Making new friends

After having been away from the house on the first day (well, to meet with Brian and Rosalie, but still), we spend the second day here in Su Case helping in the house with gardening (planting a lot of new trees!), cleaning, painting and cooking the evening meal for the house (let the German make Philly Cheese Steak - never done it before). When doing this we got to meet the people in the house: the community members, the families they take in, the visitors. Su Casa offers hospitality to young mothers and their kids from Central America as well as from the neighborhood. The families speak mostly Spanish only, but Ina is fluent in Spanish and everybody translates.

In the evening we were asked to share our slides about the European CW houses and communities - most of the people here never thought about CW houses abroad. We shared experiences and hope and depression - and before going to bed we knew we had found new friends.


The third day we spend with doing errands and some sightseeing. I, Chris, had broken the nice electric kettle in the kitchen during cleaning, stupid me, so Susan and I went with the car to get a new one - which wasn't as easy as we thought. Good thing though was that we got to have two of the famous Chicago Hot Dogs on our way - something I had longed for all these days  ;-))


So we went back to the car this morning after two days of not using it and we suprisingly found a gift of the city of Chicago attached to the front window:

Yes, we got a ticket, and an expensive one. On arrival Monday night were not aware that we are not allowed to park on this side of the street on Thursday mornings because of the citys street cleaning ... oh well, no use to be angry about it, it's already there. No we have to sort out how to pay it!

To make up the anger about that Susan and I went for a walk along Lake Michigan and Ina went into town - by bike!

Chicago!

On Monday the 13th we left Columbia and St Francis House to go to Chicago. But first we had to pick up my (Susans) jacket at the Peace Nook because she forgot it there the day before. We thought it was a great little shop and were surprised to find it in a relativly small town. We even found a button there with a Dorothy Day quote on it!
After doing some grocery shopping we went on our way to Chicago. The drive was fairly uneventfull, almost boring. The land here is flat like the NEtherlands and the roads very straight. We did pass a dinner with an UFO and a pink elephant in the parking lot. Unfortunatly it was on the wrong side of the road. Halfway we parked near a field and had lunch in the grass.
In Chicago we first picked up Ina at the airport. She had had an almost 24 hour journey so was very tired, and then drove to Su Casa CW where we were warmly welcomed with some food and soon went to bed.

Ina sitting at the kitchen table in Su Casa, still looking tired.

Su Casa is housed in an old rectory. The church that it belonged to burned down and was demolished and the open place it left is now a garden. Zachery showed us around the garden the next morning and explaine how they were starting a small foodforrest there and worked with permaculture. They also keep bees and catch rainwater in four large barrels.

Su Casa started with housing refugees from South America. All through the house are pieces of art made by former guests of the house. Below is a picture of the dinning hall where 9 large painted cloths hang on the walls in three groups. On the left they show what their country (I think it was Guatemala) used to look like, in the middle the dark times of oppression and torture and on the right the present, with hope but also a bit of the dark still in it.

One of the days we were here (i cant keep track of dates anymore it seems) we met Brian Terrel in downtown chicago where he showed us around and took us to have dinner with Rosalie Riegle. I will talk more about Brian later because we will meet him again at his farm in a few days. But here is a picture of him in front of a Trump building we passed.

We forgot to take a picture of Rosalie! Probably because, like Brian, she is full of stories about the Catholic Worker and we love to hear those. Rosalie met Dorothy Day when she was younger but because she had children and a husband that didnt like the CW much she wasnt able to become active until later in life. And then she started her own house and later wrote  books about the Catholic Worker movement. We worried we would be back at Su Casa too late after all the stories, but Rosalie said she was one of the trustees of the house and would call and say we would back late.

The above picture is of the soupkitchen attached to Su Casa. It is run by Frieda for 20 years or so and is thus called Frieda's Place. We missed the serving on tuesday but hope to join today, so maybe we will write more about the kitchen later.

St. Fancis CW in Columbia, MA

After a smooth trip (car to airport, flight to Kansas City, getting the rental car, 2-hours-drive to Columbia, MO) we safely arrived at the St. Francis Catholic Worker in Columbia, Missouri two days ago. We have met Steve Jacobs some years ago when he skillfully played his guitar and entertained us with is songs at the evening fires during the European Catholic Worker gathering. Now he and the other people from this house welcomed us warmly to St. Francis.
Oh boy, this place is different! We spent most of the time socialising with the people visiting and staying in the house and gossiping with Steve about our movement.
St. Francis Catholic Worker is an open house with breakfast and evening dinner  served to anybody coming in. Some 10 people can stay overnight, not on a daily but 3 month schedule.

Lots of food is being donated and again here, too: too much bread!

They are too running a soupkitchen just down the road but with a group of volunteers doing the cooking and serving. The Loaves and Fishes Soupkitchen runs seven days a week and things are very much alike the Kana Soupkitchen in Dortmund.

Friends in Redwood City

we decided not to write every day, but wow, so much is happening that I forget what we did yesterday already. It isnt really that we did so much but everything is laced with interesting conversations and new insights about how the Empire, as the USA is sometimes refered to, works, about nuclear weapons, resistance, poverty, the Catholic Worker and everything in between.
On thursday we started out by cleaning the street opposite the main house. It wasnt done in a long time because there are always parked cars in the way and the sweeping machines can`t reach. We filled a large container full of leaves and dirt.

Then we went to a large facility of Lockhead Martin where they built all kinds of military stuff, including Trident missilles that are, amongst other places, used in Faslane, Scotland on the nucleair submarines there.
The CW has vigils there regulairy but this one was specially organized because we where there. It is done together with Workers from the San Jose CW. So we got to meet them too wich was really nice. One of them, Andrew, will be coming to Büchel!
We walked around the factories to three different gates and on the way back were stopped by a security man who explained that we should not cross the blue `US Government property`lines or we would be arrested and that he was concerened about our safety, to wich Susan C. replied that concern for safety was the exact reason why we were there too.

The next day we planned to join the CWers as they hand out food and all kinds of other things to whomever needs it. Susan C. said it was her favourite day because of all the happy faces of people leaving with full bags of produce. The amount of donations they get every week is amazing, a truck full of fruit and vegetablesbut this week also lots of coffemakers and soaps from a hotel and duvets and meat and all kinds of stuff. Larry is very good at connecting people who have things to people who dont. But! Although Chris joined for a bit and helped with picking up food, Larry quickly decided he could do the rest of the day by himself (with the help of many volunteers) and Susan C. could take us out to see the giant Redwoodtrees in the Great Basin park. We thought we didnt have time to go see them, so it was a big surprise.

The trees, sometimes 1800 years old where indeed big, no huge! The conversations in the car and while hiking with Susan C. where even better. One thing we talked about was a letter Susan C. got from the German police when she was in Hamburg earlier this year for the trial of Gerd. Gerd had entered Büchel airforce base together with Susan c. and others, but he was the only one who had to go to court (we suspect the Germans dont want the added publicity of North Americans being on their base so they choose not to persecute them). The letter said she was banned from going near the airforcebase on this trip, even though she didnt plan to go there, she wanted to go to the trial. The letter came with a impossible to read map that was supposed to tell her where she could and couldnt go, but it is such a bad copy that nobody can see where exactly the boundaries are.
Some lawyers present at the trial told Susan C. they could fight this court decision of the ban but they botched it up badly and Susan C. (once again?) swore to never use lawyers again.
In the evening we were taken out to dinner by Larry (again!).
All our time here we tried to pay for things but Susan C. and Larry would have nothing of that. They were such kingd hosts and truly dont seem to care about money or stuff. I have learned a lot from them and wish I were better at writting down all the things we talked about. Our next stop will be Saint Francis House in Columbia, Missouri where Steve Jacobs lives who we met earlier at one of the European CW gatherings. More about that next time!

Redwood City CW

After the small hiccup at Amsterdam airport yesterday, our journey went smoothly and we arrived in San Fransisco without any problems. We were picked up by Susan Crane, with whom we did actions in Büchel Germany against the nuclear weapons stationed there. She brought us to the language school the Redwood Catholic Worker runs in Redwood city and where we will be staying until saturday.

The school gets a small budget from the Redwood Catholic Worker and is run by an all women group of volunteers. they give English classes to Women in the evenings and in the mornings they welcome homeless people for breakfast and to use the shower.

After a good night sleep Larry, a long time member of the Catholic Worker took us on a tour to show some of the places the CW helped start or where still active in. The first stop was a huge soupkitchen where they serve meals to 450 people a day, 6 days a week. (I say soupkitchen but they served full meals and dessert.) We were very impressed by the big containers full of food and the professional looking kitchen. They get all their food donated, and just as in Dortmund and Amsterdam, one thing there is always to much of is bread.

We got back to the language school and the end of the breakfast where Carl, one of the homeless visitors helped us to get our phone and USA simcard  to work.
Next we went into San Fransisco to do some sightseeing and to try and visit some CW communities there. We tried phoning them beforhand but nobody answered. The first community we found was the Martin de Porres House of Hospitality

Unfortunatly it turned out they are closed on wednesdays...Next we walked over to the Temenos Catholic Worker , again nobody was home but there was an omnious sign on the door.

Ok, we could have planned this a bit better, but we got to see a lot of the city and ended up doing some sightseeing like the beautiful Maritime museum building, Alcatraz, Fishermans Wharf and the best of all the Musee Mecanique which had the most wonderfull old and new coin opperated machines.

Off we go and in we are

We made it through customs and arrived safely in San Franzisco with Susan Crane waiting for us at the airport.
It is great to be here - but right now we are very very tired and will write more tomorrow.

I do have a proper visa!

Question: How do you get to know the difference between O and 0? Answer: File for a visa to the USA and try to put in your passport number and then try to file it in the boarding pass for your flight!
Early this morning Susan and I went to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam knowing that she has a boarding pass and I didn't. The person on the helpline yesterday told us "Oh no, nothing to worry about!" but that exactly starts to make you worry about it! Well, the person at check-in at Schiphol said I misspelled the Zero for a letter O in my application form for my visa and I need to apply for a new visa right now, using my mobile phone and pay with my credit card.
So we tried - energy level rising a bit - but it didn't work - energy level rising more - didn't make it easier to push the right things on my small device - energy level up full speed - then I remembered going through this difficult application form for ESTA in November last year and I went back to the check-in desk asking, no begging the person to please check again because I DO HAVE A PROPER VISA.
And he gracefully checked again - and there you go, my passport number was misspelled on the boarding pass only and he could correct it in a second and done! Energy level bursting and calming down. But only after I saw him putting baggage labels for San Franzisco on both of our backpacks.
And right know we enjoy each others company while waiting in sunny Copenhagen for our connecting flight!