Wrote: Jason Oceánský
Everything started at Katowice airport. We, from the school Hnízdo (Nest) in the CzechRepublic, had a meeting point there. It was a trip of seven students from the seventh toninth class (Adam, Anička, Jasmínka, Viki, Miki, Max, and I, Jasen) and two adults – Klárka, who had been in the community for many years, and Veronika, our schoolprincipal.
The first problem happened immediately at the airport. One of the students had too biga suitcase, so he had to pay a fine of 70 euros (60 pounds). Without any other problems,we arrived in Manchester, from where we continued our journey. It got a bitcomplicated again because we missed the train. In the end, the journey took around 14hours, and only thanks to the very kind help from community members Mark aRuaidith, who drove us from the train station in Middlesbrough, we arrived at ourhostel at 11 p.m. I was surprised that the hostel, Cycle Hub, was pretty good. We hadrooms for four, and the beds were very comfortable.
The next day, we had our first contact with the community. One part of the group stayedin the bakery, and the second part had a walk around the village. The ones in the bakerywere very happy with the friendly atmosphere, and the walking group enjoyed the shopand the beautiful lake on the other side of the village.
And then came the thing we were afraid of: our first lunch. We were left in groups oftwo, without adults, in houses where we didn’t know anybody. I’m dramatizing it, but itwas okay. In my case, the lunch was delicious. I had homemade pizza and a very nicedessert. I was shy on the first day, so we didn’t talk much, but the people there werevery nice. After lunch, I encouraged myself, and in the end, we had a nice talk.
After lunch, my friend and I were the only ones who weren’t gardening in Homefieldwith Jan. Instead, we had a workshop in Sherwood House with Sara. There we werepainting paper purple to make decorations for a wedding. It was a very easy, chill job. Iwas happy about the tea break, because I like English tea.
After a long first day in Botton, we decided to go to the sea. There we tasted traditionalBritish national food – fish and chips. At the end of the day, we jumped into the sea. Itwas cold but not freezing.The second day in the morning, we were building wooden furniture with Pierre. Ourgroup made a bench using only natural sticks, logs, a hammer, and nails.
At lunch, the family we were supposed to eat with had a delay, so we had very fast-foodspaghetti. It was good, and we were happy in the end because the family broughtbrownies to apologize to us.Afterwards, we went on a trip to the sea again, but this time it was a special place calledRavenscar, where we saw seals. They were very cute. I had never seen any seals before,so this was a nice experience.
Another day started in church. I expected it would be some speech about religion orreading from the Bible, but I was wrong. Fionn had a very good and (for me) interestingspeech about climate change. I was very surprised, because if he had done any speechabout green topics in the Czech Republic, he would have been stoned by the listeners.The point is that, in general, Great Britain is ten times greener than Czechia. Forexample, in my homeland, I see, I think, one electric car a month, and there it’s, I guess,every second car electric or hybrid.
We carried on with our gardening experience in Homefield on that morning. Hanstaught us how to dig docks, and we very much liked the tea break in the warm and cosykitchen of the Homefield house.
In the afternoon, we were beating bracken, which was fun. The second part of the groupwas taking care of children in Homefield. Afterwards, we had eurythmy with Jonathan. Iwas sceptical at first because dancing doesn’t sound good, but in the end, I was happy. Itwas not just dancing at all. Two of us used the last sources of our energy and playedfootball with the community on that night. That was very nice too.
The next day was Saturday, so we had a free day from workshops. In the morning, wewent to Whitby, a small, beautiful port. Part of the group visited the castle, and thewhole group took a trip on a pirate ship. We returned to Botton for lunch, where I ate inHomefield, which was very nice, and we talked a lot.
But Saturday was not only a relaxing day. We also had to prepare for Whitsun, whichwas the next morning. We made origami and other needed decorations. The festival wasvery short. Deputies from twelve countries read a in their paragraph from Saint John’sgospel in their mother languages. After the celebration, we gave an origami to everyhousehold as a present.
After the festival, we had a lot of time. We decided to go to Castle Howard. There wereenormously large gardens, which gave us one idea… Klárka and her children used toplay a special hide-and-seek game there. You don’t only have to find somebody, but youalso have to catch them. This game was great, but it was extremely tiring. We playedthat for an hour. We did many other things there, like playing on the playground, buyingsouvenirs, and so on.The next morning, we were gardening. After a very good lunch, we divided into threegroups. One tried to buy everything for the buffet we had to do the next day, anothergroup (which I was in) was gardening, and the third group was in the craft room withPaule and Johana.
On Thursday morning, we baked cakes and pizza snails for the afternoon singing event.After another lunch, we had our performance. We and the Waldorf school from York hadprepared a few songs. We sang “Dva roky prázdnin” (Two Years of Holidays), which is apirate song from a Czech movie. It was all right, but the best performers were ourpianist, Viky, and our guitarist, Adam.
Then came the time for our buffet. Everything we had prepared was eaten, so we werehappy. I accidentally put coffee into the sugar instead of the reverse, and I rage-quit abit, but after a few minutes, I was all right (and the sugar too).
Then came the final day in the community. Some of us were baking in the bakery, whileothers were cleaning the Cycle Hub. In the afternoon, we went to the Hanging Stonestrack, which was 6 miles long. After every approximately half a mile was a house withsome beautiful art built only from things the artist Andy Goldsworthy found at thatplace. I can’t describe it – you should go there.Then the final event happened. We had a campfire with the school from York. We sangsome songs and I sailed on a boat. At the end, we played hide and seek. Nobody wantedto leave, but we had to.The journey home was without any problems.
So, at the end, I want to thank you as a community, that you made this opportunity forus to come. I hope I will return as a volunteer when I turn 18. Just thank you for thegreat experience for each of us.
Jasen Oceánský