—————
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012
The countdown has started, the last working days, everyone wants their tasks to be completely done. Changes are getting obvious to see and we are all proud of what has been achieved.
As for this day, in the morning, the stables were cleaned as usual, another group was cleaning the farm yard, while the last group painted the last cabin.
In the afternoon, a group continued to cut the trees in the wood, others cut the wood by the fireplace and Frank and Kuba alone fixed the camp stairs.
After a day of hard work, we all got to enjoy a tasty dinner, followed by a lecture about the history of the Hucul Club, made by "Ralf", Lesha´s father, the Hucul Club founder.
Feline (Norway) + Sarah (Lebanon)
—————
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012
Flag time is back again and our working day has started according to our beloved CISV rites. Special events of the day time: Kuba has ridden a stallion and has fallen down (but it was a pony!). Gio, Martina and Luisa have had their first galloping experience and were really delighted - but the highlight event of the day has been Hanka´s name day, celebrated with delicious pastries and the evening USA delegation´s presentation, interesting and amusing as the previous national activities:-)
Luisa + Adele (Italy)
—————
TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2012
We started our day rollin´and rollin´and rollin´the straw balls, it was funny and a bit tiring. Then the other group was at the stable preparing the horses for the horseback riding. At the same time the other group was cutting the wood and they put it inside the new wood house. After lunch we started to paint the cabins, it was very nice. During the break we went to the pool, it was freezing, relaxing and refreshing.
Now me and Farah are awaiting our dinner... the sun is almost down, a small group of people is playing something, Oscar is sitting and watching them, and a noisy horse call us beyond the fences.
This is a very romantic moment of our life here at the IPP we are happy about it.
A BIG HUG
By Farah (Lebanon) & Giovanna (Italy)
—————
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2012
Today was a relaxing day. we went on a very long horseback ride. It took us three hours to get to our destination, which was a café in a village named Vonoklasy. We were divided into three groups, where one group rode to the destination, while another group met the first group there and rode the horses back. The first group drove back to the Hucul Club in cars. Meanwhile, the third group had a nice ride in the area around the Hucul Club.
For the rest of the day, we relaxed, while the Norwegians prepared their national night. We begun the Norwegian national night with a lovely piece of bread topped with egg and smoked salmon. This was followed by a presentation about the Norwegian horse breeds, before we played a crossword puzzle game using facts about Norway. The code word for the crossword puzzle was recycling, so a discussion about the various practices for handling of garbage in the different countries (Czech Republic, USA, Lebanon, Italy and Norway) followed. Later, the delegates were presented for the traditional "hallingdans", which is a dance were the dancer has to kick a hat off a pole. Some Norwegian pastry (kransekakestenger and vestlandslefse) and chocolate ended the night.
Best greetings from
Catherine (USA) and Anbjørg (Norway)
—————
SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012
In the morning we cleaned 1/4 of the barn and found inside unbelievable things including a violin. Then we had 1 hour riding and Francesco and his horse Velas became one. In the afternoon we continued the cleaning of the barn and for the second time in its life the floor can see the sunlight. In the evening, we had the Lebanon national night and we had a wonderful meal with more than 7 different dishes, movies about bees preservation and a presentation about Lebanon - of its typical and most important towns and sights.
At the end, we had National Dance and some Lebanese disco music.
Holly (USA) & Frank (Italy)
—————
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012
As the past days in the camp, tasks were assigned to various groups.Some tasks from yesterday, like the saddle room and the barn cleaning, needed to be finished. So by noon every group achieved its task and split into two groups for riding.
One group went in the training field while others galloped in the prairies around the campsite. After a very tasty lunch we got back to work, into the same groups, but some people rolled the straw, others prepared new obstacles and the rest took the mission of the fire burning wood.
Some work was not completely done, but one thing we learnt is that patience is necessary to conclude the farm tasks:-)
Sarah (Lebanon) & Kuba (Czech Republic)
—————
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2012
Today, we had the new riders in our group have their first lesson. Luisa, Frank and Giovanna were scared at first but then started to enjoy it. Like every day, we also cleaned up the horse stables. In the afternoon we split into our work groups. One cleaned the tack room and painted it. They cleaned the saddles too and put cream on the leather parts.
Another group cleaned out the barn. It was really dusty! The last group started to make new horse obstacles out of logs. The swimmming pool finished filling up, but now it is very cold and we can´t swim yet. After dinner, we played hand games and sung around the campfire. Then we went to bed and had some very nice dreams:-)
Catherine (USA) + Giovanna (Italy)
—————
THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2012
After a long night by the fire yesterday, some of us would probably have prefered to sleep longer, but we all got up for breakfast at 8. Stunningly, Kuba and Frank had already been up washing the dishes from yesterday. At 9 o´clock, the experienced riders, which is the Americans and the Norwegians:-), went down to the stable. They were going on a trail ride together with the baby horses. Other less lucky participants had to muck the coral... The rest could take the morning off, sleep more, read, shower or watch hipotheraphy. The last option was a very interesting and learning option. At around 11 the trail group came back with big smiles on their faces, the trail had been wonderful. Next up on the horse back was the Lebanese girls and Martina, but in the riding arena, not on a trail.
For lunch we got fried chicken filets with vegetables. Delicious! Now it was time to do some work. We divided into three groups. Group one moved hay bales into nice rows. Group two finished the pool and fed the bees. We could finally fill the pool with water. But the pressure in the hose was very low, so we made a bet on how long it would take to fill the pool. Group three prepared wooden logs for the fences. That meant scraping of the bark in one end of the log and burning it for a while on the fire. That makes the wood hard as stone and prevents it from rotting when you put it in the ground.
Tonight was Italian night. At around half past 7 the starving participants were finally led into the dinner tent, which had turned into The Pure Breed Market, where you paid with Hhhhhorse Krowns. As a starter we got some interesting tasting small crackers. Again we were divided into three groups, with the task of buying eight products in the marked. We saw some very good movies about environmental awareness before dinner was served: parmesan, Italian pork and some fancy fried bread with Italian red wine and rose wine. Nutella and honey from the farm was also added to the table. After a long meal, it was movie time: “The Green Beautiful”. A great movie! Very funny and food for thought.
Feline (Norway) + Farah (Lebanon)
—————
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2012
We had no work at the campsite today but were driven around as real tourists. We went to South Bohemia to a farm managed by the Prague ZOO; here they take care of special horse breed: Mongolian "punk" horses which have been living here in the Czech Rapublic for about a century but will be returned to the wild nature in Mongolia soon - and also nice donkeys from Tibet (similar to the Mongolian horse, by the way).
After lunch we visited the castle Cesky Sternberk, where we got reproached for taking picture of the birds of prey exposed in the garden.
The day spent in the Czech countryside was followed by a special evening: around the fire we cooked our excellent Czech sausages, drank beer and went into the night singing over the music of the guitar.
The fire is magic as our camp life is:-)
Adele + Luisa (Italy)