Village

I arrived in the village at around 4 PM and immediately started washing and vacuuming my car. It was a mess both inside and outside, even though I don't use it every day. All four passenger floor mats were dusty and covered with frozen mud after the trip to the forest to check on the wild strawberries. Some parts of the carpet and seats were also smeared with some dirty, undefined substance. But the outside wasn't that bad. The rain over the past few weeks had basically washed it off, so it looked much cleaner. This time, I decided to clean it properly by myself, as I had a good opportunity to do it out in the village, surrounded by nature.

In yesterday's post, I already mentioned that I'd be taking another trip to the village. So after my morning routine, I immediately went there around 11 AM and arrived before the guests had arrived. Even if the guests had already arrived, it wouldn't have made much difference to me. I still didn't sit at the table with the other guests, as the seats were limited and everything was crowded. As a result, I was starving until 3:30 PM and just spent my time in a small, hot room, which didn't make my time there very comfortable.

The last time I visited the village was around May 26 to celebrate our Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha. That trip was a bit challenging and rather short because it was a workday, and I only had limited time in the evening. However, today was different. After the first part of the day, I was already in the village, spending time with my relatives.

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the village scenery or take a walk through the meadows because the weather wasn't very good, and I didn't really have the opportunity. As a result, I spent the whole day indoors. Still, it wasn't a bad experience. I had a great chance to talk with my relatives, have various conversations, and finish the day with a traditional village bath house.

In the early morning, at 2:30 AM, I went to the mosque across the quiet village streets with my relatives and neighbors. However, this visit to the mosque was quite different from my previous one from this post. Because this time, we didn’t walk randomly; instead, all the people from our street gathered at the very beginning of the village and walked together all the way to the mosque. But we didn’t just walk — from time to time, we randomly stopped for about 2–3 minutes and said “Takbir.” It continued for approximately fifteen minutes until we reached the mosque. When we arrived, other villagers from different streets were already waiting for us so everyone could say the final “Takbir” together before entering the mosque.

The weather wasn’t very good today. It was rainy and a bit cold. The temperature was lower than in previous days, around 20–22 degrees during the day. In the evening, the average temperature was approximately 18 degrees, and the forecast predicted around 16 degrees at night. So today I decided to skip my biking and drive to the village to celebrate Eid al-Adha. I’m sure it’s much more fun than riding my bike in low temperatures and getting cold.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had arrived in my grandparents’ village and shared a bit about my visa journey. But today, I had a different plan: to spend time with my relatives throughout the night and visit the mosque in the morning. Since this Friday, Muslims around the world were celebrating Eid al-Adha — a deeply meaningful holiday that comes after the sacred period of Ramadan — I didn’t want to stay on the sidelines and decided to fully take part as well.

Today I had a very scary dream and woke up at 3 AM. At that time, I felt a bit sick. I had a headache and was a little sweaty. At the same time, the temperature at home felt quite high. Because of that, I couldn’t fall asleep for some time. However, I had already started to feel the headache around 11 PM, and apparently it continued until 3 AM. I’m sure of that.

In the morning, when I woke up, I felt 100% healthy. I didn’t have a headache anymore and I wasn’t sweating; I felt comfortable. So I did my morning routine and went to the village. There, I had some tasks to do with my uncle. I had also promised to show what I bought yesterday, but I decided not to show everything. It was just some plumbing tools. I delivered them and explained everything to my uncle. After that, he will be able to install them himself.

This day started at 8 AM. I was woken up by the words, “We are late, you need to be quick,” because my family was invited to an event in another village. After I woke up, I did my morning routine, got dressed, and drove to the village. I drove as fast as I could because I didn’t want to make my family late. That event was important for them. The second reason was the road conditions. I couldn’t check the road conditions in advance, so I wanted to get on the road earlier to make sure everything was okay. I was worried that the road might not be clean enough or that I could get stuck somewhere.

My morning started at 10 a.m. because I woke up a bit late. However, the first time I woke up was around 7 a.m., and then I fell asleep again. In the early morning, my relatives wanted to visit the local market, so it was a bit loud and bright because my door was open. After I woke up, while I was walking to the bathroom, I looked through the window and checked the weather outside. In the bathroom, as usual, I did my morning routine. But today it took around one hour. During that time, I carefully brushed my teeth, shaved my face, and washed my hair. When I finished my routine, the time was already 11 a.m., and there was one hour left before lunch. But I didn’t wait for lunch because yesterday I bought some muesli and wanted to try it. The muesli had a new apple flavor, and I really wanted to try it. I also didn’t skip lunch — I had it on time.

Today I woke up a bit late, around 9:35 AM, and when I came to the window I saw rainy weather outside. Honestly, it didn’t surprise me, because I had already noticed it during the night around 1 AM. At that time, I had just finished watching a video about WW2 and wanted to go to bed. Also, yesterday I bragged about the good weather and how I saw the sun every morning. And today I saw just a rainy, cold, and gray day through my window. Well, okay, it’s not a problem for me and I don’t want to whine about it.

My day started at 5:45 AM. Yeah, today I woke up so early, and it was a bit challenging because I’ve already gotten used to sleeping until eight or nine. Getting up so early felt a bit strange because everywhere was dark, almost like nighttime. Well, after getting up, as usual, I did my morning routine, then dressed in warm clothes and went outside because it was –4°C and my car was waiting for me there. While I was walking to my car, I saw how everything was white — the grass, the tree branches, and each car outside was covered by frost. When I started the engine and cleaned the front windows, I spent around five minutes. During that time, the engine warmed up and was ready to go. I was a bit worried about my car battery because it’s already old, about six years, and I had some doubts if I could start it. My service manager recommended changing it last year, but I didn’t do it. Fortunately, I started it without any problems, drove to the village, left my relatives there, and came back.

This morning was a bit rushed because I woke up at 8 a.m., and everyone was already ready to go. I quickly did my morning routine and had breakfast. By the time I finished eating, it was around 9 o’clock, and everyone was rushing me because, today, there was a cow butchering in the village, and we had to go there. 

When we arrived, the main work was already done. The meat was hanging on a tractor’s lifting mechanism. However, it still hadn’t been cut into smaller pieces or separated from the bones. We helped to separate the meat from the bones because the next day it would be sent to a special factory to make sausages and sausage products. The bones would be used later to make aspic and soup.