Country life

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Auf dem Land

Today was to be a clean-up day on their farm. It has been very, very dry in April, and none of the planted seeds are germinating. They spent some time watering and mowing the grass. As soon as breakfast was over, the neighbors started to come by.

We sat and had coffee or sparkling wine or torte with everyone who visited. The people in the village speak with a distinctive accent, and it was a challenge to understand them.

Before we left, we harvested some things to take back to town. They have several each of apple trees, sweet cherry, plum, pear, and quince. They have an asparagus bed that produces every year. They plant potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb, herbs, flowers, celeriac, carrots, squash, radishes, etc. They don't seem interested in peppers or eggplants. Only some greens and the rhubarb was ready for harvest.

Their across-the-street neighbor, Sascho, and his wife Regina had invited us for late lunch. When we got back from the countryside, we went directly to their house, where they served us all manner of central European food: a fish soup, a soup made from stinging nettle, some chopped fish, pickled vegetables, stewed rhubarb with redcurrents for dessert.

After lunch Sascho (By the way, that's his nickname; his name is Alexander) gave us a tour of his garden, with numerous grape arbors, fruit trees, raspberry bushes, vegetables, and flowers.

Sascho is in an unusual employment situation now that there is no communist East Germany. Throughout the communist bloc, and particularly in the so-called German Democratic Republic (DDR), the state supported the arts, including painters and artists. When the communist government went away, so did the support. Thus, such artists, who had no relevant job-search experience were in a precarious position. Sascho has jobs and commissions, and, luckily, Germany has a good social welfare system, so that health care and so forth are not a problem.

When we got back to Martin's house, we opened a bottle of wine and managed to discuss politics until 11:00. The primary subject, towards which I sort of steered the conversation, was the Middle East.

It was a challenge to follow the discussion, as it seemed like each of us was discussing a different subject. You see, Martin is an uncompromising pacifist. He had even gotten in trouble in the old DDR for his views. He believes that there is no reason for war. I'm not sure if he would go this far, since we haven't discussed it, but I get the impression that he would not justify any type of violence. He frequently cites Ghandi.

As a result, even if you believe that Israel, for the most part, acts in self-defense, as I do, that assumption doesn't tip the scales. Of course, the actions of the Palestinians are equally deplorable in his eyes. So we talked and talked, and I got some really good practice time speaking German, but we were as far apart at the end as we were at the beginning.

Collapsing from fatigue, we all went to bed, pretty tipsy on my part.