Recovering our belongings by pieces

I can´t think of the time we had in the house in the middle of the forest and close to the sea as a bad time. Was emotionally hard, of course, but we couldn´t do anything and so trying to enjoy the place.

This was the third week of January and we didn´t have jackets nor towels. The coordinator of the volunteers brought us some board games, we cooked together and had a TV for the first time in our time in the UK. We talked a lot about what we were experiencing, about our feelings, and what was still supposed to come (if a pandemic hadn´t come).

On the second day, they did an urgent washing with some of our clothes but, as we were seven, some received underwear, others a towel or the jacket. So we decided to share our jackets and have all the opportunity to go out of the house. Of course, I went to the beach for a walk.

We also had some visitors from our organization. All of them were bringing some boxes with our staff already disinfected with the bedbugs products. Everything was mixed in the box so it was like opening Christmas presents: let´s see if I well behaved and have something. Every day a new gift and every day someone looking after us.

Then it was also time for Flavia´s announcement: she was going to finish her volunteer placement earlier than she should. Not a tragedy but sad to say goodbye.

On the second day, someone from our organization came to pick Sabine and me and going to the nearest village to search for a laundry in order to wash our clothes. We spent over four hours using six washing machines and five dryers. We didn´t stop a second and still there were four more full bags left when it closed. But most of our clothes got clean and everyone had something. We went back home and put all the clean ones in the living room. We had such a big mountain of clothes and lots of fun. And you may say, hey, this is so stupid situation, why are you having fun?, and yes, you are right, but when you don´t have anything, it´s better to turn it into laughs. We all sat down around the mountain and started to separate it. Pants, t-shirts, and swimsuits flew everywhere. As there were more beds than people were there, we put our clothes in the ones that no one was using, turned them out into our personal wardrobes.

One of our four shoe shops ;)

We also received all our shoes but were still wet because of the product they used to make sure no bedbugs remain alive. We put them in the corridors close to the radiators. It was like a shoe shop.

And so the days went by watching movies, writing on Lenka´s blog in our own languages (and getting angry with the keyboard of her Czech laptop because we couldn´t find the letters to express what we wanted) and doing little trips around the area. Not that much but all we had. And that was great!