What we have been up to lately.

The past few weeks haven't been extremely busy given that the winter has started to show up and life in Etyek is gradually slowing down. We also haven't all been around all the time.

Some weeks ago two of us volunteers joined the Mid-term evaluation meeting in Visegrad (a castle town in the north of Budapest), organized by the Hungarian National Agency of the European Solidarity Corps. This event happens preferably in the middle of our volunteer activity but also at the end of it, and it's mandatory only for volunteers of 6 months and longer. It was a good opportunity for reflecting on our volunteering activity, learning process, personal experiences, challenges, resolving them, action plan and resources for the future. The opportunity to share thoughts with other volunteers, work in small groups and with ourselves allowed us to compare our different but similar experiences during our volunteering project. Also thanks to the help of the facilitators who, through the informal education approach, were able to guide us toward a concluding reflection of our journey in Hungary, in preparation for our return to our countries.
While one half was at the mid-term training, the other half was preparing the food for the catering for the closing event of a community project that Szatyor has been part of.

So on Thursday and Friday we were busy cutting, cooking and baking. Thursday was mostly spent preparing everything, i.e. cutting, washing and kneading dough. Thanks to the preparatory work, all we had to do on Friday was put everything into the moulds and bake. The oven ran continuously until all the cakes and quiches were ready.
Then on Saturday the time had come and we were able to proudly present our hours of work to the visitors of the event. Even though the kitchen in the event centre was quite small, we were able to manage everything well and received a big round of applause and lots of praise from the guests at the end. After three exhausting days, we were all looking forward to a long sleep.

With the start of the new week, we also began a new activity that was new territory for some of us. Pottery work. After a busy week past week, we were now able to relax and let our creativity run free. After a detailed introduction to the world of clay and its use, everyone was able to get started and let off steam. Everyday objects or decorative items were created.

The rest of our time has mostly been occupied with general maintenance of the association's house, making sure the space is clean and warm to welcome yoga classes, a folk dance workshop, choir practice and fermentation workshops.  

We have also been cutting and storing a lot of wood, it is tough work but a good workout and great to warm ourselves up on these cold days :)