Letter from Ballytobin: Callan, Ireland

Good morning, Exeter!I hope you said “good morning” in your head. I know you did. Because while y’all are having that drilled into your heads twice a week, I’m having the cultural experience of a lifetime.I know Exeter is pretty diverse, with people coming from far away lands like Nigeria or even Arkansas, but let me tell you, working in Camphill, Ireland is like is like taking a look at the whole globe condensed into a village. I work alongside people from Germany, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Norway, Lebanon, France, Iceland, Madagascar, I could go on forever. Oddly enough, the hardest people to understand are the Irish, good lord…I realize now that most of you have no idea what Camphill is or what I’m doing, and some of you probably don’t even know who I am. So, hi, my name is Sam Blank, and I’m spending my senior winter term in Ireland working in a Camphill community with fellow senior Suleydi Betancourt. Camphill is a place where children and adults with special needs—from mild learning disabilities to severe developmental disabilities—can live and thrive in an accepting place. Camphill communities are best described as “life-sharing” [communities]; we live together, work together and play together. The Camphill philosophy is that no matter what an individual's disability may appear to be, the spirit—the essential core that makes us all human—always remains whole.There are about thirteen Camphill communities in Ireland, eight of which are within approximately 50 kilometers (oh, God, metric is seeping into my brain!) of Camphill Callan, where Suleydi and I are staying. Our community has around 30 people in total with about 15 residents with special needs of all different types. It’s a pretty great place. I live in a house with two residents and five co-workers, and Suleydi is in a similar set-up.Our typical week consists of three main areas. On Mondays and Tuesdays we take an art course in the KCAT (Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent) Centre where we paint, draw and loaf around with various people from around the region. Some of the things people make are truly mind blowing. One of the residents of another Camphill nearby Callan has done some work that is beyond belief. He has severe autism, but, boy, can this guy paint. Research has shown that sometimes people with Autism see, hear and feel differently than we could ever imagine, and this man proves it. He paints what he sees of photographs or what is around him, but draws everything in tiny little pieces, similar to mosaic art. He uses colors more or less unrelated to the object’s real color, and at first glance, his work looks like like nothing else but abstract, but if you look really closely, figures start to appear in a mind-boggling way that words cannot describe. It’s possible from observing his work that he may actually see everything that way. Every angle change, color change, texture, everything, might just be a little, disconnected piece in his mosaic vision. We may never know the answer, but it’s so interesting to try and understand.On Wednesdays, I work on the farm in the morning, shoveling manure, and Suleydi makes lunch in the flat where she lives. Then in the afternoons we both work in the garden, doing gardeney things, all this time alongside those with and without special needs. The last two days of the week we spend in the next community over, Ballytobin, started by the same superheroes coming to a Mayer auditorium near you this month, Patrick and Gladys Lydon. Ballytobin is a secluded community (versus Camphill Callan, which is actually within the teeny town of Callan), but it is much larger. Ballytobin’s residents are for the most part younger than those in Callan, with most of them in their middle to late teen years, and are typically more heavily disabled than residents in Callan.There is really nothing like the fulfillment gotten from spending time with some of the residents in these communities and making them happy. It’s something I wish everyone could experience, because no other place than Camphill can offer an adventure like this. The people here are pure heart, and when everything boils down to the basics, that’s all that matters. So if you’re interested in actually having a fun senior winter and/or if you want to change your life for the better, apply and get your butt over to Ireland—you won’t regret it.