Dnevnik britanske študentke na Robidišču

Introduction:

We are a group of ten students and two teachers who have travelled from Bilborough College in Nottingham, England to Slovenia for three weeks. We are currently staying in Robidishce with Stasa and Simon for four days to volunteer around the village and explore the Slovenian culture. From this experience we are learning new things every day such as making traditional Slovenian food to the history of the village and its people.  

We would like to thank Stasha and Simon for letting us stay with them in Robidishce and for all of the amazing food they have cooked us. We have throrughly enjoyed staying in Robidishce and we hope our help of rebuilding walls, painting and many more jobs makes a difference in the community. We have fallen in love with the village the spectacular stories, and the beautiful mountains which surround it. We will look back and will all cherish the time we spent here.

Thursday, Day 1:

Yesterday, we had a long tiring day of trekking and when we eventually arrived at Robidishce, Stasa kindly  greeted us with some lovely pasta and tomato sauce. She also makes the best pancakes. Today, we started the hard work by volunteering to help re-build the wall and also chop down the over grown bushes beside the bench area. Laura, Vikesh, Sonja, Maggie, Jess and myself re-built the wall. It was a hard job moving the rocks but we all really enjoyed it and worked as a team. The other team were Adam, Lisa, Naomi, Walter, Matt and Emily. They worked very fast together to clear the bench area and chop down the long branches. We came back to Stasa at 1:00pm for lunch and she made us delicious risotto. The food is always the best bit. After lunch, we also helped by cutting the herbs and pulling off the leaves. Some of us re-painted the signs in Robidishce and also renovated the gallery signs on wood. The signs are all in different languages including Slovenian, English, French and Italien. This was quite challenging however interesting as we learnt new words.The best part of the day was when we all made Njoki together. Stasa taught us how to make it. Whilst some of us were pealing the potatoes, others were mashing them, some were mixing the flour eggs and potatoes, some were rolling then cutting the njoki and placing it on the tray. We had a lot of trays. Later in the evening, Stasa showed us the gallery and the history of Robidishce, the war, and how she and her husband Simon became interested in setting up a volunteering place for people all over the world to come help, visit and stay. It was really interesting to see the history as we didnt know much about Slovenia before we came. After we had dinner, we all decided to take a lovely slow walk to Italy just to say we have been there.

Friday, Day 2:

Yesterday, we didnt manage to complete the wall as some of the stones were heavy to move. Today we had more people to help us as the bench area had been completed. As we had more help, we finished re-building the wall at 12:30pm. We started at 9:30am. Fixing the wall was like doing a puzzle as we had to see what stones would fit where and make sure the rocks were stable so they didnt fall. The weather was a lot warmer than yesturday, therefore, after Stasa cooked us pizza , we all fell asleep for a little while. We continued to pick the herbs in the afternoon and also helped paint more signs around the village and the stones near the gallery with bright paints so that they stood out. Later in the evening, we all helped cook some more njoki. We had a lot to make and made a production line. Slowly we are becoming like professionals according to Stasa. She cooked the noki we made yesterday for dinner today. I have never had this before and I think now it has become one of my favourite dishes and we all shall definately be making more of njoki when we go back to England.

Two images from before & after...