First Sunday Supper in Catholic Chaplaincy in 2011/2012 academic year

Stress, fright, panic, cry, nervousness, fear! No, none of these would describe how I felt before I were to cook dinner for 12 people, our first dinner in new academic year. I was suprisingly relaxed. I was happy, cheerful and joyful. All thanks to perfect, friendly and home-like atmsphere here at the Chaplaincy. Only moment during the whole process of cooking, which lasted from 3 to 7 PM, when I actually got panicky and did not know what to do, was when Fr. Simon told me it was me who is to say Grace.

Luckily, I remembered a very beautiful Grace which I heard long time ago, but I got stuck in my head, because it so beautifully desrcibes everything that needs to be said.

It goes like this:

‘By His hand we are all fed,

Give us, O Lord, our daily bread.

Please, know that we are truly grateful,

for every cup and every plateful.’

In case you were wondering what the menu was, here it is:

Primo: Mozzarella di Bufala Campana salad with beans, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil

Secondo: Tagliatelle al Ragu Bolognese

Dessert: Tiramisu alla Viviana Pace

Vino rosso di Chianti e Aqua

Velka Fatra mountain range crossing with my grandparents

 

It was a nippy early morning back in Nitra, where this story begins. I got out of my flat when a clock dial was approching four. I paced briskly on the pavement of the shadowy tapering street leading towards the main train station. My speedy was not so much for the trepidation caused by various individuals sleeping on benches here and there, but rather for I had only 12 minutes left to get there, buy the ticket and board the train.

As luck would have it, I succeeded and 2 hours later met with my grandparents at local train stop in Chynorany. Grandma already awaited me with fresh bread to feed my hunger, because the bakery was closed when I was leaving the town.

So we arrived at Harmanec at 7,30 AM and started walking. According to my plan we were supposed to walk up 1200 metres that day and the whole thing(15 miles) should have taken us about 6 hours. We did, however, stopped for a longer – lunch break and also, towards the end of the first day, we were getting pretty tired so the pace decreased. After all we got to the small mountain hut at 4 PM, very reasonable time for dinner and long sleep on exactly 3 beds available in there.

The next morning we left early in order to catch a bus before lunch to get to where we parked our car and go back home. It was mostly going down, all the way to Liptovske Revuce. We met a shepherd, flock of sheep, guarding dog and some men with the saws(I do not understand how come they are allowed to get timber from national park, but anyway).

Saturday in Hiiumaa

So my stay in Estonia is slowly coming to an end. It was a very rewarding and certainly an eye-opening experience. I learnt so much. And not only about farming.

Also, and this is probably more important, about how simpler life can lead to happier life. As one wise man long time ago said: ‘Rich is not the one who has a lot, but who needs a little.’

How to get the flock of sheep to follow you

Finally; I got them to follow me. I have to admit that I tricked them. Sheep just love the sound of plastic bag and: ‘Tooli Tuli.’ I felt like a shepherd. About 80 of them were following. I usually just got the photos of 80 asses running away from me, now I have 80 faces going after me.

Remember: never touch a ram on his head, they do not like it and can kick you or bump into you. However,  rubbing and scratching around the neck is very welcomed.

First goat milking in my life

I milked a goat. Ilu was her name. She used to be a head of a flock last year, has long back-curved horns and is, so to say, well educated. She kept standing still and let me, being an amateur, milk her, what, as I found out later milking other goats, is not that common. But Ilu is an exception. I got almost 2 pints of warm fatty milk, than I filtered the milk through fine white fabric into a jar.

Leaving Muusleri

The last day on the Muusleri farm with Raivo and Meeli. I got a pot of honey I produced a week ago by opening all the honeycombs and than spinning them in centrifuge. We also went to nearby bog area protected as Natural Reserve where various mosses and lichens were growing.

String beans paradigm

I thought that day would never come, but it did. Gather all the string beans from the field was my assignement. That would not be that bad if there were not 6 rows of bean plants, each about 15 cm from another, 100 m long. Using basic maths skills I calculated the number of plants to be 6600 and the number of string beans to be collected to be 79,200. If each bean took 2 secs than the whole field would take me 158,400 seconds, or in normal language 44 hours of work.

Horrible picture in my eyes when I realised the next week will be all about beans. But what can I do?! Just work. Of course, after I picked about 10 buckets each day, I needed to cut the end of each pod and than clean them all, which would double the amount of work needed.

However; the string beans slightly steamed and buttered were fabulous side dish for a supper each day.