Volunteering in the forest

Today we visited the short-term volunteers in Xylokastro at their work place in the forest to get a better look on the job they are doing there.

The short terms volunteers are two guys from Turkey called Mijita (left) and Metehan (right) and two guys from France called Victor (left, middle) and Richard (right, middle), and they are staying here for two months. In Xylokastro the majority of the volunteers are girls, so we are really pleased to have some diversity in the group.

The short-term volunteers work in the forest on an environmental project aimed to keep the forest clean, healthy and growing. We interviewed the guys at work to learn more about their project and what they did today.

What did you do today?
Yesterday some trees fell, so they had to be cut down today. We collected the remaining and small parts of the fallen trees and made huge piles by the path to keep the path clean and safe for people walking in the forest.

Was it a hard task to do?

Yes, it was hard because there were a lot of trees that had to be removed. Some trees were tangled and had to be cut down with a chainsaw in order to move them because they were hard to separate. It was physically hard because the wood was very heavy, and we had to do a lot of lifting and moving the wood into the trunk of the car.

Did you enjoy this task?

Yes, it has been a very good day even though it was the hardest day of the week. We had work from 9 to 12. We are very satisfied with the job we did today because we did something beneficial for the local community.

How were your coworkers?

Our mentor Giorgos is very nice and the local people that are helping us are very friendly and interact with us. They are so kind and tell us what tasks to do – the job will continue in the afternoon or Tuesday.