Involuntary Volunteering

Monday morning found us once again gathered outside Bonington to meet a person we had never seen before.  This time we were supposed to meet the volunteer coordinator for NTU who would take us to Stonebridge City Farm for a day of “volunteering” for which none of us had volunteered.  In all seriousness, we were mostly looking forward to a day of work on a farm simply because it would be a change of pace.

Stonebridge City Farm lies in the middle of Nottingham, where a neighborhood was once torn down and the land was designated for a school that was never built.  Instead, a few chickens and allotted garden plots grew into a free community farm in the midst of the city.  Our job was to trim up the edges of the paths winding through this little idyll so that children could get right up to the fence to see the animals.

“We don’t want them to try to get close and get stung by the stinging nettles,” the Stonebridge guy explained.  Apparently it was alright if we got stung, though.  And we did.  Several times.

We moved along the path, ripping out grass and weeds and tackling the occasional nettle as gingerly and carefully as possible.  The nice thing about weeding, we agreed, is that your progress is visibly evident.  The cows, goats, sheep, and pigs in the paddocks were curious about our presence and frequently came snuffling up to the fence, hoping for some treats and rejecting our cries of, “Ooh, so cute!” when they discovered we actually had no food.

The atmosphere of the whole volunteering experience was pretty different from similar experiences I’ve had in the US.  It was much more laid back, with the Stonebridge guy encouraging us to take a break whenever we needed to, “grab some tea from the café and sit for a moment!” 

And after we received our certificates for having volunteered (random, I know), it was time for…Revolution Monday!  All told, a pretty good day – even if we were ridiculously sore the next few days.