This month started with a very lovely experience in the Integra center on 5th of June. This place hosts a lot of people with disabilities. Some days before going there, during our office hours, Barbi came in our office to give to us some information about the place and also about people living and working there. When we arrived, at the beginning, I was very sad for their conditions but I tried to be happy for donate them a better morning. So, after a short training of how manage the wheelchairs, and an explanation of what we had to do, we started our morning with them. We had to complete many tasks around the mini garden that the center has (and its very beautiful!).
I met Lacko, and after a while, I met a person who works there. She explained to me that she lived in Monza (near Milan) for two years. She was so nice and helped me a lot of times with the wheelchair because I was very afraid of doing something wrong.
Not so long time after we started our activities, we had to interrupt them for a while because two classes in a school came for doing two spectacles of circus.
They were absolutely amazing!
After the spectacles, we continued with our activities until lunch time and we came back to home.
I have some health problems and sometimes, I think that I am very unlucky, but at the end, I can have almost a normal life. I can speak, I can walk, I can swim, I can take buses, I can do almost everything without someone who helps me. These people cannot do these activities even for most of the people are considering matter of course. And yep, honestly in some moments I felt as I was almost to the point of crying.
Fortunately, they have a very nice team of people who is always ready to help them and I cannot terminate this part of the blog if not saying to them a very big thank you for the work that they are doing, because it’s not easy at all and to Barbi that let us to do this experience.
Two days after we had to pick up our things because we had to go to Banská Štiavnica. We met with Mirka and Monika at Nivy and we arrived there after a long trip.
When we arrived, they started to show us the place where we had to stay for the weekend and where the main rooms were. My favorite part of the Scout House was the garden, with an incredible view of a castle.
After a while, we started cooking because during the first dinner, we had to organize a Feast of Cultures party.
But what is exactly a Feast of Cultures?
We had to plan a complete meal with some food typical of our countries.
Evelina prepared the starter, the famous garlic bread, typical food of Latvia.
I prepared the main dish, pasta with tomato sauce, typical food of Italy.
Anais prepared the dessert, strawberries with cream, typical food of Spain.
It was a little bit difficult preparing food for all of these people but fortunately my friends and INEX team helped me a lot even because in the same moment had started to coming the participants of the training and me and Milan had to do the following tasks
– greet the participants with a big smile
– prepare the table in the Scout House hallway
– explain the list of participants, ask them to sign that
– when they signed, showed them: rooms where they were staying, toilets, showers, kitchen, seminar room, how to get to the garden
– tell them that the meeting point was the seminar room at 20:10
After eating, we had to present a little bit our country, for 3 or 5 minutes.
I decided, for making the presentation funnier, of speaking about signs and also speaking about some interesting facts about my language.
For example, did you know that… we use a lot of English words even if there are the same words even in Italian?
For example, we use words like business, bodyguard, make up, fake news, staff, location… we have Italian words for saying those, but we use english!
Other things that I explained were the differences about the dialects of Italy and the fact that we have some differences between the northern and the southern part of Italy also in the grammar.
It really liked it and a lot of people were laughing a lot.
After our presentations, we played some ice breakers and energizers and then, Peto, Katka and Zuzy prepared a very dark atmosphere. The room where we ate, was almost completely dark and the only things that could use to see were some candles. At the beginning all was weird but after some minutes, when they explained us the game, all was clearer.
I don’t want to explain the game and their rules because maybe it could be a spoiler for next volunteers.
After that, we went to sleep because we were very tired.
The next day started with a good breakfast and after that, we started to help the local partner to do some tasks. Some of us had to cut trees, some of us had to cut the garden, some of us had to cut weeds, some of us had to reorganize the space where the cotted trees pieces had to be put.
It was so hot but it was a nice experience.
For lunch we went in a restaurant very close to Scout House.
In the afternoon we had to present our workshops. As you already know, I have some difficulties when I have to speak in front of people. So, it was a little bit hard for me, but I tried to do my best. I know that I have to improve. But I trust the process.
After that, we attended some lessons about games.
We played some games, we did the volunteering footprint activity and we started to prepare our dinner, a barbecue! We also ate some marshmallows.
After dinner, we went in a tea house and we spent the rest of the evening there, playing some games, like draw the moon and how many sheep cross the bridge.
This place had a very lovely atmosphere and I loved the drink that I chose.
At almost midnight we came back and we went to bed.
The last day started as usual with breakfast and then we had again some lessons about volunteering rights and responsibilities and then, a lesson and some games about how to resolve conflicts during workcamps.
After that we ate and after lunch, we had to do a sort of exam for lead a workcamp. I was in couple with Zolko and we managed very well.
At the end, we returned back to Bratislava and we had free day on Monday, so I could sleep a little bit more than usual (fortunately) because I was so tired.
During the weekend there, I could see again him, who actually is my co leader. I already started and also him to prepare the info sheet for the workcamp, but I asked to Zolko if we could meet even personally just to adjust some things and collaborate better next week.
So, Wednesday, I went to Nitra, because I had to meet him. So, I got very early and after an hour of bus, I arrived to the bus station of Nitra.
We went in the city center and we found a place where we could finish and adjust some parts of the infosheet and having a call with Barbi.
After that, we started to plan some activities and some foods for the workcamp.
Around 11 we finished and we went a little around Nitra. It was so nice.
At 12 I took again the FlixBus and I came back to Bratislava and in the office.
Saturday, instead, two friends come to Bratislava. They stayed two days in Wien to visit a friend of them that is studying there (she is on Erasmus) and in the afternoon they took a Flixbus to visit me.
They booked a place for sleeping very close to Einsteinova stop. I waited them there, and after that we went to their place. The place was nice, the funny part is for taking the keys for going inside the owner of the flat gave them some instructions and it seemed like it was an escape room xD. After a while, we managed to go inside. After showers time, we went in the city center and I showed them the monuments of Bratislava and we went to eat in the Flagship Restaurant. They loved the typical food (and for me Pirogi with cheese, butter and grated smoked sheep cheese are a warranty!!!). After, we just go around in the center, we stayed a little in the square where there is the city hall because there were some stalls, and after that, we came back to their flat because they were tired and we spent some hours just laughing and tell each other our lives there. Around 00.30 I just left and we went to sleep.
On Sunday instead, we met under their flat around 10. We went to Devin Castle. When we came back to the city center, we tried a new place for eating, even for me. We just loved that!!! They served these cups of soups but also the cups were eatable. Top. The place is called SoupCulture and its under Micheal Gate.
In the afternoon, instead we visited the Bratislava castle and we did a small walk close to Danube and we took the tram and the bus for going back to their flat. After a break there, after an hour we came back again to the city center. We ate in Slovak Pub, another typical place where they tried the goulash and I ate the chicken wings.
After, we just walked from there to Most SNP, we did all together a last walk to came back to their flat as usual. We stayed there until midnight and then I said to them goodbye and I said to them have a good flight and we hug each other. It is always nice when someone came to visit me.
The following days I started to organize our 5th Tea Meeting about Mocktails with Evelina, while Anais was in Spain.
We presented it with a short explanation of what they are, and the story behind them. At the end we made a sort of workshop where people could try to do all together some easy recipes. We really enjoyed that and it was the last before a short break of 2 months.
After that, we had a BBQ and we went in the city center for watching a football match. Teams were Spain and Italy and unfortunately, we lost. At the end of that, I decided just to go home because I was so tired and with Monika, I took the bus and I went to sleep.
The following day (Friday 21th of June) was my last day of June working in INEX Office, because I had to come back for some days to home.
In the weekend, I saw my aunties from my dad side that I didn’t see since February on Saturday, a friend that went to Bratislava to visit me in his house on Sunday, and another couple of friends in the evening. After eating in a very good place, we went to the city center and after that, we moved a lot in some parts of Milan. Around 23.30, we went home because we were so tired.
As I said to you previously, I have some problems with my health, especially with my eyes. I would like to explain you what do I have. I have to do checks frequently because I have keratoconus, a degenerative disease. Keratoconus occurs when the cornea thins and swells like a cone. As a result, vision is blurred and distorted, making daily activities such as reading or driving difficult. Unfortunately, I have the worst grade of it, and before coming here, on December 2023 I had to do a surgery for that, for trying not worst the situation, because we cannot do the operation for recover the sight. The only thing that I can do, for having a sort of normal life, is that I have to wear scleral lenses. I had to visit 2 doctors. The first is the one who visited me for see how well was my sight and the second is the doctor who created my lenses and he would like to visited me to have a check. I had the first visit on Monday 24.
For lunch, me and my parents went to eat all together to my sister and her boyfriend house that is very close to the place where I had to see the eye doctor. The visit went okay, fortunately, but my eyes became black because they put to me some drops in my eyes and people were looking me in a very weird way haha. After that, I saw a friend of my high school. We went in the city center for a walk, and after that, we went to eat something and we went outside the San Siro stadium, a place where people go for looking football matches and also some concerts, because the following day I had to go there for a concert and I was so curious to going there. At the end, I took her back to home and I went too.
Next day, for lunch I saw some other friends. We went in a sushi restaurant and I found this in my lucky biscuit. This is a hope message about love. In the afternoon, I came back in the same place to see that concert. I love going to concerts, and this was amazing. The atmosphere, there were a lot of guests, the singer…I simply loved it. The only negative thing was that some rude people smoked even if was forbidden, and I had to breathe a lot of smoke. When it was finished, I came back to my sister home (she lives very close to the concert place) and I slept.
On 26th, during the morning, I had also a visit to the dentist, and after that, I came back to home because I was so tired and I stayed there for 2 days just relaxing.
On 28th evening, instead, I went out with some university friends. We went to eat pizza, as good Italians. The funny thing was that, in the meanwhile a friend of mine was buying the ticket for the subway, I randomly met another friend whom I went out with some days before and I took a pic with him to send that to a common friend of us XD.
After that, I met again my friend who was buying the ticket and we went out to eat outside with our group of friends.
The next day, I did the same, after the second visit of my eyes. I saw some other university friends and we ate together. In the afternoon, I went in a place where during the same evening there was another concert. Also, this was great and I loved it.
The last day of June, I finally stayed a little more with my parents and we stayed all day long together.
