A dream. A dream looks beautiful, isn’t it ?
We all have dreams but do we all allow ourselves to dream ?
Sometimes we keep our dreams quiet, we forget them, we bury them. If a dream is beautiful, then why do we do that ? Did you also feel that your dream seems unreachable ? *Wondering… Is a dream made to be untouchable… or… is it created to show a thinkable reality..?* I guess there is no right answer, I suppose that it depends on our perception.
You know, it’s amazing to see someone working with passion. Especially this month, I met passionate people with determination and visionary ideas. I truly believe that if we do things with our heart it will bring us to the brightest places. Without knowing it, these people who crossed my path brought me hope. You probably heard this famous quote from Confucius “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I will say that it is wonderful to see in reality.
August was full of volunteering projects. Those are projects made with heart by passionate people and helped by supportive people. It sounds unbelievable or overrated maybe. The thing is if I close my eyes and remember all this month, I could see those beautiful landscapes, I could listen again to those lovely stories, I could hear the laughs, I could feel again my body tired by the work and, at the same time, the satisfaction of a nice team work. Because sometimes, there is no need that something amazing happens to find it special.
So this month started with the Obišovce Hrad volunteering workcamp, it was led by Mathilda and Kika. (By the way, Kika was also the leader of Presporkovo online workcamp. I finally met her in real life ! 🙂 ). The project was about a castle renovation : the main work was to prepare material for renovation work and the castle area for the reconstruction. We had Martin as the local partner, he is very active in many historical reconstruction projects and has a lot of knowledge about this topic. He had always nice stories to tell about the castle, the lifestyle that the people used to have and also about the nature surrounding us. Our group of volunteers was also kind, we had a great time together. At the end of these nice days of volunteering, we even had a lovely night with a campfire and a star-spangled sky.
Following this camp, we stopped by Košice with Mathilda. Here I let you discover this nice city.
Then I joined my friend, Viki, in Hungary for another summer camp. It was with kids from a gipsy village. There, I was welcomed by the non-profit organization In Da House. This organization was created by Fruzsi, she found her passion by working with disadvantaged children.
I’ll remember this week, it was quite intense of emotions. At the beginning, I needed some time to become closer to the team and the kids. After a few days the language barrier started to fade little by little. At the end, shyness was replaced by familiar smiles. 🙂
Trust takes time. When you can perceive it, enjoy observing it. ❤
Indeed, if you were there, you would see their cute smiles (with almost all their teeth ^^), their mischievous eyes, their unlimited playful energy, their expressive mimickings, their kids’ questions full of curiosity, sometimes you could even see their innocent maturity. Those moments, I pictured them, and, I sealed them carefully in the back of my mind as a reminder for my heart.
For the kids, we did educational activities and games. It included different aspects of the learning process : psychomotricity, social, communication. You probably guess that the kids were not the only ones who learnt things. They taught me maybe more than I did. They became my little teachers and made me discover hugarian words. They shared with me true smiles (the ones with sparkling eyes, my favorite ^^). They showed me how strong they could be whatever happened in their lives. Also, they proved to me that it’s never too late to create a change. They reminded me how to see the world through the eyes of a child. The truth is : it was quite colorful 🙂
Coming back from Hungary. Few pictures about having fun with the girls and falling back into childhood 😀
Alongside this week in Bratislava, there was an outdoor exhibition made by artists from all over the world. Tolerance was at the heart of their works and illustrated through different perspectives.
Let’s back on the topic ! Of course, this “volunteering” month doesn’t end here ^^ Yeah now the moment that you all waited for a long time … *Beat drums* … Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles, Messieurs : I’ll present to you the long-awaited : Čierny hrad volunteering workcaaaaaamp 😀 *Storm of applause* Thank you. Thank you.
So yeah I finished the month by leading the volunteering workcamp Black Castle with Matúš. For the little story, the Čierny Hrad non-profit organization was created by a group of friends in 2004. They were passionate people who wanted to preserve and study this historical site. Juraj, one of the founders, was coordinating the project as the local partner. In his team, there were Soňa, a youth worker who was previously an Inex camp leader and two experienced archaeologists, Jacob and Peter. I don’t need to mention that they were wonderful, if someday you will meet them you’ll see it with your own eyes 🙂 They shared with us all their passion, knowledge and stories (about the castle, the area, the archaeological work, funny memories,…). We spent a nice time altogether, with also the motivated volunteers that we had the chance to have by our sides. We lived surrounded by nature, our little cottage stands in the middle of nowhere. Perfect place if you want to disconnect with phones/computers/tv for reconnecting with people and the environment.
Maybe one of the moments I will always remember is when Peter was telling us the story of the Kostol svätého Juraja. This church is part of the cultural heritage of Slovakia. Peter knew a little of English language. Feeling more comfortable speaking in Slovak, in general, someone translated to me in English when Peter spoke. As a passionate archeologist, he knew by heart the region and explained to us everything about the story of this monument. How it was built, how it was renovated, the symbols we could observe,… And a “It’s in the book” came out suddenly in the middle of his talk in Slovak. He looked at me and repeated “It’s in the book” with a big smile. Haha it was so unexpected and so lovely from him. This “book” is the book in English he offered me, the one about the region he wrote with colleagues. Peter, how sweet he is : everytime he could talk in English, he did it for me, so I could understand.
Thank you. If some of you read these lines, I would like to thank you, all of you. In fact, watching and listening to passionate people don’t make me insensitive. I couldn’t be indifferent by the progress and the positive impact on the surrounding. I was there absorbed by their words, by their energy, by their willpower. The sweet kids, the passionated workers, the involved volunteers, they all showed that reaching dreams is possible. Dreams are not just in our mind. They could be real if we allow ourselves to build the capacity to reach them.
I wish you to have many dreams that make you fly. I wish your dreams will bring you motivation and will push you to surpass yourself. I hope your dreams will give you happiness and become your new reality.
Spoil alert : I took some holidays to travel around Slovakia
Send you strength
Liasoueps 