Until I was 25, I had never heard of the terms ‘Waldorf school’ and ‘anthroposophy’. I was just about to complete my master's degree at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena when I went for a walk and complained to an acquaintance about the top-heavy studies that seemed so far removed from practical life. I also very much wanted to do something that would allow me to do something good for the world. We were discussing options for my future career path when he suddenly said, ‘I think you would fit in well at a Waldorf school.’
Search engines were still quite new back then. I searched for websites of various Waldorf schools and when I found some, I became curious. I wrote to the Waldorf Seminar in Berlin and asked for information material about Waldorf schools to be sent to me.
In response to my letter, I received an invitation for interview at the Waldorf teacher education programme. On the train journey there, I quickly read a biography of Rudolf Steiner so as not to look completely ignorant. After talking to the head of the seminar at the time, I also became aware of the Friends of Waldorf Education, who work in the same building, and I was allowed to poke my head into the office of Nana Göbel and Eleonore Jungheim for the first time.
I soon immersed myself in anthroposophy during my teacher training and a whole new chapter in my life began. Today, anthroposophy is one of my indispensable sources of spiritual nourishment.
At the end of the two-year seminar, Marianne Grosspietsch visited the seminar and reported on her work with the Shanti Sewa Griha project in Nepal. A short time later, I was on my way to Nepal as part of a voluntary service (also thanks to the Friends, of course), to share the knowledge I had just learnt at the seminar with the teachers at the small Shanti Waldorf School for a year. It was an incredibly enriching time. One of the teachers from that school is now the father of my children.
After the year in Nepal, I moved to Norway, where I began training as a eurythmy teacher. I have been living here for 16 years now. Today I teach as a gardening and eurythmy teacher at the small school, Ringerike Steinerskole, about an hour from the capital Oslo. In one of the richest countries in the world, I experience a different kind of poverty among the children. I see imagination and vitality dwindling here. With horticulture and eurythmy, I have found two powerful ways to enrich the children's lives.
Since the first meeting, the Friends have always been present on my path. I found the small conversations in the corridor with the people from the Berlin office inspiring. How exciting it was and is to follow the work of the Friends all over the world! How many threads of fate are spun there.
After many years of passively admiring the work of the Friends by carefully reading the newsletter, it is now time to become active again. The second class at our small school, which my daughter also attends, consists of just eight children - their parents come from Norway, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nepal, Thailand, Hungary, the Philippines and Indonesia. Many of our children have already travelled to countries where they have seen different living conditions with their own eyes and despite their young age, the desire to help is strong. It therefore quickly became clear to me that we would take on a class sponsorship together. I look forward to working actively with the Friends again in the future.
Angela Khadka
You can support the Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi with an educational sponsorship. Find out more here: