European Voluntary Service

This is Pekarna's blog for EVS volunteers. Pekarna is a sending and hosting/receiving organisation for EVS volunteers and their volunteers (send and hosted ones) will keep you up to date about their work.

Evropska prostovoljska služba

Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor te vabi, da se tudi ti pridružiš množici prostovljcev/-k Evropske prostovoljne službe (EVS) in odpotuješ v organizacijo po svoji izbiri v drugo državo EU. Smo pošiljajoča in gostiteljska organizacija EVS, ki mladim od 17. in do 30. leta za obdobje največ enega leta uredi vse podrobnosti za brezskrbno in povsem brezplačno delovanje v tujini.
Evropska prostovoljna služba je del programa ERASMUS + Mladi v akciji.

Za bolj podrobne informacije nas lahko kontaktiraš na: evs@pekarna.org



Thursday 17 November 2016

Moving pictures and opened windows

It’s the end of October as I’m writing this, which means there’s one month of my EVS left. I vaguely remember having nine months to go and how different the feeling was, being on the opposite end of the scale. It makes it very easy to start wondering how short life really is. Well, I won’t make the most out of it by thinking about it, that’s for sure! This month was a bit like how a lot of stuff in life happens – nothing at all and then everything all at once.

Close to the end of September, during an evaluation visit from Movit, I was asked if I could volunteer as a photographer on an event that was about to take place in Maribor, and after I heard there would be a number of youth workers from multiple countries and an interesting topic to talk about, I told myself „Why not?“ That’s how I got a peek at the Volunteering forum. And it was exactly that – a multi-day discussion about where volunteering work in the EU (and partner countries) is now and where to take it in the future. It was fascinating to get a much bigger and more abstract scope of things that happen in the field of voluntary work, and while it made me feel very small as an individual EVS, it also made me think that my work and giving the community is all the more important, because in the end, all volunteering starts with small, everyday things.

Right after that, I had to deal with preparations for my first ever photography exhibition! It was different from how I imagined it, but the fact that it gave me neither a hard time nor any bombastic feelings is a nice sign of balance. I’m still in disbelief over how so many people wanted to be a part of what I love to make, and I left the prints in Infopeka after the exhibition for models to pick up and keep.



Just as the exhibition ended, there was another thing to focus on, and quite a big one – StopTrik, the biggest festival of stop-motion around! I agreed to photograph the whole festival (and help work on video interviews with a few organizers and participants) because I’ve never been to an event about such a specific topic, and I was sure there was some interesting stuff to be seen and made and that there were people to discover. We had the most visitors so far this year, the whole selection of films was great to watch and even though it was stressful and demanding and it hit my energy levels hard, it was well worth it and it will stay in my memory for quite some time. If you’re curious what it was like, take a look at StopTrik’s website, YouTube channel or Facebook page. 




The next blog entry may be my last one from Slovenia. November will most likely be cold, calm and „business as usual“ for me – doing graphic and photography work, helping out with workshops, meeting with volunteer groups. I’m not feeling sad that the end of this project is so close, and I’m already getting excited about how I’m going to deal with new challenges home. As the quote says: „The trouble with coming back home is that you’ve changed, but the place remains the same.“ Bring it on then!

Michal

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