“Grittibänze” baking in Lapland

White surface wherever you look and now and then a barking of the dogs. This is what you see and hear after you get up in the morning. I just love it.

On Wednesday, the first of December, the season has started, and the first guests have arrived. Something totally new started. We all were or still are very excited about the coming weeks. At the moment, it’s all about finding a routine so that everything runs smoothly. For example, harnessing the dogs or cooking and cleaning.

The daily routine is similar to the one before the season. Sometimes you just get up a little earlier so that everything is cleaned and ready before the guests arrive for breakfast.

The daily tasks are no longer done alone but with the guests if they want to help. You exchange information and answer upcoming questions.

From now on, the dogs are harnessed to the sleds almost every day and pull the guests along. When harnessing and on arrivals, more and more volunteers are now there to help, so that everything runs smoothly and quickly. The guests are always involved in everything, they can also put the harness on the dogs. They can also help in the other activities, such as puppies, reindeer or goats feeding, puppies walk etc. So, as you can see, all the days are fully packed, and you can always do something. When I have my days of, these are two days a week, I like to sleep a little bit longer and go on a walk with a dog. If there is the opportunity, we may also join a sled dog tour. No one says no to that.

Picture from a overnight with dogs we did up at the Tipi!

The Volunteer who is inside has now always something to do. By doing the dishes, cleaning, cooking, or baking bread and cookies. Bread must be baked at least every second day. Also, the cookies disappear quite fast. Our most popular cookies are the “Vanillekipferle”. Those we bake every second to third day.

Today is the sixth of December. In Switzerland, it’s tradition to eat “Grittibänze” for Breakfast on this day. The day before, so on the fifth of December, I prepared the dough for those. In the evening I started to from them. By the time, some volunteers and guest came watching, and then they also formed their own “Grittibänz”. It was a lot of fun, and it was so cool for me to bring in some Swiss traditions.

So being here as a volunteer is never boring. I’m here now for one and a half month and I did so many new things, I would have never done at home. We built a reindeer fence, we shovelled a lot of snow, we saw the northern lights, we drove the sled with dogs on and much more. The time since now went so fast and I’m so happy to stay here. I’m looking forward to what awaits me in the next two months.

Lena