Sonnhalde

Three years ago our apartment in Kandern sold.  I fretted throughout the process, wondering if we would be expected to move or if our new landlords would be difficult.  No worries.  The Stenz family have been delightful to rent from and very giving. Mr. Stenz is director of a school for disabled children and adults in Switzerland.  He invited us to visit when we first met, but only today did we finally go to the school.

After driving an hour into the Swiss Jura mountains along narrow roads, we arrived, finding Herr Stenz standing outside waiting for us.  He brought along a colleague who speaks good English and we began our tour.  The grounds are beautifully landscaped with local flowers and trees, and a garden which the students help maintain, provides fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the little store on the campus.

The maintenance shop consists of several large rooms, with ample storage and many types of power tools.  My husband was immediate jealous!  In one room stood an open forge for metal working.

We visited the bakery and kitchen, receiving gifts of cookies and bread from the head baker.  A large wood burning oven sat at one end of the bakery which supplies bread and cookies for some local businesses.

The philosophy of the school is to provide education and skill training for the residents and day students.  Art and music provide some of the skills.  Pottery, wood and metal working are also available for students to learn.  The ceramics instructor indicated they encourage students to find their own pattern-and the school encourages finding skills which suit each person well.

Twenty buildings of differing styles and sizes house classrooms, work spaces, home-like dorms and administrative offices.  If you did not know where you were, you would never guess this place houses a school. As we prepared to leave Herr Stenz asked us to follow him through another building.  An algae covered pond lay just out back.  The pond, a breeding place for nearly extinct Swiss turtles, revealed many small turtle heads peeking through the murk.  The pond allows this particular turtle to breed in safety, and grow to maturity, to be then taken into a more natural habitat to live.

We felt honored to experience such a lovely, welcoming place for people to find life skills and become more independent.  In saying goodbye we shook hands with Herr Stenz and he said, "Now you will call me Manfred and I will call you Mike and Carolyn."  By making that statement, I think we are on more friendly terms with our landlord.  Certainly, we shared a fabulous-"fantastic" was the word Manfred used-afternoon together.