July 8

7/8

Saturday was an early start for me as I had to get back in time for my community partner’s workshop.  I got on a bus around 9, after being in Prague for under 24 hours, and headed back to Berlin.  Halfway there, I was asked by our community partner if I could pick up some lunch for everyone.  By now my bus was running over a half hour late because of a random stop and passport check by the police, and I had no idea where to find what he was asking for, but I said I would pick some up.

After getting back to Fredrick Strasse, I set out looking for a Turkish bakery to pick up the gozleme they had asked for. I had no idea what gozleme is so he explained over the phone that it's essential spinach or meat and feta cheese inside very thin dough.  After a half hour and three failed attempts, I found a place that had enough cheap gozleme for everyone.  While I was there, I bought a few extra things to eat on the train.  Everything was amazing and amazingly cheap.

The workshop itself was great.  Attached are a few pictures of the space and the diagrams used to explain the process to those who were building.  Towards the end, an intense discussion began between those who believed the furniture should be made with nails, and those who believed it should be made with dowels.  The conversation was entire in German, but I was amazed that I could pick out quite a bit of it, though I couldn’t give my own input that the dowels were superior, even though they are more time consuming.  In the end it was settled in favor of dowels, as had been the plan from the start, and we ended for the day.  It was a really neat experience seeing the teaching and learning that was going on, and how well everyone worked together despite language barriers and age differences.

After the workshop my main community partner person asked if we wanted to go out to Templehof Park and relax. We all met up there around an hour later, and took cover from the rain that had started under a covered stage-like structure on one end of the runways. A bunch of other people were also there and were taking turns playing different kinds of music. There was an old man with a harp, a group of older people with drums doing chants, and one of the architects from our project playing some samba guitar. I borrowed a bicycle from our community partner and biked the length of the runways. For anyone who hasn't done this, I absolutely recommend it. It's completely changes the feeling of the space being able to race down the runway on a bike, especially at sun set. I will remember that ride for a very long time.

 Materials for making the furnature

Instructional diagrams from out workshop