If you want to do a work-camp in Iceland you have to be flexible, the weather can change very fast, but also the workcamp itself! Due to the bad weather conditions, instead of working for the Red Sand Festival, we cooperated with the municipality of our host, helping with the construction of the playground of a kindergarten and with the enlargement of the camping site. It was an occasion of learning for everyone, we gained knowledge on how to work with wood, timber and grass, using different kinds of tools (watch out for the chain-saw!). We shared the vision of our host on how to work with natural elements in order to create a stimulating environment for the children, plus a lot of stories, anecdotes and information about Icelandic culture and traditions.

It was very rewarding to see the progress of our work but we enjoyed our free time as well. With our car we explored almost all the western part of the West Fjords, taking baths in all the natural hot tubs. We saw puffins, seals and even whales, far in the middle of the fjord.

The international dinner was great and we tasted some weird but tasty Icelandic food (fish fermented with horse poo anyone?).

And of course we attended the Red Sand Festival, which had to move back and forth because of the bad weather conditions. Bad weather that we experienced too, especially an extremely strong wind when we were looking for the seal colony: but let’s be honest, if you don’t have some kind of extreme experience when you are in Iceland, can you really say you have been in here?

The group was small and we really enjoyed the company of Caroline and Ima, our French and Russian volunteers. Thanks to them and to Diego, Julia and Simona for this really nice experience and thanks to our wonderful hosts for the great time we spent together!

Alberto Giachino, SEEDS Workcamp Leader