Weaving action

I had an interesting day in the forest with five Estonian women and each of us with several spools of red thread. We spent many hours amongst the trees- with the light constantly changing. We wove tunnels between the trees. Sometimes there was silence, with the occasional sound of a coo-coo bird echoing through the woods & at other moments people took turns calling out strange animal sounds-or cries. One girl even had a Jewish harp-, which she played while sitting inside her web on the soft moss. John was there filming the entire time- & even brought a pair of pole climbers- from the soviet times-from a previous telephone repair man- which he used to climb one of the tall trees. Afterwards we were all very hungry and went back to MoKS to make a collective dinner-, which we enjoyed around the fire pit. We shared stories about our grandparents migrations & or forced exiles- apparently many Estonians were sent off to Siberia during WW2 to go to forced labor camps. It was hard to explain my family's bizarre history- me being American but my parents being Mexican, and yet my grandparents being American- of Irish, Scottish & Ukrainian decent etc- to a group of people that have always lived in Estonia, as well as their parents & grandparents- Also hard to answer the very common question: “where are you from?"- I never really know how to answer this one. "Well I was born in....lived in..spent time in ....but now I am living in...but traveling in...and my belongings are in...."

After our diner of salad, potatoes, sausage & wine we head over to the village sauna-, which we had reserved for the night. It was a Finnish style Sauna- apparently the authentic Estonian saunas are actually wood smoke- saunas. It was very hot though & we even used some specially harvested branches to whip our skin- in order to stimulate it- followed by icy cold showers- I guess for Estonians- it is a very normal thing to take a weekly sauna- it is something left over from soviet times- when not everybody had accurate bathing facilities in their own home- so they would go to the communal sauna. The Sauna became a social gathering spot- it was where gossip took place etc as well as an almost sacred place for rituals such as births and even deaths occurred. It is very purifying to go into the sauna, a great opportunity to warm the body- getting rid of any dead skin cells that may clog your pores. The irony is that it is also a ritual to drink beer in the sauna...just to counteract some of that purification. Apparently in the winter- people run out and lay in the snow & then return to the sauna. The lake is a little far from the sauna, but that could be another option. The one thing that is for sure- is that saunas sure do make you sleepy….
Estonian word of the day: "soome saun" meaning sauna.