One advantage of having a Workaway experience in a small hinterland village, like Blacksod, is the chance to take a closer look at the locals. Hannah, my Irish host mom, was an authentic Irish woman. For example, she was bilingual, she spoke both English and Irish. She explained to me that, nowadays, in big cities such as Dublin, Cork, and Galway, people cannot either speak or understand Irish. There are several reasons for that, such as globalization and immigration, which have been creating a melting-pot society. However, in the little villages, a lot of families, whose habits are still deeply rooted in the old traditions, have been passing this particular and ancient idiom on, across generations. Furthermore, in order to safeguard this invaluable resource, a lot of schools included its teaching as an important and mandatory subject for everybody.

Irish people are very friendly and easygoing. I still think that their accent is quite tough to understand, especially if you are not an English native speaker. But their nature is that of patient people, it seems like they don’t mind repeating and spelling what they say. Nobody laughed at my accent and my way of speaking.

Even if I was supposed to be just an employee, Hannah really wanted to give me a fully involving experience. She introduced me to Gaelic football, a sort of hybrid sport where the players use their hands. When they played, it was considered a real event. Those afternoons were truly incredible. Hannah’s house quickly became crowded with friends and neighbors of hers, along with their families. The hall was packed, and I ran about serving sandwiches and appetizers. It was such great fun. I liked the game, but, what was really amazing was the atmosphere, so cozy and warm. I remember the conviviality when they screamed and laughed together. Another activity that seemed quite popular was surfing. Indeed, there are a lot of surf schools along the coast.

Irish seem to have quite typical physical traits, even if I’m not sure that is true for the whole population since I lived only in Blacksod. Maybe, in Dublin, there is more variety. Though Mathilde, the other French volunteer, told me, joking around, “their flag represents the entire population”. She explained to me that the three main colors of the Irish flag – white, orange, and green – respectively correspond to their fair complexion, their ginger hair. I’ve never seen so many ginger-haired people in my life; and their eyes, (Simply wonderful!). Also, green is the color you will see around you in most of this country. Now I know why it is called the Emerald Isle: grasslands, valleys, hills full of vegetation of intense green. Green everywhere!

The weather is something remarkable too. In fact, this lush vegetation comes from the daily rain that makes the air very humid. And, when it’s not raining, there is a lot of wind. I remember Hannah calling me “Arianna it’s time to hang out the laundry”. Therefore, I had to keep an eye on the weather outside in order to take advantage of the power of the wind, as much as possible.