Živjo everyone !

Today, I wanted to share with you the amazing experience we were lucky enough to live, a week ago. Indeed, during a long term ESC, every volunteer has to attend a training called “mid-term”, around the halfway point of the mission. It’s the opportunity for us, volunteers, to self reflect after several months abroad. Usually, this mid-term training lasts one week and is hosted somewhere in Slovenia. But Ondřej and I  – as very curious people 😎 – chose the “hiking” edition of this training. This edition of the midterm has the specificity to occur outside, the whole week ! We were super excited to have the opportunity to self reflect about our ESC while hiking across Slovenia, and I think we were not disappointed.

As far as I am concerned, I feel like it was a week full of valuable learning experiences, and that this might not have happened if the training had taken place indoors.. The hikes were sometimes relaxing, sometimes challenging, but above all, it allowed our small group of volunteers to bond even more. We were able to share our views and feelings about the end of the volunteering in an informal way, and it’s precisely what I needed at that moment 💓.

Throughout the week, we attended some workshops. My favorite – by far – was the one we had in a wild-life reserve with wild horses 🐎 First, we met Boris and Neja, the founders of the reserve. They then introduced us to mindfulness meditation, to allow us to connect even more with our senses and to be in the moment. For me it was sooo calming. I felt grounded, and it allowed me to connect with the horses even better afterwards, when we walked with them in the meadow.

We also discovered very meaningful projects along the way, like Park Istra, where volunteers from all over Europe are helping local communities in Istria. I was really inspired by them and it gave me some ideas for the future, after my ESC 👀 We also met Fluffy there, an adorable bunny who melted my heart 😭.

I’m super grateful I was part of this experience, and I definitely recommend it to anyone a bit adventurous and eager to live authentic human experiences 🌈.