Hello everyone! That is Angie with my last weekly post, which can be considered as my testimonial.
My first weekend in Bergolo matched with Easter, and that day I realized, that if I want to continue spiritual practices, I have to go down and up on foot every Sunday – 8 km. As time showed me, it wasn’t the one challenge of my “Vitality”. Volunteering experience consisted of tense periods, isolation of the place, huge amount of work, not enough of organizing things and sometimes miscommunication. But if despite these things I consider my experience as GREAT, it is GREAT indeed. The challenges have hardened me, gave me more braveness and self-confidence. They encouraged me to search and to find further solutions for my nearest future – apply for university and for Summer Academy for young catholic journalist. For the last one I won grant!
It would be accurate to notice, that all the inconveniences of the project were left behind all the amazing things that happened during the volunteering. The year was full of travelling around Italy and abroad: Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Austria, France. Nothing like trips can entertain your life and bring into unforgettable memories and emotions. It was time for trying something new and rediscovering skills and potential that already was inside. I tried myself in cooking of different cuisines, conducting workshops and managing permaculture garden (world of sustainability is wonderful). As before coming to Bergolo I was working as journalist, in Italy I started to write more freely in English, even preparing articles for local newspaper, and cooperating with two more Belarusian newspapers.
As I mentioned before the isolation of Bergolo as disadvantage, I have to admit that It has both sides. The village won my heart with its beauty of scenery: hills, Alps, sea of clouds in the morning, forest, deer, rabbits, foxes, pheasants. Being surrounded by such amazing things day by day invites you to immerse in self-reflection. And as for me, it was one of the most important parts and the most needed of the project. It gave me inner changes, that I was thirsting for. And it made my year of volunteering absolutely happy.
And what about the most important part of the project? Of course, it is about people. I don’t want to mention all the names. If you read this blog, you already know them. And it is difficult for me to write them down or pronounce, because for now it causes too much pain of parting. But I am grateful with all my heart to everyone who was the part of “Vitality” 2022 and who made it happen.🌺
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