To be honest, I had no idea what to expect of this excursion when I shuffled off that bus with my 200 pound rucksack filled with shit I probably didn't need. Frankly, I was pretty pissed at how I didn't get my first choice. A bike tour over 3 different countries sounded a whole lot cooler than cultivating mushrooms in a forest. Well, six days in a forest didn't sound too bad either, I could use some time to just rest and relax. I pictured it'd to be 6 days of laying on grass and just chilling out next to a warm fire at night burning on marshmallows. Hah, that sounds good doesn't it?
And that's when they explained what we had to do for the next 6 days. We had to work. 8 hours a day. 2 lunch breaks. No pay. At first, I was pretty dumbfounded. Well you'd feel like that too if you had to pay 100 euros just to haul your ass halfway across the country on a 10 hour trip just to work. But what the hey, I rolled with it. What have I got to lose anyway? It's not like I had any REAL plans for this summer holiday other than mentally starving myself at home. Might as well get my hands dirty and maybe, just maybe, I'll have some fun while I'm at it.
And that's when I started to get to know these people. These crazy people. Their motives interested me. I mean who the hell would spent a whole entire week of summer holdiays working their butts off in a forest for no apparent gain? Hell, most of them are grown-ass adults who actually have to take time OFF work to be here. If I had known what to expect, I probably would have wussed myself outta there. Wussed out and told myself to stay at home and stone in front of the computer all day. At least, i'd stay comfortable. Thankfully, I went for it. Thankfully, I'm an idiot like that.
And so we worked those six days away. Six days of little sleep. Six days of blisters and back aches. Six days of swatting off feasting mosquitoes. Strangely enough, none of us complained about those things as we broke our backs under that blistering summer sun. In fact, we were laughing and sharing jokes about how fucked up our lives were. It was truly remarkable for me. It defied and smashed all I knew about people. Or at least what I thought I knew. I never knew people like this still existed, people who are willing to selflessly give themselves to a bigger cause.
They say humanity reaches it's peak when men start planting trees whose shades they'll never sit in. Not wanting to over-lament things, but for the past six days, I caught a short glimpse of that. We paved forest paths that we'll probably never walk in. We fed animals we'll never see or touch. We did all these things for something bigger than us. The forest probably won't even notice we were there. We were like tiny little ants. Tiny ants who slaved their asses off for a huge colony that probabaly won't even acknowledge their existence.
Maybe some people would call it stupidity doing something like this. Not like we got any money, right? Not like we got any gain, rihgt? Not like the rest of the world noticed or glorified what we did, right? Not like we became successful or anything. No money. No certificates. No proof. Just us and our efforts. Our efforts to work for the bigger picture. Our efforts to make this world a little bit better instead of bitching about it on Facebook or complaining about it to our friends. Even if it was only a tiny bit.
And as we hugged and waved each other goodbye at the train station platform, I can't help but feel my heart getting a little heavier. Where else in the world am I ever going to meet people like these again? People who selflessly gave their time, sweat and effort for something nobody else wants to get their hands dirty for. It's a sobering thought. But I like sober thougts, they always surprise me. Just like these people have. These people who I met in the forest.
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