AUSTRIA-GERMANY!

12^th Stop: Vienna, Austria; Augsburg (near Munich), Germany

Vienna, Austria

A short stop for 5 hours in Vienna, Austria, I traveled from Brno, Czech  in the morning (2 hour train ride). I don’t think I have that much to say about the city since I was only there for a few hours. It is definitely a very rich city, with endless and I mean endless museums, and men dressed like Mozart. The city just isn’t much my type I would say and I saw a postcard which was quite hilarious, “I spent so much money in Vienna, that I got you half a postcard.” The postcard was half-blank. I on the other hand, spent nothing, I had some bread from the other day which I ate with some cream cheese-how delicious! I really wanted to try a Weiner Schnitzel of Vienna, breaded chicken burger, but I sacrificed since I wanted to finish the bread that was leftover. Next year when I come back to Europe, I’ll definitely pass by another city in Austria, more for the nature, mountains and PEOPLE.

Augsburg, Germany

After a few hours, I was off again this time to Augsburg for a week, city close to Munich, to another community like Loppiano (1) called “Ottmaring.” They were offering a children’s program to the local town and I thought to go. 

Obviously I was not to participate, but to help, to give my time, share my talents, and LOVE. Sounds ironic because those who know me, know how much I LOVE kids. Not really much because you need a LOT of patience-A LOT. KIDS are definitely my weakness, in a literal sense, and patience on the other hand, is the greatest of all my weaknesses. Patience is a virtue, and I definitely learned to have it.

Let me share an experience...

So first off, I don’t speak any Germany, NA-DA, and the kids all speak GERMAN. That is definitely a weakness, but words have no meaning, without actions, so since I couldn’t speak, I tried to “ACT.” In the tiniest ways, I tried to help them hold their belongings, bring them their snacks, play their games, sing their songs , laugh at their jokes, and listen to their stories (without understanding anything), and just BE like one of them.

“To place myself in their shoes, and treat them like they want to be treated, and not how I want to treat them.” Big difference there. Not the “ME, or the I,” but “THEM, the OTHER.”

In particular, on the 2^nd and 3^rd day I stayed with a 13 year-old girl named Marie who has down syndrome. This is where my experience of patience begins. She was participating in all the activities with such enthusiasm, and joy; she always smiled, always laughed, and always talked. She definitely brought back the memory of Annie (2) as she expressed such a care-free attitude- not worrying about little things. When she saw a wall full of crawling ants, there was not a drop of disgust, or flicker of fear.

me and Marie

In the afternoon, she started to get tired and wanted to do her own thing. She started with running around, searching for different toys to play with, and ended up going into a cabin house. I was chasing her, trying to play along and trying to get her back into the activities with my group of 5 children. However, she had another agenda. I patiently waited and waited and waited, and... WAITED more to see what she wanted to do. She finally settled playing in the sandbox, happily digging away and building with her imagination. At first, I was just watching her and waiting patiently in hope that she would want to come back with the group. I asked and asked many times, but stopped myself to place myself in her shoes. She is tired and wants to play with the sand. 

How would she want to be treated in this moment?

Noemi and Marie

So I started to play her game, dig away at the sand, and listen to her speak endlessly about something I didn’t understand at all. After a good hour, I finally was able to persuade her to join the group once again. No more words to describe the patience it took to be with her, to understand her, to wait for her, to play along, and to place “myself in her shoes.”

Not only did I learn to have patience and to be handicapped in speaking, but understood and lived these words I wrote...

To be weak means strength because one bares truth.

Words hold this 

“truth” only once spoken by 

ACTION.

(Augsburg) me and the girls helping with the children's program

JUMP! Life is what you make of it.

(1) Loppiano: place where I stayed 9 months in Italy to live with people from around the world to learn about other cultures, religions, backgrounds, and more so learning about myself. 

(2) Annie: my friend-more like a sister, whom I helped for a year who is handicapped.