My Work Placement Experience in Romania
Hi there! I am Cinta, one of the Climate Smart Agriculture students. As a CSA student, we have to have at least two practical trainings throughout our studies. I just finished my first practical training and here is my experience!
I always wanted to enrich myself with international experiences, so when it was the time to search for practical training, I started to look for farms abroad. There are a lot of farms to choose, farm in France, Portugal, Germany, Romania, etc. Eventually, I chose to go to Romania. My friends also were interested in joining, so together we sorted the documents and planned the trip. There were four of us in total (Ilona, Pinak, Miguel and I) going to a regenerative crop farm in Romania called Sol Si Suflet.
Where Did I Work?
A bit information of the farm, Sol Si Suflet consists of 6 hectares plot of land where varieties of organic annual vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, salads, spinaches, herbs, etc., are grown. The farm takes orders from Facebook page and then delivers fresh produces to around 200 customers in two big cities in Romania, namely Bucharest and Brasov.
We, as interns, basically work 8 hours a day. However, the working hours differ depending on the weather, workload and our own abilities. At first, when the weather was still friendly, we started from 8 to 17 (with 1 hour lunch break). As summer came, we started from 6 in the morning, then took a long lunch break and continued till 9 at night. The sun was blazing hot that it reached 38°C on the last couple days of our stay.
Not only we gained some professional experiences, but also enjoyed a lot fun time.
What Did I Work With?
We mostly helped with the food production aspects, which involved much human labour, starting from bed and irrigation preparation, seedling making, planting, weeding, pruning, harvesting to vegetables conditioning as well as packing. There were many things to do, but when you knew the principle and techniques, the works are manageable. Although at some point the tasks were quite repetitive, but practice makes perfect, no? Not only we gained some professional experiences, but also enjoyed a lot fun time. We lived on the farm together with so many new people from different countries (7 people of the farm’s team and other interns/volunteers that come and go). At one point, the kitchen was so full of people, leaving no empty space behind. We cooked, talked, danced, gathered around fire, had some bbq, visited some beautiful places, swam in the lake, and much more. It was a nice time!
That’s all from me, hope you can also have fun while doing your studies. Best luck! Lots of amazing opportunities are waiting for you.