My life in the last few days
Why do I always decide to write my blog entries when it’s late and I should go to bed?
Let me tell you a bit about what I’ve been doing the last few days.
Last Saturday, I spent the whole day at Palm Springs with the teen group from the local church that I have joined. “Palm Beach” is a large pool complex in Nürnberg, 90 minutes train ride southeast of where I live. The teen group is for teens ages 12-15, but as Benjamin was going and Anna was also going (as a leader), I decided to join. It was totally sweet. We left at 9, got into the pool by around 11:30 and stayed until 6:00. This place was big. Something like Watermania in Richmond for all those who are familiar with that place, but at least twice as big and at least five times as cool. A big wave pool, normal pool, plenty of reclining lawn chairs to relax in, hot tubs, thermal mineral baths, diving boards, a restaurant, and water slides. And the best thing of all (sorry Miriam, Rachelle, Michael, Leonard, and Alysha) was the complete absence of lifeguards on the waterslides. Just computer controlled traffic lights to tell you when you could go. You could go down however you wanted to. I mean, there was rules on a sign, but who follows those? The best slide of all was a wide one which you rode with tubes and slid from pool to pool. A bit like the one at Cultus Lake, but narrower, faster, and completely covered. You could sit in one of the pools in the slide and chill. Forever. Of course, with no one to watch, there was plenty of opportunity for creative sliding as well. Very cool. So, in brief, we had a great time. Missed our train on the way back, so I walked through downtown Nürnberg with another leader for 45 minutes while we waited for the next train. He was originally born in New York, and wanted to practice his English, so we had some great conversations. Downtown Nürnberg is very nice. Full of old buildings. Much of it is pedestrian-only. Beautiful.
Monday I worked with Ueli like usual, working on a room in the barn, replacing beams, putting up a ceiling, fixing the wall, etc. (we’ve been working on it the last week). I got to do some cementing, which was fun. Yesterday I went to work with Samuel Pabst, the 20-year-old eldest son who is currently doing civil service instead of joining the army for a mandatory 6 months. He is working for 9 months in a workshop for handicapped people. In this workshop, handicapped people who normally would not be able hold a job work on assembly lines to assemble products for companies. They work from 8:00 till 4:00, have two breaks and a lunch break, and get paid (a small amount) for their work. Private companies who need their products assembled (or created) send their materials to the workshop, and the shop sends back the finished product. The money the government gets from these contracts is used to house the handicapped and provide food and care for them. The workshop is not required to make a profit; just to break even. The workshop has five different rooms with five separate assembly lines. Sam is currently in charge of one room with 8 handicapped people (as the normal boss is on holiday), and he has to make sure the work is running smoothly, do quality control, and paperwork. The work is very simple: in this particular room, they were producing levelling foots for tables. Basically, a big bolt with a metal half sphere on one end (a foot) and a nut on the other end. This attaches to the bottom of a table leg and by turning the nut, one can raise the level of the table. The bolt, foot, and nuts are shipped to the workshop in bulk and then they have to attach the foot, screw on the nut, pack them in boxes, label them, and send them back to the company. Very dull, manual labor, but they don’t seem to mind. They’ve putting these leveling foots together for the last year, producing approximately 1800 in a day. This is actually really slow. Eight fully capable people could probably assemble close to 10000/day. When I heard that I was going to be working with handicapped people, I wasn’t thrilled. I wasn’t very good with handicapped people in the past, and I didn’t know what to expect, but as I worked with them I developed a unique love for them in the short space of a day. Some of them were sick that day, so Sam and I spent a lot of time working on the assembly line, which is completely boring work. I could work in that place for a maximum of two weeks. 9 months? I don’t how Sam can do it. However, I really loved working directly with the people, and that made the job bearable. A lot of them (at least in Sam’s group) are blind, as well as mentally disabled, so you had to help them with their lunch and stuff. Somehow it was very rewarding and gratifying to help these people with the most menial of tasks. It changed the way I think about disabled people.
I’m going to bed…
Love you all
Let me tell you a bit about what I’ve been doing the last few days.
Last Saturday, I spent the whole day at Palm Springs with the teen group from the local church that I have joined. “Palm Beach” is a large pool complex in Nürnberg, 90 minutes train ride southeast of where I live. The teen group is for teens ages 12-15, but as Benjamin was going and Anna was also going (as a leader), I decided to join. It was totally sweet. We left at 9, got into the pool by around 11:30 and stayed until 6:00. This place was big. Something like Watermania in Richmond for all those who are familiar with that place, but at least twice as big and at least five times as cool. A big wave pool, normal pool, plenty of reclining lawn chairs to relax in, hot tubs, thermal mineral baths, diving boards, a restaurant, and water slides. And the best thing of all (sorry Miriam, Rachelle, Michael, Leonard, and Alysha) was the complete absence of lifeguards on the waterslides. Just computer controlled traffic lights to tell you when you could go. You could go down however you wanted to. I mean, there was rules on a sign, but who follows those? The best slide of all was a wide one which you rode with tubes and slid from pool to pool. A bit like the one at Cultus Lake, but narrower, faster, and completely covered. You could sit in one of the pools in the slide and chill. Forever. Of course, with no one to watch, there was plenty of opportunity for creative sliding as well. Very cool. So, in brief, we had a great time. Missed our train on the way back, so I walked through downtown Nürnberg with another leader for 45 minutes while we waited for the next train. He was originally born in New York, and wanted to practice his English, so we had some great conversations. Downtown Nürnberg is very nice. Full of old buildings. Much of it is pedestrian-only. Beautiful.
Monday I worked with Ueli like usual, working on a room in the barn, replacing beams, putting up a ceiling, fixing the wall, etc. (we’ve been working on it the last week). I got to do some cementing, which was fun. Yesterday I went to work with Samuel Pabst, the 20-year-old eldest son who is currently doing civil service instead of joining the army for a mandatory 6 months. He is working for 9 months in a workshop for handicapped people. In this workshop, handicapped people who normally would not be able hold a job work on assembly lines to assemble products for companies. They work from 8:00 till 4:00, have two breaks and a lunch break, and get paid (a small amount) for their work. Private companies who need their products assembled (or created) send their materials to the workshop, and the shop sends back the finished product. The money the government gets from these contracts is used to house the handicapped and provide food and care for them. The workshop is not required to make a profit; just to break even. The workshop has five different rooms with five separate assembly lines. Sam is currently in charge of one room with 8 handicapped people (as the normal boss is on holiday), and he has to make sure the work is running smoothly, do quality control, and paperwork. The work is very simple: in this particular room, they were producing levelling foots for tables. Basically, a big bolt with a metal half sphere on one end (a foot) and a nut on the other end. This attaches to the bottom of a table leg and by turning the nut, one can raise the level of the table. The bolt, foot, and nuts are shipped to the workshop in bulk and then they have to attach the foot, screw on the nut, pack them in boxes, label them, and send them back to the company. Very dull, manual labor, but they don’t seem to mind. They’ve putting these leveling foots together for the last year, producing approximately 1800 in a day. This is actually really slow. Eight fully capable people could probably assemble close to 10000/day. When I heard that I was going to be working with handicapped people, I wasn’t thrilled. I wasn’t very good with handicapped people in the past, and I didn’t know what to expect, but as I worked with them I developed a unique love for them in the short space of a day. Some of them were sick that day, so Sam and I spent a lot of time working on the assembly line, which is completely boring work. I could work in that place for a maximum of two weeks. 9 months? I don’t how Sam can do it. However, I really loved working directly with the people, and that made the job bearable. A lot of them (at least in Sam’s group) are blind, as well as mentally disabled, so you had to help them with their lunch and stuff. Somehow it was very rewarding and gratifying to help these people with the most menial of tasks. It changed the way I think about disabled people.
I’m going to bed…
Love you all
posted by thomassanz at
2:36 PM
3 Comments:
cool...TAKE SOME MORE PICTURES!!! It's been weeks, you have a new camera, and you say your sometimes bored? = 1 pretty good picture
KEEP ON SNAPPING THOSE CAMERA SHUTTERS
yo thats prety cool tom, keep up the good work. and yeah, get some rest man, you definitely needed it.
oh yes and i totally agree with stoph, keep taking pictures!! ONE IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!
Alpha
heyy bro...
i'm really sorry to hear about your grandfather. If you want, feel free to call me. I don't know how the time thing works, but just let me know and i'll be awake...seeing as I never sleep anyways.
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