The last couple of weeks have been absolutely jam packed, but I'm finally in Dachau and ready to undertake my volunteer year with the Church of Reconciliation. Sorry it has taken so long to post something, I spent the first week and a half in Wünsdorf- Waldstadt, a village with a very strong history but sadly no internet access, and I will not have internet at home until the middle of October at the earliest. However, I do have some internet at work, so pictures of the last few days will follow soon.
The week in Wünsdorf- Waldstadt was a chance to get to know the other people undertaking a year in Germany with ASF, about nineteen in total from countries as diverse as the Netherlands and Azerbaijan, Russia and Israel. As the week went on, we began to share our hopes for the year, as well as our fears about things such as our rather paltry German and what it will be like to be faced with the past in such an intense way. Luckily, by the end of the week I realised I would not be alone.
The village we undertook the seminar in deserves a mention. Wünsdorf- Waldstadt is about an hour out of Berlin by train, and was a garrison town for the Kaiser's Army, then the Nazis and finally the Red Army. We had a tour of the huge bunker complex underneath the town, which has been left almost as it was in 1994 when the Red Army stripped it of all its worth and abandoned it.
On the 5th we also enjoyed an excursion to Berlin for the day, where among other things we lounged in front of the Reichstag building and ate at the Ufa-Fabrik. I love Berlin; I have been four times now and every time I discover something new or experience it almost entirely from a different perspective. I had a bit of time on the 9th to revist Potsdamer Platz and some of my other haunts, but more on that when I have photos!
Then on the 10th, accompanied by my new work colleage/housemate, I arrived in Dachau...
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