I am staying at a large, unfinished farmhouse for my first workaway stay in Spain. First was supposed to be only but it turned out that things weren’t exactly as advertised. Nothing bad here, no gross kitchen or weird personal dramas. There just doesn’t happen to be any work for me, other than a few household chores.
At first, this seemed like the perfect setting to tackle my writing project, full force, full time. The host agreed with the idea that I would stay without doing much work.
A sense of unease settled in. I felt oddly anxious and unbalanced.
Then it came to me that the reason for being in Spain is to improve my practical Spanish skills. Spending 90% of the day alone was not going to move that forward. I realized it was time for a change.
Over the course of 2 days, I sent out inquiries to both workaway hosts in Spain and Trusted Housesitter in Europe. After lots of emails and some negotiating, I found a new workaway stay east of Granada, that was only a 4-hour bus ride away.
The big win is that I talked with both my hosts, explained my desire to make a change and we discussed options. It turns out they were counting on me to be at their house for a few days, while they took a short holiday. I was able to arrange to be back for those few days. I feel so good about turning to face my fear of hurting their feelings and simultaneously taking care of my own needs. This is a life skill I seem to need to practice over and over again. Hurray for opportunities to practice!
I am writing this from the hammock on the front porch. There are mosquitoes hovering about, singing their attack song. I am under my new solo mosquito net, draped around me like a coat of armor. Be gone, oh tiny attackers! I am not to be messed with tonight!
Hmm. How much do I really trust this net?
The water for the house comes from large open tanks. Hipolito was very clear that I was not to drink the tap water or even use it to wash vegetables. The potable water is collected in jugs from this tap, higher up the mountain.
One of the most interesting things about southern Spain is the variety of people who have lived here. Conquer and reconquer seems to be the theme. This statue in Almuñećar shows someone from the Umayyad Dynasty who arrived in Spain in 755.
It is a very interesting choice of words, only survivor. A little research might be in order to find out exactly what that means.
