Jastrebino in Transformation
In Bulgaria an in-service training for curative education and social therapy has been taking place regularly for almost two years. Here is a report about the seminar weeks in August 2009.
It is not the worst form of so called transformation, meaning the conversion of military equipment to serve civilians, when on the way to Veliko Ternovo and Varna on the somewhat off side of the road one finds a fighter plane that is colourfully painted with Graffiti which serves as a playground for children. That is what greets you when you come to Jastrebino. An orphanage in Jastrebino, which during the time of socialism was accommodated by the elite children of the country as a school outing and holiday site. This place which is the venue of our summer seminar for Anthroposophical curative education and social therapy, can be seen as undergoing a further transformation, a place which has always served learning however in those days under different conditions.
Intensive work and inter exchange
Where in earlier days it was about prescribed learning, the 36 participants at the seminar were volunteers who came out of pure interest in the subject at hand to Jastrebino, namely to deepen their understanding of Anthroposophical founded work with handicapped children and adults. While the eight children who came along on both Seminar weeks, found a peaceful use for the military object in the frame of a programme created for them during these two weeks, the adults were busy sculpturing in the seminar, taught by Günter Luft from Heidenheim. It soon became clear that the intensive work of the previous year had prepared fertile soil for the work at hand. Folk dance and other forms of moving dance was lead by the professionally trained dancer Emilie Stepnikova from Sonnenhof in Arlesheim.
The amazing results of this work were then presented at an open performance in Targovishte for a broader audience. Jordanka Doneva and Margaritka Jordanova two of the participants organised this event and cleverly used it to introduce the work of the seminar for Anthroposophical curative education and social therapy. This completely Bulgarian premiere was highlighted by the Eurythmy performance of Dimitar Levashki, who completed his Eurythmy training in June in Wittenberg, on a poem from Christian Morgenstein.
The curative education course with Dr. Franziska Keller from Solothurn presented some of the children’s destinies from the course mainly from a medical point of view. The diagnostic and therapeutic abilities of the participants had clearly developed since the last course. The detailed and clear methodical structure of the work of Franziska Keller was gratefully taken on thus supporting new developmental steps.
The content of the second area was dedicated to curative education in the middle school. Valeria Medvedeva from the school in Charkow / Ukraine “Phoenix” brought her rich experiences and with clear practical exercises and humour was able to once again stimulate the imagination of all participants.
The work as a curative educationalist and social therapists does not only demand competence and professionalism but also an ability for continuous transformation of one’s self. Perceiving and working through this very individual and intimate personal task was stimulated by the daily activity of the weekly verse for the upper school given to us at the last seminar by Dr. Gerhard Herz. Especially the “metamorphosis of the virtues” by Rudolf Steiner, was given as one of the possible ways to transform and bring one’s own thinking, feeling and doing into activity. As always our work content started and ended with the repertoire of international and Bulgarian songs led by Edith Moor.
The evenings were mainly for presenting reports from the practical work done in Rumania, the Ukraine and Switzerland. These concrete insights into the life and practices of Anthroposophical curative institutions and social therapy, are for people from a country where such institutions does not yet exists overwhelmingly impressive, but also motivating for their own work in the seminar.
A growing community
Beside the presence of the children this summer seminar was also visited by a string of guests who either had a personal interest in the seminar itself or who wanted to work in cooperation with the initiative. And so for example there was a representative with Monika Heitmann from the German-Bulgarian social work office from Varna and a representative with Marijana Bronzalova from a similar organisation present. Both introduced their work and have been in exchange with the initiative for some time now. From Stara Zagora many people from the area of the there present Anthroposophical community came as guests, who were interested in which direction this small Anthroposophical impulse was taking through the seminar. Among the guests from Sofia who were interested in developing a free education system as well as initiating a Waldorf school in Sofia there was a young man who had just one week prior to our seminar been elected to the Bulgarian government, another process of transformation which has nothing to do with our initiative personally rather presents a pleasant connection between our spiritual impulse and the further development of the country as a whole.
In almost two years the participants have not only grown together as a community where each is seen and the absence of any one is felt, but also the initial withdrawn, listening, and waiting attitude has more and more transformed into active participation. This is clearly visible in the regional groups where work is regularly done on curative educational courses between the next seminar sessions, in Varna, in Stara Zagora, In Targovishte, in Pleven and in Sofia. This transformation process is visible in the strong accentuated wish to actively participate in the seminar events planning. This is one of the developmental steps those responsible for the course will be taking into consideration when planning further work.
The closure of these two transformation weeks was celebrated in an open even in Targovishte in a traditional Bulgarian restaurant with good food, live music and communal dancing, because caring for valuable traditions coexists with seminar life.
Gerhard Herz
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Contact person: Edith Moor