2005

Steven is 20 years old now. 

Steven finished school this year.

Now he is visiting a workshop for handicapped. They produce things for the industry like coalbrushes for electromotors. All like Steven, who are not able to be involved in the process of production, are being taken care of in supportgroups. These groups are very like the one, when he was in school. But instead of 8 o`clock in the morning he is being picked up at 7 o`clock by the bus already and brought back home also 1 hour later at 4.30.

So Steven is not going to school anymore, ...but to "work". Different to those handicapped who can be productive, he and the others in the supportgroups, do not get payed. But it is a great relief to the parents to have their "kids" being taken care of ( not stored away! ) weekdays for some hours. You can feel that he likes it very much.

 

Because last year the vacation in the mobile home went out so well, we bought one, fitting our special needs best. Nevertheless we had to make some further changes to it. But now it is perfekt. So we made some nice trips with it this year.

In spring our first trip was to Buesum, a village way up in the north of Germany. In the Seal-rearing Station Steven was really fascinated while watching the seals under water.

 

In the summer it lead us to Austria. The first stopp was at the Achensee, a lake in the Alps. The water was still quite cold, but after a while of hesitation, Steven had fun splashing the water with his feet.

 
Then we went on via Bozen ( visiting Oetzi ) to the Lago Maggiore. Here the weather and water was great.
 
From Italy it brought us back to Switzerland. Really spectacular Mountains and wildwaters we could see there. We also went up to the mountainpeak "Schilthorn" (Piz Gloria: 3000m/6000ft high) with a gorgeous view at the mountains Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. In 1968 a James Bond 007 was filmed here: "On her Majesty`s Secret Service" (the one with all the chases in the snow). Nothing is impossible, ...even with a wheelchair.
 

In fall we made another trip to Paris. We visited a lot of the touristical attractions: Triumphal arch, Eiffeltower, Louvre, etc..... We had 1 week of time, but it was not enough, by far. Paris is different from other cities. We will come back for sure.