UNA Magazine May 2015

UNA Official newsletter of Worldwide friends,Iceland

May 2015

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The legend said…

Femina India

Waste management in Eskifjordur

Vídeóleiga: vintage style

MB India

Net-working in Eskifjordur

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Yoobin Park

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Village in winter

South Korea Close to nature

Tania Perez Mexico

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Different houses in Eskifjordur

History of this bulding

The legend said… nce upon a time, maybe few years after the world was created, God Almighty visited his bests beings, Adam and Eve. As a welcome and graceful act, they showed him their house, all their belongings and all their children, except one. This one wasn´t properly washed or dressed to be introduced, so Eve hided him. When God asked her if their have anything else to be shown and be blessed, she instantly answered “No”, but God knew that wasn´t true and as a reaction to her lie, he responded: “What man hides from God, God will hide from man".

That child became invisible and started to live in hills and mounds. He and his descendants are now known as Hidden People, or in Icelandic: Huldufólks – huldu which means secrecy, covered; fólks: people-.

There are many types of Hidden People, but the most popular in Iceland are the ones, that here and in the rest of the world are known as elves.

“Technically we don’t have elves per se we just call them hidden people. Basically they don’t have pointed ears, or “Lord of the Rings” stuffs, they aren´t small, they just look human except that, most of the time they look beautiful and very charismatic, and you usually find them irresistible”, explains Gabriel, a local guide.

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Darks elves are just more badass than the other ones

The only way for a normal human to see elves, or Huldufólk, is only when they want it, but that desire is not common, and even if they want it and you see them you wouldn’t know he or she is an elf, unless they show you some magic.

Talking about just elves, you can broadly classify them into two types (although there are many varieties of elves), normal and dark ones The regular are the ones that one may find irresistible, and have their álfhól (elves houses) on rocks and close to the nature, while the dark ones, looks ugly and disgusting and lived on moody places.

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Both of them can curse you, but only the good ones have the privilege to bless you and forget you if you pissed them off, because “Darks elves are just more assholes than the other ones”, jokes Gabriel.

The curses that you can earn by making an elf angry could be so heavy and long that it can affect all your family or descenders: “One of the legends said that once a man pissed off an elf and he won a curse that he and for all his generations, the father dies before the child is born”, narrates Gabriel.

To win a bless, and have good luck or good health for the rest of your life, you have to be nice with elves, but that’s tricky, because you never know when you going to see them or who they are. Also, it is important to respect the nature because it is where they lived. Icelandic people know it very well and they don’t hesitate to change any construction plans or edifice to avoid bothering them.

Icelandic mythology is formed with an interesting mix of imagination, magic and historical facts, that you can easily find on moderns literary sagas based on folktales.

But on the east of Iceland, mostly in Eskifjörður, most of the stories are missing and is a bit complicated. It is almost impossible to find books, serious researches or documentaries of legends or even myth related with it, but you can see on gardens, windows or doors on a lot of houses decorative objects with gnomes figures, that is other kind of Huldufólk.

Even now, mythology is not an essential subjects on Icelandic houses or schools, but not everything is lost. They preserve a lot of myth and stories which you can find or hear in an informal way chatting with local people. For the most interested, icelandic or tourist, there is always an option, in the capital of the country, Reykjavík, there is de Iceland Elf School, where you can learn on a school environment, a lot of things about this rich traditions: http://www.elfmuseum.com/

Management

uring the 20th century, open-pit burning was the main Method of waste disposal in Iceland. This method was eliminated in the year 1994 when Iceland joined the European union. Iceland adopted the European union legislation pertaining waste management. By 2003 waste recycling came in to existence .

We, the volunteers visited a waste management unit in Eskifjordur , a small village in the eastern part of Iceland.

This unit is run by a private firm ISLENSKA GA’MAFE’LAGID. Thor older was the person in-charge of this unit .We had an informal chat with him and we got to know how waste management works in Eskifjordur.

Almost all types of wastes are segregated in this unit.

This includes the normal food waste papers, cartons, tins, electronic waste etc. These wastes are collected in separate green containers. This unit is opened on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. People come here to dump electronic waste , used sofa sets and timber wastes. Apart from being a waste collection centre, the place also acts as a material exchange centre. One container is dedicated to keep usable stuffs. People who visit waste management center also checks out this container to see if they can find something useful. By this way a lot of materials are RE-used instead of just going to waste.

According to thor, paper and cartons are exported to UK and other materials are processed in Iceland.

Trausti Reykdal, owner of the vídeóleiga in Eskifjörður

His face looked very serious, and just after a cople of minutes he offered us a little smile but when he noticed our interes in his small business, his attitude was so open and friendly that even with the language barrier -he speaking in Icelandic and we in English-, he showed us some interesting titles, we all did mime to ask and answer simple questions and with the help of ink, paper and a local translator, we were able to know some curiosities of the Eskifjörður's vídeóleiga directly from the owner and founder.

On the main street in Eskifjörður (East of Iceland)-, Strandgata, is possible to find the essential things for your daily life, there is a bank, a small supermarket and the school of the village. Strandgata is also the road where you can see the fire stations and a hospital, but on the #29, on one floor construction there is a little and amazement store.

30 years ago, Trausti Reykdal started a small business in his hometown, a vídeóleiga -the literal translation to English is: video rent- so, because of him the 1,043 persons (according to Wikipedia) that lives in Eskifjörður, have since 1985 a video club for hire out all kinds of movies.

The first film Trauisti bought for his business was the winner of 10 Oscar, “Gone with the wind”, one of the most famous movies in the entire world. After this, his collection has been growing so much that now has more than 10,000 movies for rent.

The curious thing about this vídeóleiga is that in contrast with others video rental services, this one in Eskifjörður have (in this modern age of the technology) 8,000 films in Video Home System format, most famous like VHS cassettes.

Cross the wood door of this place is like enter in a museum. With one and quickly look is easy to realized how big is the collection that the owner of this spaces has been able to pull together with the years, because you’re going to find walls and shelves upholstered with movies of all times.

If you still have a VCR in your house, or there is one in your hotel or hostel, you can rent here Rocky’s saga, famous thriller like “The exorcist”, classics films as “Lolita”, and of course Icelandic movies like “Nói albinói (Noi the Albino)”. But, if you’re not that vintage, he also has a lot of DVD and Blue-ray for rent, old titles and new released (most of them are action and comedy, because are de most popular genres).

And for the comfort of his clients, in his store Trausti has all that you need for a perfect movie afternoon: sweet and salad snacks, many types of beverages (including light beer), and also t-shirts with the characters of cartoon movies.

As the red signboard outside of the place said, here you could find leikföng and gjafavara, which means, toys and presents.

Net-Working in Eskifjordur Article about fishing equipment manufacturer

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e visited one of the few establishment in Eskifjordur. It was a fisheries equipment producing company. They supply trawl gear,nets and other related products to fisherman.We visted the facility and general manager Stefan B Ingvarsson was kind enough to take us around the facility Hi! Can you introduce yourself?

Hey, I’m Stefan B Ingvarson. I’m the Managing director of this company. I have been working here for close to 20 years. I live in Reydarfordur with my family.

What kind of products do you produce here?

We only make trawls and sell it. The one you see there (Figure 1) is the biggest one is 32 metres and smaller one is 4

To whom do you supply?

We supply to companies around Iceland. But most of our customers are in East coast.

Do you supply to companies abroad?

No, we don’t supply abroad. Our market is limited to only Iceland

He further showed us different trawls and explained working of it. Trawling is a method for fishing. It involves pulling net through the water behind a boat. There are mainly two types of trawling. They are Mid water trawling and Bottom trawling. Mid water trawling is for catching pelagic fishes like mackerel,tuna,shrimp and anchovies. Bottom trawling help catch fishes like cod,squid,halibut and rockfish.

ur workcamp was set in Eskifjordur a village around 1000 kilometres away from Reykjavik. We started off from Reykjavik in the morning by around 10 AM and reached Eskifjordur by around 10 pm. Although trip was very long and time consuming bus stopped at many tourist attractions. Bus stopped in each tourist attraction for around 30 to 45 minutes. Some of the stops were Glacier lagoon, Black Sand beach and skogafoss waterfalls. Some of us also experimented timelapse photography.

We had to start working from next day,but as we were tired we decided to start from the noon. Our project was to shoot a documentary on Life in Eskifjordur. This village had very less population and few tourists. Project involved shooting beautiful landscapes and interviewing local people. We wanted to know from local people as to what they think of volunteers coming to this village.

Since we were a group of 11 volunteers we decided to split into 3 teams. We had a video making team,Time-lapsing team and Making of team. Video making team went around village for the first few days asking for appointment from potential interviewees. First few days were also dedicated to shooting landscapes. From day 3 shooting of interviews began. Our first interview was with a 70 year old local lady in Eskifjordur. We got to know that she graduated from old school(where we are staying now) in late 1960’s. We also got to know from her friend that she has been singing in a local band in her 18’s. She expressed gratitude to us for taking good care of her school. She served us homemade pancakes and easter eggs after our interview.

16 We also went to police station, new school and another local’s house to take their interviews. We thought that “life in eskifjordur” is not complete until we interview someone from huge ships that come to harbor of eskifjordur every single day. We went to harbor and had to stop before nearing a ship when we saw a warning board. We hopelessly waved at the ship’s deck hoping someone will notice us and come to us to give us a short interview. To our surprise we saw someone coming down deck waving hands. He asked us what we want and invited us into the ship to have tea and biscuits. He was very friendly and had a long informal chat.

He introduced us to chief engineer of the ship,mechanic and some sailors in the ship. We got to know that ship just arrived from Rotterdam and is all set to head to Faroe Islands. And then he revealed something which surprised every one. We got to know from him that he was the CAPTAIN of that huge ship. Thanking him for his time and energy we left the ship.

Time-lapse team at the same time was going all around the village shooting landscapes. According to Antonio our project manager and a member of Time-lapse team patience is the key to get a good time-lapse.

Apart from work we also had chance to visit swimming pool every single day and take hot tub bath. Volunteers of Worldwide friends were given free access to swimming pool. Some volunteers also tried hitchhiking and found people of eskifjordur to be extremely friendly.

Participating in this workcamp not only helped me to know people and culture of Eskifjordur,but also meet a lot of wonderful people across the world.While we worked on a common goal we had a lot of fun playing games,travelling and while cooking. I now have so many international recipes to try in my home country. 

DIFFERENT HOUSES IN ESKIFJORDUR

ave you ever looked at the different houses in Eskifjordur closely? If you have a good look at the houses, you can notice they have a different color of painting and a various shapes which makes Eskifjordur more beautiful.

Although their appearances of the house are different little by little, they usually have 2 or 3 store houses with an upper story. And also, most of the houses have their own gardens or yards where children play with their toys and adults grow their trees and flowers.

Size of the house is not that big, but there is fresh air and a fantastic view which makes the houses more valuable. They can use well what they are given and where they live. ď Š

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HISTORY OF OUR BUILDING THE OLD SCHOOL

Do you know when the old school was established? Do you know when the primary school moved where it is now? FRIDRIK ARNASON PORUALDSSON, an assistant of a principal of the primary school told us everything about the old school and the new one.

Q. When was the old school established?

It was established in 1910. There was just a house in Eskifjordur that was used as a school before they established the old school in 1910. There were 8 or 10 classes that teach social studies and playing called Knellan. Knellan is kind of playing pingpong, snooker and watching movies or something like that. It was for the older kids at that time. We started to use it for the older kids now, too.

Q. When did the old school move to the new school?

It moved to here in 1985 and we restarted here.

Fridrik Arnason Porualdsson (Assistant of a principa of the primary school)

Q. What do you think the difference between the old school and the new one is?

In the old school, the older kids(12-16 years old) went from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and the younger kids(7-11 years old) went from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.. But now, in the new school, we all start school at 8 a.m. and take all day together.

In the old school, there was a library downstairs. On the second floor, there was a place used for the old people to watch movies. There was a big machine in the hall. The thing is the old school was also a cinema.

People in Eskifjordur used to come to watch movies.

And also, there was something to do like dancing and some artists came here to play instruments.

Q. Then, isn't the new school used as that kind of thing?

No, it's only a school. Sometimes when there is a meeting here, it's used as a place for the meeting. But it's usually only a school.

Q. Do you have any individual memories of the old school?

Yeah. When I was a student, someone told me a story about a ghost. It's was about an old woman who used to clean the school. I thought it was just a lie. So, I asked some old people about what kind person this woman was. They said she was a nice and good person. And they said it was a bad lie and someone made her a ghost. Though, I was a little afraid when I was alone in school. Now I think it's a good story about the old school.

Q. What's your opinion about the old school is now a guesthouse for volunteers?

I think it's very nice, but I don’t think it's very good condition.

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Everybody in this town

likes the old school and studied there, … it’s good for not only volunteers but also people in Eskifjordur (to make the school better).

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So you need to make it better and more beautiful because it was not used for volunteers. And I don't think the old people in Eskifjordur want it useless. Because everybody here likes the school and studied there, so maybe it's hard for them to see it. So, I think it's good for not only volunteers but also people in Eskifjordur.

He said most of the old people in Eskifjordur would want the old school valuable, not useless. The old school is not just an old building for them. It was a place that the people in this town comm -unicated each other, for example, they watched movies, danced and also held a small concert together. For that reason, the old school should be more useful and beautiful for everyone.

THE OLD SCHOOL IS CHANGING Q. Do you know what has been already changed in the old school with the renovation?

Basically, not so much. Because it used to be a school, a city room which people used it together and had some meetings here as well, and a dancing floor in the basement. So, it has been changing only a few things.

The old school has been changing these days.

The renovation team of worldwide friends is making it better.

I met one of the team, and I asked what has been changed, what’s changing these days and what their plan about the old school is. And I met the team working.

Q. What are you guys planning to do these days?

The guys downstairs are changing all the pipes. The complicated thing is that it’s an old building, so there´s no drawings of it. But we need to change the pipes, because they’re old, and probably they’ll be broken someday. So, they have to be renovated anyway. That’s what we are doing. And also, we are planning to change the heating.

Q. What do you image this building in the future after all the renovation?

This is a worldwide friends building, so we are trying to make it efficient and comfortable for volunteers who will come here. It’s a pretty big building, so we are trying to figure out how to get as much people as we can in the building.

But what we are still keeping it is making it convenient and useful.

And there is a space for workshop at the end of the building, but we don’t need that space, so we are going to try to put some rooms there.

It’s a pretty big building, so we are trying to figure out how to get as much people as we can in the building. But what we are still keeping it is making it convenient and useful. And there is a space for workshop at the end of the building, but we don’t need that space, so we are going to try to put some rooms there.

And we are going to make some place taking a shower as well. That might be useful. We are planning to make some place for about 50 people to sleep here. Actually, it’s kind of 5 years project.

We are not changing many things on the first floor.

The kitchen will be probably there, because the main entrance is in the right part of the building, so we are going to use that stairs.

The most important thing the renovation team thinks is making the old school more convenient and useful for volunteers.

Probably, it will take a long time to complete their plans, but I believe they will be able to make it and the old school will be a better place for worldwide friends. 