It finally happened. I got sick.
I was crossing my fingers for a completely sick-free trip, but it was inevitable for the length of my trip. I'm better now after two days of fever, four heads of garlic, and lots of mint tea. One of the workers was sick too, and then Bernardo, another volunteer, got sick just after I did, so we figured it was some sort of influenza going around.
It was the worst week I've had in recent memory. I literally felt like I was going to die. It's bad enough getting sick away from home, but then factor in the whole: Transylvania. Farm. Closest village 40 mins away. Maybe a doctor. Probably not English speaking.
Okay enough depressing news.
Well Philippe left, so that is depressing; I lied. He has been out one friend we made on this trip so far, since we've been so busy hopping from place to place, and every hostel we've been in anyway has been empty. Tessa puts it best, "It's like summer camp is ending and we have to say goodbye to everybody." Considering it was just the three of us though...everybody consists of Philippe. He is in Budapest now actually, where we are heading next.
A new volunteer arrived soon after he left, to fill the whole. Tessa was beginning to go stir crazy without someone to tease and mess with. Thankfully Daciana is perfect for that, and has lots of working energy.
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Yesterday I finally saw the cheese making process! Unfortunately I forgot to grab my camera since it was a last minute discovery, but I'll try to see it again in the next week.
(Sorry, no picture here.)
Two days ago a van arrived and this is what we did:
"It's a white van. With a body bag on top."
Okay so once it got here, the body bag turned into a blue canoe, but I think it's easy to see how similar they look from half a mile away.
This old couple, Helena and Nick, are from the Incredible Farm. (Incredible Edible) From what I understand, this Incredible farm is outside Yorkshire, and is like a self sustaining community with educational courses on farming and natural things of all sorts.
Helena and Nick are on a trip around Romania, kind of an annual thing. They are full of knowledge and are currently talking with Krishan about ways to improve the farm. I think they're very nice and unique people in general, and share fun stories with us.
This is a blog post Nick recently wrote, and I encourage you to take a look; it's a beautiful little story.
The gypsies in some places are known for their bowl carving, and Helena made sure to buy a whole bunch of them this year. Tessa helped her oil some.
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Cathryn made some ice cream with the Buffalo milk: walnut cinnamon. We didn't have the patience to seperate cream for it for now, so it's more ice than cream, but still tasty! Buffalo milk is significantly higher in fat than cows milk so that helps. And it's fresh/raw, so whole milk.
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Today we got back to hard working in the field. I stay wayyy away from Tessa and her scythe.
And the rest of us are left with these tiny things for detail weed-annihilation.
(I think I posted a pic before.)
They're still wicked fun to use. :)
The problem with the food forest is the thistles and other nasties are getting way out of control, and we are trying to convert the land from...wait I can remember this...bacterial to fungal? From weeds and grasses and flowers, to soil...stuff. Okay Tessa understands this much better than me.
Pretty much we have to chop down everything to let the trees and bushes grow. And over the past few weeks summer has done her job and everything we don't want alive, is waist high! Not good!
It's getting better now. Lets have another pic of Tessa's badassery.
Excuse the crookedness. This is candid, so sneakiness was involved.
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We have one more week here! About. We leave August 1st or 2nd. And one way or another, we will get to Budapest...still working that part out.
Two thirds of this trip is over! And I'm-dare I say it?- ready to go home now...but I'm sure this will change once we get on the road again. It will be weird since this has been our home for the whole month.
Tessa and I will definitely come back someday. In the very least, we need to get some gypsy bowls.
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