Second check-in

I have experienced many good moments in the past two weeks, it was fulfilled with the best time spent here in Latinovac. On our free days we also made bike trip to neighbour town Kutjevo. It was an adventure and good physical activity too. We explored the place, visited the church, sat in the Caffe to drink a coffee and we had fun spending time together. I enjoyed the Zumba lesson led by french volunteer Pauline. It was interesting to dance with the music rhythms and feel freedom of the movements. 

We even set up our Wedding. It was like a real wedding ceremony with guests, games, dancing and other attractions. We dressed up and spent some quality time resting. I also enjoyed Mandala painting, it was creative and we got beautiful results with pretty mandalas made by ourselves. I also liked the mentor meeting, where we made our own notebooks - I am writing there the highlights and most memorable moments of the project and I will add real photos, when I come back to Latvia. One day we helped our hosts with a corn machine, it was not only work, but also having fun. We dive into a truck full of corn pieces,  drive with the tractor on the roof of it and have lunch together afterwards. We were experiencing how it is to live and work in the countryside. 

We have very good bonding with the group. We sit at the bonfire on Saturdays and last week we saw Starling. We play volleyball and badminton in the breaks and we work together towards our project goals. We have workshops in Open days, we are preparing them, gaining knowledge and leading them to participants in different age groups. We spent some quality time balancing the work and free time. We are also planning our trip to the seaside of Croatia in our free days in June. 

I think organisation Eko Centar Latinovac are doing a worthy job by leading volunteering actions and it is important to the community by helping them in different ways. For example we cleaned the areas of the Village, helped with some country jobs with corn machines and in the forest. When the volunteering action is happening, it is also giving some work to villagers, for example our cook, who prepares great food. Organisation also makes a cultural impact by leading the events, study visits and open workshops. They can listen to drumming concerts, take part in Mandala painting master classes, make their own notebooks, explore wild plants, get some no-dig gardening tips and make natural cosmetics. In photos - slimpses of gardening, notwbook workshop and learning about different herbs.

 

Zane

 

The “Sustainable Community Development Step 2” project is funded by the European Commission's European Solidarity Corps program. The article reflects the views only of the authors