Start of 2020

Start of this year has been calm. We talked with Tino to have a bit less crowd here, so there has not been new volunteers here (almost, one from last year & one couples short visit). Also there has been a couple of other visitors. Anyway nothing to compare last year... I counted about 20 workawayers, 20 long time visitors & 40 nightly guests. One other host here said as a joke that after 10 years everyone on this island Riku´s workaway.

The year also started with a big party in Lajes. I made a conscious decision to start drinking coffee and quit alcohol. Still danced like a crazy person at the party, but I think that is nothing to worry about. I had missed a good party for a long time. There was kind of parties here last year, but nothing compared to year 2018. The parties we had last year were more like dinner & small party gatherings. As one volunteer said when I was thinking there has not been a party for a long time that we had 3 parties in 3 day when he arrived and then one week we had 6 parties and they didn´t start or end that week. However those were small ones. 2018 almost every night there was a feast. So food was generally better. We had salad, main dish & something vegetarian / pescetarian every night. 2019 was a bit lazier with cooking. Well still 2019 was better by cooking standards than almost any other house I´ve been in (Tino´s house is counted as the dinner place here also, so that is not for comparison).

Everything has gotten a new gear. The game design has been on the top as Tino has been pushing me to that direction & I´ve probably rested enough to give it more energy. The artist from the other side has taken interest in drawing board. He has a nice place for drawing. I helped him by giving some building material for that. The place is really made to be a drawing studio with small good details. The fruit trees have survived mostly. After the hurricane everyone I asked were thinking that the trees were permanently dead as they seemed so. Also avocado is notoriously hard to transplant as it has very big roots. All the nespras, all the figos, all the lemon trees and quite many avocados & others have recovered in Lomba. All the trees that were standing in the up on the uplands of Faja have survived. Even ones that seemed to doomed after the first storm. The old plump trees made their first flowers, so cutting and recovering them is going also ok. Well actually I´ve been sleeping maybe too much, but I feel that this year is going to productive.

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