Sommer-Workcamp 2009





In August 2009, I had experienced an unforgettable journey. I joined a work camp in Duernau, Germany and had a rural life which was totally different in Taiwan. After I registered, I imaged a lot of things there. How Duernau looked like? Who would I meet and how people were there? But I was also worried if I could adapt the life there. What if they didn’t like me? I have never done farm works before, would I mess up? I carried those curiousness and concerns then took 12 hours flight and started my journey.


I arrived in Duernau easily by following the direction from the Ulrike. She is in charge this workcamp. The first person from camp I met was Alexander, who is Ulrike’s son and he also charges the farm work. He picked me up from the train station, and we chatted a little bit on the car. “Driving fast” was my first impression to him. Well, driving fast, but safe. I watched the outside during the driving. Not many houses, not many cars and even not many people. Sky
was blue and fields were green.This area was much better than I had imaged and it was totally different from where I live. I felt excited and couldn’t wait to start my 31 days’ country life.
I met everyone at my first dinner time. I sat at dinner table and looked around everyone. What came to me was “I will stay here with you guys for one month. I hope we can get along with each other well. I really hope….”


It takes time to adapt when people just get into a new place. Fortunately, it didn’t take me too long to do it. I would only stay here for 31 days, how much time I could waste on adapting? My life here was simple and relaxing, sometimes was tiring though. We woke up at 8:30 then had breakfast at 9:00. We went to farm around 10:00. We did have a lunch time at 12. After two hours break, we went back to farm to work till 17:00. It was just a beginning. About several days later, we changed our wake up time to 7:30 just because we found out the working time should be started at 9:00 but no one told us. (It’s never too late to correct it, right? Alexander…haha)



There were many kinds of work, most of them weren’t very hard but needed physical labor. People who didn’t work out constantly like me would feel a little bit tough to do at the beginning but few days later, I hadalready used to it. I remember my first work at farm was to dry hay. (I don’t know the exact name) Hay was displayed on the ground and we had to turn over it with pitchfork for drying it once in every morning. It was for cows in winter. I remembered shiho who is a nice and hard working girl from Japan, did it very fast, very professional. It seemed that she had practiced that in Japan. We also weeded the garden, mowed lawn and those weeds would be collected and mixed with manure from cows and kitchen waste.

About the compost, it was another work. We shoveled fertilize and put on the wagon then we had to speared them on the ground. It was jocularly called “cow shit work” by us. We kept doing this almost two weeks. For us, it was the most unforgettable work we had ever done. When we recall our life in the camp, our first impression is the “cow shit” thing for sure. Don’t worry, it also got nice work, like picking fruits and made them into jams. After I knew how to make it, I realized that it not as difficult as I thought.





They planted wheat and in August was the timing to harvest. They used a cradle scythe which was the biggest one I have ever seen to cut the wheat and what we had to do was to gather them. After tied them into a bundle, we had to put those bundles in an upright position on the ground to keep it dry. Those bundles kept falling when wind blew. We had to set them up again and again. It was the most annoying part. Next day when all wheat was dry mostly, we had to put them into the barn.






The most interesting work I did there was milking. I have never thought that I could do this in my life. I was very curious about it and finally, I could try it in person. There was an evening, six people went together.
Johannes showed us how to do it. After award, it was my turn. He put some creams on my hands for milking. When everything was ready, I stepped on my “milky-way”. I sat beside the cow, it was a relieved place cause even if I hurt her, she couldn't kick me from where she stood. At the beginning, I was very nervous and I didn't know if I did it right? When I started to squeeze, I saw milks came out. I was excited that I made it. I was drowning in my pride then I lost my concentrate. Bad thing came after. I spilled the milk that I just collected.
Although I couldn’t read her mind, I but she was swearing because she had to suffer this longer. Anyway, I guessed I did a fine job, not good, but not so bad either. At least, I collected some milk and I also got a new experience: milking.


There was also a little bit carpentry work in the camp. Jan is in charge of it He is also interested in photography. He is good at these two things. I have seen some of his work pieces and there are great. Angie and I helped with the carpentry in Jan’s workroom. What we did here was put a kind of oil on woodworks such as tables, chairs, closets…etc to polish them. We also helped to assemble the closets.
Jan had done those mostly, we were just “little helpers” but I was still happy to see the whole closet was made piece by piece. Angie comes from Taiwan, same as me. She is a competent girl, lively and full of ideas. It was very interesting to work her. It couldn’t be boring.
Farming and carpentry were what I did mostly, or we would clean the house if the weather condition was not good. I was glad that I could handle most of them and finally I could stop being worried I might be mess up something.


After work, they offered a German lesson for people who were interested in. Richard and I were classmate and Gu Tek was our teacher. Richard is a nice and thoughtful boy from Macau and Gu Tek is a funny girl and easy to get alone with. With a nice teacher and classmate, I really had a good time in my lesson. I always wished that it would be wonderful if our lesson could be longer.



Our dinner time was sat at 18:00 just right after our lesson. Normally, Ines would take care of our lunch and dinner. Nico also cooked and Hannah would make cakes sometimes. I supposed that I wouldn’t be used to German food and then lose my weight, but it wasn’t. Almost every meal was totally fine to me and I didn’t expect that we would have cakes so I just kept eating. After I left the camp, I could see my double chin came out and said hello to everyone.

Before I went there, I had been informed that we could bring some ingredients from our counties and then I knew we could to cook there. I was excited that I could try different cousins. We did have Russian, Japanese, American, Macanese, German, Malaysian and Taiwanese here, so I could have at least five different type of cousin.


It was always happier to be a guest and waited to be served. When it was my turn to cook, I felt a lot of pressure. I seldom cook so it was a really big challenge to me but good news was I didn’t need to do it along. I had Angie, Richard and Lee who is a funny guy from Malaysia cooked with me. We represented the Asian cousin. At first, I had thought it would be very difficult but when we started to do it, it turned out that it was very interesting. We made rice and some common dishes. We had our own working system in the kitchen and everything went through very well. Time flied when we were cooking. It was almost dinner time and everyone came back from the work and waited for the dinner but we were still not ready. From this moment, everything disordered. We were screaming and running around in the kitchen. The whole kitchen was gone crazy.



It was about 20 minutes later than the usual dinner time, finally all the dishes were served. Four of us liked survival from a battle and the reward was we could finally sit down and enjoy the meal and the best part was: we didn’t need to do the wash because whoever cooked on that day, they weren’t responsibility to wash. It was very rare to see a group of foreigners using chopsticks together. It was pity that I forgot to take pictures or it would defiantly have been one of the best pictures. From everyone’s face, I assumed that we really did a nice job, but it was shame that we didn’t know you guys like spicy foods or we would prepare more. Hope all you guys will crush on Chinese cousin from now on.


After dinner, we took turn to wash dishes. It was more than 15 people ate together, so it got plenty of plates, blows, foxes….to wash. It took long time to do that. To be honest, washing dishes was more tired than working in the farm for me.


At night was our free time. After dinner, we would sit around dining table, chat, use computer or play some games. It was also a good timing to know others more. We would talk about what happened today, ask each other questions about their counties or just free talk. To get along with easily, willing to contact with people and have an open mind were important characteristics. I felt lucky that most people I met here had those personalities so it always got a lot of fun. Like Dana, she is a enthusiastic, humorous and responsible girl from Germany. I really liked to talk with her. She got those nice personalities and I felt relax when I got alone with her.


Late night, we would go back to the dorm and chat again. This was what we always did. While we were chatting, we were waiting for the shower. The dorm was just like camp’s website mentioned, it was simple but comfortable. I agreed with that. The room was totally fine for me. The only concerned was the bathroom. There was only one bathroom for ten people. It was really inconvenient. I was wondering why there was only a bathroom in a house. Waiting and waiting, finally it was my turn to use it but another problem came out: no hot water!!! At the beginning, we thought it was just a coincidence or maybe some people who washed first ran out all the hot water. Several times later, it was just no hot water simply.



We only worked 5 days a week and the weekend was our happy holiday. We got the long way to be here, of cause we wanted to do the sightseeing in this country. We had been to Stuttgart, Ulm and Heidelberg. The last weekend, Alexander took us to Bodensee. We visited a castle first then we went to the lake. He drove us all day long and also bought us dinner.
We had a lot of fun on that day. Thanks Alexander! We all had a good time there.

We have visited those places but there was one that I believed anyone who had been together, would never forget it — the Alps.


When we were climbing, I was exhausted and kept thinking that maybe I couldn’t make it. I was impressive by Ayana who is a very sweet and hard working Japanese girl. She was petite but also full of energy. She walked with a regular speed and followed everyone. Instead of worrying about her, I was just that one who should be worried about more. I wouldn't forget how painful I got to the top of mountain, but I remembered even more clear how I felt when I stood on the top of mountain. I was ecstatic and couldn’t believe I made it. On the top, the sky was extremely blue and the landscape was spectacular. Pictures couldn’t represent views I really saw, so I could only put those in my memories and I would always remember this breathtaking moment.


I could complete this tough but cheerful “mission”, I had to say thanks to Alexander and Nico. They drove us long way to the Austria (we started to climb from there) and took care of us whole way long. After the all day suffering, it must been very tired but they had to drove us back alone because most of us were sleeping. I also had to say thanks to Clare, who was a nice and vivacious girl from USA. She took care of me when we were doing the rock climbing. She showed me how to climb when I was stock and helped me to climb on the top successfully and safely. Clare was very good at rock climbing so I felt relief that she could stay with me. The last person I had to thank was Lee. He carried my bag for whole journey. At the beginning, we had a deal that we would take turns to carry that bag, but after he saw me almost died on the half way, he never mentioned about taking turns. Thanks lot, Lee.


Time went very fast but usually we wouldn’t notice it. People left one by one and then, it was my turn to leave. I was very rush on the day I left and I didn’t even say goodbye to everyone. I told Ulrike it was hard to express how happy I could be here. Although I hated washing so many dishes and showering with cold water, I still felt lucky that I joined this team, knew so many nice people and gained this special experience.
After saying goodbye, Alexander drove me to the train station. It reminded me that he was the guy who picked me up at the first day and he was also the first person I saw from the camp. And now, he became the last person I saw from the camp. I told him this and he said “it’s just like a circle.” It seemed I went back where I started.
While we say goodbye, we are also waiting for the next time to meet. Therefore, I am looking forward to seeing you guys again. Hope we can meet very soon.