Integrating with Hippies!

I had an opportunity to represent Bulgaria in Germany with a group of real Bulgarians at a youth exchange/eco-conference/hippie seminar for two weeks! There were groups from Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, and of course a group from Germany. This was held in a town called Bad Oldesloe, just outside of Hamburg.

The idea was to go through several environmental workshops all based on new environmentally friendly construction methods. And when I say "new" I mean "newly fashionable in our western culture" as we were learning techniques that are hundreds and thousands of years old.

As part of the official seminar, the different techniques we studied were: straw bale insulation and construction, clay construction, green roofing, resources from waste, and solar energy. These aspects of our gathering were phenomenal! I learned so much about green building and I was really inspired to apply what I'd learned in my future... at some point.

We started out with a three day workshop from a fantastic guy named Steffen Klauke. Steffen was able to appreciate anything made, no matter how hard it made me laugh. He was one of the finest teachers/leaders I've had the pleasure of learning from. We gathered "waste" from a nearby forest (my ecology professor would have kicked my ass for calling this material waste) and he demonstrated/inspired us on what to do with it. There's a picture there of the chair I made from eight different kinds of tree species! I used only screws, nails, glue, and brute force to assemble it! Next to my magnificent chair, in the picture, is a less magnificent but also impressive table someone else threw together.

The second most significant workshop we attended was a week long clay construction workshop in a tiny village that didn't even have a store! The gal leading the group was a character. No body, except the German group, understood a word she was saying and yet that didn't seem to phase her as she went about instructing as if everyone understood perfectly! I think her name was Julia. She showed us this massive house she's been working on for years. Different parts of her castle were in different states of construction. It was a perfect model to show us what to do at different stages when working with clay. We learned to mix the clay with sand, water, and horse/cow shit, or straw depending on what the clay was to be used for. It was a good workshop, but we were coming from warm Bulgaria and the rain, and the cold, and the no showers for a week made the final day there a welcomed one.

The content of this seminar in Germany was amazing! We learned a lot of cool stuff and it flowed very nicely. The people there were great too! Super friendly, interesting, smart, and curious. I enjoyed talking and getting to know all of them. In fact, on a personal development level, my biggest gain from this seminar came from the people - but not in a way I was expecting or would ever hope for.

Generally speaking, these people were hippies. I use that as a term of endearment as I often refer to myself similarly. The separation I found, though, came from their outlook on society. I've been surrounded by environmental scientist hippies for the last seven or eight years of my life and it's what I'd like to say that I've become. These guys were more on the political activist side of hippie and I came to realize I've changed A LOT! They have good goals of saving the environment, cutting pollution, reducing waste, and everything else you would think of as environmental. But they use their goals only as a means to challenge authority. It's true, they're doing wonderful things for the environment, but only as a protest. Eight years ago, I would have been in heaven to be with these guys! But today - all I could think was "What are you thinking?" Society isn't changed by extreme protests from a few, it's changed by education and awareness! Hippies chaining themselves to gas pumps or throwing rocks through McDonalds' windows is the wrong kind of awareness - it just lets people know that you're a crazy hippie! The picture there of the flyer made me laugh hysterically. It says, "Thursday 24 May - Knallhart - electro acid psychedelic trance rave festival against the capitalistic stupidity and the state violence"! It's marketed as some kind of freedom rally, but what kind of societal development could ever come from it? My money's on 'NONE,' but I bet it was a good time! The picture of us dumpster-diving was another action that had me wondering. In a protest on food waste, we had to rummage through supermarket dumpsters and collect all the expired food that was thrown out that day. This was what we ate for the two weeks we were there. It sounds gross, I know, and in general it was. But I will say that there were some fruits and vegetables in those dumpsters that most definitely didn't belong there. My digestive system wasn't too happy about this lifestyle, but in an integration effort - I went with the flow of things.

Our hippie seminar in Bad Oldesloe was timed to finish the day before the G8 summit. The hope of the organizers was that upon completion of the eco-conference, we would attend the G8 protests. I would have rather been a part of the summit! Someday. My ultimate point is - I learned some amazing things over the course of these two weeks, most importantly about myself, but also some hippie things about the environment or whatever.