Workcamp in Deutschland

Ivenack 2008

von Nuria Valls I Alecha, Spanien

It was the first time I took part in a work camp and it took place in Stavenhagen, Germany. The first day, I waited in the station for our teamers, nervous and expectant. People arrived during the day and during the night; the group that was just being created seemed nice: we were youth from Eastland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and France. I just could wonder how these weeks would be. But although I imagined it, what I thought then turned out to be very different from what happened during next days.

In the mornings, we worked with the “Landesforst” in “Ivenacker Eichen”. We were divided into three groups, and we collaborated on different projects. We repaired some fences to protect trees from the beautiful dears that were in the area, we built some bridges with wood, we cut cleared the bushes and counted the oaks that had to be included in new maps…And we did it all into nature. We were driven to the workplace with vans, and it was very nice for us to work always helped by the men from the area. Some of them couldn’t speak English, but it was not a problem, because they were really kind with us. In some occasions, in the afternoon, they invited us to have a barbecue all together. During the pause of working, we could feed the dears and, in midday, after working, we were driven to the “Waldbad”, a nice place where we could stay together, going down the toboggans, jumping from the springboard, and swimming. Then we used to walk home and, after having dinner all together, we played some games, we went to the supermarket or we just had a good time laughing and talking. We didn’t have any TV or computer, but we didn’t miss them so much, because we spent a lot of time together. Several nights, we asked our teamer to be the leader of the werewolf game. Since the early days, we get used to play it; we were like addicted to the werewolf game and to playing cards!

First days, everything was a bit strange: we were very shy and sometimes everybody was silent and quite, especially during the meals, but it was really amazing to realize that, day by day, all the people started to became a group. Obviously, after some days and as all groups, there are conflicts, but it’s not a problem when they can be solved.

Our teamers said us was that they wouldn’t be our leaders but a part of the group, and they truly were, because we all took decisions together and we followed the system of self organisation. Also before the weekends, we talked about what we wanted to do: we decided to go canoeing, we went to Berlin, Rostock and other cities and one day we walked to Ivenack, the little village close to Stavenhagen, where we initially thought we would stay during the work camp.

We knew meals from different countries, because everyday two different people were cooking and cleaning during the morning. We lived in an apartment, in two different floors, and we slept in air mattresses. In the first floor, there were the kitchen, the dinning room, a nice balcony and two rooms were 6 people were sleeping. Although we used to be in the first floor, 60 stare over, 7 people more slept in the 5th floor, and there we had another bathroom. The first 4 days, we didn’t have any light in that floor and we had some problems with the water tube, but it was amazing too.

It’s hard to describe how I felt those days and how sad I felt when it came to an end. I worked with nice and welcoming people in an amazing place, between millenaries oaks and beautiful dears, I felt really relaxed walking in the quite streets of a small and cute village, I knew people from a lot of countries, who became good friends and who with I shared many things. It’s incredible. It was my first work camp, but I’m completely sure it won’t be the last. From my point of view, a work camp is a perfect opportunity to travel, to know a new country and a new culture, to be a part of a group making friends and to work contributing to a project. Obviously, it lets people to expand their points of view by knowing other ways of thinking and acting and by living together with people from other cultures.