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Mysterious little trolls
Life with handicapped people is tiring but beautiful
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Max Pothmann, born 1979,
was an ASF-volunteer in Norway from 1998 until 2000 and worked from December 2000 until August 2001 in the ASF-office in Berlin. After that he followed a Modern Dance education in Denmark and Germany.
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In the mid 1990’s, the German magazine DER SPIEGEL reported a complaint filed by German tourists against their travel agency. The reason: in the dinner room of their hotel they were dealt table neighbours whose eating habits, because of mental and physical handicaps, were less appetizing and so ruined their breakfast. The complaint was successful. The judge ruled that one, when on a holiday, should not be “disgusted” nor confronted with the "misery of the world". It is very likely he did not know much about developmental disturbances, and surely he never was in contact with people with such handicaps. The ruling is significant for our society.
Admittedly also I knew little about handicapped people before my experiences as a volunteer at Granly. Granly is a private home in Norway where 20 mentally handicapped people are living. 16 of them came into this world with Down-Syndrome. The larger part of the group is thoroughly fit and, in institutional terms, “independent". But there are also a few that are fed, wear diapers or can hardly see anything and are being watched around the clock because of that. The average age is exceptionally high. Many residents are over 40, some over 50 and two of them even over 60. The youngest, Camilla, is 26 years old.
Granly consists of four houses, the office, a school building in which there is a weavery, wood shop, kitchen and a therapy room, shops, a little greenhouse with garden, a swimming pool and a little piece of land. I lived in Gamle Huset, in the "old house", an old ante factory villa dated 1903. In Gamle Huset live five handicapped people. Torkild, Bård and Per Morgan have Down-Syndrome, which makes them look like little trolls. Nils is autistic and kind of the bad kid of Granly, because he is very difficult and challenging. Camilla is a real little ‘Byttebarn’, an exchanged child that was left by her troll mother in a human cradle. She is very small and round as a ball, loves food, rocking, hugs and music.
The curative educational principal, with which the residents of Granly are being met, takes the individual capacities and their development as a central theme. As a consequence, some of the residents show a peacock-gesture, with the motto: "I am beautiful. Love me and be my servant." On the other hand, the advantages of the anthroposophical curative education are also clearly visible: there is an enormous artistical and musical potential in Granly. Many residents have been painting for a long time, play lyre or the piano, sing in the choir and dance folk dances. During the "Granly-cultural-week" their paintings are exhibited, together with the products of the workshops. This exhibition can not be put into words, it was simply impressive. For me, the paintings were clear proof for the enormous alertness of the Down syndrome people and autistics. They showed that there is a more unrestricted space beyond words. On many paintings there were images of angelic beings or people as something shining between heaven and earth. Often, there were also serious looking faces, as if hidden under a veil of watercolours. Others drew dreams – oriental castles and kings or oases and palm trees.
The communal living with people with Down syndrome can take a lot of energy since it is at the cost of privacy. It would happen, that when I came home after a walk I noticed someone cleaned my room or cleaned the dishes from the sink into the cupboard. Seeming minor things, that when added up lead to irritation. On the other side, throughout every day there were little joyful and tender moments. For example when Gerda kissed my hand, Dave gave me a hug or Peter called me his "wood boy", because I had helped him with sawing the wood.
The residents of Granly are small, mysterious trolls; sometimes cuddly, tender and very sweet, but also demanding, critical and always a mirror for ones own weaknesses. I am happy with the gift of having been able to live at Granly.
Source: Magazine "Zeichen" der Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste e.V. - Nr.4 December 2001
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