Sunday, May 17, 2009

Two weeks in Abruzzo


Unfortunately, I only passed two weeks at La Canestra.
The first week, we could not do very much because the weather was very bad. But the sencond week was full of sun and therefore full of work.
I was responsible for taking care of most of the animals (pigs, cows, horses, chickens, sheeps, donkeys). Although somtimes it was hard and dirty work I enjoyed it very much and I am very thankful that I was trusted with this task.
At the beginning I didn't know what to think about the people, but then they turned out to be extraordinarily friendly and heartly. It was a pleasure for me to spend these two weeks together with them.
When the sun came out after the first week I was surprised to find myself in a really beautiful landscape. With the snow covered peak of San Franco always in sight, work was done with double pleasure (but took also double time).
In the second week, the highlight of every day was the short ride I used to make in the afternoon with Carboso, a very nice and beautiful horse.
Also worth mentioning is the food I tasted there: selfmade pasta and bread, a lot of meat and salad and cakes, everything was really delicious.

I am sorry that after this horrible earthquake I could not help with nothing but the work of my hands. But I hope very much that I will be able to return one day to offer my help once more and enjoy the hospitability of the family.

Friday, May 1, 2009

1 of May, Labour Day

The whole of Italy was celebrating labor day today. We were celebrating also. By labouring of course. Tina and me finnished cleaning the donkey stable of the hey mixed with dung but lots of plastic as well in form of strings that hold the hey ballots. I'll try and remove the strings from now on when I feed the animals or they get tangled in the hey and make it diffcult to get it out with the pitchfork. We took a brake one hour before lunch and just wondered around, slept, read and mingled. Yes, mingled since there were so many people coming by, mostly friends of Noemi, volunteers in the earthquake camps.

At lunch time we were maybe close to 30 people in the gazeebo (good thing Noemi's friend's brought food of their own!). After lunch me and Pepe went to catch the donkeys that escaped... once more. He got in a bit of an argument with the neighbours that were complaning that the donkeys are leaving dungs and the hey they make from the grass where the donkeys releif themselves won't be good anymore. Pepe believes that is just bullshit and is annoyed. But not as much as other times. Noemi's boyfriend is here to play guitar and calm the spirits. After chasing the donkeys around and avoiding the neighbours, making another electric fence enclosure for the donekeys and horses we started work on the spiral garden. I brought a chicken to feed on the worms we dug out but because Charlie was drooling over it I had to take it back. Her name is Vermisina. Good luck in trying to find a chicken that fits the name (one that eats worms "vermi").

After all the work I was looking forward for dinner. I had my fill of bruschete and Erica had her fun taking pictures of us.
Pepe, Radu, Luisa and a tiny little bit of Tina.
The tulip is giving a peck to Tina, the hard working volunteer.