NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - VI - and here we are: Wenzel und der Viddatroll:)

I better leave this uncommented... the protagonists are: Wenzel, me, Seppel, Lukas and Falk:)

NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - V - practicing for the performance

NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - IV

NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - III

NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - II

NAJU Weihnachtstreffen 2008 - I

We traditionally meet on the first weekend in December to spend a wonderfully wild, wicked & relaxed weekend together - "we" meaning all the team leaders of NAJU Hessen. The great thing is that we really can do what we want to - chill out, make face masks (Hanna:)), decorate a self-chopped christmas tree, spend the whole night in the sauna, dance, sing christmas songs, bake cookies and even found the worst but apparently happiest death metal punk band ever: "Wenzel und der Viddatroll"...

HighLife 2008

Every year in November we meet with a whole bunch of kids to organize a campaign on a politically relevant green topic of the kid´s interest - this time they choose "organic and fairtrade food vs. pesticide burdened and genetically modified food". The discussions prior to the demonstration were really interesting and I think the kids had not only a lot of fun playing fruit, weeds, milk and farmers at their pro-organic street play, but also learned a whole lot about their daily diet and where it comes from.

Katjas hiking birthday party II

It was wonderful to hike together and sing Indian Bhajans with Ruth, Katja & Gerd, sleep over at Katja´s garden and crack easter eggs on each other´s heads!
On the last day we also had the chance to climb a bit on the climbing wall which is part of the outdoor facilities of the "Erlebnistage"-project. It rocked!

Katja´s hiking birthday party I

In September 2008, Katja invited all her friends to celebrate her birthday with her in the Harz, where at that time she was doing an internhip in adventure education - or how would you call "Erlebnis-pädagogik" in English? Anyway, we had a lot of fun hiking on the "Brocken", which is the highest mountain around.

bone art, mideval plays and a secret chocolate party

color stream of LandArt

The girls built a spiral of stones and painted it black with coal, red with bark and violet with blackberries. Then they placed colorful flowers, mushrooms, leaves, fruit and themselves in it, beginning with a huge white mushroom that they placed on top of the black stone pile in the center of the spiral. And after Kim had taken a billion photos, we all went to the little stream in the forest and turned it into a real color stream by washing our faces in it!

blackberry bodypainting

At first, nobody wanted to rub themselves with blackberries, but in the end, the girls loved it and as you can see, played dead. Poor little sister of mine:)

LandArt project "Farbfluss" - getting started

Since autumn is the season of colors, I got the idea to make some land art with the girls and give them just a word that they should fill with life - meaning, they had to incorporate themselves into the art. Not an easy task, but the kids managed it in a perfect way! Oh, and by the way, the word was "Farbfluss", meaning "color stream" or "floating color"...

an amphibian visitor!

girl´s forest camp

Two weeks after the red fox-adventure I got to lead one of the most relaxing weekends ever: the girl´s forest camp. Anke, Kim and I destroyed our van a bit:) on the way to the camp, but after we arrived in the forest, everything went well. We danced a rain dance and all the water that lives in the sky came down at once. But the next morning, the sun came out and we could make bone jewelry, try out land art and play mideval plays.

the metamorphosis - humans again!

This was by far the most exhausting weekend of the year - we had to learn that little red foxes never sleep, always fight and seldomly listen - just like their wild brothers and sisters. But at the same time it also was one of the funniest, wildest and most inspiring weekends in the forest. And I won´t be the only person who will recall Marlons hip-hop-version of "Wo die Liebe wohnt" when seeing a red fox:)