On Thursday the 22nd we had our first mini-field-trip to Vinzidorf, which could be translated as VincentVillage. The Vinzenzgemeinschaft, or the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, is a private Catholic lay organization that performs charitable works. The local conference, the Vinzensgemeinschaft Eggenberg, was founded by Father Wolfgang Pucher in 1990. Since then there are many different Vinzi-projects that target different needs. The first was the Vinzibus, which drives to places where there are homeless people or otherwise people in need and distributes food to whoever asks for it.
Vinzidorf is a residential facility for chronically alcoholic men. Unlike most homeless shelters or rehab programs, the residents of Vinzidorf are not forbidden to drink. They can consume wine or beer on the premises, but hard liquor isn't allowed. The purpose of Vinzidorf is not that the men become sober, although our guide said that a few do, but to provide them with homes, a community, food, and medical care. The idea is to meet people where they are and accept them as they are, because everyone should have food and dignified shelter no matter what. (After watching American politicians try to top each other in who can impose the most humiliating requirements for poor people before they can get access to welfare in the US, I found this approach refreshing. Also: People who give people shit for using WIC or SNAP cards at the grocery stores are cordially invited to go fuck themselves.)
The list of related projects is pretty long. Here's a few:
VinziBett - shelter for people who need a place to sleep for the night.
VinziNest - Similarly, an emergency place to sleep, only aimed at foreigners.
VinziSchutz - emergency shelter for foreign women
VinziShop - used clothing store
VinziTel - a place for people with temporary, resolvable homelessness problems; for example, if a person needs to flee their residence due to domestic violence, they could stay here until their partner has been charged and it's safe to go home.
VinziPasta - a sort of fair trade employment program were Roma women in Slovakia make pasta, which is then sold in Graz. Pretty much all of the beggars on the streets of Graz are people from other countries who for whatever reason can't support themselves there.
The first part of our visit involved an introduction to the program by one of the employees. They have about five full time employees, with the rest of the work being done by volunteers. Vinzidorf recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. They printed a magazine in celebration of the anniversary that contained interviews with volunteers and whatnot.
Residents live in small one room apartments made from shipping containers. Each container contains two living units. Residents can decorate them as they wish and have whatever personal belongings they wish. There's none of that "poor people shouldn't own tvs" bullshit.
Having experienced this visit twice, I can say it's usually pretty awkward for the students. The Vinzidorf staff is very nice and they always welcome us with food and a plate of baked goods, but it can feel awkward to eat chocolate when you're well off and the people at the picnic table outside have very little. I tried to demonstrate that no, really, they want us to eat what they offered and that seemed to help a little.
Our tour guide was named Andrea Sailer, who has worked there for two years helping with personal care and hygiene. She's also an author, at some point I need to track down one of her books. She told us about the history of Vinzidorf and the various levels of care the residents need. Heavy alcohol consumption damages pretty much all the internal organs, not just the liver, so most of the residents need some degree of medical care, whether it be help taking medication, help with foot wounds that won't heal, etc. Some might need help dressing or help with bathing. There is a small clinic on the property where they can address medical problems with a couple beds if a patient needs closer monitoring and more intensive care. She said that there have been a few cases where a resident was too ill to be cared for in Vinzidorf, and in such a case they find a spot for the patient in a residential hospital facility.
The students asked some questions, which was great. There are about 38 residents at the moment. To become a resident, one basically has to have run out of options. They'll get calls from social services asking if they have a container open, and if they do, they can bring in a new resident. Residents are generally over 40, since younger men have a better chance of becoming sober because there's a greater chance that they can find something to look forward to. Without something to look forward to, it's very difficult. Once accepted into Vinzidorf, it is the man's home until he decides otherwise or were to become too ill to remain there. One man has lived there for 19 years, who is their longest resident.
After the introduction, we were invited to visit a couple of the containers to see how the men lived. One liked media and music, and had a tv and a guitar. Another gave us a tour of his unit himself. He had various religious pictures and figures on the wall, and he proudly explained that he was Catholic as a child and today he's still Catholic. He was very happy to have visitors and I had to pry some of the students away from him as politely as I could so we could move on to the next part of the tour. One of the men who we spoke with was sitting outside having just enjoyed lunch and he spoke excellent English and was impressed that we were learning German. Touring people's homes feels weird, but the men knew we were coming and those who wanted to interact with us volunteered to show us their homes and those who weren't interested just did their own thing while we were there. At some point I need to find out how one converts shipping containers into mini-apartments, it's a great idea.
The village is also full of flowers. Some of the men are hobby gardeners and there are gardens and window boxes full of flowers all over the place. They also have four resident cats that were adopted from an animal shelter who wander around. One of the containers contains a small chapel where they can have religious services, and on the wall are memorial photos of prior residents.
Men who die in Vinzidorf are buried in the nearby cemetery if they don't have a family plot somewhere else. They're given a funeral with a full mass and flowers are placed on the graves. The entrance to the Vinzidorf section of the cemetery is marked with an inscription that says "Gemma ham", a local dialect variant of "Gehen wir heim", which means "let's go home." Andrea explained that this phrase comes from something that Father Pucher overheard when two homeless men were given homes in Vinzidorf. The first residents were men who had been homeless for years and having a place with a lock on the door with their own key was very special.
Most of the graves have crosses that are tilted, to symbolize that the path through life was difficult. There's a big of wordplay involved because in German, the word for diagonal can also mean to go awry. The plaster grave markers are autobiographical. The men themselves decorated them with things they found meaningful. Common motifs include hand prints, keys, imprints from beer bottles, and religious symbols. Some of the newer graves don't have these, instead they're marked with wooden crosses. In addition to the Vinzidorf residents, a homeless man who died without any known family is also buried here, as well as a man from Bulgaria who was estranged from his family. Everyone buried here gets full funeral honors.
After the Vinzidorf trip I headed home with the tram and bus, then walked up the hill through the neighborhood. We had a few hours before we were scheduled to meet for dinner at the Buschenschank.
A Buschenschank is a place where you can eat locally produced food. The idea is that the fruit juices, meats, cheeses, etc, are all produced on the local farm that surrounds the Buschenschank. I drank peach nectar diluted with mineral water and it was delicious.
Maxi and Theresa got to come along and they had fun being photographed.
Additionally, there was a pate and... I haven't figured out exactly what's in Gehackertes but I think it's a delicious mix of bits of meat and lard that you spread on bread. Just go with it. Also, hard boiled eggs.
There were also pickled cucumbers and pickled peppers.
Students were there with their host families. Good times were had by all.
The kids played outside and ended up getting a little too hyper.
Random out the window photos from the drive home:
There are a lot of winding single lane roads. If you encounter oncoming traffic, you stop and then one person backs up until they can get out of the way.
'Twas a long interesting day, followed by another long day, followed by an even longer day!
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