God said we are not supposed to work on Sunday and probably that’s why it was the most exhausting day since we came to Krynychky. After sleepless night (we stayed at the disco till 4.00 a.m.) the most ambitious vols went to watch a sunrise over the Dniepr river…50 grivnas. VIP pass to the night club, 30 grivnas for Mexican shot, 40 grivnas for vodka and shitty wine but bloody sun rising over the Dniepr-priceless.

Thanks to hospitality of Nikita’s mother we were able to sleep a little which I appreciated very much. On the way back home some people wanted to buy rail ticket and surprisingly it lasted longer then getting to know the whole history of Ukraine and honestly was much more educative. The woman in the ticket box had to have so much fun…I would. Just imagine: handwriting, gluing, making(!) a stamp, writing again, coping, confirming that I’m not an illegal immigrant. Everything has to be perfect and under control. But the best part of the whole operation was of course the face of Matt who couldn’t believe that it was real.

In the evening we proved that for volunteers there’s no such a thing like “mission impossible”. You have to squeeze everything from a free time. Every second has to be exploited. That’s why we finally went to find the substitute of the famous lake of which picture we saw on the info sheet. Luckily it didn’t take a lot of time and we were able to socialize with locals. It was the time when I realize why Ukrainians always work. They save their energy for weekends. The day before there was a wedding and the guests were still parting, they just moved place. But celebration of a new chapter of bride’s and groom’s life with no so sober locals wasn’t enough to fill the party emptiness. The second part of socializing with locals took place in a local bar which transformed into classic disco. Lots of attractions for one day, no free space to remember them all and second week of the camp still to come.

Saturday 09/08/08
Yes, it’s me.
That Italian guy which Xavi was talking about really exists, and really wakes up people in the morning (*see our blog on August the 8th).
For example our cruel, unpopular working schedule assigned me this task (already for the second time) also for Monday morning.
Poor Xavi… I’m done with you. I’m afraid I’m not done with all of you, guys.
Not yet… Maybe by the end the end of our work camp the fate will give you the chance to have your cold and sweet revenge on me, waking me up someday with the help of a bucket of frozen water at 7 a.m.
But not now. Not tomorrow.

As maybe you don’t know, I joined this group only on August the 5th, coming a long way from Kyzyl, through Central Asia and Russia, as I have been spending this summer as a long term – EVS volunteer in the Russian Federation. I am working here in my 6th work camp and, as I already have learnt, every group I join makes me meet new people and face new tasks and common duties.
By the way, my delayed arrival just threw me into this project in medias res, without knowing exactly what would have been the schedule and the whole outcome of the working activities themselves. Now, after a few days working with locals and other international volunteers, I can see more clearly the whole idea of this eco-touristy project, and also the first, satisfactory outcomes of our job.

In this first week of work camp the free-time activities were also quite various, as you may have understood.
Today’s schedule, for example, foresaw a tour of the city of Dnipropetrovs’k followed by a night at the disco. Both things gave us more time to stay together and know each other: I find this group of volunteers extremely lively, various and colorful.
Everyday life never stops giving us occasions to practicing our irony and good mood.
I would say today has been the “day of records”: first, at the Historical Museum, also pressed by the delay we accumulated in the previous hours, we had to face (probably) the fastest and most hurrying guided trip ever. Over a couple of hours, our Speedy Guide machine-gunned our brains with a storm of dates, names, faces and facts.
Still amazed by the overwhelming quantity of words produced by Hurrycane (I thought this could be a good nickname for him), in the late afternoon we started thinking to the club for the night which, I have to admit, was really surprising: five floors of human flesh (basically young ladies) dancing, drinking, smoking, moving around…
Coming from a country where usually discotheques rank among the most immobile, V.I.P.pish and uncommunicative in the world, I was inevitably impressed by this… sight.

H 04:00: Closing Time, at least for us, pretty tired by the whole day around the city.
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits… (I’m pretty sure you remember this song).
Fortunately, at Nikita’s place we found a precious roof over our heads, so that we could have a little rest before the morning come, tomorrow.
And it will come soon.
I’m sure it will.

Francesco

8th of August. It’s 7.30 in the morning and Italian guy is waking me up. A strange way to spend my holidays, to say the least, but it’s what doing a work camp takes. Great company, great parties, great food. Being awaken by an Italian before eight it’s a necessary sacrifice, I guess. Anyway, I’ll try to stay in bed a little longer, just keeping alive the topic that Spanish people are lazy. I totally disagree with that. On one hand, because sleeping five more minutes (or ten, or fifteen) is not laziness, is just an art for me, and it has to be done accurately. On the other hand, because I’m not Spanish, I’m Catalan. It’s not that I am proud of it (actually, I can’t see how someone can be proud of being born somewhere in particular), it’s just that I am what I am. Though, I’m not going on with the `I’m not Spanish` speech because otherwise the Spanish girls (whom, by the way, I love a lot) will break my legs and, honestly, I don’t want my legs to be broken.
So it’s not even eight and I’m already eating omelet of tomato and mushrooms accompanied by cucumber and more tomato. One of the lightest breakfasts I can remember here. We are eating all day long, and we eat lots of food, so I guess when the camp finishes I’ll be just like a giant ball and I won’t have to walk because I’ll be able to roll. Maybe that’ll make me unattractive to girls, but I’ll save a lot of money on bus tickets.
After filling my stomach, I am ready for another day of carrying stones, and wood, and more stones, and more wood, and probably more stones. But then I am told that I don’t need to do that today. That, as I did such a great job yesterday in the cooking team, today I will do the same thing again. Of course, it was not what they meant. The complete sentence would be something like `as you did such a great job yesterday with the cooking team, and as far as you are totally useless to do the hard work, you f***ing bloody clumsy guy, just stay in the kitchen`. But I suppose saying all that to me would be a little bit rude so they just emphasized in the `great job in the kitchen` part.
Having to clean the house is okay for me, but I think I can also do the carrying stones thing. The problem is I am not used to physical work and the first day I had some difficulties, specially using the shovel. After that, second day was easier to carry on and third day even easier. I guess if I spend two months in this house I’ll be able to run with huge rocks in my hands. But I had already complained about the hard work so now they found new tasks for me. I really appreciate that, but, come on, I’m not crippled! I can work! Well, I think so. Probably, when I come back to the shovel thing I will be asking for an easier task again.
Yes, I know that I am just speaking about me but there is a strong reason for that. Well, actually two strong reasons. The first one is that I am self-centered, but the second (and strongest one) is that I can’t speak about the others because I spent most of the morning by my own, doing all the cleaning. I’d really like to tell that Matt dug a yard all by himself or that Erdem, our particular Mc Gyver, made up a new machine to carry the wood using just a clip and chewing gum. But I can’t because I have no idea of what the hell happened out there. Well, yes, I could have asked, but as I told I am self-centered so I forgot to do it.
The highlight moment of the morning is when Anya, one of our camp leaders, asked me if I could draw a twister board to play to this game at night. You know, the Twister. Right hand to blue, left foot to green, everybody lying down in the floor mixed with each other after five minutes. I hadn’t thought of the idea of an orgy myself, but I have to recognize is a good one. I mean, young people, drunk (because, let’s face it, we always drink at night), laying together on the ground. An orgy is the least you can expect. If I were seeing a movie and one of the characters would say ‘Hey, let’s play twister!’ I’d think ‘Ok, so now they’re going to have sex’. But, well, life is not like a movie, specially my life, so perhaps it is true that we just play twister with no sex. If such thing exists:)
After a delicious and stressful meal (being kitchen/chicken team is not as easy as it seems!), I’m ready to continue with my masterpiece of artwork, aka Twister, but finally I don’t have to. Natalia, the polish girl, asks me if she can do my job. Well, of course! The art of sleeping five more minutes in the morning also includes avoiding doing your work anytime that’s possible, so I have to accept. Normally, I would have thought: Oh, she’s a really nice girl. But in the camp we have this strange game called ‘secret angel’ consisting of having to help someone, not for the pleasure of helping, but because a little piece of paper tells you that have to help that person. It seems an innocent game, but it puts you in a place where you wonder all the time: Is she doing it because is my secret angel or because she really wants to do this? Think about it. It just spreads the lack of trust. And the lack of money, because when you are angel you have to buy lots of stuff.
In the afternoon we take a bus to go to Petrikovka, or something like this. Actually, ‘death bus’ is a name that fits it much better. I have never been in a place that moves so much. Well, yes, roller coasters, but I think they are not vehicles. It is like being in the middle of an earthquake for more than an hour. The best part of it is that one guy that come with us is trying to make us play a game about singing. Oh, yes, sure. We’re about to die in this bus and we have nothing better to do than singing songs. Actually, all along with the movement there is a loud sound that doesn’t even let us to understand each other, so the game doesn’t last long.
Petrikovka, or something like this, consists of some old traditional houses decorated as they were before. Everything is really interesting, especially when they make us paint a traditional draw. Then, I understand why Picasso belongs to the history of art and I don’t. We take our draws as a souvenir and we risk our lives again in the bus. This time it is to go to have dinner in a place full of people dancing. Once we have eaten, we go to dance also. Probably it’s not the best music in the world, but we don’t care. I love Petrikovka, or something like this. The place is perfect, the moment is perfect. And if we survived death bus twice we probably will survive it in the way home. I just hope we don’t have to play that song game again.

Today was a rather hard day. Since yesterday night we went to the local pub, aka discotec, we all went to bed quite late. For me, it was impossible to stay awake, and having stomach ache, I just had to lie down and try to sleep. Kind of difficult since my room is next to the dining room which, during the day, is the dj room. Finally, I decided to help the kitchen team: 3rd day washing plates… if I keep like this, I think by the end of the workcamp I will have a master on how to wash plates. Still, I had a lot of fun making jokes with everybody. Learnt some Russian, funny Russian. So in Ukrainian “chiste” means to clean and in Spanish it means joke, hence, we spend like half an hour joking about “chiste” at the same time that we washed plates. .
Before dinner we went to a museum: actually a rather old factory with a little child who was not speaking at all and who almost dies when our guide was moving her like a giant doll. Before arriving to the factory we decided to relive our childhood by eating a Kinder Surprise. Factory was fun, I like the fact that we are always joking does not matter where or when. Also, Carmen and Nastja got a very interesting offer: marrying a man from Krynichky- it is great, all foreign girls are welcome!! Got home for dinner, really nicely Larisa had left everything ready for us. Now, some of us are playing card, while the others are trying to be able to stand up, we think it is time to start singing: buenas noches hasta manyana, nos vamos a la cama!

And tomorrow… a new thrilling chapter of this amazing blog by Xavi. Oh yeah

They say we are the in the information age. Outside Krynchky, my life revolves around information. Rates, Indexes, Events, Trends, Causes, Effects and then Decisions. A constant and ever present backdrop to my life. Here in Krynychky it is a different world. No Rates, No Indexes, No Events, No Trends, No Causes or Effects. No Decisions. No one here has heard from the outside world since we arrived, but then thinking about it, no one has asked. I suppose it is partly because everything is different, that it feels to me that we have a new world of our own here. In many ways its like being a child again – everything is new and without knowing the language you don’t understand anything that is happening. In our world everything we do; eat, drink, work and sleep, we do together. This life harps back to a different time, a time in which relaxation is undisturbed, interpersonal relations are paramount, and after a hard days work food tastes that much sweeter. We worked hard in the garden again today – I spent the morning digging trenches with ‘Denise’ a surprising name for a man who looks like he would be at home wrestling bears in Siberia. Then in the afternoon, we had a lot of carrying to do. Erdem are resident Turk as always suggesting idea of how to form work chains. Then in the evening, over dinner, some local mountaineers lectured us on their arts.

Today we woke up at almost 7 o’clock (at least I did ) The breakfast was really strong and I ate 2 plates of local dish maybe just because we work very intense. The work was heavier then yesterday and I was not funny. We didn’t destruct any building or didn’t put fire anyplace. I hope next days we will broke some walls and maybe make a big fire. I was hoping to swim at anyplace I can find but I didn’t happen because of bad weather. And for lunch, the house owner cooked chicken for me and I was really pleased and happy during the meal. I suppose that other participants think that I am not normal because I eat too much. And the funniest thing for today was the interview with some local press. I only mentioned that I am surprised about the discoteka in a village and the beauty of Ukrainian girls (I mean they are incredible!). I don’t think that they will advertise my interview. After the interview we carried some woods which were put in the middle of the house. We classified the woods regarding their quality. And another thing I learnt today was we Turkish guys are really hardworking and Spanish people are lazy and loves to party a lot. I mean they can party anytime anywhere with anybody. And I didn’t even have a nap during the day because I know that if I sleep, I will sleep for 24 or 27 hours, so it is better not to think that you are tired and dying. Moreover, we had a football game with local people an our only supporter was Anya and for sure I will go to the moon with her. Other participants were busy with writing some words in their language.

I think local people were a little angry with me maybe just because I scored 3 or 4 goals during the day. Afterwards, we had dinner with Viktor and his board. They were really nice and one of them sang a really interesting song about their sons who went to the mountains. Victor and Larisa kindly proposed that we can come here and stay whenever we want for some days and I said that if they accept me I can stay for 5 years or more because of discoteka and pretty girls. I suppose I abused their politeness… Maybe some day I can buy one house at Krinitzka and organize the real and original sunflower fest. And then maybe I can change the program suddenly and leave poor participants with lovely local people I think that Ukrainian people are quite similar to Turkish people because at past we also used to go to the mountains and we also used to have a really hard life in the middle of Asia. Then one of the mountaineers showed us pictures about his experience in the mountains. Actually it was quite interesting in the beginning but after it got a bit boring. The guy said that he was really fat before the mountains but I think that he is still a bit fat And afterwards I had lots of wine with cola and I think I got a bit drunk at the end of the night.

Erdem, Turkey

It is our first work day. We woke up rather early at 7 o’clock (our kitchen team
even early at 6 o’clock). First we had a presentation about the project. I think it
is really good idea. Then we divided into two work teams: boys’ team and girls’
team. Girl’s work was to dig flower’s onions from the earth to replant it to a new
place.

Додано (26.10.2009, 12:50)
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Згадав я процей лохотрон і цих волонтерів!!! Це "Зелена садиба", власником якої є Лариса Петренко. У інтернеті бачив їхній сайт! Сайт рекламного характеру. Там 1 день проживання коштує 250 грн. з 1-ї людини! Одним словом це бізнес, а не волонтерство. Знайду в інтернеті їхній сайт, обов'язково дам ссилку, посмієтесь і ви. За такі гроші краще в Турції відпочити! (ИМХО)