31.8.2007 Tote Hosen and Sagging Pants

Now here is an interesting news item that caught my attention today.In his article in todays International Herald Tribune the writer, Niko Koppel, talks about how the authorities are struggling with Southern mostly Afro-American teenagers who love to wear their jeans hip-hop style.

In case you need some help with this take a close look at the photo.These two youngsters have allowed their pants to sag thus showing parts of their underwear.What would happen if some of the kids here in Paderborn were to imitate this latest US fashion? Would the police stop them? Would they be fined?Which law would be evoked to make them pull their pants up higher?

Well,the article goes on to inform the reader that in a small town in Louisiana wearing sagging pants is a crime and it carries a fine of as much as $ 500 USD or up to a six-month sentence in jail.Wow.I was thinking that if our German rock group the Toten Hosen came on stage with their pants way down we would have a double whammy! and then what?

So - just how safe are our three Paderborner teenagers in Belleville from being exposed to low hanging jeans? If we here allow folks to sunbathe in the nude in the Englischer Garten in the heart of Munich surrounded by strolling tourists and locals alike we will certainly be able to handle sagging - but I wouldn't be too sure about it.

30.8.2007 Mail for Doris

Yesterday this Airmail envelop was returned to me.I wrote Doris R. an email about it and she wrote back ( it only takes seconds for these messages to zip along the datalines ) that she was living at 45 Whiteside Drive....the Belleville Postoffice was unable to deliver this letter - can you detect why? Now I am resending it again by snailmail for two euros or some USD 2.66 - if Doris mailed such an envelop my way the postage would come to less than one dollar - you wonder why we here get charged so much.The good news: it will take only five days to get to Belleville.

Long ago - some short two hundred plus years - when George Washington was serving as the first American President he had Benjamin Franklin as his ambassador in Paris,France...and when George W. requested to receive the latest news from France it took a total of about 45 days for the round trip of these two documents......so we accelerated from 45 days to ten days,to 10 seconds....and yet my heart can send out love to our three kids in Belleville and that energy will be received in less than one - the reason? We are all deeply interconnected and yet still so very far apart.

30.8.2007 An Invitation for Kaffee und Kuchen

Now that our four blogs are "up and running" at our dafk homepage ( thanks to our President Mr. B. Broer and our Webmaster Mr. H. Steege ) it will be more interesting and easy to follow up on the unfoldings of our three young Paderborn delegates in Belleville,Illinois.

All of this would not have been possible without the active involvement of their wonderfully supportive parents.And there is a warm sense of anticipation within me this very moment I am writing these lines: we all have been inivited for Kaffee,Tee und Kuchen at the house of Carolin's parents on September 9,2007 at 15:00.How classic and how typical of our culture.And there will probably be nice Chinaware, ( maybe even some family Sammeltassen? ) a perfectly ironed tablecloth and elegant silverware plus ( home-made ? ) Kuchen and other goodies.Yammi.It has been a long time since I have enjoyed to such a traditional Kaffeeklatsch gathering....and yes Ms. Sale I will bring along some courtesy flowers....plus I promise a photo of this special setting for later publication.

27.August 2007 The Day After

According to my local newspaper the 1. NRW Day this last weekend in Paderborn was a smashing success.The biggest crowd gathered for an open air concert with Sasha in the heart of our city.15000 fans had come to hear this nationally known performer.He praised the talents of our local Paderborn group the Peachbox who had the honors to lead him into his franctic performance.

When I locked our front door that Saturday night at about midnight I reflected on the major events that had left their marks on my nervous system while I was a student in the USA - there were quite a few but none can surpass the concert of the Grateful Dead in Eugene,Oregon.

Never ever have I witnessed Paderborn brimming with so many activities and friendly folks.A big compliment is due for all those helpers,organizers, participants and visitors - it seems as if our Deutschländchen has discovered a new way of "lightness" - a new way of celebrating its own creativity.

It is my hope that our three brave students in Belleville might live through an event while there that in itself is so meaningful that they will want to recall it as their helpful inner resource whenever needed.

26.August 2007 Northrhine-Westphalia Day in PB

What a wonderful party:Paderborn hosted the very first NRW Day - from now on each year hereafter one city in our State gets to host this special 2 days event.This year Paderborn was the lucky city to be selected to start this new "tradition".The organizers expected between 400.000 and 500.000 thousand visitors....I was there, I was that hero because I volunteered to participate at our DAFK booth and it was indeed an endless stream of folks that flooded by our table.

Some had heard about our exchange programs and inquired about how to register their teenager for the 2008 tour,others took an interest in our brochures and the very daring ones stepped up closer to read the blogs of our present three students which I had printed out and pinned to the board. ( see attached photo showing the blogs with Dr. Allendorf ).

During these two days we rotated our booth duties among these motivated members:Mrs. Brunhilde Konersmann;Willi Bökamp;Heiner Sprengkamp;Bernd Broer - our President; Dr. Otmar Allendorf and myself....this way time went by quickly and since nobody was allowed to smoke inside the Historic City Hall where we had been permitted to set up - I was able to provide information throughout my time allotted slot without ever sounding coarse. I will read the Monday papers and see if I can scan a photo that describes best the festive spirit and the perfect weather.

Paderborn may have many problems at hand - but this event was certainly a huge and welcome success - and I am a bit proud that we at DAFK did our small share.

24.8.2007 Help - what happened to my blog?

Blog writing is a creative and a fun activity as long as things work out well....this morning I was entering dafk-jay.blogspot.com into Google as usual and the message said that nothing by this name could be found....just as with Nils blog ( dafk-nils.blogspot.com ).There too, at first I was able to access his text and then a few days ago - same thing: Google was unable to link to his blog...what would love do now?Please help if you have any idea..and there is always the chance that maybe tomorrow it will work again,unless it isn't.

22.August 2007 Experience leads to being

Today our three young delegates Caro,Jan and Nils are spending their third day at their respective Highschools and there are probably a million questions in their heads.....and I wouldn't be surprised to hear them mutter to their new host friends: if only I had known about this or that in advance I would have been better prepared etc. This is just to show that reading or hearing about a new culture is very much different from having first hand experiences in that new environment....and the more experiences we have the easier it will become to actually BE a part or a member of that culture....so the path of our three adventurers takes them from knowledge to experience and finally on down to beingness - how close will they get to achieve the final step in their less than ninety short days?And what about the passing of these days?Will it be felt as a gradual stream of days by counting them down from now on to departure day? Or will it be a fluid process that can speed up,slow down or even go into reverse - will they biologically - not chronologically - be younger when they get here because of the effect certain special experiences had on their cells in their bodies - will life in Belleville have been something like jumping into a Jungbrunnen?

The photo shows Linda Driesner ( Belleville East HS ),Katie McDowell ( Belleville West HS ) and myself during a lunch meeting in 2005.These two dedicated teachers are again actively helping our three students to settle in and to get adjusted.Thank you Linda.Thank you Katie.

In my next blog I want to talk about this important sentence:"In the absence of which I am not,that which I am is not." Now wouldn't that make a great Abitur topic???

20.August 2007 Second Thoughts

Today our three students in Belleville will begin their regular first week.There may still be some feelings of jet lag and the newness of it all may at times overwhelm their senses.

I remember a preparatory meeting here where we spoke of the importance to suspend one's judgement for the first 24 or even better 48 hours in order to avoid any initial negative imprints that would slant one's perception for the rest of the stay.Did they follow this time proven advice? Did they keep all channels wide open?Were they able to calm the internal dialog?What mental sorting styles are they using?Are they looking for similarities between our two cultures or do they enjoy sorting for differences?

As I pondered the above thoughts a more disturbing one kept me awake.I wondered if we here at DAFK were really doing these kids and their families a favor by sending them to the USA - a country that clearly has been in major distress about so many issues for what seems to be almost a decade or more?

And as a certain sadness began to set in about all the negativity we hear,see and read about the US - a place that once inspired me so wildly as a student in the sixties and early seventies and later on in my professional life as well - I reminded myself that reading about a country is always much less objective than living there for a certain amount of time while gaining one's own often uplifting experiences as our three kids are now doing.

This then led me to todays picture.It shows our 2005 students with their host friends free and easy at a Borders bookstore in Belleville.All are smiling and you sense there is happy energy all around.This then is the great gift for this years youngsters as well: as their first regular week unfolds they are invited to create some eighty plus inspiring days for themselves and those around them - so that we here in Paderborn may hear and read about nothing else than their happy unfoldings. PS can you tell the German kids apart from their American friends?

8.August 2007 The official farewell meeting

We are about one week away from departure day of our 2007 delegation.We are so pleased to have been able to recruit three wonderful young students AND their active parents as well.

Today we have been invited to the office of our county commissioner Landrat M. Mueller for the official farewell ceremony.

Mr. Mueller gave a friendly pep talk and expressed his eagerness to meet with our three kids in Belleville in mid-october again when he gets there as a member of the 2007 DAFK delegation.This trip was again initiated by our President Bernd Broer and DAFK's secretary Dr. Allendorf. The latter will once again act as the watchful and experienced guide.One mission of the tour is to deepen our ties with our sister city Belleville and to also try to find a way to put our 90 days homestay - and the teacher exchange programs on a more permanent and stable basis.

16.August 2007 Departure

Thursday August 16,2007

I left the house early in order to be at our local PAD airport in time for the departure of our 2007 participants. Ealier this year we had chosen three very promising students for our second 90 Days Exchange program: Carolin S. and Nils S. ( both attending the Pelizaeus Gymnasium )and Jan Sch. ( attending the Goerdeler Gymnasium ).

The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to leave at 9:05 and when we gathered at 7:45 we realized that we had arrived much too early.This gave us time to fill out additional, more stable baggage labels and to exchange some final " do this and please don't do that" vows.There was exitement and anticipation in the air.I took a last photo of our trio and we all wished them luck as they walked through security.Their hopefully fanstastic voyage had finally begun.

When I was driving home I felt thankful and relieved.Everything had worked out well in the end:our friends in Belleville had found three open-minded host families,the schools here and there had cooperated and DAFK had successfully managed the selection and logistics processes.The parents had bonded a bit as well through an initial meeting at the friendly home of the Schulze family.Doris R. from Belleville happened to be in town and was thus able to provide all of us with important details and documents.Robert Berns, a member of our very first delegation, stopped by as well and thanks to his brilliant DVD based slides the 2007 team was able to share the experiences Robert,Felix,Gesa and Maren had had in Belleville back in 2005.

19. August 2007 First Reactions

Sunday August 19,2007

When I activated my computer this morning I knew exactly what I wanted to do: to thank the parents for their feedback about the flights to Belleville and to read the blogs of our three adventurers.

The good news were that all three had successfully cleared immigration and customs - and there were also posted concerns because one of them had been singled out for a more in-depth questioning...and you wonder why....I assume these officiers followed strict rules and procedures and that all acted with good intentions....but it leaves you wondering if an American teenager arriving here at Frankfurt Airport for a short visit with perfect papers and documents would have to go through the same somewhat intimidating process?

And continuing with the good news: all three were able to catch the delayed flight to St. Louis where they were eagerly awaited by their families and taken home from there....wow! this whole journey from here to there must have been longer than 23 hours.....

Jan Sch. writes about his short trip to Kentucky...the sister of his new friend Luke went off to college there this weekend accompanied by her entire family - a great ceremony in the life of any parent.Even the University of Paderborn will have its parents week this upcoming November...and it leaves me wondering to what campus I will be accompanying my own daughter in about six years or less....I was also pleased to read that two of our students had been over to their schools to get either aquainted or to collect materials.

Writing this blog in English is fun and I wonder as I type away who will be the readers of my thoughts and how transparant and real can I be before I step on somebody's "holy" toe??