Summer is over but, at INEX, we keep buzzing with activities!
At the very beginning of the month, we started by bringing some more beauty and life to our office’s garden by potting some plants outside. This was a first for me, but thankfully Sarah was there to give me a hand and some instructions on how to it without ruining the plants, which wasn’t far from happening.
We also had a Youthpass presentation, a certificate meant to recognize and validate the learnings we got throughout our 11-month-long project. It is also a tool designed to make us reflect about the competences we developed, they are so many – literacy, digital, social, personal, citizenship, entrepreneurship, etc. – that we have already started.
Later that week we were joined by a group of volunteers at Haanova school, as part of the second Naše Mesto event. There was a lot to do, and we managed it all with the help of some eager volunteers. We took care of the garden and dug out some tires that turned out to create havoc during kids’ play time, causing some injuries, while the more artistically gifted (not my case) painted some nice drawings on the walls and floor.
After learning that September 15th was a national holiday in Slovakia and that that meant a long weekend, I had to book some travels somewhere. After about 10 minutes considering my options I booked a flight to Tirana, and a sketchy-looking but nonetheless cheap hostel in the Albanian capital. I managed to have some good interactions with some locals that allowed me to gain a new perspective on this country’s history and likely European future. Albania was the first country to appoint an AI-made minister, for Public Procurement, and has a plan to create a Vatican City-like state for the Bektashi Muslims – one of the only branches of any major religion that explicitly states the equality between men and women, and where believers are encouraged to read the Quran, the Torah and the Bible. Meanwhile, in some more rural and conservative areas old traditions such as blood feuds still are practiced. I was also invited by a very welcoming restaurant waiter to join him in is prayers in the local mosque, where I got served a very sweet green tea.
Back in Slovakia, it was time to volunteer again, now in sv. Uršule school in Old Town Bratislava. Sarah and I joined Soňa, to paint some wood slats for a fence, as part of an effort to create a more sustainable and pleasant playground for the children. The noble nature of volunteering to create a better place would have been enough to make it worth it, but I confess that the meal we had for lunch (Segedínsky guláš) constituted an even greater incentive.
In the office meanwhile, it was time to prepare for Potáborka which the weather allowed us to hold in the garden. This meant not only preparing the workshop outcome presentation but also cleaning the outside space so that everything was prepared to run smoothly.
Potáborka is a meeting where we meet with all the other leaders and Leadership Academy trainers, to evaluate everything about the workcamps and how the training prepared us to lead them. Everything was rather well organised and it was really pleasant to meet up with the Matúš, Peťo and Gabi and talk about our experiences and memories from the camps. We found out that we faced similar challenges as leaders, and somehow managed to overcome them with the help of our coleaders or the learnings we got during the Leadership Academy. Overall, everyone had amazing memories from the camps they led. During this day, we were also joined by some of the Leadership Academy participants, to receive our certificates from the INEX guy himself, and go for a laid-back game of bowling.
Another week went by, which meant, you guessed it, time to visit another school, this time a music school where we had a really nice time decorating some playing rooms with colourful musical notes and, despite my complete inability to match colours, Barbi and Monika guided me through this excruciatingly tough assignment. Later that day we had the Tea Meeting about Afghanistan, when Lina came to talk about her ethnically and historically rich country, the terrible events of August 2021 and her inspiring story.
These days, in the office, we are already working on our ESC project’s outcome and next month’s Tea Meeting. It’ll be a Quiz Night, and the questions are already here to make you second guess every answer.
See you then 🙂
