inaugurating the silent morning walks on the farm

For the start of the week, we were greeted with some medium rains in the early and mid morning; the field is all wet, and so we did not work outdoors. As we also got home very late from the bike ride of yesterday – and I foolishly ate really after hours – I also feel a little sluggish (had to resort to caffeine during the morning meeting, and I am now very energetic, although completely out of focus).

We started the day at 7AM, and Nataša had a special plan for the morning: everyone would do a silent walk through the farm, alone and with no devices or entertainment whatsoever, for forty minutes. Each was assigned with the responsibility of scouting and later reporting on a specific part of the field; but, of course, also allowed to stray wherever – and the distribution of the territory would already be done silently.

I took one of the last picks; I sort of was already inclined towards the upper part of the farm, a little further than the sheep, where some deer are frequently spotted in the early morning. There are a few hazelnut and walnut trees, which border the cultured part of the farm with the wilderness of the fores; thus, it is a sensitive terrain, which must be taken care of. Bordering fields are the ones first conquered by the so called pioneer vegetation.

Not to my surprise, as we haven't done any work there for the past month, the grass has completely overrun any trace of human presence in the area. It felt like walking in virgin territory, and the very wet, tall grass put my feet soaking wet in a matter of minutes. This is a problem, later confirmed by Nataša when we finally reunited after the silent walk.

It was an interesting experience. When we all shared the conclusions of our walks, there were many discoveries and new perspectives of places we had already considered familiar. The ruined structure just between the old barn and our house, for example – the lady house, to be explained at some later date... – was an object of attention for everyone.

We are to repeat this exercise every day throughout the rest of the week. It is a long period of time. It is meant to be a very active, intentional walk; a deeper interaction with the surrounding space whose conclusions will drive our work in the forthcoming days, weeks, maybe even months. So tomorrow at 7AM, we do it all over again.

with conflicts arising, mending tools are necessary

With the exception of the morning walk, the rest of the morning was forcefully sedentary. Not only it started raining quite heavily until mid afternoon, we still had some other meetings to care of – a regular assessment of the group's morale and present situation.

We have been living together for a month now, in quite small a house, shared bedrooms, barely any designated private spaces. It's only natural that, with time, some small points of tension arise, be it with the cleaning, the noise, the constant interactions, the decision-making, etc. This was addressed at the meeting; it also became quite clear that, as a group, we are not totally equipped with the tools to resolve these conflicts.

I'm very, very interested in non-violent communication, but wouldn't dare to interfere in this process – I might also be an actor in the dynamic, and it just doesn't feel right, having no practical experience in group conflict solving, to intervene.

In any case, it feels good to put the information out there so that everyone is aware of the issues; it somehow brings some sense of progress to the problem. It is, along with the more thoughtful interaction with the farm, something that will present throughout the present week.

first decisions and feedback on the personal project

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Weather-wise, it was suspicious; we never quite got to see the sun at any point of the afternoon. Thus, we put some other meeting out of the way, this time related to our personal project.

So what exactly is a personal project, I'd imagine someone asking. I am not quite sure either. This volunteering experience, with all it entails in the scope of my of personal, professional, academic – spiritual, if I may – stances, feels quite like a personal project already. There is a degree of intentionality to which I relate with the attitude of a project. But in the perspective of the European Solidarity Corps, and even the National Agency of Volunteering in Slovenia, there is also room for a sort of project that is closely tied to the volunteer; and this has been on my mind for a while.

This had only been hinted at so far, and, with almost a third of our volunteering done, it is time to make some decisions about it. Daniele mentioned the possibility of having a project that somehow integrates into the farm life and its community, possibly being meaningful to future generations of workers and volunteers; this threw me off my balance even further, as whatever project I imagined, it would naturally always appear as non-tangible, or at least not utilitarian.

The blog project, with all the intersectionality of farm knowledge, journaling, communication, etc. already feels like a project of its own; and so, I'm still quite confused on the matter. There were some great ideas thrown around by the other volunteers...but I suppose I'm still searching.