Worldwide Friends in Hvammstangi

Concert at the Swimmingpool

2006-09-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hi all, miss you guys very much, now I am a student in university in Iceland, learning to become a landscape architect, lots of fun there. Here are some pictures from the final day of the youthfestival, hope you enjoy, I will be sending more picture soon, take care where ever you are, your friend Arnar.

Updating postponed

2006-07-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

The camp is almost over and I am trying to catch up with the last few very hectic and packed days. Its been an energetic and amazing experience here in Hvammstangi, and we would like to thank everyone involved. The blog will be updated when I am back in Denmark. xxx Thomas

Fantasia catwalk - super show!

2006-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

A packed house of 250 people

Tine starts the show of with a stunning belly dance

Fantasia - the opening of the festival!

2006-07-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Almost ready to go - stunning bodypaint!

The opening of the festival: a rock band on the roof and clowns entertaining!

Of course we have to bring the fire to Hunathing - a symbol of the festival theme.

Cooking with Brynja

2006-07-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Laure and Harumi wanted to explore Icelandic cooking with Brynja.

The menu this eveing: bread and rubarb soup. So off to the fields for fresh rubarb.

Preparing the rubarb

Happy cooking trio

A delicious table with hot sweat/sour rubarb soup.

Meetings with Arnar

2006-07-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

Enthusiastic discussion at one of the many daily meetings with Arnar.

Tracking down the local choir

2006-07-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Irene from Spain, who is involed in a a church choir in La Laguna in Catalonia, was interested in learning about the church choir of Hvammstangi.

She found Jenni from Denmark, a resident of Hvammstangi for the last 16 years. She works in the post office and is active in the church choir which is currently on summer break.

Jenni had a very intereesting perspective on the local community. In the light of many foreigners coming to Hvammstangi in the past years - she was one of the first - the community has become more open to foreign residents. The foreigners are mostly women from Scandiavia and Germany who come to work with horses - and they meet 'a guy' and decide to stay.

Work tools - traditional vs. modern technology

2006-07-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Arnar showing us a tradtional tool for cutting grass.

Irene did not quite approve of this old fashioned manual tool and jumped for the the gas powered hedge-cutter.

It was quite an energy ruch for her - she loved it!

International cooking - which food is the best?

2006-07-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Francesca, the Italian girl and Irene from Spain had decided that we needed to taste their home cooking: pasta and omelette.

This obviously provoked the French who came up with a spontanious, but serious candidate for the "best national dish"-competetion: French vine and foie gras!

Yummi! The dinner was great - all dishes blending perfectly on the plate :)

Boat trip - sailing in the fog!

2006-07-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Earlier I announced that the summer had arrived in Hvammstangi, at last! But alas, good weather in Iceland is often very brief and eratic. So of course the weather changed from a clear blue sky to dense fog in roughly 20 minutes - just before our boat trip. So we were in for a cold ride:

We saw many birds, especially the funny Icelandic puffin attracted our attention - it's a miniature penguin who thinks it can fly... it just about makes it 2-3 centimeters over the ocean before falling down again :) a very funny sight! The grand pirze for the cold chilling trip was a whale sighting, a sleek gray body too fast for this cameraman (read: my hands were deep in my pockets, keeping warm :)

Another cultural encounter between the French and the Japanese!

Hiking over a mountain :)

2006-07-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

It was time for some hiking – or as it turned out, a 5 hour shortcut to Hvammstangi taking us over the mountain!

The trip had a dramatic start: we met a herd of horses who ‘stormed’ towards us:

And what did we do, as naïve city people? PANIC! Were these creatures going to push us over the rim of the cliff, and plunge us into a 30 meter fall-of-death? AAAARRRGHHH. The ‘horsies’ were in fact just curious, in a somewhat overwhelming up-in-your-face-let-me-smell-you way. And thanks to Laure, the French girl who was brave enough to confront these animals calmly, we didn’t jump off the cliff in panic! And off they were, the horses and the city people with pounding hearts, reminded of what nature is all about.

Beautiful scenery!

Why is Iceland not Greenland and vice versa?

Oh yes…snow in the midst of summer! After a short exchange of ice and snowballs we continued our hike.

A strange and eerie landscape on the top of the mountain.

An amazing sunset greets us in Hvammstangi!

Seals - fat and bulky, yet rather cute!

2006-07-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

As soon as we spotted the seals the group, as good zoologists, imitated the lazy attitude of the seals. We hung around in a sleepy trance for quite a while.

However, some wanted to get even closer and this required new tactics – the seal stance par excellence! :

Hmm… what a Kodak moment!

Icelandic snack!

2006-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Next stop was some rather interesting fish

– a local delicacy, you hang up your fish to dry until they look like this:

And then you eat them, yum!

HOT spring

2006-07-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our first stop on our day-trip Saturday was a natural hotspring at the coast. The icelandic weather was showing off - great sunshine! The spring ends in the sea where cold water meets hot water.

Arnar was an enthusiastic example and got in the water as the first.

The hesitating foreigners clumped together, got their feet in followed by a mix of screaming: ‘ouch, hot hot hot!’ and pleasant humming: ‘mmmm’.

Some were chicken… some were just out right crazy going in that boiling hot water!

Planning the festival

2006-07-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

There are lots of planning to do regarding the festival, which starts Wednesday. Both international and local groups are having meetings with each other planning everything from the bodypaint on the catwalk to the art-workshop for kids and the evening in the old fortress, Borgarvirki
- "who knows how to make torches?"

Fun in the youth center!

2006-07-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are staying in Hvammstangi together with another international group. The two workcamps live together and do the same work. We are getting to know eachother and to introduce ourselves we had an evening together in the local youth center to play some games, hang out and dance.

Guessing lies and truths about eachother - "are your feet really two different sizes?", "does he actually sing medieval songs back home in Belgium?"

Getting close!

Learning french traditional dances.

Looking for Bangsi

2006-07-25T08:08:00.001-07:00

Harumi and Alejandra wanted to interview Bangsi - the old man in town.
Jon, the local volunteer translator, helped to find him.
We looked in the harbour, where Bangsi has his boat - but no luck.

Then we walked through the mist up the mountain behind town - Jon got a hint that he could be in his little house up there.

And there he was! We were invited inside in the only room of the house.

~

It was a very cosy place with lots of things on the walls, a small bed, a place to cook and a fireplace. The room had a fantastic view of the fjord and mountains on the other side and it was in this setting Bangsi told us about his youth and his life now (still fishing in spite of his age) which has been lived in Hvammstangi all the years.

Bangsi has worked for many years, especially fishing and keeping sheep, and Harumi and Alejandra noticed the difference in age and amount of manual work between them and him - here Alejandra and Bangsi are comparing their hands.

The garden is taking shape!

2006-07-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

(the blog has been quite delayed due to server problems! updates are on their way!)

Friday:
We are lucky with the weather – its keeping dry and we are making great progress in the garden.

Cleaning the fountain – hopefully we will be able to paint it soon!

Hugo is living out an old dream of handling power tools!

Some of the particpants discovered old rocks next to the fountain underneath the grass. Arnar was very surpised and happy for this unforseen ‘treasure’. A woman working at the gas station told us that she used to play on these rocks when she was a kid – everything has a story in this small community!

Midway-thoughts from Hvammstangi

2006-07-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

I ask myself: what makes us spend our holiday in July in this tiny icelandic village, waking up early every morning to a shower smelling like eggs, walk through the cold fog to do manual labour in the garden of Hvammstangi – VOLUNTARILY?

Maybe it has to do with the charm of being on the bumpy road with Arnar or one of our other local friends driving towards a hot spring or getting close to the local seals, while the (maybe not existing) traditions of kissing on the cheek is eagerly discussed on the backseat between the french and japanese.
It could have to do with the satisfaction of pulling off a big piece of grass, which has been really stubborn, from the hidden rocks underneath, in the garden where we work? Or just to be between people working enthusiasticly in that garden to make it look nice for the inhabitants of Hvammstangi?
To meet the bartender Þorvaldur over a local drink and hear about his life and work on a Saturday night…?
It also has to do with the relief and happy expressions in the faces of any nationality, when we finally understand what we are actually talking about!
What about the beauty of the sunset over the mountains in the horizon, the sight of a whale (which I missed – damn!) or the landscape around here with its green hills, waterfalls, horses and yellow flowers?
The possiblity to get to know Brynja and Binni, our local hosts, who make us feel so welcome, teach us about icelandic food and life and make sure that we are definately not hungry after the day’s work?
It may be the bubbling and busy activity of festival planning: creative ideas being hatched and curious questions for the locals being asked?
Maybe the reason why we’re here is the eagernes to enjoy and share experiences with this international group as well as the people here in Hvammstangi who are also working hard to realise the festival bringing life and new input to town.

Most of us have a cold and will definately not suntan this summer, but so what?
This is the whole Hvammstangi-experience.

By Tine from Denmark

Summer in Hvammstangi!

2006-07-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Yes! Its 21 degrees outside, blue sky, hardly any wind and we are excited about the Icelandic summer - it arrived, finally :) We are going on a boat trip this afternoon with some local fishermen, hopefully we will catch some fish for supper! The blog is a bit delayed, but I will update it this evening and tomorrow. You will get a status on the gardening work, an interesting talk with one of Hvammstangi oldest men and details about our wonderful day out yesterday where we saw seals and hiked over a mountain!

Workcamp location

2006-07-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

This is where the workcamp is located: Hvammstangi!

Haurumis first impression of Hvammstangi

2006-07-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Harumi from Japan. When I arrived in Hvammstangi, I was so surprised! Because it was so cold like a Japanese winter! But after that I saw very wonderful, beautiful and nice landscape :) As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with Hvammstangi. Particularly I love the landscape which can be seen from the school's entrance. On Wednesday we went to the north beach to pick up garbage and there we saw some hotsprings. It reminded me of hotsprings in Japan. There the hotsprings are found around natural rocks - they are very beautiful because you can see the sea and the sunset while being in the water. It made me want to jump in but the water was not deep enough. Hopefully I will be able to do it later!

Anyway - by grace of the people who live in Hvammstangi, I am enjoying this camp! Particularly Papa and Mama (Brynja and Benni), I love you!

Trip to Borgarvirki

2006-07-21T00:35:00.000-07:00

Workcamps are not just about the work. It's a great chance to enjoy the surrounding nature. Today Arnar, our local host, took us to Borgarvirki - a viking fortress situated on a hill providing excellent views:

And yes... it was quite windy!

This crazy group... :)

Borgarvirki will be transformed next week during the festival where it will be lit up with hundreds of torches and candles and taken over by 'monks' chanting old Icelandic songs. Can't wait!

The leaders of the workcamp!

2006-07-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

Tine and Thomas from Denmark: Beware - aproach with caution!

I, Thomas, am the only blog writer so far. The rest of the group will blog later!

Exploring Hvammstangi!

2006-07-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

The participants have been challenged by a new task: They have to go out in the local community, investigate and experience the local culture. And produce articles for the local festival and the town website. Hugo, formerly known as Bruno, and the belgium philospher, Yves, went to the Wool Factory to interview a worker about her work life. She presented a tough story about globalisation: she survived a hard outsourcing proces where the staff last year was reduced from 20 workers to 6 because jobs were moved to Lithuania. However, the community was very strong and supportive and helped everyone into new jobs - a very positive twist! The article will be posted here later - other participants will interview one of Hvammstangis oldest citizens, experience Icelandic cooking and get in contact with the drama society and the local choir.

The work place is almost empty, some of the work desks seem untouched since they were abandoned a year ago.

The machines are working on their own!

Relaxing after a long days work!

2006-07-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Refueling energi: the Icelandic way! Soothing hot pots of 40 degrees and a clear blue sky - what more can you ask for?

Environmental work

2006-07-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the participants were cleaning the local beaches - today they were restoring the oldest garden in town established some 50 years ago. They were clearing the old fountain, moving stones, cutting hedges while singing and chanting - spirits are high!

Dinner with Brynja and Binni - a cultural encounter :)

2006-07-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

We are so fortunate to have a new mother and father! Brynja cooks delicious Icelandic food for us at lunch and dinner every day. Binni was once the Mayor of Hvammstangi and has many interesting stories to tell. He has studied in Norway and is able to translate Brynjas Icelandic into Norwegian, making it possible for the two danish leaders to establish communication. Dinnertime is also a great occasion for exploring each others cultural backgrounds. F.x whether or not cool drinks are bad for your health, Harumi from Japan is convinced that it is not good for her due to her upbringing in an Asian medicin culture! Feet size has also been a topic sparking long discussions!

Expectations are high!

2006-07-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

The participants spent the first morning in Hvammstangi talking about their expecations towards the work, the sparetime, each other and the leaders. They want their work to be relevant for the local community and they hope that they can see the results of their efforts right away. They hope to work in a atmosphere of respect, tolerance and curiosity towards each others different backgrounds and talents.

Playing music!

2006-07-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

The group is practicing for their music performance at the youth festival.

2006-07-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

The local host, Arnar, shows us around in Hvammstangi.

Playing games

2006-07-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

Getting to know each other!

Travelling to Hvammstangi

2006-07-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

A beautiful trip through the eerie Icelandic landscape!