Good morning, World!
Hi! My name is Maya!
My name is Maya Dougherty and I am the most recent volunteer to join the group helping out at La Giraudiere in the south west of France! I am 18, taking my Gap Year from school, and am Australian (Aussie, to Paul). I arrived in Chalais from Bordeaux on Sunday, the 20th of May and arrived 6 hours early, at that! This normally would not have been a problem but, up to the time of my arrival, it had been difficult to communicate with or contact Paul. LUCKILY Paul and another volunteer, Cullen, came early to pick me up and just happened to stop for coffee in the same cafe where I was! As I came to find out, not only had I not been putting the correct country code in when I was phoning Paul (Ooops!), but the internet connection had been lost for TWO WEEKS at La Giraudiere after a severe electrical storm. So, if you have had problems contacting La Giraudiere, this was the reason why!
After being told two weeks ago that the internet problem would be solved in 4 days, a technician finally arrived from SFR Wednesday apres midi and fixed the problem by replacing the neufbox and the telephone filters. We are now trying to catch up with the backlog of news and events.
My first day of working with the other volunteers was on Tuesday. The weather had not improved since my arrival, so it was still quite cold and dreary. Despite this, La Giraudiere’s location and views over the French countryside were enough to motivate me to wander around the area before breakfast together at eight. It was so quiet and peaceful away from the European capital cities! I could hear cars driving along the road from at least half a kilometre away!
I had breakfast with Paul and Cullen (an American) and we were later joined by Courtney (another American) and Dan (an Englishman). The current group of volunteers are all quite young: I am the youngest, at 18, and the eldest is 27. I had just missed Robert and Sandra, an older American couple who left the week prior to my arrival. The only ‘mature’ member of the group is Paul, who claims that he his like a bottle of vintage bordeaux: melowing and maturing gracefully with age. – I must admit that it’s great to be around people my own age.
Courtney and Cullen began the day by finishing restoration work of a lovely Cherrywood cupboard but, when the sun came out mid-morning, they wisely moved outside to begin stripping, sanding and painting outdoor picnic tables. Meanwhile Paul, Dan and I worked together to renovate the old ‘Gites’ (French word for inexpensive, self catering holiday accommodation).Over the course of the day Paul and Dan showed me how to measure the old, stone walls so that we could cut and ‘fit’ brackets to brace plaster-boards in order to creat fresh, modern walls.
We had a nice morning tea break and an hour ‘dejeuner’ at 1 PM but we were all still quite tired by the end of the working day!
We all take turns cooking dinner and it was Courtney’s turn to cook on Tuesday. She made us a nice dinner of spicy pork chops, roasted potatoes, green salad and I made a tomato salsa to go with it. I’m gluten intolerantm(so no fresh French bread for me!), but they’ve all been really considerate!
After dinner we impressed ourselves by mustering enough energy to go to the local sports centre in Chalais to join in the Badminton night. We teamed up and had a good laugh for an hour or so as we challenged each other, as well as some locals, to a few games before an evening drink in a local restaurant/cafe, Le Bonne Humeur !
It was a very nice, fun first day at La Giraudiere and there’s obviously plenty to do and explore in the area!
