Paint and dirt

I can describe you a moment in my project, I realized I took the right choice of doing an ESC. I was a bit worried before coming here. On the one hand, I turned 29 during my time of the project and I was afraid that I will be the “grandma” of the group as my last days of Erasmus life were numbered. On the other hand, I was leaving my life in Austria behind and therefore my mind was still lingering on everything I had back there. But the moment I sat in the car, the yellow green spotted landscape of Extremadura passing by and in the background a music mixture of Italian, Moroccan, German music, I knew I made the right decision of coming to Spain. Me and the other volunteers have worked all morning, getting our hands dirty plastering walls, our clothes splattered with white paint from painting the houses in the neighbouring village. We were just as dirty as we could be, but we didn’t care. A villager showed as the river and we held our feet inside letting little fish nibble at our feet. Later I gained luck by jumping over the ancient bridge on one leg. But before returning to Plasenzuela, we visited the castle of Montánchez. I think we all felt as if we could fly when we reached the top of the village. From above we could see endlessly far, and it felt like the whole of Extremadura was beneath our feet.

Aguila, Aguile

Sometimes there is this moment when a song is performed and it is completely silent in the room, then it has touched people’s hearts. Not only has this moment and song touched our heart, but also it got annoyingly stuck in our head. “Aguila, aguile” was such of song for us in this project. The “aguila” which means “eagle” in Spanish, can always be seen high up in the Extremadura sky and somehow it perfectly represents the spirit of the region here. Gracefully it draws its circles, the wings spread wide and its gaze fixed on the ground. But it was also moments after we heard it first, like when we sat around the fireplace and started to sing all together, that made that song so special to us.

Morning circles

Mornings are usually the tired period of the day. Just woken up and fighting against the urge to fall asleep again by filling up that mug with coffee. But starting the day by climbing the rock next to the house, feeling the first rays of sunshine on your skin and finding your place in the circle that isn´t completely covered in sheep feces is a little different than usual mornings. Morning circles are there to reflect, to rethink and restart. They can be fun by playing ninja or serious by addressing issues. Morning circles are the place for emotions and compromises, for the talking stick, for stretching and for starting the day.

I can tell you about many more moments like this, but I think it is up to the other volunteers and yourself to do.