It takes a village

Some new friends have already joked that I belong to a cult. And they are not far off base. Camphill Village is an intentional community - I have gone from one cult (Allegheny Mountain School) to another. And so far I love it.

Camphill Village in the US started in 1961 at the site I work at. It is the largest and oldest of the Camphills in America. There are about 25 homes in the village each headed up by a house mother and father. Some have children and some do not. 4-6 villagers (adults with disabilities) along with 2-3 interns/assistants also live in the homes.

All villagers, interns, and some or both house parents have work placements in the different workshops in the village - the seed shop, the book bindery, the weavery, the bakery, the cafe, the glass shop, the estate (they work the grounds), the vegetable garden, the healing garden, the dairy, the woodshop, and the candle-shop.

Each morning, the village rises and each house has their morning meeting followed by breakfast and quiet hour. After quiet hour, everyone heads out to morning work (9-noon). I am the "work-master", yes this is the actual working title that gets used at the village and I have told them I don't like it, of my room in the seed shop where we are responsible for getting the seed clean and ready to be packed.

In the morning, I work with three villagers Kelly, Elizabeth, and Danny (we are joined by Patricia on Thursday mornings) and three interns Arafat, Greg, and Philip. Greg and Philip are with me all day. At 10:30 am we break for tea and cookies, for real, and then go back to work until noon. The village eats lunch from 12:30-1:30 followed by a rest hour. Some days I eat at a house and other days I eat in the seedshop or greenhouse and then try to take a nap usually in front of the wood stove in the greenhouse. Then I have an hour to catch up on things I need to do or ask questions of Ian, the work-master of the other seed room where seeds are packed and shipped. Ian has largely been the person training me and getting me up to speed while my supervisor, Lia, gets back in the swing of things (she is a new mom to an extremely cute 9-month old Eleanor).
Afternoon work begins at 2:30. There are eight villagers that work with me in the afternoon and one new intern, Lindsay. The villagers in the afternoon, Oliver, Rukin, Mishka, Ellen, Danny (again), Sheila, Linda, and Sherry are talkers and the room is noisy and semi-productive. Oliver, Rukin, and Ellen especially make me laugh with their antics. Work ends at 5 and after cleaning up my room and shutting every thing down, I am usually leaving and headed back to 1715 Mill River Great Barrington Road around 5:15.

Everyone I have met at the village so far has been extremely gracious and a little crazy for sure. I fit right in. When I get in my car, often times I am emotionally tired and sometimes physically as well. It is only possible to stay in each moment with the work and with my co-workers. Of course I still have nerves about whether or not I am doing a good job especially with the high bar set by the previous assistant manager and each day I feel a little more comfortable and get to know my co-workers a little more that I am starting to feel like a tile in the mosaic.

I am inspired to write a blog post about each of my co-workers or maybe a couple at a time as there is so much to be said about each one. I feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am and to have such a full work life. I think I am in danger of making my work my life (which would be the same of my past two jobs - they always came first).

And with that, Poe and I say goodnight!