|
|
|
|
July Market
Sunday 3rd July 10am – 2pm
by Craig du Preez
Sunday the 3rd of July is the date we have been waiting for all month. Time to fill baskets with our favourite organic goodies, delicious Camphill yoghurts, scrumptious baked goods, fresh produce and natural hand- and home-made products.
 The market starts at 10am at our community centre with stalls inside and spreading outside if the weather is fine. Pop in and try our selection of cakes at our coffee shop. Enjoy some delicious teas, coffee or hot chocolate.
Have a bite to eat at one of our food stalls and do some browsing at our regular market vendors’ stalls, for crafts, jewellery, plants, food products, books and more, while listening to the soothing sounds and music stylings of Kathryn Swain.
Bring the whole family, come and enjoy a hearty and wholesome Sunday lunch, explore the farm, meet friends and relax in the country air. As always we offer kids’ entertainment, tractor rides and safe parking.
Directions & contact details
Directions: From the N1 take the N7 towards Malmesbury, travel approx 35km.
At the sign “R304 Camphill Village / Atlantis” turn left, drive another 4,5km and we are on the left.
Email market@camphill.org.za or visit www.camphill.org.za/market
Contact 021 571 8600 & 8641 on market day
|
|
Abdullah Ibrahim stirred by Camphill Village
by James Sleigh
When an email from the legendary Abdullah Ibrahim arrived in my inbox, requesting to meet, I was about to delete it, suspecting it was spam, but fortunately decided to read the whole mail. He showed a keen interest in what we are doing at Camphill Village, and this resulted in us meeting and sharing an evening of ideas.
Abdullah Ibrahim, previously known as Dollar Brand, is one of South Africa's most famous jazz musicians, who is in the country at the moment, having just done a concert with Hugh Masikela. His vision is to link music, discipline, entrepreneurship, meditation, nutrition and creativity.
It was an honour and a pleasure sharing an evening with this icon. At 81, he is spritely, alive, full of enthusiasm, and has a great wish to share his skills, knowledge and wisdom to uplift and empower fellow South Africans. In spite of his accomplishments and fame, he humbly refers to himself as “I am just a piano player”.
|
|
Centre for Excellence 2020 Masterplan
by James Sleigh
Our Centre for Excellence (CECE 2020) Masterplan is our ambitious project, to become self-sustainable by 2020. This has been the result of many hours of planning and strategising and we are now in the process of trying to fund it and roll it out. Any stakeholders wishing to get involved, are invited to contact us.
In line with this, our third tunnel is now under construction. This one has been donated by the Department of Agriculture, and we are looking forward to planting crops of organic berries in the near future. Our cucumbers and tomatoes are producing well in our other two tunnels. Our plan is to have 8 tunnels operating in the not-too-distant future.
Read more about our Centre for Excellence 2020 Masterplan here: http://www.camphill.org.za/news/camphill-ecological-centre-of-excellence-the-masterplan
|
|
Camphill Winter Tea
by Craig du Preez
Packed full of vitamins and minerals, our winter tea is the perfect way to build up your immune system and chase away the winter blues. This fantastic tasting tea boasts some of nature’s best herbal sources of vitamins and minerals.
It contains high levels of vitamin A, C, K, folic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. The ingredients are: rose hip, hibiscus flowers, nettle, chamomile and sweet marjoram. Believe me it is as great tasting as it is nutritious.
Our winter tea will soon be available in tea-bags.
|
|
St John’s Time
by Renate Sleigh
St. John’s is June 24th – his birthday, as the birth of Jesus Christ is on the 24th to 25th December. Two brothers in spirit born 6 months apart, one in winter the other in summer, depending upon in which part of the world we celebrate.
Both these births fall at the time of the solstices, either the winter or the summer solstice. It is the time of the turning of the sun. A great cosmic event that regulates our season and yearly rhythm.
John the Baptist, the preparer for the Christ event on earth, was the one who called out: Change your ways, prepare, prepare the way for more inner and reflective working. The baptism of John was all about reflection: as you were submerged in the waters, you reflected on your past and made new resolutions for the future.
At the turning of the sun, here in the south, the sun will begin shine brighter and lighter once more.
In our Village we have gone through a challenging time and many people have had to ask themselves deep questions. What are the essentials in our lives, and what are the real aims we are striving for? These are the questions of John the Baptist who lived 2000 years ago, yet live in us daily when our conscience is stirred.
|
|
1st Class!
by Antoinette Leeming
It’s been a year of firsts at Malachite, has 2016.
Our Eckard celebrated the first 21st Birthday ever in Malachite. Amid much excitement at the breakfast table, he was presented with a candle, a posy of flowers and two eggs on toast – the traditional house breakfast for the celebrant – made with great care by Hendrik. He then proceeded to open his present while the house sang “Happy Birthday” in his honour. A big THANK YOU to Russel and Heather McCracken who took him out for the weekend and treated him like a king.
We were privileged to see the first rainbow of winter, shimmering in the sky on a very chilly morning. It was so beautiful, the colours so clear and strong. Everyone was rushing for their cameras to record it for posterity (or wallpaper).
Then, one of our Jersey cows gave birth to the first set of twins we had seen. Two beautiful, bouncing, stocky little calves – simply lovely with their great big dark eyes, framed by lashes to die for!
Building the first fire of winter is always a special time in our house. We try to make the smoke as fragrant as possible by collecting all the dried lavender and rosemary branches from the bushes in the garden, and adding them to the pine-cones in the grate. Then we all run outside to smell our fire as the smoke comes out of the chimney, knowing that everyone in Camphill who smells our smoke is getting a little of the aromatherapy we are sharing.
And the first REAL rain of winter! How marvellous to see all that water plummeting down, filling the gutters, making wonderfully large puddles and clearing the air. Taking the dogs for a walk, wading through the mud and puddles in wellingtons, coming back home cold, but glowing, feeling that maybe – just maybe – we are going to have a proper winter this year.
Let us see what the next six months of the year bring.
|
|
Guava Jam
by Eastlynne Nelson-Tansley for The Garden Team
Viola was in charge of food processing. I offered a recipe and JP said he wanted make guava jam to sell at the market.
Suddenly it was happening! Some of the garden team arrived in Ferry with a crate of guavas, sugar and a very big pot that still needed cleaning after it had been scrubbed. This was the Friday before our market. Harvesting took place on Thursday. Ferry had several small jars made ready by Sally’s fine label-removal skills.
Decked out with apron and headgear and armed with sharp knives, we topped, tailed, halved and boiled the sweet smelling fruit. Sieved it for hours (Karen sieved the most) and boiled it again with sugar until it set, bottled it for the market, where it sold out 2 days later.
I hear there will be more jamming happening, this time in the food processing workshop, in time for the 3rd July market, so don't forget to look out for the Camphill Guava Jam at the vegetable stall.
|
|
Baking Stories
by Chloe Debersac
Because people can never get enough of cake and there is not that much to do on Saturdays, we started a new programme for the weekend. Every Saturday, some young co-workers come together with a small group of residents for baking.
The baking group is a great opportunity to meet with people you may not see every day, to help each other, listen to music, to have some nice conversation and of course to discover lots of tasty recipes like carrot cupcakes, banana bread or raisin snails.
After baking, people gather in the lounge to eat the baked goodies, have some tea and read and listen to some stories, at the moment it is “The Wizard Of Oz”. Now that it is getting cold, it is also a great chance for everyone to get warm and cozy by making a fire.
|
|
 Coming Home
by Sarah
4 years ago I became a Young Co-Worker in Camphill (Sept. 2012 – Sept. 2013) and 2 years ago I came back for a visit in May 2014 for 1 ½ months. After I left, I still stayed in close contact with some of the people in Camphill and just couldn't wait for the day to come back to my second home.
This time I only managed to come for 2 weeks, which was more than too short and the time ran out too fast.
But as I entered the gates to the village, I felt overwhelmed with joy and just couldn't believe that I'm really back. I did not even want to rest after 16 hours on the plane and just felt like going out to see everyone. So I decided to go to the work centre first to say hello to everyone. As I walked towards the work centre some of the residents saw me and came straight to me to welcome me back and were so happy to see me, and of course I was so happy to see them too and I was also glad that they remembered me as well.
Camphill has changed in some ways, but so have I and it's a good thing to go through changes because it helps you to grow and to move forward. But some of the changes were difficult for me to take, because I was still holding on to the Camphill I left in 2014. A few people had left by now, house leaders changed and so on.
But every time I walked around in the village, I met all those wonderful, kind and warm-hearted people, who welcomed me straight away again and almost treated me as I haven't been away for a day. And that feeling, that you know that you are just back home again made me smile the whole day long.
And I know for sure I will always come back to this place because I love all the residents there and the people who have been putting all their heart and their energy in it with passion, just to keep that wonderful place going.
Camphill is and will always be a big part of me and I'm glad that I know that I'm always welcomed there.
Thank you for everything.
|
|
Talent Show
by Ninja Geissler
Don’t forget!
On the 22nd of July we will have once again our yearly Talent Show, together with our friends from Camphill Hermanus and Orion (Atlantis).
Please join us here at Camphill for a cup of soup and a bun at 17h00, or latest at 18h00 when our real talents go on stage.
Besides our own talent, we will invite a couple even bigger talents to share this evening with us. We will also have a very special panel of judges, and a dignitary as our ‘Master of Ceremonies’.
Once our stars have given their best, we will open the floor for everybody to join a dance party until our legs can carry us no more.
Till then, auditions are full steam ahead.
|
|
What’s your style?
by Craig du Preez
Camphill Charity Shop is all about style and has much to offer. We have now added a range of vintage clothing ranging in styles from the 1950’s to the late 80’s.
If you are into brands we are now sporting some great items from Old Khaki, Cape Union Mart, Basler, Pringle and Elsvita Rosenwert for both men and woman.
Camphill Charity Shop serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it helps us to find much needed good quality clothing for our residents (28% of whom do not have families or access to funds). Secondly, we sell to the public at our markets, so the shop serves as a source of income for the organization.
If you have all the clothes you need and your style is PHILANTHROPIC STYLE, we are in need of donations of winter items such as jerseys, jackets, long pants and shoes. We especially need clothing in smaller sizes for both men and woman.
|
|
Wool Search
by Craig du Preez
For the past two months Camphill Crafts have been scouring suppliers and wholesalers in the Western Cape looking for wool to produce items for the village and for sale. It being winter and peak sale season, understandably there have not been many offers. That however has not decreased our need for these items. So we are putting the word out there. If you have some wool stockpiled, or know of anyone who could assist us we would be most grateful. If you know someone who would like to donate or could, let them know that all donations are tax deductible.
We are looking for baby yarns, 3-4 ply, in earth tone colours preferably, DK wool, 8 ply, worsted weight. We are creating blankets, scarves, jerseys, socks, baby blankets, stuffed animals.
Thank you.
|
|
Caring for the calves
by Rikus
My name is Rikus and what I do is look after 26 heifers and calves. Four of these are very small calves, born a couple of weeks ago. I must see that they are cared for and have water and food and that they stay healthy. If one of them gets sick I tell Rudi or JP and they will get them meds.
We had a case when a calf was sick (we call it dehydration). It was when the little one didn’t get enough milk, because she couldn’t reach her mother's teats. I fed her rehydration formula (6 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, dissolved in a litre of boiled water) in the am and pm. She is now a heifer, and (I like to call them teenagers, because they have a mind of their own, believe you me!) she can take gaps through the fences all the time.
My work is 7 days a week, morning and night. So if you want to come and see them you are welcome to do so. Just don’t open the gates please! Thanks.
Will keep you up to date with what is happening with our calves and heifers. May you have a nice week.
God bless Camphill.
|
|
 Alex Josephs
*15.11.1982 -
Interview by Ninja Geissler
In last month’s newsletter the interview published under Alex Joseph’s name was actually about Eckard Harmse repeated from the previous newsletter. We apologise for the mistake – please read Alex’s story here:
I am the oldest in my family. I have one younger sister. My sister has a son and he will be 3 years old in June. I stayed with my Mom and my sister, my Dad stayed with my cousin.
When I was very small I went to a play school and afterwards to Lentegeur. I stayed at Lentegeur and for weekends and holidays my Mom came and fetched me.
Afterwards I went to Mary Harding but then I stayed with my Mom again and the school bus fetched me every morning and brought me back in the afternoon.
When I was finished with school my Mom talked to a social worker and together they brought me to Camphill.
For my two weeks trial visit I stayed in Huis Ten Bos and went to different workshops. I liked it. When I came back I stayed again in Huis Ten Bos and I worked on the Farm, chopping wood, in the Basket workshop and Bakery. I also worked in the Dairy and milked the cows. I never worked in the shop. I would love to take the groceries to the houses.
On our markets I sell my paintings and 2nd hand comic books.
|
|
Gratitude to the AoCC
by Janine Strumpher
Camphill yoghurt is a much sought after product and the demand for this yummy jar of goodness exceeds our capacity to supply. Therefore a priority for our master plan has been to increase our dairy production by adding to our grazing pastures so as to increase our dairy herd.
The first step is water, and we thank the AoCC for funding our borehole and making it possible to take the next step; clearing and establishing 14 hectares of lucerne and kikuyu. Once established this means more Jerseys, more milk, and voila!
Thank you, Geoffrey, for your involvement in the process.
|
|
Inspirasiekos met Sarie
by Janine Strumpher
Recently, an episode of Inspirasiekos was filmed in our dairy. Many people have asked for the link to the programme. Unfortunately, due to rights of the owner of the program we could not obtain a link for the episode, but have a copy at Camphill for private viewing. As a consolation we received a link to the recipes for the gourmet food prepared by Herman Lensing with Camphill products in our very own dairy.
http://www.sarie.com/bekendes/het-jy-gehoor-bekendes/inspirasie-kos-met-herman/
|
|
Save the Date
by James Sleigh
Our next Music Festival - 25 February 2017
We are starting to plan our next music festival. Please save the date! More to come about this in our upcoming newsletters
|
|
Security Guard/Friendly Face at the Gate/Gardener
by Janine Strumpher
Going the extra mile is something we see every day in this wonderful community called Camphill. Meet Gawie, not only is he devoted to guarding our frontier, seeing to the safety of all, he also finds time to keep our entrance looking good.
No good deed goes unnoticed, Gawie.
|
|
Mandela Day
by James Sleigh
If there are any people or companies looking for ideas to spend their 67 minutes in honour of Mandela, please contact us. We have plenty of projects to get involved in!
|
|
Thank You
by Janine Strumpher
Rays of Hope - Thank you Katrin for sponsoring the footcare kits, a special thanks to you from Sister Sheryl
Lambswood - Kenneth for the kitchen unit, doors and building material.
Elsa Steenkamp - Fantastiese werkende naaimasjien
Methodist Church Claremont - Forty beautiful blankets to keep us warm during the freezing months to come.
Heather and Malcolm - Thank you for the tea trees you donated
|
|
How to Donate
by Janine Strumpher
Our PayPal account is now in operation; there are now three ways to donate cash to Camphill Village West Coast.
- Our PayPal account is now fully functional if you would like to use this option - Click Here
- EFT – Camphill Village Standard Bank Malmesbury Acc: 082 399 204 Branch: 050507 Swift: SBZA ZA JJ
- Foreign donations can be made through a NPO in your country and a tax certificate can be issued, please contact Janine to discuss for more info.
NB! Your donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE, we would like to thank everybody that supports Camphill, remember without your support we cannot continue the work we do. We provide a safe normal life for people living with intellectual disability.
|
|
My School New Partner
by Janine Strumpher
Loot.co.za an online shopping company with over 14 million best branded products to choose from has joined My School/My Planet/My Village.
Remember to enter your card number every time you shop online and Camphill receives a reward payment. At no cost you can support Camphill, please contact Janine to get your card.
|
|
Sponsor a Resident
by Janine Strumpher
We have embarked on a drive to find a sponsor for each resident who has no family or financial means. Without Camphill Village they would be on the streets where people with special needs are often victims of abuse and manipulation and at risk even within their own families and/or communities.
And without financial assistance we cannot continue providing this place of safety.
Living at Camphill Village West Coast gives people with intellectual disability the chance to live a full, creative and fulfilled life, to develop their abilities and contribute to their community. The life that we take for granted, is for many a gift. However we can only do this when financial support is found for the individuals.
If you can help, or know of Individuals or Companies we can approach please contact Janine Strumpher on 021 571 8600 or e-mail fundraiser@camphill.org.za
Take a break from your busy day and watch this beautiful slideshow about life at Camphill - https://youtu.be/B3BQ8PmMZuY
|
|
My School Card
Support Camphill Village with a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card.
Every time you shop at Woolworths, Waltons, Kalahari.com, ToysRUs and several other partners, a percentage of the amount goes to your MySchool beneficiaries.
If you don’t already have a card the application form is available on our website here. http://www.camphill.org.za/my-school-card
If you already have a card, update your profile to include Camphill Village West Coast as one of your beneficiaries. https://www.myschool.co.za/supporter/update/
You can have up to three beneficiaries per card, so can support us at the same time as your school or other favourite charity.
Thank you – every little bit makes a difference!
|
|
Please click the Facebook link below to hear about weekly updates happening at the Village and you can also follow us on Twitter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
