We had the amazing opportunity to visit HFH in Zell am Hammersbach. It was a wonderful experience and I am so happy to be able to share it with you all!!

Beofre I tell someone details about our experience, I will give you information about the museum. The museum is a house situated in the middle of the valley Unterharmersbach, and has been lived by the “Furstenbergen” between 1660~1997. The Furstenbergen is the family who’s been living and cherishing the traditions of farming for 350 years.

One of the cool accessories on the house was the windows. The house has 112 windows which has a special construction so that you can open them in th middle part and is able to let in hat from outside. The rood is made by grass straws and the walls and all the furnitures are made by wood from th Black forest (Schwarzwald).

We arrived to the museum at 13:00 and a few minutes after our arrival we got split into smaller groups for our guided tour.

Our tour was very interesting, thy showd us their old equipments and told stories about living in the area during the old times

I feel privileged to be able to be apart of Cast B 2007, and I can’t believe all the amazing adventure and opportunities we are able to experience. This museum really brought me back to my roots, since I have family and friends at home who still keeps th old traditions and tries to teach the new generation about their way of living.

I have a wonderful experience; it made me think of my life at home in Sweden and how we all should try to find our roots and traditions to apply the wisdom in our lifetime. We are all here to learn from each other; all the time to get to know someone!

Share your cultural experience and open up the yes of someone, one person at a time. We can make a difference…

This semester we have had many educational activities; from teamwork and leadership to hunger and poverty across the globe. All of these workshops have taught me (and the rest of the cast) a great deal, and none more so then the “Hunger Banquet” we had in Zell, Germany. The day began with a walk to some castle ruins. Once we arrived at the castle we looked around and enjoyed a few moments free time. We were then called together to begin the activities that ended with the “Hunger Banquet.”

We started with a game. Euro pennies were thrown into the middle of our circle of people. A few members of the cast were blindfolded to represent disadvantaged people. We were then told to collect as many pennies as possible. We all made a mad dash (sound similar to real life???). In the end we were lined up according to how many pennies we had collected; one, two… five, and were given papers representing a person of either high, middle or low class. They also took note of those who donated pennies to those who had none. We walked back down the mountain and enjoyed a presentation by a monk of the local Monastery. After our brief talk with the monk we walked to another part of the monastery where we were invited inside.

Once inside, the room was sectioned off in to three sections; high, middle and low. We sat were our papers we received earlier told me to sit. The high class had a luxuriously set table with candles and nice plates, etc. Middle class were given only seats and low class were told to sit on the floor. After we were all seated Jared (our lighting technician, with a huge heart for the topic of poverty) gave a presentation on poverty across the globe. He gave statistics and helped to paint a picture of just how real and devastating the issue of poverty and hunger really is. About two thirds of the way through the presentation, servers began to bring the upper class citizens there first course. It was distracting and smelled wonderful, and the rest of us continued to try and pay attention while they enjoyed the food.

Once Jared finished his wonderful presentation, the rest of us were brought our dinner. The middle class was given rice and beef and some water. The lower class was given rice which we ate on paper plates without utensils, and salt water. We were also asked to not disturb the other classes. We read some of our character sheets aloud to compare the different types of people and what classified them as high, middle or low class. It was heart breaking to read some of the lower class people. It really brought to life the reality and the severity of this issue. We all were given a lot to think about as we compared where we were sitting to where we really are in life. We are all middle to high class citizens in real life, and those of us placed in the lower class sector where quite taken aback by the stark difference. Those in the upper class sector said that they felt guilty eating when the rest of us weren’t. It was an emotional workshop that really hit home and caused many of us to rethink how we live. I felt that I had much to be grateful for after this workshop, and much that I wanted to change, and I know the rest of the cast felt the same.