Cross a monastery with a summer camp. Gather young people from all over the world. Throw in a dash of mental institution. Then imagine the informational video for such a place. That is what Taize is like. Or in the words of Pope John Paul II: one passes through Taizé as one passes close to a spring of water. Over the course of 8 days, I went to church a lot, heard "Stewball" being sung in French and the farmer-who-had-a-young-miss song being sung in Swiss-German (they call it "Goethe"), discussed love, marriage, and hell with a Polish girl (just below), learned a folk dance, and sneaked in (as opposed to sneaking out). All in all a good week.
Basia from Poland: she's staying in Taize for 5 months!
Basia from Poland: she's staying in Taize for 5 months!
View from just outside my barrack.
Just hanging out after a morning's work.
The triangles where we ate.
The church.
Down by the source.
By day...
and by night.
The gentle giant walks...
and dances!
Cows. French ones.
Folk-song-singing Germans.
The young Americans (minus Basia)!
