Welcome to the busiest month in my ESC project in Slovakia yet. In July, I led two international workcamps in two different cities, met 13 volunteers from all over the world, and I feel I brought joy and happiness to the lives of dozens of children, youngsters with disabilities and seniors. But let’s start from the beginning.
The month started already with some preparations for the workcamp in Prešporkovo family centre, where we would explore our multicultural crafts with children. Both in the office – planning some activities with Barbi and clearing some doubts about the financial book with Monika – and outside the office with Lenka – trying to explore more possibilities for different activities and places to visit with the kids.
Eventually, Friday came, and it was time to meet my coleader, and now very dear friend of mine, Nat at Bratislava main station and head to the family centre to prepare some materials before the arrival of the volunteers. We were both super excited to finally meet them in person. Eventually, after a few border hiccups, we managed to gather Anna, Bara, Busra, Maria and Ronaldo at the flat that would be our home for the next 10 days.
After a city tour around Bratislava and a day trip to Trnava during the first weekend, we got to the very intense work of managing the children and guiding them through all the activities had lined up for them, being them creative, sportive, or just sleeping.
We started with some name games and icebreakers, to get to know each other and, before we knew it, on Wednesday, we were already being invited to have dinner with some of the families. And so we did, each family took one volunteer, which gave us the opportunity to try some traditional Slovak food and, in my case, go for very nice ice cream place for dessert. The week went by quickly and came to an end with the Feast of Cultures, a very fulfilling moment, when each of us prepared a dish and a short presentation about our countries to all parents and children. At this point every kid had some favourite volunteer and vice-versa, which resulted in some very wholesome connections between us all.
The next weekend left some mixed feelings. We were immensely proud about the moments we were able to provide to the kids and thankful for the memories we’d shared together during the past week, but also sad that we were already leaving.
After the end of the workcamp I had a couple days off, that I used to rest and met with Nat to visit IKEA (a first for me). It was now time to go back to the office and gather all the materials needed for the second workcamp. This time I would have Matúš as my coleader and, with the help of our volunteers, we would try to bring happiness to the youngsters and seniors of a social centre in Prešov.
After a rather long train ride, we got to Barlička, the social centre, where we were met by some very nice and welcoming social workers that showed us the accommodation and gave us some insight into what they expected from us and the workcamp in general. The following day we were ready to welcome our 7 volunteers, Anja, Carolina, Foix, Ira, Joana, Júlia and Lucie. And a group we were. We made the most out of our first weekend by going down to the bowling alley and visiting Štrbské Pleso, that left everyone wowed by the beauty of Slovakia’s nature.
We met Lukas, the centre’s director on Monday, and he thought us how to safely handle the wheelchairs and gave us the safety instructions. During the entire duration of the camp, he was always really present and helpful; he showed us around Prešov city centre, gave us options to spend or free time with volunteers, brought us watermelons and chocolates to the accommodation for us to eat, and even gave us access to an extra room, that we then turned into an improvised cinema.
We also met all the clients, the youngsters were super excite to see all these new people there for them and, as soon as the first hour, we were already holding hands to try a traditional Catalan dance, proposed by one of the volunteers. Even though the elderly weren’t as active, they really liked to sing, especially “A od Prešova”, so much so that by the end of the week we all knew the lyrics for it. They also loved to listen to us sing and play the guitar and always asked for one more song. A sports day was held, with a boccia tournament, basketball and cornhole. We also performed some human towers, with various degrees of success.
On the last day we had a small celebration with everyone, where they thanked us for spending time with them throughout the fortnight. The end of the camp was coming, and everyone was already feeling somewhat melancholic about it. After spending Friday with the seniors in another centre in Velky Saris, we played some beach volleyball and went karting. The next day it was time to say goodbye amidst some tears.
All in all, I had a very good time, I learned a lot about myself, I grew a lot as a person, met some incredible people, had loads of fun, gathered amazing memories, experienced some immaculate vibes and felt happy for bringing joy to many people.
After coming back from Barlička, my friend Lucie, who I hadn’t met in more than a year, came from Prague to visit Bratislava for the first time. We spend the entire day together, walking around the old town, eating some very tasty halušky, strolling by the banks of the Danube, having a wonderful ice cream and generally just talking a lot.
The next day, it was time to go to office to leave all the materials I still had with me from the camp, and for a meeting with the promotion team. This all happened just two hours before getting the bus to Vienna airport. I was going back to Portugal for some holidays and to celebrate my grandpa’s 80th birthday.
When I arrived, I was a bit shocked about how critical the wildfires were in Portugal. Some of them have been active for more than 20 days, causing losses in flora, fauna, claiming houses, companies and even the lives of firefighters and civilians. Despite that, and to end in a positive note, I was really glad to be there and meet a lot of people I love again; I saw most of my family, I visited a whole lot of friends I dearly missed, and I managed to ride my bike by the seaside again 🙂
