Friends

It's already been six months that I am here in Budapest and it seems like at least one year. It's incredible how time flies and we are not even aware of it. 

I came in November and every experience abroad is difficult to deal with. When your experience is starting, you are full of energy and ready to live through the next chapter of your life. 

Last week our friend and workmate left because it's her time to change the chapter. We were living together, working together and hanging out together. So, I would like to tell you about Sara. 

When I came to Budapest, Sara was waiting for me in front of our home, she carried my luggage (27kg) and she had prepared my first lunch here. Sara, Harry and me were eating tomatoes and cheese. (Yes, they love cheese. There is no meal without it and it was just my beginning in the cheese fantasy).

As I was telling you before, going abroad alone can be hard in the beginning because you don't know anything about it and you don't know anyone to share your experience with. But then, Sara introduced me to all of her friends here, she was always organising parties and making plans, she was always working very hard and taking care of everyone. Sara is an easy going person, caring, friendly, confident, generous, clever and an amazing cook. I would like to be Italian to know how to cook once a week: home-made pizza, pasta and risotto. (I made a lot of mistakes, for example I cooked pasta one day and I ate it the next day hihihihi).

Sara wasn't just organising activities for everyone, she was really good at planning too. Once, she organised a quiz night at home... full of people, full of questions, full of cheese (do you have doubts about a party without cheese?). She organised barbecues, capuccino time (we love coffee too) and luggages. Yes, I've written  luggages. Already three rounds of clothes went to Italy. (Yes, three weren't enough, she has to come back to pick the fourth round up, lucky us hihiiii).

As I told you too, Sara, during our last night in Morrison's... (finally): Sara is an amazing workmate, she knows how to teach you, how to say if you are doing something wrong and she's able to spread her energy and positive vibes. Sara is also a very good friend, she listens to your worries and she gives  you really good advice. She would never judge you. 

To sum up, it's very important to know how to enjoy life. In other words, all of us have worries, responsibilities and goals although everything takes time. So, on the path to reach those goals, I would say that we have to learn how to appreciate  the people that are surrounding us, enjoy our daily activities and never we have to get stuck, we always need a change in whichever field. And that is what Sara is always doing. 

I am very lucky to have met you! See you soon apañada! :)

PS: In spanish, apañada means someone who always finds a solution for everything. And that's why Sara is apañada apañada. 

At the Carnival Party. Zsuzsa, Eleonora, me and Sara

    At Sara's birthday. Me, Eleonora and Sara. 

Last day of Sara. Me, Eleonora, Becci, Zsuzsa and Sara. 

Olvass tovább

Erasmus+ önkéntesünk megkésve bár, de törve nem - beszámol élményeiről

Angol nyelvű és megkésett tartalom következik! Önkénteseinknek blog bejegyzéseket is kell készíteniük, ami a napi munka mellett gyakran késik, ezért most egy közel fél éves időszak összefoglalója következik. Visszatekinteni is jó arra a sok mindenre, ami ebben a fél évben történt. Fogadjátok szeretettel! (*aki nem ért angolul, szóljon és elmeséljük magyarul is, bár a fotók önmagukért beszélnek :) )

November

The winter has come and also the snow has arrived in Budapest. The city reflects perfectly the Christmas atmosphere thanks to the scent of mulled wine and cinnamon, the cracking of roast chestnuts and the Christmas lights that decorate the bare trees of Andrássy út.

The last month has been fundamental for my personal growth, both internal and external. 

Thanks to the EVS on-arrival meeting and training, I could have crossed the other volunteers paths and I could have seen how deep they immerse themselves in this experience. 

I could meet youngsters from different motherlands, I could observe different personal stories and above all I could perceive extraordinary values that every volunteer embodies. 

Comparing with them motivations, aims and already achieved goals I could have examine in depth the consciousness of myself, of my strong points and qualities and of my weak spots as well.

Can't wait to continue this great journey!

December-January-February

December arrived as soon as a lot of new tasks and new challenges.

First of all, we realized some Christmas gifts for the kids of the Mikulásgyár Színpad charitable trust.

Then we focused our attention on the realization of new workshops: choosing some old pictures, we created works of art by using buttons, oil paint, newspaper cuttings and cotton and woolen yarn in some creative ways.

And how could I not mention the Filantrópia Farsang, the association's carnival party, in which even Audrey Hepburn, Frida Kahlo, Prince, Che Guevara and the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland took part.

The party was also mentioned by the Hungarian blog WeLoveBudapest which contributed in raising the number of customers and social followers.

During the last few months I've immersed myself more and more in the Hungarian culture and thanks to the Hungarian lessons I attend, I am able to understand the deeper meaning, both literally and metaphorically, of this amazing heritage.

Szia és szép hétvégét! Ciao e buon fine settimana!

March-April

Spring is the season of flowers, colors and joy and we definitely felt it and showed it through the last two workshops.

March started with a necklace workshop during which we taught how to make jewelry from cotton T-shirts.

Despite the long preparations of colorful strings, the procedure is very easy and the result is absolutely amazing.

During April we organized a carpet workshop: by using the same strings of cotton that we used for the necklaces, we showed how to create a soft and comfortable carpet for home (they are very colorful and nagyon különleges!).

April was also the month of the Mid Term Training and the location was the beautiful city of Visegrad.

Thanks to this event I could see how much I've grown up during the last six months and how much I learned from the people that surround me.

Now the summer is close and also the end of my journey... but I decided that I got too many positive feelings and teachings from this city to just leave it behind me, so I will look for a place to stay here and keep learning about life.

May

May was a very special month for Filantrópia Adománybolt: on the 25th we celebrated the Adományboltok Éjszakája that is the night during which the charity shops of the city center are open until midnight.

It was a great success: A lot of customers visited the shop and joined the workshops: the theme of the night was GICCS (kitsch) so we taught how to create kitsch and crazy bags out of leopard, striped and colorful prints.

I personally cooked pizza with the help of visitors and the special assistance of Ágika, a volunteer who is affected by Down syndrome.

During the evening, on the street, there was also an amazing concert, conducted by the famous Zsolt Barna Mester.

That night we took some beautiful pictures that were lately published on our fashion magazine, on the summer edition... and actually the summer is coming and a totally new adventure is waiting for me... wish me good luck!

July

During the month of July I had the chance to live an amazing experience in Spain: I traveled to Barcelona and I spent six days in the beautiful Can Bordoi, in Llinars del Vallès, surrounded by the most intense nature I've ever seen.

I took part to the Youth ChangeMakers Training with other 12 inspiring participants who come from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Turkey, England and, of course, Hungary. 
During the training we learned about ecological sustainability, community resiliency, economical sovereignty and personal agency and, thanks to our strong motivation, we learned about ways to become more effective agents of change. 
We studied in a general way how to mobilize and rise up the critical mass in order to achieve a social and ecological change and then we applied these rules to our personal projects, a different one for every participant.
We learned that actions and so operational goals are not always the leverage points and that we should start from the roots, so the paradigms and the mental models which stuck people and their minds.
We moved through the scale of complexity of feelings, the vicious cycle/triangle of aggressor-saver-victim and the importance of no violent communication. All of them are useful tools that we can use in our work place but also in our daily life.

Then we dealt with themes as power and privilege to state the difference between competent authority and prestigious authority, in order to learn how to use both of them to promote equality and not differences.
I really like the idea of the human being seen as an organizational tree in which the roots are the values, the trunk symbolizes the skills and the capacities, the branches are the resources and the fruits are the outcomes; we are powerful all together as a forest, but we don't forget about our individuality and our peculiarities.

Thanks to the training I could focus on my personal project in Filantrópia Adománybolt and learn how to change, in some small way, values toward ideas of waste production and consumption, how to create a community place that exists beyond social and economical rules and how to build an intercultural space where people coming from different background are able to meet, share, learn and have fun.

It was interesting to realize how much the smallest action could be useful, when it comes from a deeper vision of the whole system: and now I know that when I recycle a single t-shirt and I create a new shopping bag I'm doing more and more than what I thought before.

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Sara első élményei nálunk

Októbertől új kaland kezdődött szigetünkön, megérkezett az első olasz EVS önkéntesünk! Mindannyiunk számára fontos tapasztalás ez, reméljük, hogy sokat fogunk egymástól tanulni. A magyar órái még nem kezdődtek el, ezért bejegyzései angolul születnek majd, amíg majd megtanul magyarul :) Itt az első (aki nem érti, nézzen be hozzánk és elmeséljük, hogy miről szól! :)

 

I have visited Budapest twice. It has been love at first sight. But in the eyes of the city I was nobody, but a mere and unknown tourist. Now I can finally say that I live here. I live the real city, with its autumn colors, its breath-taking views, its refined architectural lines and especially its everlasting smells of bakeries, éttermek, kávézók.

I had (and I still have) the chance to join a great project, of which the main aim is help people who live in poverty to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

Due to that goal, the Filantrópia Charity Shop, and the Profilantrop Association which is behind it, need to engage with different approaches. There is the shop, as they proudly say, "an island where items can anchor to find a home and help serve others". And there are others eco-social projects.

They include the creative and innovative recycling and reusing of items or otherwise the real action of projecting and building tools for the poor.
I had the chance to give birth to new objects as shopping bags, carpets, dogs and cats' toys by using items that others may think are rubbish.
But that is just one way to help.


Thanks to our trip to Ág, I could have seen the other approach: the Association, in connections with other partners, enable itself in the rebuilding of roofs and doors in order to improve heating insulation and their lifestyles.
I could have met a different part of Hungarian reality, composed of simple, welcoming and lovely humans.

During the first month with Filantrópia I dealt with extraordinary colleagues, uncommon costumers, a very friendly atmosphere and with a brand new reality that I actually didn't expect.

And I already know that it is just the beginning.




Sara's experience is supported by Erasmus+

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