Short-term volunteering in Eko Centar Latinovac

2019. június 27. 08:53 - Mokos Béla

Sipos Hédi írása

Az I came to Latinovac (Croatia) to Eko Centar as a short-term volunteer for two months. This
organization is focusing first of all on permaculture and sustainability but I would say they provide
much wilder variety of tasks and experiences for people who would like to volunteering here. I
spent two months with ten other short-term volunteers, four long-term volunteers, our coordinators
and our wonderful cook. I realized that wherever I go the most important thing is what kind of
people are around me and basically everything depends on the group in which I am. I could say I
was very-very lucky because all the people in the group were incredibly open-minded, flexible,
curious and interested in everything but at the same time everyone was really patient, emphatic and
attentive. When we were working together or when we just had our free-day activities, we always
could work as a good group, and whatever we were doing we could cooperate, we could help,
support and encourage each other. Not easy to be in the company of almost twenty people almost all
the time but in our group everyone tried to pay attention and respect the other’s mood, personal and
social needs which made our life more peaceful and much easier. We were able to conform to each
other and everyone was open to learn from the others. The youngest volunteer was 18 years old and
the oldest (me :D) was 28 but honestly I never felt the age difference between us.

As I have already mentioned, our tasks in Eko Centar were very different and colourful. We
had theoretical and practical courses as well, including permaculture education, gardening,
composting, renovating and building, plastering and also organizing a festival. In April mostly we
were focusing on to prepare and organize the Spring Festival. We were building a new stage,
preparing different activities and programmes for children and adults as well – with some
intercultural tone. During the preparation and our work together was really interesting to get some
introduction into each other’s country and culture but I can say that I have got closer also to my
own country and culture. This feeling was also the result of our intercultural evenings when
volunteers had to prepare some traditional dishes from their country and make a presentation about
their culture, based on their personal stories and feelings. It was strange and very interesting for me
to experience how big task it is and how hard could be to present my own country and culture,
because I was born and raised up in it and to be able to present Hungary I had to look at it from
“outside”, with a stranger’s eyes. I have never seen my country like this before and I am very glad
and thankful for this new feeling and experience.

Besides our group activities and tasks we also had to find a personal project on which we
were working almost from the beginning. I decided to renovate the signs of Eko Centar because
during this job I could improve my manual skills and also I could help to the organization and gave
it more visibility.
One of our most important task was meeting and helping people who live in Latinovac. We
helped them in gardening, cleaning some part of their properties and we also went to the forest to
collect and cut firewood. Besides the physical activities we had permaculture education. I consider
myself as a sustainable person but during our classes I got more eye-opening information about
sustainability and due to our urban permaculture education I hope when I return to Budapest I
would be able to use all the knowledge what I gained in Eko Centar. But we had the chance to
teach as well – once we went to the elementary school in the nearest village and we made English
lesson for the kids. Another special experience was when we went to a high school in Požega to
promote ESC and volunteerism among students.

On our free days sometimes we decided to help more in the village but when we had three or
four free days we were traveling. First we went to Zagreb and from there we could easily reach the
Plitvice National Park and also the seaside, and our second trip was in Sarajevo. We could easily
organize our trips and as far as Eko Centar provided us accommodation and amazing vegetarian
food 3 times per working days, we could save our pocket money in Latinovac and spend it in
traveling.

I did three Erasmus exchanges during my university studies but I have never been a
volunteer before, this was my first volunteering project and I really wanted to try myself in this
position, being and living abroad independently, without the university background. I would say
Eko Centar was a great choice because it is a perfect place to learn not only about permaculture and
sustainability, but also about other cultures, tolerance, how to live in a small village in totally
different conditions what you get used to before. We were here to have an impact on the
community, to meet and help mostly older people from the village. It was amazing to see how
happy they are only because they see us day by day. The organization and all the people from the
village made the atmosphere very warm, friendly and welcoming for all the volunteers, the
coordinators from Eko Centar were very helpful and they did everything for the volunteers to make
their time here unforgettable. I was super happy because besides English I could also practice a bit
Croatian language and everyone was supporting me by the coordinators’ side. I feel very lucky and
glad because I could learn how to build a wall on my own from mud and straw, that I could have
experience in working with simple tools and with my hands. And to be honest, at the beginning I
didn’t even expect that in such a small place such a lot of new experience is waiting for me, that
every day will be so different and I have learnt that we don’t have to live in a big city to have
special moments because we are the ones who create these moments and who make them so special.
Hédi Anna Sipos (Hungary)