August 22nd: ARRIVAL

The Youth Initiative Program (YIP) is an international folkhighschool program based at the Rudolf Steiner Seminar in Ytterjärna. 40 young people from 18 different countries have all come together to participate in this brand new social entrepreneur education. During the course of one year us YIP’ies (myself included) will study and live together, sharing all the different parts of everyday life with each other. During the mornings different speakers have been invited to give lectures over one weeks time and in the afternoon the participants go out on so called ”community engagements” in the community of Järna. For more information go to, www.yip.se

My name is Amanda Huircan-Martinez and I graduated from Umeå Waldorfschool in the spring of 2008. I started at the Waldorfschool in class 7 and immediately fell in love with Steiner and his pedagogy. Following this train of thought I applied to become a waldorf class teacher after my graduation, but due to several unexpected events the course for 2008 was cancelled and put on hold for an unknown amount of time. Thanks to Janecke Wyller who works at the Seminar and most of the staff members of the YIP office, I somehow found myself in Ytterjärna on the 22^nd of August, unsure and afraid.

Janecke picked me up from Järna station early in the afternoon, the train was late and I was feeling flustered because I had made her wait, and also tired as I had been forced to wake up before 6 in the morning in order to catch the early ferry from Visby, Gotland. It was a beautiful sunny day and much warmer than I had expected coming off the windy island of Gotland. Woolen stockings, legwarmers and three layers of clothing added to my discomfort as Janecke helped me push in my heavy bag that was supposedly containing all my possessions (clothes and shampoo) into her white car. Our first stop as we set out from the train station was Saltå By where I was due to a meeting with Gerard and Monica. Little more than a week before my departure from Gotland I had been reached by the news that CSN (the Swedish department for student grants) had deemed me unqualified for the higher education grant. Apparently if one is under 20 years of age and studying at a folkhighschool you don’t deserve as much money as everyone else. This meant that I could not afford to pay for my YIP studies (6500 SEK a month) but thanks to the hardworking YIP staff things sorted out any way. The Saltå Foundation were going to support the Youth Initiative Program with a rather large sum of money, but after some negotiating, they decided they would sponsor a student instead, me. That sum of money along with the couple of grants a young student like me was eligible for covered just about the fee for YIP.
With all this in my head I attempted to enjoy the quiet journey out into the countryside, trying desperately to awaken my sleepy brain cells as I gazed out into the green countryside of Järna.

“The first thing people tend to notice when they come here is the sky,” Janecke told me as we approached Saltå By. “There is so much sky in Järna.” Those words have stuck with me ever since, for it so true that the horizon seems so very wide and the sky so much vaster than most other places I have ever visited. I grew up in the north of Sweden, close to the coasts where there are no mountains or even hills to obscure the view. Yet as I stepped out of the car and looked around myself I could not help but marvel at the immense blue dome that stretched as far as I ever could dream to see. There is so much sky in Järna.

Monica and Gerard met us at the parking lot. Together they guided m

e through the area whilst Janecke took a walk around the mill (Saltå Kvarn). Saltå By can be compared to a Camp Hill, though the Camp Hills of Sweden tend to differ slightly from the common concept. Usually Saltå is called a curative home and a farm. There are student housings for youngsters who in one way or another need particular help in their studies at their Waldorfschool, as well as in life. Apart from that there are also groups of adults who work on the farm, tending the greenhouses, the animals amongst other things and it was with them that I had been designated to work with.

Once the tour was finished and I had had a short talk with Monica I met up with Janecke once more and left, this time for Ytterjärna and the Seminar. The blue magnificent building of the Seminar can be seen at a far distance, and as we got steadily closer to it the same feeling of nervous expectation that I had felt the first time I had laid eyes on the place four years ago filled my stomach. Soon enough I found myself in Tallevana where I had time just to dump my bag before speeding of at Janecke’s heel to the White House and the YIP office. It was strange to finally meet with Rose and Sussie and all the people I had simply been in contact with over the phone for several months. Finally I could add faces to their voices.

Rose, Sussie, Pernilla, Reinhoud and Annie met me outside the White House, all genuinely glad to see me after all the hubbub that had been involved in my coming. I hugged Rose especially hard, thanked her a ridiculous (though absolutely necessary) amount of times for everything she had done to secure my coming and thus I finally found myself in the place which was to be my home for one year.

Slightly confused and dazed by all the new faces and new impressions I stood in my room, alone with my large bag of personal belongings. The room was refreshing, light and airy with white curtains, pale peachy walls and white covers for the beds. For a moment I pondered who my roommate was, knowing only that her name was Elsa and that she was apparently spending some time in Trosa with her family. Oh, and I knew that she was German but a lot of the YIP’ies seemed to be, unsurprisingly enough. The day continued from there on. Many new faces and names were introduced to me, of which I remembered few at first. Inga from Norway had been one of the first to arrive, and Ana from Ireland arrived around the same time as I, thus shared my confusion upon arrival. The weekend dragged by as we all waited for YIP to begin on the 25^th, Monday. It felt like being in summercamp. We ate most meals together, went out for long walks in the countryside and in the forests and sat by the campfire at night, singing songs and watching the stars.