The Camp Diary for 2005

Sunday 31st of July

Marjolein and Jaqueline from Belgium,

Vera from Russia, Astrid and Felix from Germany, Massimo from Italy, Anita from Austria, Elisabeta from Slovenia and Piia from Finland are this years happy campers.

The Europa Tour arriving at the same

time as the coordinators Felix and Piia added some extra excitement to

camp leader Minnas day. We got the

Camp started on Sunday and Carina

welcomed us at the Emmaus.

Monday 1st of August

On Monday we found out how much

work we will have. As Carina told us

on Sunday one hour work at Emmaus

equals one day in prison.;)

At the evening we went to the local

parlament to learn about Åland. Our

most newly arrived campers Vera and

Anita got lost on the way back to

home, but they were saved by a

sweet local boy. Hurray!

Tuesday 2nd of August

We did some hard work and after

that some girls cycled away to find

sauna in the middle of the forest.

They found the way back.

Vera prepared delicious chicken

for dinner. Some people were not

sure to do the catwalk but after

watching the DVD –last summer

fashion show- everybody started

to think about it. Massimo prepared

surprise- foam party in the washing

machine.

Wednesday 3rd august   

We continued the sorting work and had energy from the Massimo´s pasta and Massimo´s pizza. It was really good food, so we worked hard. The evening was excellent, after a bike tour we went to a traditional smoke sauna to relax.

Thursday 4th August

Today has been the hardest working day from when we arrived. We had a big problem: to unload as much bags full of cloths as we can from the container to the rear of the shop.

But we had also to choose the most suitable cloths to be wore during the fashion show (that is very near). Fortunately the day ended very good. In fact carina invited all we to her beautiful house, where she cooked

fish for us. We finished the visit

with a wonderful ice cream spotted with a lot of blueberries that we

picked up in the forest near her

house.

Friday 5th August

Today people brought again a lot of staff to Emmaus and we couldn’t hardly find a way out of the hall after work. It was very sunny, so some people sorted outside again. In our lunch-break some of us visited “Byggreturen”, that’s a second-hand-market for every kind of material you need in case of building a house in a cheap way. After dinner we had the “Present your Country” evening.It was really interesting, but we were soooo tired that some of us needed in between a little nap.

Saturday 6th of August

We got up before noon on Saturday. Emmaus had rented for us a brand new van. We went to the Kastelholm castle and had picnic in the nearby open air museum. Afterwards we saw the remains of the Russian fortress near by. However, the berries there were more attractive to us then the historic monuments. Finally we visited the multi-religious soldier graveyard where we found cows and old gravestones. Afterwards we rushed back to Sjökvarteret to setup the benches for the Hiroshima evening. There was a strong wind blowing so we had a hard time to light up the candles.

When all the candles were sent into the sea it became dark and we went to a pub on a boat and tasted Åland’s beer selection.

Sunday 7th of August

This morning Minna and Felix got up quite early. And bake bread, bullar (Finnish sweet rolls), banana cake and apple pie. This time the yeast dough worked out well. However, as we wanted to leave earlier then the day before, Minna had to rush to catch our van to Carina’s summer cottage.

On the car, first we had to fish the Hiroshima remembrance candles out of the sea. Felix took a swim to get the farthest ones. After that cold adventure (the weather was not really nice) we went to Britt-Marie’s summer cottage. On the way, we stepped out to climb on a tower with a wonderful few over the islands. And after that we had another stop just to visit the highest hill of Åland, where the ice dwarfs live.

Britt-Marie expected us with her nice dog Zak, which was full of energy and life. He obvious was very happy that he found so many mates to play. Weather got nicer every minute and so the cottage presented itself in a golden evening light. First we had coffee, tea and our wonderful cakes. After that, the sauna was hot enough to be used. Some prepared the food for the barbeque, some went for a sleep, others gathered some raspberries for the desert, and some went straight into the sauna.

Britt-Marie and her husband Nils showed us round, and explained the history of the house, which is a traditional summer cottage on the sea side, very nice and cosy, beautiful restored.

Time was running very quick, and after the diner, which was really delicious, and washing the dishes very quick, we had to bring the rented minibus back. After we already had got one extra hour as a gift.

Monday 8th of August

This was the day to load the container to be sent to Peru. We were so fast that it was done before the lunch! It started to rain. Many things in life happen once to be for the first time in life so we had fun eating under the umbrellas.

Tuesday 9th of August

After a full day of work we had

the first rehearsal of the fashion show. So the day was very looooong about 12 hours! We tried to look good like movie stars but still felt like changing some clothes.

Wednesday 10th of August

After dinner we were so sleepy but also curious how this popular relaxing place look like. So we went there and had lots of fun as we didn´t know how to get water out of the shower-like forest people:).

We experienced sauna (it was not that hot) and we were encouraged enough to enter the mixed one too. You should hear the screams in tobogan. After swiming in warm water some people just jumped in the sea. What a feeling!

Thursday 11th of August

The second and last chance for rehearsal. You can do it! Yes you can. We have recieved guidence: Today it can look like a complete mess, tomorrow everything will be o.k. If you forget your steps in last minute, Perva -our coreographer will be there to help you. Smile to people, head up, you are important for the audience, nobody knows you on the island so forget about shame! That was exactly what we needed to listen to.

Lady in red	Dancing boots

La vita e bella	IFK team will show you the muscles

Excitement before going on stage in front of hundreds of people

Friday 12th of August

Cleaning the courtyard, final work with tents, stage, kitchen equipment, colorful lightbulbs, checking if all the clothes are on the right place. I was easy to hear some voices from the kitchen like: Can you trust me Vera? and she replied: No, no, no, Massima!  It was the discussion about how big or small the cubes of carrots and potatoes should be. Long break to prepare ourselves and return back to grill and cook sausages, and sell the coffee and some baked goods.Time passed away very quickly and all of us were just in the backstage room. No time to be nervous! We were satisfied with performance of our team and happy to see everybody shinning like a star. We cleaned the place like our group was certifyed to do work well in short time. Of course we deserved a party in town. Take the shoes off and dance in African rythms. Vera gave everybody Russian gifts and left the island in the middle of the night. Men have to put that elixir in tea otherwise it can be too strong.

Saturday 13th of August

Weekend! Lets go to finish the work - few details to reach the perfection. We decided to go for a football match in green & white clothes. IFK Mariehamn tried his best and Haka won. Our last dinner was composed of smoked salmon and long fish-ail, shrimps, rice and orange mushrooms, buckwheat, different kind of salads. 2005 camp logo was finished too.

Jacqueline is leaving too.

Sunday 14th of August

Sleeping long and some Tvårsan house cleaning. We decided to look for some couches in Stockholm and Turku. Late at night we had workshop about spending the night in apartment of people we don´t know. CD burning! Huraaa, now we have all photos!