End of my Journey

Last week was my last in Vegetarium, which felt weird. In such a short time, a lot happened, both emotionally and in terms of experiences. Practically speaking, as autumn is coming soon, a lot of new tasks came up. I couldn’t try and help with everything, as I already had a lot to do and finish before my departure. Even so, I worked with the others at the horses’ house. We are rehabilitating the upper part of the house so that people can sleep there. What we had to do was close one of the outside walls with wooden planks and clay, and insulate the windows with clay as well. Playing with the clay like this, getting it to the right texture and then giving it the right shape around the windows, was satisfying. This task was really interesting, both because of the way we use the clay, how it works and why we do it, and because it is an ancestral way of insulating, which does work well, especially in summer. Also, it was really enjoyable to finally work as a team after such a long time.

About the other tasks, I’ve been able to finish opening the path to the beans and collecting the ones that were ready (pretty beans, by the way). These tasks, plus my daily tasks and the packing, made this week really busy. Until my very last minute there, I was working, but it felt good because we had a good team.

Activity-wise, we did a lot as well. There were movie nights, a beauty evening and a game night, some time around the bonfire, horseriding and a team day. I almost missed the beauty evening, but I tried to make it happen while I was still there because it seemed refreshing. And I’m glad we were able to do it because it was really relaxing, especially thanks to Nora and Inka, who prepared everything.

Then came the team day. All of us got up early in the morning to go to Sofia and spend a day there together. Overall, it was messy, not everything worked out, and we wandered around a lot trying to please everyone, but I’m glad it happened. I felt like these hardships made me grow closer to some of the volunteers who now feel like friends. I discovered them. We were also able to enjoy some good time together: we played card games in the park and chatted a lot. In the afternoon, we did a sharing circle where we talked about what we had learned so far. It was really interesting to notice the impact you can have on others. I knew that I had learned from them, but I hadn’t thought about it the other way around. At the end of the day, when only five of us remained (the best ones, aha), we were completely smashed and were laughing really easily. And because of this, I’ll keep a good memory of this day.

The next days passed really quickly, between cleaning, packing, Lyubov’s birthday, horseriding on my last working day, etc. Time flew, and it was already time for me to leave. I thought I wouldn’t cry because I didn’t feel like crying, but I did, and badly. Especially because they gathered around the car when I left, and it was quite hard to leave this place and them behind. I wanted to hug them tightly and hope we’ll keep in touch.

This was such a wonderful experience. There were hard times, rough periods and boring ones, but they made it more meaningful. I met amazing people, less amazing ones too, but I learned a lot from everything, not only practically, but also about myself and about others, about how to communicate and make things work. Also, in an international environment, I got used to speaking a foreign language, and I can feel that my mind, my way of thinking, my way of taking things and caring about them — all of this has changed. I feel stronger, braver, more mature and more joyful, and I’m taking life more easily. I’ll always be thankful for it and will now be moving on to the next stage !

Zoé