New volunteer, Tina arrives

Today was raining as well. In between rain breaks I did some more wood cutting and finnished the new big wood pile with Pio. After that I went with Pepe and took part of the horse enclosure and made and new pig enclosure from it. We need to move the pigs apart since two of the pigs will have piglets soon and the male can kill them.

Again, there was a bit of tension in the family from a bit of miscomunication between Guissepina, the grandma and Bruna, the mother. Erica was caught up in the middle and stormed out of the tent in a rage. Everything is ok now, Erica is smiling and laughing as she looks at one of the silly shows on TV (yes, we do have TV and Internet now in the tent) and Bruna was her positive self over the dinner table.

But the highlight of the day was going to L'Aquila with Luisa to pick up Tina the new volunteer from Germany. In the car on the way talking with Luisa, I was a bit worried about my trip to Trapani via hitchiking. That's because Italians don't speak that much English, I said. But Luisa just smiled and told me "Ma tu parli italiano!" ("But you speak Italian!"). It was the first I realised that I actually do speak basic Italian, enough to get around and carry a conversation.

When we arrived to L'Aquila we quikly found the new volunteer and drove back home where she got to meet the whole family, even Noemi who returned home with her boyfriend just as we arrived. Tina is a lovely girl and I have a feeling that the 5 days we'll be working together until I leave for Oslo will be a pleasure.

Radu Burtescu - Romania, Constanta