Cav's Place

In the early hours of March 15, I got ready for the morning and managed to eat dinner a little earlier, between 2:40 AM and 3:15 AM, and then I also shaved before getting in bed, at 4:15 AM, and actually managing to fall asleep pretty quickly, so I slept for about an hour and a half until the alarm rang, at 6 AM, and I got up. Then I ate some yogurt with quite a lot of oats, added a couple more things in the backpack, and left at 7:15 AM. I didn’t jog at all on the way to the metro station and when I got there I realized that I should have, since a metro had just left and then I waited some eight minutes for the next one. But it wasn’t a problem, so after reaching Victory Square I even went around and used that better public toilet from that area to pee again before reaching the parking lot a little after 7:50 AM. We had been told to arrive at 7:45 AM, but the buses were supposed to leave at 8 AM and I climbed in one where a coordinator was just saying something, so he also confirmed that it was one of the buses that went to the tree planting and I took a seat, the bus leaving a little after 8:05 AM, with less than two thirds of the seats occupied and nobody sitting next to me. So I put on the headphones, pulled out The Dark Defiles and read pretty much all the way, just writing my name and signing the list when it reached me. I should have probably at least started the book before then, starting it on a bus, on very little sleep, close to two and a half years after reading the previous one in the series not being the best idea, but I couldn’t do much about it at that point…
Either way, this time around we were planting in the Bucov Botanical Garden and we got there a little after 9:30 AM, and after walking to the actual planting location it was nice to see that those who had signed those lists on the bus didn’t have to sign something else after getting there as well, and when it came to the kit, since each item was offered separately, I just took the gloves, since I have plenty of reusable bottles and those things that go on the neck and vests didn’t seem to be available anymore. There was a stack of vests there, but I heard one of the volunteers say that those were for those who were there with their companies and when I asked about the blue ones I was told that they were out of them since there had been many children, including Scouts, and they were given to them first. Moments later, that volunteer got back to me and said that I could take one of the other vests after all, but I waved the idea away, saying that it wasn’t raining or muddy. And then I took two bananas, two of the small packs of biscuits and two apples and put a teabag and water that was from one of the heaters but wasn’t even warm into the reusable bottle which I had taken with me. There were boxes of some other things to munch on under the tables, but I knew that I didn’t like the ingredients of those, so I didn’t try to take any, eating the bananas, albeit after replacing one with a somewhat less green one that I spotted when I had another look in the box, and the biscuits and holding on to the apples and the tea. Later, on my way to the area that the regular volunteers had been assigned to, I saw a few boxes of those nicer biscuits on the back of one of the vans, but they seemed empty and I couldn’t spot any more right away, so I didn’t take a closer look.
But I’m skipping ahead, so I’ll go back a little and mention that the speech started at 10:05 AM and, after the group picture, it was a few minutes after 10:30 AM when we could get to work. We were told to work in pairs, but I obviously had no intention of doing that, so I took a spade and hoped that nobody would approach me and ask to form a team while I listened to the instructions given by the coordinators from that area and then got ready to start and, fortunately, nobody did.
It was almost 10:50 AM when I actually started working, and the ground was soft, so it was easy to dig, and the fact that the spots weren’t marked and we were asked to plant the saplings a spade’s length apart wasn’t a surprise anymore… But I probably planted the first six saplings on the wrong row, since the area assigned to regular volunteers was split in six, signs stating which kind of three should go there were only at the end of some of the rows, and after taking those saplings I walked for a while, looking for a row that nobody else was working on, and I guess that I must have moved to another row while doing so, probably in order to go around someone else, and then didn’t get back to the correct row. Seeing as, in most cases, the only indication regarding what should be planted on a row was what was in the bucket placed at the end of it and those buckets weren’t even at the end of each section and could obviously be moved by anyone, it’s also possible that I had actually planted those correctly and someone had switched buckets by the time I went to get more, meaning that I possibly planted others wrong instead, but since others had started from the other end of that row and planted saplings that were obviously different, and they planted more of them, mine do seem to have been the wrong ones.
Either way, after planting those six I dug a seventh hole and then left my spade there and went to get more saplings… Only to find my spade gone and a sapling planted in that hole by the time I got back, so I went back to look for another free spade and when I got back and happened to mention that somebody seemed to have snatched my spade, a woman who was working in that area said that she had, since it seemed discarded. She left it there after that, but I already had another, so I no longer needed that one. And later, as I was looking for more spots to plant in, at one point even asking the coordinator to point me to one but basically being told to just look around on my own, I found several holes which had been dug without anything being planted there yet and planted in one before continuing to dig on my own, so I clearly planted 25 trees by the time I stopped, at 1:05 PM, counting the hole that I didn’t get to plant in and the sapling planted in somebody else’s hole as one when put together. And I did my best to avoid making more mistakes, but I know that some buckets had been moved, and at one point I asked a coordinator what should be on a row that had no bucket and took his answer to be correct even if the bucket with those saplings was on the next one, so I can’t be sure.
It had been announced that lunch was going to start being served at 1:30 PM, but I hadn’t taken any break until then, really needed to pee, and the toilets were quite some distance away, so I walked there, wanting to also drink the tea on the way, since I hadn’t touched it until then either. However, the teabag had torn inside the bottle, so I tried to filter what I could through my teeth, spitting a few times and eventually spilling what was left on the bottom. And a tiny piece of the bottle’s clasp had somehow broken while I worked and, if I had managed to make it stay in its place until then even so, it apparently fell at some point while I walked and I only realized it after finally reaching the toilets and hanging the bottle and the gloves in a tree that was there, and I couldn’t spot it when I made my way back, so I couldn’t hang the bottle on my belt again. But the first problem was that tea dust that was left in it, so when I passed by a table with some water jugs, I used some water from one to rinse it. And then, when I reached the water tank with a spigot, I also washed the bottle on the outside a little before washing my hands. And it was nice of them to offer that option to wash, though I’d have still wanted a way to do so right after using the toilet as well.
Either way, even if I made those two stops on the way back and also walked slowly while trying to drink that tea and making an attempt to look for that fallen clasp, the fact that it was almost 1:30 PM when I reached the “base” area should prove just how far the toilets were. And lunch wasn’t just already being served, but pretty much every seat was already taken at the tables, so I got another tea, that time asking the volunteer to put the water, which was actually really hot, in the bottle, since the heater’s spigot was on her side, and finding later that she hadn’t filled it, then I also grabbed an alcohol-free radler and put it in the backpack, meaning to give it to my mother, and took lunch, along with two buns. It was unpleasant that lunch came in boxes, in plastic things, one for the main course and another for the salad, and the buns were also packaged, and they were also of low quality and with ingredients that would have normally made me to stay well away, since they included sugar and “vegetable fats”, without specifying that they weren’t hydrogenated, which generally makes me assume that they are. But, while I eventually managed to find a place to sit at a table where two women and the daughter of one of them had struck a chat and when the girl said that she didn’t want the rest of her food the other woman asked to take it, to give it to her dogs, which also reminded me of the fact that a dog shelter was just next to the botanical garden and at least the leftover meat could be given there, even more unpleasant was how much food so many others once again threw away, as you can also see in the pictures I took that day. And people also put any kind of trash in any bin, but in that case I also blame the organizers, because that day even I had a hard time figuring out which bins were for recyclables and which for other things.
A strange thing was that Andrei, as in the president of the NGO who organized the event, had clearly announced that they had too much food and asked people to not be shy and ask for more if they want it, so they won’t be left with it, yet after I finished that serving, only holding on to the second bun, and actually went back to take another, the volunteer who was there told the woman who did the same just ahead of me that she couldn’t give her more… So that woman just grabbed another serving of the main course by herself and walked away. But I asked the volunteer again, and when she said that she had been told that she shouldn’t offer a second serving I stepped away for a while, asking again after another person just took another serving and walked away and yet again being told that she had been told to not give more, though at that point she said that she’ll ask again. So I ate that second bun and threw away the utensils, which I had held on to until then… Only for Andrei to once again take the microphone and ask people, quite insistently, to take more food because they had entire crates left and they didn’t want to go back with it, and then even taking some servings and walking around and handing them to people directly, so I went back yet again and pretty much just pointedly stared at that volunteer, who meekly gave me another complete serving, as in main course, salad and bun, only hesitating when it came to the utensils, but giving me another set of those as well when I said that I had just thrown the first ones away. I couldn’t use the opportunity to also try the vegan meal, since they only had the regular main course left, but I quickly ate that second serving as well before dropping off the gloves and walking away at 2:20 PM.
Since there didn’t seem to be many volunteers still behind me at that point, I didn’t want to have to make that long detour to the toilets which I had used the first time, so it was a good thing that I spotted others, which were just on the way back to the buses, and could use one of those to pee again… The problem being that, while there was a small tank of water in that area, it was empty, and the drinking fountain that I noticed a little later and which I made a detour to didn’t work either, so I had no way to wash my hands. But at least that detour made me get and stay off the path for a while, so I had a little look around as I made my way back to the buses, spotting a sequoia that might be giant someday, but that moment is a long way off.
Either way, I was back on the same bus which I had arrived there on a few minutes after 2:30 PM, we left a little after 2:50 PM, with even fewer people than there had been on the way there, a few having chosen to return with some friends, by car, and arrived back at Victory Square at 4:20 PM. But the ride was quite infuriating, starting as soon as I took a seat, which was initially a different one that ended up being behind a little girl who turned towards me and started asking who I was, albeit without addressing me, so probably talking to her mother. And when I ignored her she kept repeating the question, screaming ever louder and more hysterically, and her mother saying that not all people want to talk to little children didn’t make any difference, so I just closed the book, which I had taken out again by then, and moved two seats back, probably to where I had sat on the way there and which allowed me to read on the way back as well. But that prompted screams asking why did I leave, again probably addressed to her mother, and that girl continued to be an awful nuisance, almost constantly screaming and climbing over the seat or her parents, though at least her father, who was sitting across the aisle, didn’t have much patience for her, passing her back to her mother when she’d climb over him and keep screaming and making impossible demands, such as, for example, to make it possible to be back home that very instant. But her mother wasn’t just all too accepting of that, but even looked smugly back at me when I threw her a murderous look as I got off the bus. But I was impressed by the self control displayed by the little boy who sat in front of me, who became that girl’s next target but just calmly said that he didn’t want to play with her when she started screaming at him and then completely ignored her hysterics all the way back, though quite a few were aimed directly at him.

The plan would have been for this post to at the very least include all of that day, especially since I took part in an event at Victory Square that evening, and at first I actually meant to include two more days in it, but when I couldn’t even finish the part about the planting by midnight, the last four paragraphs above only being added Saturday afternoon, when I edited the post in order to do so, I decided to leave it at that and include the rest in another post. And I even forgot to move that post that’s set to show up at 11:59 PM on Sunday if I don’t do so, meaning that it once again showed up for a couple of minutes…