I write these lines from Italy and I can still hardly believe I am back home after 3 wonderful months spent in Brazil. Time went by so fast and I would like to share my volunteering experience at the eco-project "Aldeia". Here is the text written for the November Newsletter of Sustainable couch, which you can find here)
“I admit it. I never thought I would build a wall in my life. Being rather manually inept, I always tended to avoid work I considered destined to fail or engender embarrassment, especially with people who seem to be born to plant, build, repair, sew, etc, but during my trips in the last years I tried to overcome my insecurity and worked in different eco-projects, finding places to go through websites like Woofing, Workaway or VolunteersBase (which we presented in a previous newsletter). This way I had the chance to perform different activities, such as planting trees and vegetables, digging an irrigation system, composting organic waste, etc. Inspiring lessons which taught me a lot: manual work is indeed tiring and difficult, but also very rewarding and fun, especially if done together with other people.
When I arrived at the "Aldeia", a small community in the south of Bahia, Brazil, I had no idea what job I would be assigned. It was a surprise, and a very pleasant one, to find out I would belong to the bio-constructions' team :-) Since the beginning, I was aware it would be an interesting challenge. Right on the first day the other volunteers (a Dutch couple and two Brazilian girls) and I were shown the ingredients for the wall: clay, straw, sand, cow dung. What were we supposed to do with them? Put them all on a big plastic sheet, pour on water little by little and mix them energetically with our feet, jumping and pressing, pressing and jumping. To get the party feeling we sometimes listened to Brazilian music while dancing on the clay ;-)
Once the material was ready - it took hours of bouncing and sweat to prepare a sufficient quantity, we started the construction of the outer wall of the house's future kitchen. Once the clay base was set, we inserted several logs/trunks. Then we covered them with another layer of clay. And so on, and so on. What seemed an easy job turned into a one-week challenge which occupied all our energy and thought during the 4-hour workdays. Once we reached the top (we celebrated this moment with the picture used as cover of this newsletter) we thought our work was done, but there was still a long way to go: fixing the cracks, polishing the logs, cleaning the wall etc. After a few days of drying, we admired our masterpiece and enjoyed the satisfying feeling of "mission accomplished".
In our free time we had delicious vegetarians meals, swam in the nearby Rio de Contas river and had fun and endless table-tennis games. All in all, another wonderful volunteering experience for me, crowned by the happiness of leaving behind not only nice moments spent with nice people, but also a solid and beautiful bio-wall.
In the last travel weeks I enjoyed the beach at Morro de Sao Paulo and Boipeba
and spent a lot of time with friends in Salvado.
Images speak clearer than words, so here are some of my favourite Brazil pics.
I wish you all a great Christmas time
Massi on the road (at home again)
“I admit it. I never thought I would build a wall in my life. Being rather manually inept, I always tended to avoid work I considered destined to fail or engender embarrassment, especially with people who seem to be born to plant, build, repair, sew, etc, but during my trips in the last years I tried to overcome my insecurity and worked in different eco-projects, finding places to go through websites like Woofing, Workaway or VolunteersBase (which we presented in a previous newsletter). This way I had the chance to perform different activities, such as planting trees and vegetables, digging an irrigation system, composting organic waste, etc. Inspiring lessons which taught me a lot: manual work is indeed tiring and difficult, but also very rewarding and fun, especially if done together with other people.
When I arrived at the "Aldeia", a small community in the south of Bahia, Brazil, I had no idea what job I would be assigned. It was a surprise, and a very pleasant one, to find out I would belong to the bio-constructions' team :-) Since the beginning, I was aware it would be an interesting challenge. Right on the first day the other volunteers (a Dutch couple and two Brazilian girls) and I were shown the ingredients for the wall: clay, straw, sand, cow dung. What were we supposed to do with them? Put them all on a big plastic sheet, pour on water little by little and mix them energetically with our feet, jumping and pressing, pressing and jumping. To get the party feeling we sometimes listened to Brazilian music while dancing on the clay ;-)
Once the material was ready - it took hours of bouncing and sweat to prepare a sufficient quantity, we started the construction of the outer wall of the house's future kitchen. Once the clay base was set, we inserted several logs/trunks. Then we covered them with another layer of clay. And so on, and so on. What seemed an easy job turned into a one-week challenge which occupied all our energy and thought during the 4-hour workdays. Once we reached the top (we celebrated this moment with the picture used as cover of this newsletter) we thought our work was done, but there was still a long way to go: fixing the cracks, polishing the logs, cleaning the wall etc. After a few days of drying, we admired our masterpiece and enjoyed the satisfying feeling of "mission accomplished".
In our free time we had delicious vegetarians meals, swam in the nearby Rio de Contas river and had fun and endless table-tennis games. All in all, another wonderful volunteering experience for me, crowned by the happiness of leaving behind not only nice moments spent with nice people, but also a solid and beautiful bio-wall.
In the last travel weeks I enjoyed the beach at Morro de Sao Paulo and Boipeba
and spent a lot of time with friends in Salvado.
Images speak clearer than words, so here are some of my favourite Brazil pics.
I wish you all a great Christmas time
Massi on the road (at home again)
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| Wonderful rainbow at Morro de Sao Paulo |
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| Pelourinho, the old city of Salvador |
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| Last swim in Salvador, a few hours before flying home |
