amazing!