ANDREA

Nov. 19th 2012

Andrea is the new WWOOFer from Germany who arrived last Wed., 5 days late.  Gianni wasn't sure if she was ever coming because she did not answer emails stating her plans.  But she finally came last Wed. evening.  Thursday we went to work, stripped one baby olive tree of its' olives which took all of 30 min. and it started to rain.  We went home for the rest of the day.  Friday am still raining, stayed home but went to work in the afternoon for 3 hrs.  Easy day.  Up till now, Andrea's only WWOOFing experience was at a farm near here in San Pietro where she might have worked casually for about 3 hrs./day with many days off.  So basically she has NO hard work experience.  Saturday we worked, in the mud made by all the rain, for  a regular 5 1/2 hr. shift.  A few times during that shift she, being already covered in mud, dropped to the ground like she was exhausted and did not want to get up.  A little drama queen here.  Complained a lot saying that the WWOOFing organization says WWOOFers cannot work more than 5 hrs./day (it does not).  So she's not happy and wants to change everything about how we collect olives.  I just shake my head and go on like I'm supposed to.  She does not want to pick olives up off the ground.  The ones that don't make the net end up in the dirt or grass and must be picked up one-by-one by hand.  She says we should step on them and push them into the dirt and if Gianni says anything to tell him they were there yesterday.  I don't listen.  I just keep doing what I'm supposed to do.  Picking up the olives by hand is the most painful part as I have said before.  So now I have to do it by myself.  Not good.
Sunday, our day off, was supposed to be, with careful planning, a good day to rent bicycles  for the day.  We planned to ride to the train station at 5:30 a.m. to get the 6 a.m. train to Monopoli and ride along the shore back down to Carovigno.  On the way to the station, Andrea's chain got tangled and we could not fix it.  She insisted that we keep going, get on the train with 1 good and 1 broken bike to Monopoli and somehow try to fix it there.  So because she could still coast the bike, hung on to my sweater (it was cold) as I peddled and towed her along the now very dark, unlit road.  When we figured out we were on the wrong road to the station, we pulled over at the Belvedere Sanctuary under a well-lit parking lot and she proceeded to throw a temper tantrum.  She's 29 yrs. old.  She started kicking the bike.  It was very disturbing.  I convinced her to call the guy (he gave us his phone #) who rented us the bikes and tell him he must come and take us back to town.  She did.  He came and said he only had room in his car for 1 bike.  She rode with him back to town.  I rode my bike.  She was home before me and was lying on the couch, depressed or whatever, when I arrived.  I insisted she take my good bike for the day so she could go to the beach while I stayed home and had a relaxing day and did a lot of reading.
She had a really horrible day.  Rode to Monopoli, got lost, got rained on and waited at the Monoploi train station for 3 hrs. for the train back to Carovigno.  Called Gianni to come get her with the bike at the Carovigno train station because it was still raining and she was already cold and wet.  He came I guess reluctantly to get her, did not help her with getting the bike in the van and never asked her how her day was.  He is VERY little help to us.  Has NO interest in how or what we are doing.
After she got home, she said she wanted to take a hot bath, would I make her some pasta (that I bought) because she was hungry.  She has never bought any food here.  I made her pasta with pesto that I had bought that day and she ate and went to bed.
It's raining again today and forecast says it will rain for the next 3 days.  Very strange weather for this area.
Afterthought:  I asked her what she plans on doing when she returns to her apartment in Berlin.  Her only aspiration is to marry a rich man, get a small house so she can have a garden.