Volunteer Experience Report at Finca Noah (Sabine)

Volunteer Report (Assignment October 6–13, 2024)

I had been looking forward to it for so long, and finally it was here: a week at Finca Noah to help care for around 200 animals. Animals that you fall in love with incredibly quickly. Because they all very quickly built trust with a newcomer like me. In hindsight, that's what stuck with me most and what made the whole experience so beautiful. Whether you're naturally more of a dog or cat person – the birds that climb all over you, the geese that are always loudly chattering away to you about something, or the donkeys and horses that come collect their cuddles – they all quickly become dear to your heart and they give you the feeling that you've been part of their lives forever and that you're appreciated. Their openness probably also comes from the fact that they're used to people by now. Still, it's just wonderful to see that thanks to the care and security that Finca Noah provides, they can leave their usually traumatic pasts behind and approach people again without reservation.

When I talk about the care and security that Finca Noah provides, I mean above all a clean place to rest and sleep, regular food tailored to individual needs, and medication when necessary. That's what made up the daily work as a volunteer. Together with the other regular helpers – by the way, a really cool crew – I set out at 7:50 a.m. to first free the cat and dog enclosures of their droppings, clean the water bowls and bathing pools and fill them with fresh water, sweep the floors, wipe down the sleeping houses and shake out the blankets freshly. And of course, a few cuddles in between were not to be missed. Then we moved on to the parrots and the rabbit-pigeon-budgie-tortoise-and-goose enclosure (yes, they all live peacefully together under one roof) – the routine there was similar. After about 2 hours and all the pets were cared for, we moved on to the larger farm animals. Depending on the day, you'd help

• with the horses and donkey Pablo, where besides feeding, it was mainly about sweeping up the horseshit and straw scattered around the property, cleaning out the stables, and emptying the carts full of manure and spreading them as fertilizer on the grounds.
• in the sprawling sheep-deer-pony enclosure sweeping up thousands upon thousands of little droppings and carefully moving the straw and stones back to their designated places.
• feeding the ducks, the turkey Risibisi, and the pot-bellied pig Margrith, who truly lives up to her species' name. Here too, the water trough and the generous chicken pool needed to be cleaned and freshly filled, and hidden chicken eggs needed to be found. After all, with around 90 chickens and roosters, you probably don't need any more.

No matter where you helped, the broom was our constant companion in the second half of the morning. The good five-hour morning round flew by, and I retreated to my cosy quarters on the farm, Casa Jeannine, for lunch and siesta. This could be nicely filled with jogging rounds, visits to the nearby, beautiful coves, supermarket errands, and animal cuddles. At 6 p.m. we met for the evening round, where water was refreshed everywhere again, droppings were removed, and straw was swept together. Around 7:30 p.m., the workday usually came to an end.

What Farah has built here is truly a cause worth supporting. That she and her partner Nadine, on top of all this, also hold down full-time jobs, constantly answer messages, place animals, show visitors around, and coordinate with the vet is hard to fathom, and I have great respect for this extraordinary commitment. And that under currently high pressure to find a new home for the farm.

I was initially worried that the animals' suffering would get to me. But once you've been to Finca Noah, you know the animals are doing very well there. They don't live in small kennels, as you might know from certain animal shelters, and they share their enclosure with one or more other animals so they're not alone. For many, there's even a happy ending: just in this one week, two cats, one dog, and a few chickens and roosters found their "forever home."

However, not everything was cloud nine and rose-tinted – that wouldn't be entirely honest. Those who know me know that I'm exceedingly tidy and that cleanliness is very important to me (I even clean the vacuum cleaner cassette, as I shamefully admit). I'm also absolutely convinced that a high level of cleanliness is important for the farm. But at some point, even for me, enough was enough with sweeping. Instead of laboriously removing the very last straw from the floor, I would have preferred to see more time spent playing with and entertaining the animals. But ultimately, it's not my farm and it's not my rules we're playing by.

You shouldn't be too sensitive either. Farah is someone you feel you know where you stand with. I appreciate that. However, it's surprising to observe how someone with such a big heart for animals can sometimes have such a rough manner with people. Sometimes these were things the other person simply couldn't have known. I'm sure she didn't mean it unkindly, but sometimes I felt it was inappropriate. But perhaps the current circumstances were simply responsible for a thinner skin.

Otherwise, the week at Finca Noah was an enormously valuable experience, and the animals are worth every drop of sweat. Witnessing their gratitude and sincere joy, their curiosity and their quirks, was enriching and makes you wish more people were like them – then probably hardly any animal protection would be needed. From this week I'm taking home, alongside drool and probably also some poop somewhere on my clothes, many beautiful memories, wonderful encounters, a bit more disillusionment about human cruelty, but also a lot of hope. I would come back anytime! Thanks to Farah, Nadine, Juan, and the whole great team, and hopefully see you again soon!