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!

Susan, Chris and Ina are going west!

You may have heard that there are new nuclear weapons coming to Europe and Büchel. These B6-12 bombs are easier to use, they can be guided better and their strength can be adjusted, and therefor even more dangerous than the bombs we have in Germany now. These new bombs are being built in Kansas City and we dont want/need them!
Every year a group called PeaceWorks organizes actions at the entrance oft he nuclear bomb factory wich are joined by many Catholic Workers. There will be a vigil, a die-inn and a line crossing to draw attention tot he massdestruction weapons being built here. Traveling together from three European countries we will join this action this year!
Before and after this action we will travel a bit in the USA to strengthen our bonds with the CW and peace movement there and give talks about the European Nuclear situation and the European Catholic Worker movement.