A piece of blue sky and even a few rays of sun - finally.

The last four days it has been raining all the time. Cold and stormy weather when one does not want to even send the dog outside. We would have loved to just hide away, muddle up, wrap ourselves in blankets in front of our fireplace or, best of all, go straight to bed.

Actually, I should do so much, I have planned so much for the time between the years, but if it's wet, cold and gloomy all day outside, it doesn't have any positive effect on your motivation.

To me it seems a bit like a summary of the passing year. All at a sudden everything that you would like to do is blocked, many of the things you are supposed to do are made impossible.

Doing what you can still do requires a significant increase in willpower and means additional effort.

To plan something without knowing whether it will work out in the end, well that is the daily bread when you have a business, when you work as an artist.

But not knowing whether the things you have planned and prepared for with a lot of work and passion will be possible at all, whether you will have to cancel everything at the last minute because laws or common sense or your sense of responsibility require it, that's difficult, causes headaches and sleepless nights.

How do you deal with the fact that you have to cancel a course or the booking of a holiday apartment due to travel warnings or travel bans? How do you pay back money that you don't have because almost all your income has suddenly collapsed?

What do we say to our guests in such a case, how will they take it?

And then what a relief!

Our guests are not angry with us, they understand our difficult situation and offer us their help.

Together with them and the course instructors, we try to find solutions, postpone courses in the hope that the situation will improve, that travel will be possible again, at least with precautionary measures.

Actually, we shouldn't be surprised about the helpfulness and understanding that we experience. We know what we have in our guests.

Nonetheless it surprised us, given that literally everyone has to fight the consequences of the pandemic. It would be quite normal, not at all surprising, to think of yourself first, trying to come to terms with your own problems. Nobody would have a right to criticize that.

The fact that we still experience so much support ensures that a giant stone falls from our hearts!

We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us in this difficult time, to the many of our guests who did not ask a refund of their down payments for canceled courses or holiday stays, who accepted a voucher for a stay at La Rogaia in the future or even donated to us.

We also thank you for the sympathy you showed, for the many inquiries about how we are, and for the words of encouragement.

And last but not least, our thanks also go to all those who adopted an olive tree at La Rogaia.

How will we continue in the new year?

We are happy and grateful that a whole series of vaccines against Covid 19 have been developed at an unprecedented speed. This shows us that humanity can progress quickly, at least if it is forced to and if everyone works together. That gives us hope, not just for the current pandemic.

As soon as it is our turn, we will of course also get vaccinated. But it will probably still take a little patience until that happens and until we can lead our lives again (almost) as we are used to.

For us this means that until Covid 19 will be under control, we resume to our program and holiday offers in 2021 with the necessary precautionary measures, in the hope that these will no longer be necessary in a few months, but also with the knowledge that at the moment no one can foresee, let alone guarantee this.

We look forward to welcoming you again next year as our guests in La Rogaia and wish you a relaxing holiday and a happy, healthy and successful New Year 2021 in which at least a part of your wishes and plans will come true.

Warm greetings from
Wolfgang Sandt and Annette Greifenhagen with Amira and Aurora