1 November, 2017 admin

UNGARI

September 2017

Raigo lokotar

“Age of Hope”

 

It has been 1 month since my arrival. During the month I’ve had very surprising time. I’ve had different advetures, challenges and experiences. I’ve found a great pleasure in what I’m doing I hope to keep the momentum till the end of the project.

The first week was purely training and team building. During this time we learned to know each other and the town of Kaposvar. We played a lot of games and for me the week was quite difficult because it was my first time away from my home with so many new people. The adapting took time. Also to achieve the feeling of comfortness to get friends with people in my project.

We had hospital day full of activities with children living in the hospital. The target group for us were the children living in the hospital. There were different activities for children like face painting, sumo-wrestiling, football, etc. Furthermore, every volunteer had their own task. For me, I was watching over children in sumo-wrestling and later I took pictures. This day was quite interesting because it wasn’t an ordinary day in office but we went outside and did something for community.

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On the second week of September we celebrated my birthday and enjoyed the work in office and also the life of Kaposvar. For me it was a bit of turn around because in this week I learned that you don’t need to consume alcohol to have fun. I found it out the hard way. We also enjoyed concerts in the Kossuth square with other volunteers.

The third week of September was a bit more active. For the first time we visited mothershelter, where we will work during our project. There were smaller children and mothers, who has suffered because of the domestic violence. We also heard stories about how father has abused his children and it really made me feel concious about how could people do things like this. The next event for us was the opening of the new cycling road. There some of us ran through the track and others went by car to lake Deseda. The weather was nice and we helped them out with a compotition and we also took part of the compotition not offically but still. We also had the best time but the compotition was not too fair if we had participated. It is really amazing to see people like this creating events because the creator has been really active and has had a big impact on community’s life. Next event for some of us was the Carp fishing world championship. Our share of this event was to hold the flags of countries which got 1st 2nd and 3rd place. When we were there Niki pushed me to talk russian to Russian people and it was quite fun and I got bit more confident when talking to strangers. Also, from that compotition and I got a coin from USA team and it looked amazing. In the weekend was the time when I got more connected with two of our volunteers. We went to play basketball but a little accident happened and I was taken to hospital. The two guys from Compass came with me and they were there with me and supporting me till the end. It felt amazing when people really cared and I felt that I’ve got amazing people around me and I’ve met great friends.

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The last week of September was the best week for me. We had On-Arrival training in Budapest. 6 of us went there and interestingly enough I got into the same room with Enrico, who Niki told to take care of me. We all laughed about it. There was 30 volunteers participating at the On-Arrival training. Again I had to adapt to new situation but it didn’t take long. First day was more quiet for me on Tuesday I was already more confident and I started talking to everyone and really attached to someone. We went outside every night with people to enjoy what Budapest had to offer. Whether it was to enjoy the sightseeings or occasional parties. At the parties I felt more like a babysitter role. At one party we met an Australian girl who we still continue to chat with. Furthermore the training was very interesting. We had energizers and discussion groups that helped me to improve. The Friday was very emotional day for me because we had to say good bye to people we met there and who I got so close with. I even cried in Budapest but life goes on and we knew that we would meet again someday. We spent the weekend in Budapest in the hostel. And again we walked a lot around the Budapest enjoying the views.

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In conclusion my month has been amazing and I have enjoyed every minute of it and I hope that every following month will be as good or even better. I know that I will feel useless volunteer for another month or two but it will be fine and it will be all worth it. I am happy about my decision to become a volunteer.

 

Raigo Lokotar, Hungary September 2017.

 

October 2017

Raigo lokotar

“Age of Hope”

 

Second month has passed with a rush and it’s time to write another monthly report. For me it has been a quiet month. Maybe because of the training that happened in September but we have had our share of different activities. This month we have been regulary going to school for info points and lessons. We have had different events, visitors and evening in the mothershelter.

The month started off with my girlfriend coming to Hungary to visit me. At the beginning it was kind of difficult because we were busy and I couldn’t pick her up in Budapest. In the end all turned out fine, she got here by herself on 5th of October and stayed here till 10th. During this time I draged her to office with me, showed her a little bit of Kaposvar. We also had a Turkish visitor who is living in Latvia. He was very talkative and told us about his experience while living outside of Turkey. With him we also went to school and introduced each other to massive crowd of students. That was kind of a different experience because I don’t like to talk in front of a big crowd but it is better to get out of the comfort zone. We had to build up ten sentences and two sentences in our mother language. It was kind of difficult as well because at that time I was sick and had a throat hurt.

On 10th of October in the evening Barbara, one of the mentors, invited us all to her place to have a pizza night. I went there a bit earlier to help her out with the pizzas and food. I also had time to talk with her a little bit and understood that I don’t want to have her as a mentor. The evening was fun because we all were together, laughing, eating and chatting. We all made our own pizzas and covering those with toppings.

Next thing for us was a careerday, when we went to school, had our own infopoint and shared information about Compass, up coming Youth Exchange trainings, European Voluntary Service oppurtunities. The people there weren’t really fascinated about that. My guess would be that there were a lot of schools and most of the people were focusing on thinking about studying not EVS project. There were also medical school point where we were able to hold a baby and save a persons life by pressing on the chest. Also I sent the pictures to my girlfriend and her reaction was sort of unpredictable. But probably the last thing we saw was the best. It was choclate fountain where you can eat choclate and it was really good.

14th of October we went to Szekzard to visit some volunteers there who were at the On-Arrival training with us and also we met our volunteer there who is working at the local German Theatre. We were there for the whole weekend. On the saturday we took a direct bus to Szekzard but the bus travel was very long. When we got there we met with Dominik and Sara, Josh and the volunteers. We decided to go to pizza place and eat something. After eating we went to the flats to see where are we spending the night and had some fun before going to the pub. During that time Enrico drank a lot and this was the first time when I saw Enrico so drunk. We went home 1 in the morning. I slept but I don’t know what others did. In the morning we went to McDonald’s to have a breakfast and later we met others in the centre. We sat there for a bit, played music, talked and then decided to buy something and go to the top of the hill and see the sun set. It was the most beautiful view I’ve see so far. Before leaving Szekzard we went to pub for the last time and then leave with evening bus. First we went to Pecs, since there were no direct buses that late, eat some gyros and took a bus from Pecs to Kaposvar. We were all very tired and decided to go to sleep as soon as possible

16th of October we were at hospital cleaning the new department and after that we had a free day.

This month we also went to schools a lot. I can now say that Muncachy is my favourite school here in Kaposvar because students are more active and interesting. I’m going to English lessons and also to Russian lessons most of the time. In English lessons we usually talk about our countries, how we like Hungary so far and why and what are we doing during our EVS. Also we talk about subjects that classes talk that time for example we were talking about cheating policy in Muncachy, about our experience in cheating and so on. Russian so far is my favourite lesson. There are a lot of interesting people and I get along with them really well. I made a presentation in Russian about Estonia, also when we go to lesson it is very fun and for the next time I’m supposed to make a little quiz for the students concerning their knowledge of  Estonia. The presentation for me was not the best since I wasn’t prepared to well and my Russian is not good. I apologized to the teacher for that because I felt really bad and disappointed in myself. But the teacher said it was fine and no need to worry about that.  Also it would be great to join in with other lessons like History because history was my favourite subject in highschool.  After school I also went to one girl’s volleyball game to see how she is playing with her friends. I met new people and got out of my comfortzone yet again which is better for me.

An overnight week for three days we were busy with events. On 24th we had Dutch Afternoon which war organised by our volunteer from The Netherlands. There was presentation, some language examples, music and food from The Netherlands and also we had fun with games. On 26th of October there was Halloween costume party. We had scary music, very tasty food, games and different activities here. For Halloween I had not much to do because I sat back and let others do something as well. But for both of these events we worked hard and we advertised it a lot but altogether only couple of people came which is kind of sad because we really did our best so the people who would come, would have fun and enjoy their time here in Compass. 25th of October we went to Mothershelter. For me it was a quite long day because in the morning I was at school but I was happy that I did it because that gave me a lot of inspiration and will to do things like that. When I went to mothershelter I saw the children and they gladly did everything we offered them. We made some Halloween decorations, facepaintings, costumes, games and it was all so fun. I learned a lot from those children just grab onto the possibilities that are offered to you. For me it was really amazing evening and after this I felt really good.

On 29th of October me and some other guys were at the Bazaar(Marketplace) and we were eating Langos. One moment we see a child crying because her balloon flew away. After some time I decided to buy her a new one and when she said „Thank you“ it was honestly the cutest and the most heartwarming thing I’ve ever experienced. Sometimes it feels good to just do good to people without having something for yourself.

Recently during my project I have felt really awkward. I guess I’ve felt lost because I don’t understand a lot of stuff anymore. I don’t know who am I and who have I become. Feeling like I might have identity crysis. It is kind of new feeling for me since I understand that I’ve changed as a person thanks to project. At the same time I feel bit useless as a volunteer but I won’t give up because of that. I was told before that you’ll feel useless no matter what at the beginning because it is new for you and you don’t know what to do so I’m just waiting till the „Dry period“ passes. That’s why I’ve decided to try and participate in more activities and do more work on my own. Also I’m looking for some sports to do to keep myself fit and healthy. Currently I’m working on my project. My idea is to do a floorball training since there is non in Kaposvar. That would be a great idea because I’ll study coaching science in UK next year so it would be a great try out. I’ve talked already with president of the organisation and hopefully I can make my idea true.

 

Raigo Lokotar, Hungary October 2017.