Catholic mass

2nd of April 2009

What a full and different day this was! When I got up I went to the family kitchen which also double as a restaurant and found Luisa there already at work. She gave me a bottle of warm milk for the lamb and I went to feed him. He's so small and fragile but I'm sure that with the attention he gets at the farm he'll grow into a big and strong sheep.

After that I had breakfast and as soon as Pepe came we went to work on the sheep enclosure. We did that until 9:30 when Pepe invited me to join him for mass. I was born a orthodox christian but don't practice it and don't consider myself a religious person, this was a catholic mass but I still went for the experience. Good thing Bruna found me a pair of Michel's pants as I hadn't any clean ones. I'm glad I got to go. It was such a mind boggling thing to see the little place where the nun was conducting her ceremony together with a priest with a slight lisp and a small and confused looking "altar boy" in his fiftthyes that always went ahead of everybody with reciting the verses. Everybody was there for the same reason though, to connect with something greater than themselves and together with the exchange of warm wishes and gestures it felt like a glorified hippie gathering more than a strict catholic religious ceremony. The feeling got stronger once everyone in the congregation received a small necklace and we started shaking hands and saying “pace” (peace) to one another. At the end we all kissed cheeks and went on out way. All in all a good experience and one that I would attend daily if only the wine and bread weren't just a tease.

After mass and returning home we started work again until lunch time which was at about 1 when Bruna called us with the help of a bell she keeps in the kitchen window. As with every meal since I've been here this one was an incredibly tasty one as well. After lunch Pepe and me hurried back down to start work. While pushing a stake into the ground I scraped a big chunk of skin of my pinky on another pole and I had to rush back to the house to find something to stop the bleeding. I quickly found the first aid kit, cut the extra skin of, washed the wound and with Lindsey's help bandaged the finger. Good as new and back at work. I really wanted to see that sheep enclosure finished because I started working on it from scratch. But after a while Pepe had to go into Capitignano and I went to help the girls carry some wood for fire from down the valley up to the house. I pushed the wheelbarrow and the two “bravisiomo” girls Noemi and Lindsey pulled. After a while Pepe returned and we started work again until dinner.

Radu Burtescu - Romania, Constanta