Karolina's New Adventure

Hey, Karolina, so one quarter of your volunteering project is almost over, yeah?

These are the words I heard these days, after two months of being here with Lojtra.

This month passed by super fast as a big part of it was spent not on my usual tasks, but on several projects in different parts of Slovenia. From the end of November I joined my colleagues from Lojtra on their training course “Youth work essentials+ held in Brežice. There I learned new practices of working with young people, met so many amazing youth workers from all over the world and also saw how this kind of training looks from an

organizations perspective.

Maybe one day I can organize it too?

I had to leave this training course earlier in order to participate in a very important

project in every European solidarity corps volunteer life - on-arrival training. During five days I spent together with other volunteers I got an opportunity to bond with people through our similar and at the same time very different journeys here in Slovenia. Also we did so many cool activities together and I came back with my mind full of new ideas for my own time with young people.

After just a few days at school, where I got to do yoga and create music with pupils,

bake 200 pancakes and plant some berry trees, I went away again for a three day working retreat with Lojtra’s team.

We went to an already snowy part of Slovenia near Austria’s border where we had so much fun hiking, cooking, brainstorming, playing games and music together. I feel more and more thankful for being surrounded by such a remarkable group of people, it makes my volunteering experience really special.

I had an amazing time during all of these activities, but I really missed my regular

days at school. I was so happy to be back and hug my already beloved pupils and teachers. It turns out I don’t need that much to fill my heart with joy and feeling of belonging.