Jan and Alena

Thursday 2^nd August.

I have been waiting to hear from a Czech guy about doing workaway at his farm. I sent him my telephone number and where I am staying but I he has not replied. I am supposed to be going there today. Now, I am wondering if I should go at all if he does contact me. If a person can’t be bothered to get in touch, are they worth giving your time? If he doesn’t contact me, I must make quick plans about where to go.

It’s another hot morning but at least I have the shade of a tree and the breeze that sometimes wafts in from the river Vltava. This morning there were many rowing boat crews on the river with small motorboats following them. From the motorboats, voices through megaphones bark instructions. I am surprised how fast these crews can row; they are clearly not doing this for fun.

Friday 3^rd August

Jan did contact me and said he could meet me at five, at the campsite. I told him I must leave the site at two and would wait for him by the river beyond the campsite. At two I vacated the site after emptying my porta potti and drove into Prague, to a camping store with the hope of getting some chemical for the toilet. The shop didn’t have any but suggested I go to a big shopping centre, not far away. I had no joy there but found a Tesco and bought a few supplies for the next phase of my travels.

Whilst waiting for Jan I took a dip in the Volta. I didn’t swim because I was afraid of the current and the depth but I just cooled down in the very cold water and that was good.

Just after five a car draws up, a Mercedes, and a big smartly dressed guy gets out. He is looking at his phone for some while and so I didn’t think he was Jan. I don’t know how I expected Jan to look like but this city guy was not what I was expecting. After a short while however, he comes over to me. “Are you Geof?” He shows me my picture on my profile, on the Workaway website. So this is Jan. We exchange greetings and he said he had to go and pick up his wife in the city and that I should go directly to his place. He showed me on my phone where to go.

Driving out of Prague was of course very busy with traffic but at least I didn’t have to drive through the city. I followed the motorway and the main route toward České Budějovice for an hour before Kate told me to take a left turning and immediately I was in the countryside, along an empty country road. The road was a delight, golden fields of stubble, fruit trees laden with apples on each side of the road and hardly a single other car. The road, like most Czech country roads, twists and turns, passing through many small villages. After about another half an hour I came to a T junction at Vodice and stopped by the large village pond to check the direction because Kate said I had arrived. Raindrops had started to fall on my windscreen and soon it was raining heavily. For the past weeks everywhere had been experiencing a heat wave and at last, some rain. It was great to drive through the cooling and refreshing rain to my final destination. From the road I spotted the house; Jan had showed me a picture of it, otherwise I would not have found it.

I parked in front of the large single storey house and went in search of the nanny, who Jan had told me about. The grounds of the house are very large, with a huge old barn to one side by the road and various outbuildings, some new in appearance and some just a ruined shell of what they used to be. Many trees offer shade in the inner courtyard. At the door, I am greeted by the nanny – Veronika but she speaks no English. In the house is Barsha, Jan’s daughter, who is busy with her lap top. She offers me a drink and shows where all the food is kept, and there is ample. After this, she goes back to her lap top and so I go outside to the van.

I decide to explore the grounds. One special and unique feature is the ten sided, wood and canvas construction which is used as a lecture room for Jan’s work. Jan’s work is self-development and he provides training in this, for company employees and private individuals. I walk up the steps and enter the dodecahedron. Inside is a big screen, chairs in a semi circle and hanging up are various colourful drawings depicting emotion, probably done by participants of the workshops. The room has large five sided windows in each of the canvas walls. It is quite an intriguing and clever structure. In the garden is a large plastic swimming pool and what is obviously a sweat lodge, without its roof. I have a very positive feeling about the place. So different from Jan and Jana’s cluttered and crumbling farm.

I wait about an hour for Jan and his wife, Alena, to arrive. They welcome and offer me a drink. Jan beckons me to follow him outside and we sit on a patio facing the garden in which is the dodecahedron. Jan begins to tell me about his work, which I warm to very much. His thinking is so like mine but unlike mine, he has been able to turn his ideas into a very successful business. Parked around the back is his blue Bentley and in the courtyard is a very big and expensive motorcycle, also in the barn is a very nice Harley Davidson, which turns out to be Alena’s. I can’t help but feel a little envious of what they have achieved. When Jan is finished he asks me to tell my story. I tell them, Alina and Veronika sit with us, about my personal journey and search for understanding about life and about my writing. He is very interested. Jan pours us some special spirit from Italy and then to my surprise starts to undress. Then, naked, he walks down to the pool and after a bit of walking around, dives in. This I think is normal for Jan because neither of the girls make any comment. He certainly has a lot of self-confidence. Alena’s English is not as good as Jan’s but she does speak with me. I then try to get Veronika to speak some English and at first she is reluctant but slowly reveals she does know a little English.

I want to know more about Jan’s work and he is happy to explain and he seems happy that I am there and can work with him. In his workshop classroom he had endeavoured to explain everything to me using diagrams he hastily drew. It was all a little confusing but I got the gist of most of it. Jan has many projects he is working on, including one in Cameroon and one in Tanzania. In the Cameroon he is enabling farmers to produce honey by bee keeping instead growing coffee and in Tanzania he is introducing a technology which retains the water in the soil, so that during drought, the plants can still have water. Jan is full of enthusiasm about his work and I can understand why.