Slowly we absorb the awesomeness of this place, surely we build relations to people and animals, with gratitude we wake up in the mornings, walk through our days and sleep in the nights.
Af Cecilie Felumb Conrad | December 15, 2018
The week 48, end of november, we landed in a place, we could not have imagined. Mon la Bassa is an animal rescue center, vegan style, and an alternative school, hippie style. As we have been traveling in the bus for six weeks, we have experienced this many times: The feeling, this is so amazing, is it really true, is it really happening. The spectacle in Toulouse, the music in Paris, the river in Belgium, the whole Zwolle experience in the Netherlands, all has been so vibrant, so overwhelming, such an adventure. Yet, we are not used to it. We still feel completely blown away by the fact, we are right here, right now. As I write this text, we have spent two weeks here, and so many insights, relations, feelings has presented themselves, and I know, there is still so much more to take in. I shall do my best as to share in the small texts following the many pictures.
The week in short: Places, projects, people.
Monday: Schoolday (not for us, but in our context). All the wonderful local hippies came with their children, the school opened, and we got to meet the founder and the teachers and the children. We had lunch with the children and got to play on the playground, and enjoy the wonderful people and all the animals: The parrot, the canaries, the chickens, the peacocks, the pigs, the dogs, the cats, the otter, the lamb, the baby-goat, all living in the house and inner yard, playing with the children. Amazing.
In the evening, we went to wash our clothes and buy food and birthday presents. The darkness, not cold, the biking, the streets, the buildings, even the laundry: It is great to do stuff together all of us, and we had fun.
Tuesday: Jespers birthday. We were the englishclass, answering questions and sharing ideas of our life with the teachers and children – and showed them our home, and enjoyed again the animals as we had lunch in the yard with the rest of the school.
In the evening Liv came to visit us, and it felt so gooood.
Wednesday: was just a wonderful day. We wanted to show Liv everything: all the animals, the ways of the bus, the school project, we are living in. It was intense, and meaningful. The children got to spend a lot of time with their sister, playing, talking, drawing, writing stories.
We would have prefered to take our oldest daughter / big sister with us at this adventure. But as she has her own wonderful amazing life, we are of course grateful. We want her to be happy and she is. This question of how to balance our dreams of spending at least winters in a more welcoming climate, our wanderlust that makes it hard for us to stay put, and our love for friends and family. Liv just moved out of home a few months before we left, and we are now looking for how to be parents, while we don’t live together and while one part is traveling. It is not easy. But it is a part of life, we have to learn, having children who are grown up.
One lesson already learned, is we feel very sure to keep unschooling the ones, who are still children. We want to share life with them, spend our time with them, learn and live with them. That is the best life for them, and for us.
Thursday: One more day with Liv, happy, happy and intense. Just hanging out at Mon La Bassa.
Friday: More sunshine, more music, a beautiful morning, and an intense goodbye to Liv. We cried a lot, I must admit it. It is not easy. The day continued, though, with organizing of our stuff, cleaning, helping with the animals, spending time with the schoolkids, walking the dogs. Life is meaningful here, beautiful. And we are so grateful to be able to get to know some of all these wonderful people, dig into the project and learn all there is to know. We are working to learn to speak spanish, to understand the history and political situation of Catalunia, to understand the situation for homeschoolers in spain, and to understand our own traveling project – and to just work with it, improving the bus and the practical and aestethic life in it.
During the weekend, we enjoyed the sun at Mon La Bassa, got to help with the animals, witch is such meaningful work. We also created an outdoor sewing workshop and created curtains for the front end of the bus, so Jesper can work in a more private area. It is a great feeling to adjust our home and it is a lot of fun to invent ways of living in this tiny, yet perfect place. We also went to the piscina municipale to get a shower, and to swim, and to have fun. We do have a shower in the bus, but this is so much more fun.
Well, for the rest the pictures will tell the story of how we landed in Mon la Bassa. For more info, go to monlabassa.org
Week 49 – Buslife reflections