Who is going to the ceramic workshop? How about the greenhouse? Weaving? Bakery? Soap? How about woodworking? Did you already go there last week? Would you be willing to trade spots?
This is how we close every Icelandic course on Wednesday mornings right before lunch. This short conversation determines the course of our afternoon, the workshop where we will spend three hours interacting with the Homepeople and assisting the directors of the workshops.
Did you have fun working in soaps today? I really want to go back to the bakery next week. Maybe I’ll try ceramics! I had such a great time in woodworking this afternoon!
Being students in the CELL program does not always give us much time to interact with the Homepeople. Sitting with Guđlaug during lunch and trying to converse with her about the food for lunch or receiving a warm greeting from Siggi right before picking up the meal at the window are lovely interactions. They make me feel welcome. But only welcome at best. When lunchtime often lasts less than an hour there is not much time to get to really know or interact with the Homepeople. We often find comfort in sitting with others who speak English so sitting with the interns and volunteers (who all speak English) during lunchtime is an easy thing to do rather than attempt to interact on different levels with the Homepeople.
Workshops allow us to integrate ourselves into the wider community of Sólheimar. We are able to move out of our comfort zones and lessen the divide between the CELL community and the Sólheimar community. As a student, I often feel as if the CELL community is a small and impermeable bubble that lies within the larger bubble of Sólheimar. The workshops act almost as a sword that slashes through that barrier and allows for comingling: last week in woodworking I was dancing with Guđlaug and Guđrún to Icelandic versions of American songs like Fly Me To The Moon or Sway. I was even able to get Pálmi involved in the dancing.
Seeing his face light up like a small child made me realize the importance of these workshops for us students as well as the Homepeople. We are able to create a larger and more cohesive environment by spending our Wednesday afternoons in these workshops and the Homepeople are able to interact with others beyond their regular community. The workshops really round out our education and give us students a different, hands on outlet into the realm of Icelandic culture. Our semester in Iceland would be less fulfilling if our learning community was unable to interact with the larger community that surrounds us.
–Sarah Post
March 24, 2014
© Leah Jaynes