Visions

DESCRIPTION OF CHAPTER-HOUSES
(At the end of this page)

The first view I have is of rows of vegetables and people planting them.
It’s very quiet. There is a peaceful feel to it. We can see orchards and a pond, water where
wildlife is close and fish are kept. There is a meadow where I can see goats and sheep. On the
side there is a quite large chicken coop. I can see people attending to that giving food to the
chicken in fact.

People are going to that place are at peace. Everything is peaceful. The buildings are profiled a
little farther out. They look a little different than what you are used to seeing. There are domes
and I walk inside the tallest, largest dome. This likes like a commune living area where people can
gather together and drink coffee, tea, speak, read just relax if they want to be close together.

I can see some smaller domes where there are computers. Some people are just plain writing,
others are meditating. There is a peaceful room at the end of the hallway. You could describe it as
a chapel, but it is not. It’s a peace room. This is where anyone can be and focus on their own
inner peace, their goal. No one fights. You can actually touch peace.

Across the park there will be some ponds surrounded by greenery. People are walking on the
flower bed and I realize that they are all veterans. They have decided to join the center and will
stay for some time. A few of them will live there permanently.

Farther out, there is a building by itself that is like a classroom, but much larger. This is where
workshops and therapy sessions will be held. I see quite a lot of people around. I can see men,
women, and children. I can hear them laugh. It is a peaceful place.

A little farther out, there is another field where you can see animals, like ponies and horses.
Everything is very green and we can see very far out. There are some woods. There are people
walking around. Some are growing the grass; others are picking the fruit trees. There is a little
lake where water is taken for the center, from irrigation to potable water.

Another place on the right side there are people working with a crane and erecting another
building, another dome. This one is quite large with four floors and a garage underneath. Next to
it are smaller buildings as well. There is lodging for people coming in.

The center has to be larger. Some of the families will be living here because they have no where
else to go anymore. It’s life being renewed. The school has been changed.
The workshops are different now. Everyone understands the other. People who used to be
medics are now planting vegetables and caring for rose bushes. Another person who was a
construction worker now cares for horses.

There is a separate building that will be called the Wellness Building. We will not provide medical
care of any kind, but we’re going to have a staff on call and an MD and a nurse, but for first aide.
All the care that will be given to the Veterans will be palliative care, therapy care, monitoring, and
care. That’s what we have to have and that’s what we will offer to build self confidence, self
power, understanding and renewed growth.

Everyone here cares for the next person, carrying his universal.
People have to relearn that and that is what we are doing here. From working, to thinking; being
able to live within the peace, project peace and pass it on; and teach peace once we master it.

Training
The step after this is training for different functions. Work that Veterans did before is not normal
anymore. That will have to change. New skills must be acquired as Veteran’s re-adjust.
Everybody seems to be very eager to complete this change and become completely functional
again. But the core of this is this love that you can see, love that you can feel, and love that you
can touch.

Other classes will be offered to the Veterans at no charge to discover their skills: what they have
become, what they will become, what they are today. But before they left for the war, they left as
one person and came back another. They need to find that other person in order to function
again, so it will be part of all the series of education, wellness, therapy, workshops, step by step
to work out through PTSD - through the suffering, through the trauma - others will be done hand
on hand, between all of us.

For Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans

The center will be open to all the Veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan to start with.
Most of the teachers will be here to support them and help them out will also be veterans. In
other words, it will be Veterans working with Veterans. There will be some programs for Vietnam
Veterans, but that will have to be decided as to how that will function. This is now open to all the
veterans coming back from the Middle East.

The center will function in such a way that the core of the organization will be totally voluntary.
The volunteering will be done mainly by the Veterans themselves. To have the center to feel like
home, they will have to build it. In other words, not to build stone by stone buildings, but to build
it with their spirit, with their goal, with what they want to see come out of this project. It will be
their project.

Goal
We will start it with a board of Veterans who very much want to help others and themselves and
their families in this process. They are very highly motivated. I have met them. The support is
coming from across the country right now because I’ve been speaking of the project nationally. It’
s a good time to show everyone in this country how serious this is. Our streets are already filled
with homeless (percent?) Veterans from Vietnam and this is not acceptable.

We need to do something. We are their family. We are responsible for them and we need
recognize this and do something about it right now. Each community in this country should be
able to donate time and money to help them rebuild their lives.

We accepted this war. It’s time to bring closure to it as best we can or we know the rest. So let’s
do it. These Veterans will decide after speaking in depth with Veteran’s in need how long and
what sort of support, care, rehabilitation that this person will need. This will be based on many
things from being able to work or not, the degree of trauma and suffering, the severity of injuries
and ability to function as a civilian, i.e. can this Veteran normally sit a restaurant table without
having a flashback or physical pain? This type of discovery will enable us to determine the length
of time each Veteran will stay.

Program Length
Our program will offer from probably a few weeks where the Veteran can go through therapy and
a self confidence program to bringing back the self esteem. If the Veteran needs an extended
stay, then he/she will share in the task to build the center and stay as long as needed.

We will be there for them. We are not going to turn them out on the street, if they can’t function.
With job training and therapy, they will be able to better help themselves and their families. They
will be closer to becoming the person they want to be and regain their place as a family member.

Living Arrangements
We will have some very basic living arrangements for them. When I say basic, I mean it won’t be
as strict as a monastery or not as deluxe as a three star hotel, but somewhere in between. We
will provide just what people need to go about their day. In other words, the lodging will be
comprised of a bed, a couple of drawers; a desk maybe, of course showers – but just the basics.
We don’t want it to be too comfortable so that people think they are home forever. The program
will be designed to have them work out their own challenges and by doing this we will remind
them that this is a halfway house; it is one step for them to collect their soul, get their life
together. The next step is something else.

I hope we will have enough room for the families and I think within certain limitations, we should
have places for families. I see a condo style arrangement, but then again, we will have to have
few and then we will grow from there into something that will function very well. I think it is
important that we have a center that is totally self-sustained by the veterans themselves, from the
water that we are going to use, to the food that we are going to eat, to the building that we are
going to live in. Those buildings should be built partly anyway by them. And this is why this
project is going to be their project.

The Domes
www.aidomes.com

I have chosen domes because of energy savings, efficiency and sturdiness. The domes are built
with kits. The pieces are triangular and are very easy to build. We need muscles and a crane to
build our domes. That is all we need! The rest will come together.

We will have people who come from all walks of life, so it will be an excellent time to put their
skills to work for the center. These particular domes are amazing because they are fireproof and
earthquake proof. After Hurricane Andrew, one of the only things that survived was one of these
domes! All the other houses around the domes were gone, but the dome remained. I don’t think
it is going to float, but the rest of it is just amazing.

The “A-Dome”, as they are called in Alaska, can be entirely heated with one fireplace. There is a
dome in Twenty-Nine Palms in the California high desert that can be entirely cooled with one fan
or swamp cooler.

Solar and Wind Power
We need to have solar power and/or wind power, even water power if available. We need to be
totally self-sustained and ecologically correct. We need to have regular electricity as a back-up
only and to use water from the city as a back-up only. We need to function with the earth again,
completely from the roots. Growing our own food and living with harmony with the earth. Many
people have never been introduced to the earth. So this is the start, really. The beginning of it all
is connection between the earth and spirit.

Electricity
For electricity, some of the triangles can be replaced by windows and there is filtered light
through every part of the house. So, it’s the best thing there is. The domes can be very large or
small. The price is very affordable. You can build a large 4,000 sq feet dome that would cost close
to $40,000. I have the information – not sure if it is precise anymore, but I have all of that on hand.

Financing
We will have an arts and crafts workshop and there may be Veterans who like to weave baskets
and create various crafts. The art created by Veterans could be put into an art shop, put on
consignment, or sold in a gift shop at the center to provide funding to run the center and/or
pocket money for the veterans themselves. Some have lost everything and they will need help to
regain their self- esteem.

On weekends, we can sell crops – the extras to the farmers markets. We can make clothing, we
can tie die, build chairs, etc. We will come up with ideas along the way. We can sell eggs,
chickens, flowers, fruit, host events, concerts, and even a small restaurant. The opportunities are
wide open. There are many, many possibilities.

Expansion
I have been speaking since my son’s death across the country. I always bring to the audiences
the fact of caring for each other and caring for the veterans, and when I say this I am focusing on
the mothers.

© 2007-2008, Nadia McCaffrey, the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation & the Veteran's Village, all rights reserved ©
Formed in 2006, the organization is a peace based organization for
members of the military who have served in the war, we are focusing on the Iraq & Afghanistan conflicts, however, this foundation is to help all war veterans . We
believe the best way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.

Futuristic view of the Veteran's Village. Architect Michael Murray RA

Nadia’s Vision