Back "home"

Yesterday after work, at around 2.30pm, I set off with my little rucksack for the train station. I bought chocolate and carrot-apple juice at the organic shop for the trip and waited on the platform at Südkreuz for red-head M. We were setting off for Meck'Pom, a Länder north of Berlin. M. and I were off to visit Ulenkrug, the German member of the Longo Mai network of commune-co-operatives. Our train would take us to Demmin, then we would take a bus to We Weren't Sure Where and someone from the farm would pick us up.
I had been looking forward to this trip for a while. I needed to confront the memories I had of Longo Mai near Forcalquier with reality, and see whether my positive impressions were not all linked to the beautiful landscape, the golden Provence light, the beaming dry stone houses, the gorgeous valley... I was quite sure I wouldn't be all too impressed by Ulenkrug - located in a former eastern Länder in northern Germany. And seen in December. Bound to be soggy, grey and miserable.

M. and I had a pleasant trip over to Demmin, chatting all the way.
I've known M. from afar since my second semester - Summer 2003. Since then we've seen one another perhaps once a year, randomly, but actually always had nice conversations. With time, I've felt that we were developing to share more and more interests and values. We share a lot of the unwillingness to take a "normal" job, to look more for a way to organise our lives that will make us happy and fulfilled - but we took very different pathes to get there.
She was part of the group of 5 who wanted to found a large WG (living community) last summer. Out of these five people, I knew two: M. and assertive L., whom I'd had a class with all year long and who had invited me to meet with the others and see whether I could be part of the project. It was a pretty bad phase for me and I didn't want to compete for a room in their living project. I didn't feel self-confident enough to assert myself or show anything of myself to those who didn't know me. I didn't really feel I belonged. But I tried all the same - mainly because I was happy to see M. again whom I hadn't seen in a while. The others didn't feel I should be part of the project, and L. and M. both told me they felt it was a real shame.
I've since decided not to take that badly and went to their house warming party, and recently had dinner there with L. and M., so that my relation with both of them has continued undisturbed.
This semester, I was happy to see M. in two of my seminars and we very naturally decided to prepare a project on communes together and very naturally decided to travel over to one for interviews and a visit. She first suggested another, relatively famous German commune, Niederkaufungen, but for some reason we came to choose the Longo Mai one. We both felt thankful that the other one was interested because we knew we wouldn't have gone alone.

So we chat in the train and gradually become more than just distant acquaintances who value one another.
We arrive in Demmin and look for the bus. No buses. Just lots of taxis and little vans. We ask a van driver if he knows where we can find the bus to Dargun. He points at a taxi across the street, calls the driver and says we also want to climb in. As we move towards the taxi, we realise that we wouldn't fit in - three other people plus luggage were boarding. The driver was calling another taxi. She told us to wait five minutes and that a black mercedes would pick us up.

The Berlin girls in rural east Germany. How strange to realise that we were noticeably not from around there, and came from a decidedly different world which we take so much for granted and standard.

Our "bus" driver, an overly round man in his sixties, arrived and drove us over to Dargun in his black mercedes. He was happy to chat. He said it was the first time they'd needed a second taxi for the shuttle service. That it wasn't worth having buses anymore and the towns had an agreement with the taxi services. He also said there was a great lack of discipline and order in the region. That old people couldn't go out at night alone because they would get robbed. He said that some people said that what was needed here was Zucht und Ordnung und 'n Führer (law and order and a führer). "Yes, it's funny but they say that, people around here." He had clearly stated he felt Zucht und Ordnung was necessary. He probably also felt that a Führer was needed, but he didn't want to tell us directly.
20% vote for neo-nazis in the region.

As we reached Durgun, I asked how much we owed him. He refused to take any money from us. A woman was approaching us - B. from Ulenkrug, tall and handsome, in her fifties. Our neo-nazi yet friendly driver left us in her care and wished us a good stay in this forlorne region.

The drive to Ulenkrug wasn't much of a scenic route - night sets in around half past four in our part of the world, and the sides of the roads were hidden in darkness. We arrived at the farm and I immediately recognised the spirit of Longo - people busy moving a truck out of the way - but also felt reminded of my aunt's place. B. showed us where we would sleep - a cosy room in a splendidly creative new house they are still building, and a bed each. We hadn't expected that much. And then off we went for dinner in the main house.

The common room has two large tables, one was already taken over by 15 people, including two or three children, so we sat down at the other one. Soon that one was also full as more people gradually arrived and sat next to us. Dinner was simple but delicious. We chatted with B., people asked us why we were there. One woman said she recognised me from the congress last week - I suppose that's the advantage of having a noticeable haircut. People remember my face more easily.
There were a lot of conversations and there was no moment where I felt this loneliness I had felt in Forcalquier - M's presence helped a lot, as she is always eager to ask questions and actively make people talk.
There was a lot of laughing. People were balanced, friendly, warm - though not excessively so.

On the next day, M. and I entertained fantasies of being taught how to use the carpenter's workshop, one day. We walked around whenever B. or other people had other things to do than talk with us, and exchanged impressions, took photos, chatted a lot.

I felt a lot more easily integrated at Ulenkrug than in the south of france. The women especially were fun to talk to. And I was once again amazed by the network they built up and the culture they share - the self-evidence with which they consider the fact that people can decide to move off to another of the communes for a while, to learn other things, see other people, other places, get some air and freedom, develop further - and then either come back to the commune they left or not. I admire this incredible network of trust, like an extended family, that allows for an alternative life style, mobility, and cosmopolitanism.

M. was very impressed and glad we'd come and she'd learned more about Longo Mai.
I should write about a lot of other little impressions, but there's too much, even though we didn't even stay 24 hours.
B. and several others invited us to come back next year, especially when they have work requiring groups of people. I think she liked us.

In the train on the way back, M. and I chatted some more and I eventually realised I was exhausted from all the communicative exchanges. I'm not necessarily used to it. I really enjoy talking with M. though.

--break for now. Time needed to process all these experiences.