Experience report on volunteering at Finca Noah (Sabine)

Volunteer report (assignment 6-13 October 2024)

I had been looking forward to it for a long time, and finally it arrived: a week at Finca Noah to help look after the 200 or so animals. Animals that you take to your heart incredibly quickly. Because they all quickly grew to trust a newcomer like me. In hindsight, this is what has stayed with me the most and was the best thing about the whole experience for me. Regardless of whether you are more of a dog or cat person - the birds that climb on you, the geese that always have something to tell you, or the donkeys and horses that come to be stroked quickly grow on you and they all give you the feeling that you have always been part of their lives and that you are valued. Their openness is probably also due to the fact that they are used to people by now. Nonetheless, it is simply wonderful to see that, thanks to the care and security they receive at Finca Noah, they are able to leave their mostly traumatic past behind them and approach people again without inhibitions.

When I talk about the care and security that Finca Noah provides, I mean above all a clean place to stay and sleep, regular, personalised food and, if necessary, medication. This is what my day-to-day work as a volunteer consisted of. Together with the other regular helpers - a totally cool bunch, by the way - I set off at 7.50 in the morning to start by clearing the cat and dog enclosures of poo, cleaning the drinking bowls and bathing pools and filling them with fresh water, mopping, mopping the floor in the sleeping houses and putting the blankets down again, freshly shaken out. And of course, a few strokes in between were a must. Then it was off to the parrots and the rabbit, pigeon, budgerigar, tortoise and goose enclosure (yes, they all live peacefully together under one roof) - the procedure there was similar. After about 2 hours had passed and the pets were all looked after, we moved on to the larger farm animals. Depending on the day

• We helped out with the horses and Pablo the donkey, where, in addition to feeding, the main task was to clean up the horse droppings and straws scattered around the grounds, wipe out the stables and empty the carts filled with manure heaps and spread them around the property as fertiliser.
• sweep up the thousands and thousands of faeces balls in the extensive sheep-deer-pony enclosure and move the straw and stones neatly to their rightful place.
• feeding the ducks, the turkey Risibisi and the pot-bellied pig Margrith, who lives up to the name of her species.  Here, too, the water trough and the large chicken pool needed to be cleaned and refilled and hidden chicken eggs found. After all, with around 90 hens and cockerels, you don't necessarily need any more. 

Regardless of where we were helping, the mop was our constant companion in the second half of the morning. The five-hour morning tour flew by and so I retired to my cosy accommodation on the farm, Casa Jeannine, for lunch and a siesta. This was a great time for jogging, visiting the beautiful nearby bays, doing the supermarket shopping and cuddling the animals. At 6 p.m. we met up for the evening round, during which the water was freshened up again everywhere, the poo was cleaned up and the straw swept up, and around half past seven it was usually time to call it a day.

What Farah has built up here is really something worth supporting. The fact that she and her partner Nadine also have a full-time job on top of all this, constantly answering messages, finding homes for animals, showing visitors around and making enquiries with the vet is hard to believe and I have great respect for this extraordinary commitment. And all this under the current high pressure to find a new home for the farm.

At first I was afraid that the suffering of the animals would be too much for me. But if you've ever been to Finca Noah, you know that the animals there are doing very well. They don't live in small kennels, as you might otherwise recognise from certain animal shelters, and they share their enclosure with one or more other animals so that they are not alone. There is also a happy ending for many of them: in just this one week, two cats, a dog and a few hens and cockerels have found their "forever home".

However, it wasn't all cloud nine and rose-coloured, that wouldn't be entirely honest. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm extremely tidy and that cleanliness is very important to me (I even clean the hoover cassette, I'm ashamed to admit ). I am also absolutely convinced that a high level of cleanliness is important for the yard. But at some point, even I had enough of mopping. Instead of laboriously removing every last straw from the floor, I would have preferred to spend a bit more time playing and keeping the animals occupied. But ultimately, it's not my farm and it's not my rules that are being played by.

You shouldn't be squeamish either. Farah is a person who gives you the feeling that you know where you stand. I appreciate that. However, it is astonishing to see how someone with such a big heart for animals can sometimes have such a harsh tone. Sometimes it was things that the other person simply didn't know. I'm sure she didn't mean any harm in the end, but I still felt it was inappropriate at times. But perhaps the current events were simply responsible for her thinner nerves.

Apart from that, the week at Finca Noah was an enormously valuable experience and the animals are worth every drop of sweat. Seeing their gratitude and genuine joy, their curiosity and their idiosyncrasies was enriching and makes you wish more people were like them, then there would hardly be any need for animal welfare. As well as drool and probably a little poo on my clothes somewhere, I'm taking home lots of wonderful memories, great encounters, a little more disillusionment about the cruelty of humans, but also a lot of hope from this week. I would come back any time! Thanks to Farah, Nadine, Juan and the whole great team and hope to see you again soon!