Throughout August, friends, supporters, and volunteers visited us, and we organized a few work actions.

Most of the work we planned for August was, not surprisingly, good old manual labour. We are committed to doing most of the work using traditional methods, so the most valuable of all resources are, as usual, human hands and the will to be part of a collective experience.

We cleaned the terraces (or “pristave”) above the stone house and cleared the stacked flat stone slabs, traditionally used for collecting water, and the area above the water tank. The rainwater would usually fall on thin and flat stone slabs stacked down the slope, from where it would enter the “gustirna” (water tank). However, our land has become overgrown with maquis and roots since it was last cultivated in the late 1960s. Carefully, we had to remove all the stone slabs so that we could lay them back later.

It was the first time that we had around 15 people at ISSA and the first time that we used our improvised outdoor kitchen-in-the-making. And nothing beats sharing a modest meal and a drink with friends after a successful work action.