Bernard Badjari @ Task Force 2005

I got up early today, around 5:15. Ruža and I were going swimming again. I dunno why I sign up for these things, but I feel refreshed afterwards. I still don't have enough stamina to swim across to the nearby island. We saw the sunrise from the water and then we headed back to shore. I showered and left for work with everyone else at 7:20.

This was my first day working at the Šijana forest. We got off the bus earlier than the other group, walked by Aruba and continued up through the forest. It took about 20 minutes to get to the location where we'd be working. We got our gloves along the way at some person's house and someone drove up in their truck and delivered cold bottles of water for us when we reached our work area. Nice. We took a small break before starting up.

Our task here is to gather up all of the thin branches that have been cut from the surrounding trees (by some loggers) and to put them in huge piles so that they can be shred later and dumped back on top of soil in the forest. The larger branches we leave where they are, because we were told someone else would pick them up and sell them for firewood or whatnot. It isn't hard work, we are in the shade most of the time.

Around 9:00, Nicolet and I went in search of some drinks for ourselves and others. We walked all the way back down where we came from and bought some drinks at an INA gas station. I asked the attendant if there is a bank machine nearby, and he directs us to a mall in the opposite direction, just a bit north from where we enter the forest. It isn't big, but it's nice and I find a bank machine inside to withdraw some cash from. We make it back to our work area in the forest at around 10:30. Most people are asleep, so the two of us eat our sandwiches quietly and quench our respective thirsts.

Around 11:00 we resume our work and leave by noon for our bus stop so that we can catch the 12:30 bus carrying the other group. We make it back to Puntižela around 13:00. Lunch was at 14:00 and workshops started at 18:30, nothing new here.

Dinner came around earlier today, around 19:45, because everyone was getting ready to go out to Aruba tonight, and the last bus out to Pula is at 20:50. When we got to town, we walked around a bit because it was still early to go to the club. People went all over the place, but most went to a nearby café for some drinks and ice-cream. We all met up at the Pula Arena around 22:30 to catch a bus to Aruba. We got to the club around 23:00. Tonight they had salsa dancing there, so I showed the ladies my moves. We drank vodka and danced the night away. A bunch of us left by taxi around 1:15 to get some rest, while others stayed out much later and got back however they could.

I got up like everyone else at 6:15, but my eyes were still dead so I didn't go to work with everyone else. I instead stayed with Mladen and Filip in our room and we worked on some of our computer stuff. I felt better as the morning went on, so I was able to do some work on the blog sites. I managed to get enough work done before everyone came back at 13:00.

We had lunch at 14:00, but afterwards I took it easy, I didn't go swimming. I was gonna work on more blog stuff, but Blog.hr was down, and then when it came back up, it reverted to some old backup. It looked like I basically lost everything I did today. I didn't wanna redo everything, so I just left everything alone, hoping it would come back later (which it did). When workshops rolled around, we had people do their work offline.

Dinner came around a bit earlier today because people were planning to go downtown again to Aruba. I didn't feel like it. I wanted to rest up for tomorrow, so I can go back to work with plenty of rest under my belt.

I woke up around 10:00 with a headache on the bed in my room. Somehow I got up and moved myself inside during the night. I remember taking my contacts out around 7:00, 'cause they were bothering me, but that's about it. My eyes were pretty red. I showered and got dressed, but when I went to put in my contacts, they were bothering me, so I wore my glasses instead.

After a few hours, my eyes started to get irritated and were really bothering me. I went several times to the bathroom to wash them out with water, but that was only temporary relief. They were most likely infected and only because I slept with my contacts on overnight. Yeah, I was an idiot, but I guess I was too drunk and tired to remember to take them out before I went to sleep. It felt like a million needles were in my eyes, just so unbearable.

So I spent most of the day lying on my bed, trying to rest my eyes. Ruža was nice enough to go downtown and buy me eyedrops, so sweet of her. I've used those same drops before. They don't help much, but it's better than nothing. I also put ice on my eyes to numb them a bit, but I knew that only time would make the pain go away.

I skipped dinner because I wasn't feeling well. People went to town afterwards to celebrate Dorian's birthday. I stayed, naturally, and watched 'Underworld' with Mladen and Filip, but I was falling asleep towards the end of it, so I just went to bed.

So this day was pretty much a waste. I had lots of time to catch up on my blog work, but instead I couldn't do anything but suffer. Oh well, such is life.

We got up at 6:30 today (15 minutes extra sleep on a Saturday, yipee!). Some went to breakfast, I skipped it again, don't need it. We got up early for a good reason though, and that was to go on a day trip to the Brijuni National Park. We got on a bus at 7:15 and made our way to Fažana, the next town over.

Once we got to Fažana, we waited for our boat that would take us to the main island, Vele Brijuni, at 8:00. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the main island. Once there, we met up with a tour guide and immediately got on a little train that would take us around the island. The island has many exotic animals, and most roam freely all over the place. There are even deer that swim across to the nearby Mali Brijuni island. There is a golf course on the island, but it was downsized from 18 to 9 holes after the island was bombed during World War II. The grass isn't very green either. I guess there is not much money around to maintain everything properly.

We went into the safari/zoo area and saw ostriches, sheep, zebras, horses and a pair of elephants called Sony and Lanka. The elephants are pretty closed off though in their pens, and spend their time just walking around, pouring sand on themselves (to keep cool most likely) and hitting the enclosing fences, probably wanting to get out. They've been in there for at least 20 years, so who can blame them? It's pretty sad, they should be roaming free like the rest of the animals.

We continued on through the island on the train, passing many villas along the way. The communist leader of the former Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, had all of these villas for himself and used them for his own personal vacations and to host foreign leaders. We stopped at the ruins of some ancient temple before ending our train ride back near the main port where we began.

It was around 10:00, so we took a break for half an hour and ate sandwiches. I went to a bar in the vicinity to buy some drinks. No surprise, they were too expensive. A can of 7Up costs 18 kn on Brijuni. Beer is 20 kn. Ah well, a man's gotta drink. I hung out with Filip, Mladen, Ante, Nicolet, Ruža and Krasna. We went to visit a nearby talking cockatoo called Koki, Brijuni's mascot. He can say a bunch of things, but he wasn't in much of a talking mood when we were there. We kept repeating "Piss off!" in hopes he'd catch on, but no luck.

At 10:30, we continued our tour on foot. We walked to a museum dedicated to Tito (naturally). Inside it has a lot of stuffed animals on display on the ground floor and then several pictures of his personal and political life on the other floor. I don't really like commies, so I wasn't very impressed, but he seemed to have an interesting life at least. That's what you get when you steal everything for yourself. Oh well, the bastard's dead now.

We kept walking, visited Koki again, then continued on back some of the way we already passed during the train ride. We came up to a rusted statue of some sort, that its author described as a dove with its head down, but it looks more like a piece of shit travelling at the speed of light. It was made for Tito, so you gotta wonder about his taste. We continued on and stopped at a tree that is said to be the oldest in Croatia, over 1700 years old. Respect.

We arrived back at the main port around 11:45. Parked nearby was Tito's personal car, a 1952 Cadillac, that he drove around the island back in the day. You can get your picture taken in it for 20 kn or even drive it around for 570 kn an hour. I didn't see anyone wasting their money. Our boat left back for Fažana around 12:00. Dorian came to the boat just in time, he had wandered off from the group on his own. We got to Fažana around 12:15 and had some time to ourselves before our bus drove us back to Puntižela at 12:30.

Back at the camp, I chilled until lunch at 14:00. More veggie goodness. A bunch of us stayed behind afterwards. The veterans (people who have gone to Task Force before) were organizing a party in the evening. The theme was to dress up as a rock 'n' roll star. You can guess who came up with that. We collected 10 kn from people at lunch and the veterans each pitched in some extra cash. We got Nives to lend us her car, and so Ante, Nicolet, Darko and I went to a Getro (a supermarket) in her Renault Twingo to buy stuff for the party. We got lots of booze and loaded what we could in the fridge in my room to chill them. Darko started preparing some punch, his own speciality.

After all that work, I took some time to myself. Workshops came around at 18:30, dinner at 20:30, and we began our little party at around 21:30. We started off with some vodka shots and moved onto Darko's punch and beer afterwards. I put on one of my Oasis T-shirts and my shades and looked like the spitting image of Liam Gallagher. Bollocks! We blasted all sorts of rock 'n' roll tunes until about midnight. Then we decided to go to the beach with my guitar and continue the festivities. Camp security chased us away around 1:00, so we went outside of the camp grounds, near the bus station we wait at every weekday morning, and continued to sing and drink. We stayed out there around 3:00, then came back to our hostel. We came up with the crazy idea of sleeping outside at the entrance, so we hauled a bunch of mattresses outside. Darko, Filip, Krasna, Mihail, Alonso, Dorian and I all settled for a "good" night's rest.

I woke up at 6:15 to the wonderful sound of music. Everything is pretty much the same. It's starting to get too repetitive.

At work, we just raked up some grass and chopped a few more bushes down. Dorian climbed his trees. Some reporter from the 'Glas Istre' newspaper came to interview us, and she asked me a bunch of questions and wanted them answered immediately. My interview will appear in their paper along with a wonderful picture of me. Everyone rejoice! Ruža and I left a bit earlier than usual, around 11:45, to go to the bus station and check on a bus for her. She is leaving Task Force a week earlier for home. Such a shame, she's great. We waited there for the bus with everyone else to come and we continued on to Puntižela.

We had lunch at 14:00 as usual, but dinner was moved from 20:30 to 19:30 since we were all going downtown tonight. An exhibition by the Canadian artist Anton Cetin (from Toronto) was opening at Matica's office here in Pula. It was supposed to open at 20:30, but we didn't get on our bus until a bit after that. We got there around 21:00. After the usual introductions and speeches, we got to look around at his art. It's quite colourful, but not my style. I didn't see the Toronto influence, if there was any. Matica's office was so damn hot, they should really invest in some air-conditioning. At least they gave us some drinks and snacks, so the Coke and beer was well received. We stayed until about 21:30 and then got back on our bus (which was thankfully air-conditioned) and made our way to a club called Aruba.

Once we got there, I was a bit confused. They told us there would be a "concert" there, but it was simply live music from a band. I was expecting something rather boring where we'd have to sit and be good little children, but instead we were free to do what we wanted. We joined up some tables and ordered our drinks. Later on we all went inside and danced the night away. I stayed until 00:30, after which our bus drove back those who wanted to go back to the camp. Others would have to come back on their own, most likely with taxis. It was a good night, but my bed was calling...

I woke up early today, around 5:30. I did this because I went swimming with Ruža and Dragana. The water was so damn cold, I screamed like a little girl until I was all the way in. Some lady at the camp came to bitch at us about the noise, but I payed no mind. We saw the sunrise, which was pretty cool. The girls wanted to swim to the nearby island, but I didn't want to because I thought we wouldn't make it back in time and I was getting pretty tired of swimming. I'm not exactly in the best shape. When we got back, I showered and we went to work as usual. I felt pretty refreshed from the swim, but my right arm was aching.

When I got downtown, I bought the same Lindt chocolate like Ruža did a few days ago, but with 85% cocoa. Tastes a bit better, it's not as bitter. At work, I was given the wonderful task of demolishing some bushes around the statue of Karlo Rojc, the dude the former military facility is named after. I went mental on those bushes, and with the help of Dorian and Ante we cleared them all. I found a bunch of snails near the bush stumps and I moved them away so they'd be safe from my wrath.

Back at Puntižela, I took a nap after lunch. I just chilled until my workshop started. Then I corrected some blogs, organized pictures and let others do their work. Dinner was more of the same veggie stuff, but I still prefer it over the normal meat-inclusive dishes. After dinner, I chilled some more with people here in my room, surrounded by our wonderful computational machines.

Just as we did last night, most of us went down to the beach again to chill and sing songs. I did my guitar thing again, played some new tunes, and as before, everyone enjoyed themselves. I went to sleep somewhere after 1:00.

Ante puts on some Croatian music to get us out of bed at 6:15. I really wish he played some good rock 'n' roll tunes. Skipped breakfast again, it ain't an important meal for me. On the bus at 7:20 again and off to work...

Before work, Ruža bought some Lindt chocolate that contains 99% cocoa. It's bitter, but healthy for you. The work was pretty much the same as before. We raked up a lot of the grass and twigs left over from the mowing done yesterday. The lawnmower was put out of commission today as it tried to mow through a piece of metal hidden in some grass. Dorian showed us that he's the real deal as he climbed the tree with the branch we swang from. He put the branch out of its misery so us Tarzan-lovers wouldn't end up falling after it would eventually give way.

Arriving back at Puntižela, I bought some rubber shoes to use while swimming. After many people here stepped on sea urchins, I didn't want to be the next victim, so I decided to play it safe and get these shoes that are only 50 kn. I chilled until lunch at 14:00. I got a veggie meal that was tasty at least, especially the cheese. I'm not a real vegetarian, but at least I won't have to eat the meat here, 'cause as I said before, it's pretty nasty tasting. After lunch, I went swimming with my new shoes, and it was pretty refreshing. I chilled on the beach with Mladen, Filip, Krasna, Julia, Emma and Darko.

After showering, our workshop started soon after. I made some small corrections to the various blog sites and made sure the pictures were up-to-date. Other than that, I let others use the computers since I use them a lot anyway. Dinner was at 20:30 as usual, and all of the vegetarians (Ruža, Krasna and Nicolet) and myself sat at the same table to make it "easier" for the waiters to identify us. I can't remember what we ate, but I remember being a bit peeved because we weren't getting enough food or selection as the other people were. Ah well, it was something to fill my tummy...

The evening was spent on the computer, chatting to my friends on MSN Messenger and just doing some more blog-related stuff. Around midnight, I was called down to the beach. Many people gathered down there and wanted me to provide my guitar-playing services. I played some Croatian songs, mostly Prljavo Kazalište, and then some Oasis songs. People were drinking, singing and seemed to have a good time. We left about an hour later. Sleep is scarce and sacred.

Ante was being particularly nasty because he woke us up to some gay opera music at 6:15. I skipped breakfast again. I heard it wasn't anything special, mostly just bread and your choice of chocolate, butter or cheese to put on it, so what's the point? I played some guitar while waiting for everyone else. We left for the bus station a bit after 7:00, the bus came at 7:20 and we all hopped aboard.

Work was more of the same for us. Just picking up branches, weeding and generally cleaning up that abandoned park. We swung a bit more from the branch on that tree. Ruža tried climbing up the tree using some other branch for support, but it broke and she fell on her back. Nothing serious, but she has to be careful from now on. Some men from the facility mowed the grass. Break at 10:00, left at 12:00, bus at 12:30, Puntižela at 13:00. Nothing new there.

Lunch was at 14:00 again. I asked for a veggie meal, but they didn't have an extra one, so I told them to make them for me from now on. I didn't eat the meat they gave me. No loss. I went on the computer for a bit, but I decided to take a nap around 16:30 and woke up around 18:30 just in time for our workshop. I didn't have to do much since I did it earlier in the day, so I took it easy, showered and got ready to go out later in the evening.

A bunch of us decided to skip dinner and go out to downtown Pula to eat something proper and hang out at a club. We took some bus passes and left on the last bus out of Puntižela at 20:50. We ran into some of the Latin guys in our group that were waiting at another stop along the way so they hopped on and came with us. When we got to Pula, we walked around looking for a restaurant and found one on the main square that would seat the sixteen (that's 16) of us. Most of us had pizza. It wasn't too expensive, although the beer was 18 kn. After settling the huge bill, we left in search of a club. We asked for directions to the nearest one, but when we got there, it was closed. We ended up going to a bar for some drinks, and it was alright. We left around midnight and took four taxis back to Puntižela. Cost: 70 kn per taxi.

When we arrived, most people went to sleep, but some of us stayed out by the entrance to chill for a bit. Darko was there waiting for us. He just arrived that evening from London. He was delayed in coming because of the terrorist attacks that recently occurred in London. I played some songs on guitar, but quietly. We went to bed around 1:00.

We were awoken to Offspring music at 6:15, thanks to our wonderful leader Ante. He didn't even play 'Self Esteem' all of the way, the bastard. Breakfast starts at 6:30, so there was no way I would get up and out the door that quick, so I skipped it.

We met up at the entrance to our "luxurious" hostel at 7:00 and proceeded to walk to the bus station nearest to the camp to start our work day. We were divided into two groups. One group goes to work in a forest at Šijana (near downtown Pula) and the other goes to work at an old military facility in downtown Pula. I am in the second group, so I will start working at the old 'Karlo Rojc' military facility this week. We all got on the bus at 7:20. We completely took it over. The city got us some bus passes so we could use their public transportation for free while we're here. The first group got off before the second group (my group) to go to the forest at Šijana. We got off a few stations later at 7:45 AM and continued to our destination on foot. Too damn far.

When we arrived at the military facility, we had a look around inside. They have a lot of artistic stuff inside, some of it was pretty cool. Then we waited outside for our contact there to show up, and he was late in usual Croatian fashion. Then they started figuring out what the hell we'd be doing there. We split up into two groups: one does some yardwork outside, the other adds some artistic flair to the inside of the building. Since I'm not some artsy-fartsy person, I got to work outside in a little park in the complex. We went around picking up branches and garbage. There was so much garbage. We found everything from pants, socks and wallets to shit, bullet shells and marijuana. We found a tree with a branch that we could swing from, so some of us did our Tarzan impressions. We took a break for lunch at 10:00 and finished up before 12:00. We walked back to the bus station and left at 12:30. The other group was waiting at their stop and got on. We got back to Puntižela at around 13:00.

Lunch was at 14:00 and we had horrible-tasting hamburger meat I didn't like. Afterwards, I went on a computer and hit up some Unreal Tournament with Mladen and Filip. I pretty much surfed on the Internet until our workshop started at 18:00. Mladen and Filip were leading the Internet workshop and they explained to us all what we will be doing, which is basically setting up a blog (like this one) online that will contain news, pictures and other Task Force related information. We divided up the responsibilities, and I get to take pictures and also work on the various blog sites, since I have experience with HTML and other web-related technologies. I setup this blog and then just chilled.

Nicolet and her sister Ivona were organizing a party in the evening, so they collected 20 kn from everyone and I helped them buy a few cases of beer and other goodies at the nearby store. We loaded up the fridge with almost all of the beer, some bottles of wine, and some non-alcoholic drinks. Dinner was at 20:30 and we had some noodles with tuna that were so dry and some other crap that made me decide then and there that I am gonna switch to the vegetarian meals that were at least tasty.

After dinner, it was party time. We set things up in the hallway outside our room and got the music going. I started everyone off by drinking some vodka shots and then some beer. Everyone else got the idea and started shoving alcohol down their throats. I spent time in and out of my room, on the computer and talking to people and such. We stayed up until 2:00. Fun was had by all. Too bad we'd be waking up in four hours...

As usual, Task Force started with packing up whatever you think you'll need for the entire three-week adventure and heading over to Matica's HQ at Stjepan Radić Square. After getting our stuff on the bus, we left around 9:30 by bus for Pula.

On the way there, we stopped once at an INA gas station to take a break, so I used the opportunity to buy some Karlovačko beer. But I guess I drank too much, 'cause I had to pee really bad, so I begged the driver to stop the bus so I could get out and relieve myself. I felt SO much better afterwards. I got to know another Canadian on the bus, a member of the other gender, Krasna, which was cool 'cause I love hosers. We got to Pula around 13:00.

When we arrived at Camp Puntižela, which is just outside the city, we all settled into our accomodations. I got a room on the 1st floor with five other guys, but once I saw that the room on the ground floor containing the computers we'll be using had more than enough room, I moved in there, and that's where I'll stay for the rest of my time here. With me are Mladen and Filip, the two hackers that are managing the computers, my good friend Nicolet from Holland, and my new friend Krasna. Wicked.

Around 14:00, we all got together outside and sat at a long table. Officials from the city of Pula came to welcome us. We had some drinks, listened to them give their various speeches, then went into the nearby restaurant to eat lunch. We had fish, not too bad. Afterwards we had some time to ourselves. I decided to just take it easy. I went on one of the computers in my room and hacked away. A bunch of us bought a case of Karlovačko beer at a nearby store and put it in a small fridge we found in the hall outside our room (and subsequently put in our room for easy access).

At 18:00, we left on our bus for downtown Pula. We met up with a tour guide at the Arena, a smaller version of Rome's Coliseum. The tour guide told us several interesting facts about Pula. We left back for Puntižela just after 20:00 so we could make it for dinner at 20:30. A group of noisy Italians made the dining experience less enjoyable. We had some slop to eat, which I wasn't too pleased with.

Coming back to my room to hack, I helped myself to several ice-cold beers from the fridge and just chilled online. We hooked up a projector to a laptop and watched the movie 'How High' on the wall, but didn't finish it 'cause we were all tired. We went to sleep around midnight. Work awaited us in the morning...