Workaway in the colourful Gipsy Village

The weather is sunny and hot again, it is late afternoon and the dogs are barking. Men of different ages stand in the meadows and carry wood around. We wait a bit by a fireplace until Nikita shows up. He is responsible for the farm at this place. This place... maybe we describe it a bit first.

We are in Assureti, or Elisabethtal. This is an old German settlement from the 19th century (also, apparently Stalin's wife came from this settlement, or her family... until three years ago everything here was called Stalin Street, now Schwabenstraße). The old German farm, now called Gipsy Village, lies outside everything in a small valley. Two Russians want to open a kind of eco-style glamping site here sometime in the near future. But it's not that there yet. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people here. About half of them are Russian workers. They help to build teepees, to finish the pool or to carry wood around the area. Why so many Russians? Because of the war. They don't support Putin, they don't want to have anything to do with him and his war, they want to be able to say openly that there is a war in Ukraine, not a conflict.

The other half is here via Workaway, so they are all volunteers who work 4-5 hours a day for accommodation and food. This is provided 3 times a day. Natalia, a Colombian woman who travels with her husband on bicycles, provides lunch and dinner. They have been in Gipsy Village for a few months, last winter they spent half a year in Turkey. When she hears that we both speak Spanish, we are already part of her family. We always help her with the cooking during the week, one weekend we even make arepas together - a Colombian national dish made of cornmeal with tomato salsa. Luca felt a bit like he did on his Erasmus semester and for Natalia it was a piece of home.

A day in the life as a volunteer

Our tasks are different every day. It falls to the volunteers to either make breakfast, help Natalia at lunch or dinner, or do the dishes. And that's a lot more work than it seemed at the beginning. We have to cook for about 20-30 people, there is no real oven, drinking water has to be brought in from a spring almost every day, the electricity fails regularly, the tap water (which should only be used for washing) also fails, the kitchen is outside and has to be defended from the dogs, people want meat, but there is hardly any (as a vegan, for once I am apparently NOT the most demanding or strenuous person here when it comes to food, what a relief :D), but there are always fresh vegetables from the garden.

While that sounds wonderful (I still think it was excellent) it also means that people who don't care much for vegetables now have to eat zucchini and cabbage almost every day. And in all kinds of forms: from soup to grilled vegetables, from zucchini bread to cake, pasta and at some point it will even be made into lemonade. The supply seems endless, so the imagination has to keep up.

If we are off kitchen duty, we start work at about 7:00 am. The sun is already in the sky, but thanks to the surrounding mountains it is not yet burning down on us. We work in the garden. Once again, that means mainly weeding, or ploughing up fields, cutting and gathering grass/hay, pulling up tomato plants, planting new seedlings, repotting or reseeding. But above all, weeding. By 11 a.m. at the latest, it's so hot that we stop again. By then we are sweaty enough to bathe in the small lagoon formed by the river at the edge of the site.

There is also a pool here, but the river is much more pleasant, it´s in the shade and the water is cooler. Of course, the pool is not completely ignored. Especially at night, when it's already dark and the water is still warm, it's super inviting... or if you need to cool down after the sauna (yes, the site has its own sauna!). Anyway, we always have an excellent lunch afterwards and sometime between 4 and 5 we work in the field for another 2 hours or so. It can also happen that after harvesting all the zucchinis, or basil or something, we can preserve the stuff, turn it into pesto, or dry it, pickle it or somehow creatively try to make it last as long as possible. In the end, there are kilos of sauerkraut, kohlrabi hung up as garlands, zucchinis dried as chips...

The workaway volunteers

We spend our free time either relaxing by the river, singing together by the fire in the evening, or in some hammock. The other volunteers are all super nice and exciting. There is Dice, a Japanese man who left over a year ago. He only has a small backpack and travels from one workaway to the next and has no interest in returning to the "matrix" of Tokyo. Kira, also a long-term traveller, who came here from Berlin with her boyfriend and the bus. He is in Germany at the moment and she uses the time to shoot an interview with us about Frank. Frank Zunk describes himself as a peace activist, is 46 and has been travelling by bicycle for 2 years. He is making the journey in the name of "Peace and international understanding" and his goal is to arrive at the Peace Park in Hiroshima in 2025. Luca gives tips and together we film him a bit as he tells his story.

There is also Sam, a Dutchman who wanted to travel before he graduated and is attacked once by a dormouse, Ilke, who was in India before and did her yoga training, Antoine and Génola who are both on the road by bike (we want to meet them again in Iran, at the moment they are in Kyrgyzstan), Jutta and Lukas, who also have a bus but are leaving it here to do a bike tour through Armenia (and are especially looking forward to winter in the mountains), Anton, a 22-year-old German who has been working here for a few weeks as a carpenter, Max, a Russian friend of the two who run the farm (Nikita and Anna) and who should have just received his residence permit in Ukraine, and Erin, a 28-year-old American who has taken 8 months to see the countries that interest her most. Georgia for a few more weeks, then South Korea, before that she was in London. She has by far the most workaway experience, this one being her 10th.

There are also some from Russia working here to implement the accommodation for the guests. Talking to them is more difficult because not all of them speak English so well. Compared to the Turkish hospitality, they seem much cooler and more reserved, but after a few days this all breaks down. Deniz from Belarus sits by the fire with us every day and heats the sauna with Vlad whenever we ask for it. Paul and his wife Alice are absolute fans of Luca and want to sing more and more together and watch him fly.

With Maxim, who takes care of the ATVs here, they then also ride together on the surrounding mountains and Luca tries to fly a bit. For marketing, for the people, but mainly for fun. Max No. 2 is only here for a few weeks before he will fly to Israel to try to get his passport changed. He has dual nationality and wants to leave Russia behind. He also speaks good English and walks with us through Assureti to organise wine and the local liquor ChaCha in some Georgian woman's cellar. There is Gleb, who manages everything a bit, Kamo, who is from Armenia and actually doesn't know any English, but nevertheless ALWAYS talks to everyone very loudly and a lot and laughs by far the most.

And then, of course, there are Nikita and Anna. Last but not least! The two of them take care of the farm and the volunteers. They started here a little over a year ago, have the two nicest dogs you can imagine, an insane patience and creativity.

Anna can explain everything in the garden, with a calmness and absolutely non-judgemental. No question you ask seems too stupid and she patiently shows you everything and explains why you should do what and how. They both have a vast knowledge of all vegetables and fruits, but also of watering, overwintering and processing. They also both love to play board games, or any kind of game for that matter. Nikita has even made his own version of Brändi Dog, which everyone calls the "marble game" and is addictive. So we often spend the evenings playing together around a table.

Lucas birthday:

Actually, we wanted to move on after 2 weeks, but spontaneously decide to stay a few days longer: It's Luca's birthday. We organised wine and ChaCha from the village. Bianca went mulberry picking to bake a cake. Nikita and Anna were also creative and came up with a scavenger hunt. Luca was surrounded by curious people in the middle of the field and had to solve riddles. For the first one, he jumps confidently into the pool and discovers a pack of socks at the bottom.

The second riddle is already more difficult. He finds the apple trees but not the gift. It turns out that the owner of the property is visiting at the moment. And he saw a red metal box hanging in the tree and probably thought to himself "oh how nice, that's for me"... Nikita is able to solve this and reclaim the box full of chocolates. However, it is no longer as full as it should have been... The third riddle leads us to the edge of the farm into a precipice. Luca bravely climbs down the slope through trees and gets hold of two bottles of sparkling wine. A complete success! In the evening, everyone shares the cake, the alcohol and the good mood around the fire. We even play "Werewolves" - despite all the language barriers.

It is not easy to say goodbye. It was nice to share this day and all the others before and to get to know each other. It was nice to go on excursions together at the weekends and to understand Georgian culture better with the help of Russians. It was nice to be able to learn so much and take so much with us.

Maybe we won't see the Gipsy Village again, maybe we will, in any case we'll stay in touch 😊