Staffansgården is made up of several 2-3 storey houses where mentally handicapped (called "villagers") live together with "co-workers" who care for them. There is a number of workshops on the site: weavery, joinery, musical instruments making shop, and bakery.

First ten days I lived in Staffansgården in the house called Solvända. There I took care of two middle-aged men. In the morning I woke them up, helped them to take their bath, combed and shaved them, brushed the teeth, changed clothes and gave medicines. From 9 to 12 and from 15 to 17 we worked in the workshops. I weaved and warped in the weavery (it's easy to learn) and assembled guitars in the music instrument shop. There were also other activities: Bible meetings and gymnastics.

Two weeks later I was transferred to another estate, Mickelsgården, 2 km away where I worked and lived the rest of the time.

Mickelsgården. There are four houses there; I lived in Mickelshuset. I looked after one man who lived in the next room and helped to care for a few others. Mickelsgården is a farming/gardening place. Together with the villagers I worked with firewood (sawing, chopping, work in the forest), feed cows and calves, clean the cow-house. Non-work activities were same as in Staffansgården.

The co-workers. There are about 50 employees ("co-workers") for 25 handicapped. About two thirds of employees are the live-in category. They live on the two sites (Staffansgården and Mickelsgården), as a rule in the same houses with their villagers. These co-workers come from various countries. The most represented countries are Germany, Holland, Finland, England, and, surprisingly, Japan. As for the East European countries, I was the only one from Russia. During my stay we had also a chap from Bulgaria and a girl from Belarus. The live-in co-workers are usually young people in their 20s staying 1 - 2 years. Those who stay longer, become "house parents"; they govern the houses. Some of house parents have families living together with them.

The live-in co-workers are in so-called "need system", i.e. they get free accommodation, meals, medical care and also the amount of money that "they need" (young co-workers without families get pocket money).

The rest of the employees live outside and come during work hours. These are technical, administrative and skilled medical personnel. They're not in the need system, but get regular Swedish salaries.

The villagers. The handicapped are not violent (there's only one rowdy boy who lives separately and cared after by special personnel). Half of the patients hardly ever talk, but understand when they are told to do something. Some are relatively intelligent, they read children's and specially adapted books, and can write simple sentences, e.g. for a postcard. Some patients can be untidy, utter shrieks and make gestures, but one gets used to it quickly. Most of the handicapped came from the Stockholm area, where they lived in a institution for retarded children. Now they are in the ages 25 - 40.

Ideology. Camphill movement. Staffansgården/Mickelsgården is the only Camphill village in Sweden. It's a part of the international Camphill movement started in Scotland by Karl Köning. At first it was for handicapped children. They base their work on Christian principles, but see themselves as followers of A. Comenius (a philosopher and educator from Moravia, 17th century), Zinzendorf (a Christian missionary from Austria, 18th c.) and R. Owen (Welsh social reformer, 19th c.). These three people, especially Owen, tried to reform the society by creating brotherhood communities. Now Camphill villages exist in several European countries (esp. Germany and Norway), USA, S. Africa, etc.

I found it hard to live according to the Camphill ideology. For example, they say that they pay salaries according to the needs, but the management decides themselves what your needs are. The more you spend, the more you get. If you spend very little and try to save your money for your future needs, your allowance will be cut down. Work performance, it is said, has no bearing on salary.

I couldn't get used to sterile attitudes of some of my colleagues to modern life, indifference to economic freedom, Internet or TV. They prefer occupy themselves with basic down-to-earth activities, e.g. gardening and animal husbandry, and closing their eyes the fact that it's economically wasteful, that a lot of food is still bought from the supermarket and then thrown away, if it gets a bit stale. The Swedish government pays about 6 000 USD per month (!) for the care of each mentally handicapped person, so there are no incentives to economise.

It's not easy to avoid the ideology. You can't live by yourself and just do the work (in fact they are offended when you call it "work", for them this is way of life). There's no clear distinction between work and free time. You are expected to take part in seminars, attend religious services and other ideological meetings.

Food. Breakfast (7.30): various sorts of muesli with cold milk or A-fil (similar to Russian kefir). Tea break during work (10.00): tea and sandwiches. Lunch (12.00) can be rice/potato with chicken or stewed sausage bits, salad and something sweet (ice cream or cake). Soups are eaten once or twice a week. Supper (17.30): sandwiches with cheese and different pates and sometimes eggs. Swedes drink coffee a lot, but not much in Staffansgården, because it may be bad for the handicapped.

Entertainment. There's is a TV room in every house, but one is discouraged from watching TV, except in the evenings (while I was there, the TV set was removed from our house in order to create a "good atmosphere"). Anyway, the TV had only tree state channels (it costs 400 kr. per 3 months because the Swedish television shows few commercials). There was not much to see: soap operas and police films, but sometimes there were good films and documentaries (e.g. about Russia). I also watched evening news programmes.

The houses got three newspapers: national Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and the local Hudiksvalls Tidning. The papers are quite thick and include many supplements, I read the most interesting articles. The usual themes in the press are EU, unemployment, underpaid nurses, attitudes towards immigrants, sexual crimes.

There's a big concert hall in Staffansgården and various musicians and theatre groups often come and give performances there (mostly spiritual, no pop music). I remember I went to concerts by a harp player from Australia and by a Russian-born trombonist, saw a play by the Moving Word Theatre from England, etc. These concerts were free for co-workers, because we came with our villagers.

I was in the zoo in Järvsö twice. It is made in a forest where there's a long circled path along pens with various animals: wolves, bears, foxes, owls, deer, etc. After looking on animals people roast sausages over the fire in a wooden hut.

We also went for outings to the nearby towns and lakes (ice fishing, swimming).

I couldn't travel much during my free time because it was expensive, instead I accompanied villages during their "home trips" to various cities.

Nature, surroundings. Mickelgården is surrounded by fields and, farther away, forests (mainly pines and birches). In the woods there are lots of huge moss-covered stones brought here by prehistoric glaciers. These stones can also be seen at the borders of fields and by the roadsides.