It was an interesting experience. I’ve learned how to be a leader by doing. Together with my co-leader Martina we were leading a group of seven youngsters. We all worked very hard on a farm, but had a lot of fun as well by going swimming, horse riding, to the pub and canoeing. I’ve learned about other countries; France, USA, Ukraine, Japan, India and Slovakia. Improved my English and learned many sayings from the Americans. It’s interesting how American and Japanese people look at Europe as one continent. I’ve always felt I was Dutch, but slowly I think I become more European, by being with Europeans all the time. Though I am becoming more aware of what’s typically Dutch too. For example when we has the Feast of Cultures. It’s a study part in our workcamps, where you make your national dish and talk about your country.
I am really happy that I found a bicycle in Bratislava, which I can lend anytime, because I became a member of the komunitné centrum bystro. I discovered the bystro when they organized an evening with stories about the lives of people from Mladiinfo, another organisation who has EVS volunteers. Tomorrow I’ll probably go for a ride just for fun near the Danube River. Because different then in the Netherlands, I'll not use a bike as a transport to go from A to B, but for recreation.
I’ve never walked as much since I’m here in Slovakia, especially in the summer in the city and in the forests and mountains. I can feel this in my feet and legs. I went hiking with Ralph in the Malá Fatra, where we stayed in a cottage called Chata pod Suchým. It’s beautiful there, I had a chance to practice my Slovak and we had lots of fun. After coming back, my sister came over to Slovakia and we went hiking again to the same cottage, where they know me by now. We’ve tried out different routes. Thunderstorms were predicted and I was afraid to hike to the next cottage, so we only made small hikes in rainy weather. Thunder came late in the evening... On our way back home, we took a footbath in the river, where I saw a snake in the water just in front of me. I was surprised and ran away. It was quite big but harmless, it only eats frogs, as Wikipedia told us later.
I worked a few weeks at the office again and gave my messenger workshop at a kidscamp for the volunteers in Bratislava. I loved spending time with those people and they were interested in my workshop.
In July I went to a Slovak wedding with my boyfriend, it was in a beautiful castle near the mountains were they brought so many friends and family together from all over the world. I feel very blessed that I could be a part of it.
After the wedding I immediately left to the next camp where I got sick during the second week. Probably because these months were too much and overwhelming. I went back home earlier, I had to stay for one week at the flat to not contaminate anyone at the office. I spend my days reading, watching Netflix, cooking and day-dreaming about the future.
During these last weeks I had good and bad experiences. For example I met many new people with their own habits and culture and I got deeper into Slovak culture. For example roles between men and woman especially during the camps I experienced that woman do other jobs than men. They particularly needed men to use hammer and pinch pin while woman were cleaning the droppings. In my opinion it would give more variation in the work if we would have changed sometimes.
Also only men were building the walls of the castle. When we wanted to do the same work as men. An old men told us that we should spare or bodies for giving birth to children. I still don’t know if that was a wise men. But I would think that woman/people get only stronger if you do hard work. And the work is more fun if you do it altogether. Though they constantly they gave us prestávka which means break, especially when the local partner wasn’t at the castle.
The people working at the castle are only Roma people. Remarkably Roma’s don’t mix with Slovak people, there seems to be a distance between them. They have their own culture and habits they don’t adapt to Slovak culture, have their own language and they have many children. Compared to the rest of the country Bratislava is very rich and less than one percent of the society is unemployed. However the wages aren’t high.
Another disappointment was that cars usually don’t stop for passengers at zebra paths. Even if they see you and you have already one step on the path. So be careful if you’re in Slovakia, maybe this is in more countries like that, but I wasn’t used to it. Once I saw a child with a dog who wanted to cross a zebra path, a car was coming very fast. The child stopped but the dog ran further, he got hit by the car. I was shocked; Fortunately the dog stopped crying after a while. But the car drove further while surrounding people were shouting at him.
I also don’t like the drinking culture of home-made alcohol and social pressure to drink. It’s probably because I don’t drink and I don’t know how to behave to drunken people.
What I love most about Slovakia cottage where we stayed in the mountains called Chata pod Suchým. The people were very kind and it was sweet how they scream 'halušky' through a microphone. Where you can hear outside through the speaker to get your national dish.
Slovak dishes are mainly with potatoes, sheep cheese, meat and anything which is fried (cauliflower, pancakes, dumplings). Which is tasty once in a while, but I was missing vegetables a lot after some time.
Maybe I became a bit negative about Slovakia now but I think it was because this summer was overwhelming and I got sick. It’s normal as I heard on the pré-departure training to have a crisis in the middle of the stay in another country. The art is not to get to deep in it and to get out again. For this my gratitude workshop could help me to value the pretty things.
