Hello dear ones,
Unfortunately, not many pictures from the ESC training were uploaded, so I can’t really show you visually what was happening, but I as promised I will write about my experience and if later I get more pictures I will upload them.
So, I went there and I knew no one. This made me a little bit socially anxious, but being in this kind of environment made it so much easier. Volunteers are usually social people (one of the volunteers from Turkey represented herself as a “social butterfly”, which was very cute). Within the first hour of being in the hotel I already knew five new people from different countries, and if you think this is a good start, within the first two hours I got to meet around 20+ people. Of course the first sessions and activities were about getting to know each other in our group and our trainers lead this in a very active and interesting way. After it, we also had a session together with the other group, which was so much fun. We got to learn interesting facts about Bulgaria and also about the personal experience of other volunteers.
On the second day, we all made a presentation about our hosting organization and the project we worked on. There were volunteers from various different organizations with a colorful set of activities they were doing. It was amazing all the stories and ways in which these people help our society. Afterward, we continued with learning about methods of communication and conflict management. And the last session was about personal projects. Many of the volunteers already did theirs, so they shared their experience.
The last day we were introduced with the different types of volunteering projects, more about the process and our rights as volunteers. We also had a fun activity in which with the cards of the game Dixit we described our experience during the training,
It was a lovely experience all in all. We were accommodated in a very fancy hotel, which was a very nice treat for all the volunteers I got to talk to. I met many lovely people, some like-minded and some not so much. It was a nice opportunity to keep a broader perspective on life and to see many different ways in which we can contribute for the greater good.
Now about this week’s activities, I worked, and I believe I finished the LAND badges. With the directions and the ideas of my coordinator, they turned out very neat and nice. I also started translating the other permaculture coloring book from Lucie Bardos on Bulgarian, which I believe it will be ready next week. This way we will have more materials when we make our permaculture workshops with the kids.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Marija
