The Rural We: Miriam Entin-Bell
Last summer, Miriam Entin-Bell decided she didn’t want to go back to school just to take classes online when Oberlin College released its pandemic plan for the coming year. Instead, she looked for something meaningful to do, and a friend of hers suggested she volunteer with Camphill, a network of sustainable, life-sharing communities with villages located throughout the United States and Canada. In September, she joined the group of volunteers who live and work as equals alongside adults with special needs in extended family homes at Camphill Village located on 615 acres of farmland in Copake, New York.
Camphill Village Copake is a life-sharing community. It’s not like a care facility; there’s nothing institutional about it. I live in a beautiful house with eight people, in-between two wonderful women residents. There’s no distance between folks with disabilities and those without.
I cook lunch for everyone in the morning (it’s the biggest meal of the day), getting ingredients from a coop here that’s well stocked. I can choose to make whatever I want. In the afternoon, we all go to our work places, which can be anything from the farm, the weavery, bakery, candle shop, gardens and many other places. I work at the estate, which manages the 600 acres. It’s a very seasonal job — in the summer we mow lawns and cut down trees. In the fall, we split wood for fires in the houses and greenhouses. In winter, we plow a lot of snow. At the house, I’m responsible for making meals, helping people shower, whatever they need — and hanging out with them. Everybody needs a different level of care. But it doesn’t feel like work.
There’s both a great intensity and a certain slowness to the way we live here. We do so much. I wake up to the see the sun rise every day of the week, and we’re not done until about 8 or 9 p.m. That’s a full day. But the way life is structured, no one is burning out. There’s a certain sustainability to the way we live here. It’s very peaceful, but also very silly. I’m a very social person, and I laugh at every single meal. There’s joy in the way socializing happens here.
Camphill Village Copake covers all living expenses for volunteers, and we get pocket money every month, which we can spend on our one day off a week. There are volunteers here from all over the world, some who have lived at Camphill for 50 years. Some stay for 5 or 10 years. Generally, volunteers are required to commit to a year. But because of the pandemic, a lot of young Americans are taking time off from school, so they’re accepting people for less than a year. I was planning to be here until this month, but I love it so much I extended my time.
For information about becoming a volunteer at Camphill Village Copake, click here.
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