{"id":12621,"date":"2018-02-10T15:21:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T15:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritsheartlandofintent.com\/?p=12621"},"modified":"2018-02-10T15:21:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T15:21:14","slug":"guest-blogger-adela-heartland-italy-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritsheartlandofintent.com\/it\/guest-blogger-adela-heartland-italy-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger: Adela – “Heartland in Italy 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Introducing guest blogger\u00a0Ad\u00e9la \u0160tromajerov\u00e1, a lovely volunteer who was at Heartland in Autumn 2017<\/p>\n

–o0o–<\/p>\n

Heartland in Italy 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0What I am writing now is already a memory of 3 months old. It is crazy how the time flies, but it would be a shame not to write about this part of our travelling. If you don\u2019t want to read superlong texts, just look at the photos, they will also give you some idea :)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In October we moved from Romania to Italy. The only thing we knew about our future volunteering place was that a couple lives there who wants to build there a yurt camp together with an events centre. And that they also make yurts. And that was all.<\/p>\n

When we arrived, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains in the National Park of Abruzzo, without electricity and running water and Radek and I also in a yurt without a stove (the second yurt had a stove) and insulation. Spartan conditions which in the end caused that it was an amazing experience. As always in such cases after all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Everyday view<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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No electricity means that in the evening you can just sit by the fire all together, or stay in the girls\u2019 yurt where there was a stove, again all of us together, or just go to sleep. So we spent all the time together in a meaningful way. No looking into our phones, no free time activities of the \u201cHey, I will show you a great video on youtube!\u201d type or staying up late with artificial lights. We sat by the fire, played the ukulele, sang, drew, read, talked and went to sleep around 9 pm because there was simply no light, and all those calm activities just put you to sleep. There was always something to do also during the day, we were harvesting various crops, processing them or just went for a walk to the creek.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
The only source of electricity – solar chargers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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Exploring the surroundings was the best. For example, discovering a path to the river.<\/p>\n

The first day it took us \u2028almost 2 hours, and after a few days just 5 minutes.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Playing the ukulele in the evening.\u2028And \u00c1\u010fa\u2019s hobbit feet.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Cooking the rosehip jam.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Dinner in the girls’ yurt (a headtorch is a must:))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Morning stretching<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Drying rosehips for tea<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Evenings by the fire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Cooking apples<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Fooling around with headtorches.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Evening reading in the yurt.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

No running water means that you either wash yourself in a metal bucket (“bucket wash”,) or you can also have a great outdoor bath. You light a fire under it, pour water from the tank and it gets warm in a moment. You can add some fragrant herbs or light a candle, and the best bath of your life is ready. You have to put a piece of cloth on the bottom of the bath so that your ass doesn\u2019t get burnt, and you also have to put out the fire in time, otherwise you will get cooked in the bath :).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Do you fancy an outdoor bath?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Not having a stove in the yurt was not so positive, however, at least we got accustomed to the cold. I always said that I don\u2019t get the people who sleep in winter in the snow, in a snow hole, etc. Now we were sleeping in a yurt with the temperature around 2-4 degrees sometimes, and surprise, surprise, we made it without problems. Now we will just laugh at such things :). And again, because of this we spent more time in the girls\u2019 yurt where it was quite warm, we were together, and we bonded even more.<\/div>\n
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Sleeping arrangement in our yurt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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As for the work, there is an old stone house at the property. Our hosts decided to reconstruct it so that one could live there. That was our job for 2 weeks. We were reconstructing one room. Taking off the old plaster, cleaning the spaces between the stones and putting new plaster between the stones. Cleaning everything up, making it nice. Grinding the roof wood and all the beams and painting them. Simply turning the room full of dust, mess and squirrel\u2019s poo into a habitable state. And it was an amazing job. Working with a drill hammer, every day with earmuffs, a face mask and glasses, dust all around the place. But I think we enjoyed it a lot, and that we were very excited about the result. In the rest of our time we were helping to make wood for yurts (from chopping down the wood up to the final processing) or planting herbs in a terraced garden. Making the wood for yurts was very interesting and also very demanding on the concentration. But our hosts trusted us, and together we made it.<\/div>\n
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Women in action<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
Peeling, peeling…<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n