Yesterday
was the first real day of the workcamp. Friday evening we tried to attend
a local cultural event, but missed it by a few minutes. We did make it
over to a rock concert featuring some local talent, it was pretty good. Some of us had a few beers and we basically had a good time.
Later on it
was getting cold for some of the girls so we left and made our way to a
bar and had a few beers there as well. After the bar, we came back to the
center of town where our accommodations were located and pretty much fell
asleep, it was only about midnight. I did some light reading before I fell
asleep, I'm still trying to plow through Ivanhoe. It may take some more
time than I had originally thought.
In the morning I got up at about
8:00am and showered and shaved before we headed out to the brewery and
began to work. Our initial task is to clear a room of hay and other random
stuff like wood, metal, garbage, etc. Initially we could not clear much
except the bulky items because we were waiting for some tools. Eventually,
after lunch, we got three brooms, a pick, five shovels and two metal containers
we used to carry the hay. The work initially seemed like it would take
quite a long time but as the day wore on we made quite a bit of headway
and the growing pile of hay outside was becoming enormous. We would work
for an hour or so and then take a break for a few minutes. By the end of
the day we had most of the room cleared of the hay. We estimate about 2
hours will put a significant dent in completing the work. Sometime after
5:00pm we decided to call it a day and came back to where we were staying
for some dinner and showers.
I was the last one to take a shower
and the last few people had to take a very cold shower, it was brutal,
I pretty much did a sponge bath. Dinner was ready by the time I got out
of the shower. Sanna and Lien had been making pasta but where having problems
boiling water since they were using a hot plate. I thought the pasta was
good, we all ate from the large pot they used to make the pasta, in a communal
type fashion.
After dinner we tried to go to a
beauty pageant being held by the local Roma but we were too late. Fortunately
they were having a party so we decided to stay for that. When we arrived
at the dance hall one of the Roma introduced us to the winners of the pageant
and told us some information about the event. The party included a local
band singing some traditional songs but utilizing modern musical instruments.
They had a sax, bass, guitar, drum machine, keyboard and some support percussion
like the tambourine. We had a great time with the Roma. While I was sitting
there some of the Roma women made me dance with them and the rest of my
workcamp buddies watched while I tried to do their dance. The Roma have
a very energetic dance and I was really tired and sweaty after about 15
or 20 minutes. Dancing with the Roma really wore me out and showed how
out of shape my fat ass really is. Later on we drank some more and mingled
with the Roma. They were very enthusiastic about our workcamp showing up
at their party.
