THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407200111
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
Christian Kubetschka, a 20-year-old cook, traded his spatula for a chain saw.
Laurent Tulasne, a 25-year-old chemist, relinquished his test tubes for a couple of rakes.
And Megumi Tanioka, a 21-year-old college student, put away her schoolbooks and picked up a paintbrush.
The trio of young adults, along with a half-dozen other volunteers, arrived July 5 to spend two weeks sprucing up the grounds and buildings at The Well Retreat Center in Smithfield.
What makes these nine young people even more unusual is that all but one of them lives outside the United States.
Each agreed to give up two weeks of summer vacation and travel thousands of miles to spend hours in unaccustomed manual labor.
And they even paid their own way.
As part of the Volunteers for Peace International Workcamp program, the nine volunteers came from Greece, Austria, England, France, Italy, Germany and Japan for a glimpse of the United States and a chance to make one small corner of the world a little more beautiful.
Work campers pay their own travel expenses, and their host organization agrees to provide them with lodging, meals, some entertainment and work on a meaningful project.
``Since I was 10 years old, I have dreamed of coming to America,'' Tulasne said. ``This was a very cheap way to come here, and you can meet American people more easily.''
In his native Lyon, France, Tulasne is a chemist at a medical institute. He flew to New York City and then traveled by bus to Norfolk.
During his 12-hour bus ride, Tulasne met a variety of people, some more colorful than others.
``There are many strange people in the bus stations at night,'' he said with a smile.
Kubetschka traveled with fellow volunteer and lifelong friend Viktor Adametz, a 20-year-old student from the University of Vienna, Austria. Kubetschka is a cook and waiter who works in a five-star hotel in Vienna but dreams of working as a chef on a cruise ship.
The two men have been friends since they were 3 or 5, depending on which one you ask. However long it has been, it is obvious that sharing an adventure - or misadventure - is nothing new to this pair.
When Adametz heard about the work camp program, he did not have to try too hard to persuade his friend to give up his vacation and come along.
``Every other year, vacation is the same,'' Kubetschka said. ``Sitting at home, hanging around. It is boring. But this was a new experience.''
When his new experience included clearing brush in sweltering Hampton Roads heat, Kubetschka teased his friend about talking him into the trip.
``This may have been a mistake,'' he said, laughing.
It was not their first mistake. Through some miscommunication, the pair found themselves stranded at the Norfolk bus station when they arrived late July 4.
They walked up and down the sidewalk near the bus station for almost two hours and were approached frequently by strangers looking for money.
Finally, another passenger suggested that they were perfect targets for crime and might want to get off the street.
``We expected something like that in New York, but this was Norfolk,'' Adametz said.
After checking into a hotel, the pair called Diane Weymouth and Sister Nancy Healy, co-directors of The Well, to arrange for a ride the next day.
At The Well, the pair were pleasantly surprised with their accommodations and the work project.
The four male volunteers set about clearing a large area around a huge sycamore tree in the middle of a natural grove.
In just two days, they managed to haul a 10-foot-high pile of brush out of the woods.
The Well, an ecumenical retreat center, was built in 1987 by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.
Located off Cherry Grove Road in Smithfield, the 13-acre site includes a retreat center with meeting rooms, dining hall, lending library and chapel, four hermitages that can house up to eight people each, and a spring-fed lake.
The Well relies heavily on volunteer help. The work campers clearing the woods were preparing the site for a memorial garden.
Emilia ``Milly'' Pollano, 31, is a professional translator at home in Turin, Italy, and has made two previous trips to the United States.
After a work camp experience in Ireland last summer, Pollano applied to come to Virginia this year.
``I love the United States, and I wanted to do something similar to the volunteering in Ireland, but in another weather with no rain,'' Pollano said.
She and the other four female volunteers planned to paint walls in the dormitory rooms at The Well and weed and otherwise tidy up the flower beds around the retreat.
Pollano's roommate is Tanioka, who comes from Tokyo and has volunteered at two similar work camps in Japan.
``But I have never painted before,'' Tanioka, a Far East studies major, said with a shrug of her shoulders. ``After this, I may become a professional painter.''
Danae Iliou, a 20-year-old college student and waitress in Athens, Greece, was surprised and delighted at the tranquility of western Tidewater.
``It is more peaceful than I had expected,'' Iliou said. ``I wanted very much to come to America, to meet people and to do something for others.''
Sandra Hardy, 30, and Sean McLaughlin, 25, both volunteered at last year's work camp at The Well.
``I came back because it was a fun time and a good experience,'' Hardy said.
Hardy, a nanny and a native of England, has lived in New Jersey for the past eight years. She stayed in touch with all but one of the volunteers she met last year.
McLaughlin comes from Carlisle, a small English city where he is between jobs.
``I took the time to come here to the camp and to tour the United States until September and then figure out what I want to do,'' McLaughlin said.
The work camp experience was a good way to get used to American customs before he took off on his own to tour the country, McLaughlin said.
The Volunteers for Peace International Workcamp program began in the United States in 1981 and is based on similar programs that have been operating in Europe for more than 70 years.
Peter Coldwell, founder and executive director of Volunteers for Peace, said it is part of a network of more than 100 similar organizations in 40 countries. Volunteers for Peace, which has its headquarters in Vermont, places more than 1,000 work campers every year.
The average age of work camp volunteers is 22, although the minimum age is 18. Work camps are sited in Africa, Europe, Australia, Canada, Israel, Central America and Japan, as well as the United States.
Currently, several work camp volunteers from Virginia are working in Europe, including two from Norfolk who are volunteering in the Czech Republic and Germany.
``Volunteers for Peace is looking for host sites that are non-profit organizations who can house volunteers and provide a worthwhile project for them,'' Healy said.
Weymouth said The Well volunteers will work five days a week and be off two days.
Organizers plan to take the campers to the beach, Busch Gardens and Nauticus, as well as several pool parties and perhaps a few movies and shopping malls.
What has impressed both Healy and Weymouth in the two years The Well has been a host site is the instant bonding that takes place among the volunteers, most of whom have never met before.
``Language is a problem sometimes, but these folks are very cooperative,'' Weymouth said.
``I can get easily fed up with people, but with volunteers I can really learn something,'' said Pollano. ``Their goals are much better than the average.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
Sean McLaughlin and Sandra Hardy mow the grounds of a Catholic
retreat in Isle of Wight County.
Sandra Wandslebe takes time out from working at The Well.
by CNB