Busy November III

Tuesday 26th
Last Tuesday we went to YMCA building, to the A4 priestor where this Film Festival created by and for people with mental disabilities was taking place. We went some staff from INEX in colaboration with Bol raz jeden clovek, which is the association that organized it.

We arrived in the morning and helped with the decoration of the place, took several pictures of the public -for a surprise afterwards- and then a projection of an animation film started. In the meantime we got ready for different workshops. Sarah and I were in charge of one for making stars, in order to create a kind of 'hall of fame'. In any case, the creation of 'superheroes' and 'princesses' with the previous photos of them that we had taken got most of their attraction -I can't blame them!

There was a second session in the afternoon when they showed some animation short-films made by this organization, another professional film regarding people with mental disabilities and a concert. Since we agreed to stay after the concert to help tidying up I thought it was going to be too long if I also attended to the films, so I skipped it. Pity was that the concert was cancelled in the last minute, but well, we still enjoyed a bit together with Bol raz jeden clovek and they thanked us with lentilky (Slovak M&Ms) for our help.

Thursday 28th
On Thursday we had the second 'round' in Presporkovo. If the week before I focused mostly in the puppet and afterwards in a bag, that day was mainly about t-shirts. I made the first one with INEX logo template, personifying it with very long arms and legs and a Christmas hat. Then, copying the technique one of the mothers there was making with a kid -using tape to create a shape and later the kid came painting with his hands-, I created a t-shirt with a moose -or something like that.

The results, very nice t-shirts and bags. Here some samples:

Friday 29th - Sunday 1st of December: Miki Viki
Friday morning we came to the office with our backpacks in order to take the direct bus to Banska Stiavnica at 1pm. Tomas, Matiss and I were part of the team that bought the food for the weekend and prepared Friday's dinner for 40 people -but we found so many other volunteers in the way that we didn't work very hard.

Most of the people arrived around 8:30 pm, we had dinner and then we started with name games -happy to see new faces, actually. After those they had prepared for us a 'Let's dance' show, in which we had to go around the Scouthouse, find one paper with a choreography written and learn it together with other participants. Surprisingly I enjoyed a lot though I'm always saying I'm not a great fan of dancing. Funny fact, we found some markers and paper, so at the end we started creating our one choreographies -including just the Crow pose and the 'Macarena' one. We liked so much the dancing that we even had it in another moment, for the typical and always funny 'Tunak tunak' energiser.

 

This time was pretty relaxed for me since I didn't have to lead any session, so I enjoyed being a participant and taking part in teambuilding games. My favorite one was kind of a Trivial/Risk game created by volunteers from INEX (Dasa, my menthor, and Peta). You had to answer quite tricky questions about traditions and habits in different countries in the world and once you've answered correctly that country was 'conquered' by your team. Also with special questions, after some points you could buy other countries -we bought Russia, yeaaah, we big!

Nonetheless, Sarah and I introduced another session of preparation of gifts. I think they for sure have enough for Christmas, but they'll also use our gifts for other days of celebration for the people from Integra. I made kind of a butterfly, daring to even sew something to its wings -it was my second time sewing, first one was in the first session in Presporkovo for my hippy puppet. Also, we took advantage of the camera to make a picture together with my tutor, Olga, and my mentor, Dasa, two of the closest friends I made during my time here -ake su zlate!

In general it was a great weekend, and we even had a bit of free time to explore the city after Saturday's lunch, when I visited one more time Kalvaria with other participants. I also took my camera this time, hoping that it would snow and I could make some nice pics -and so I did^^, me happy.

Sunday 1st

Departing on Sunday after lunch, we managed to get back to Bratislava at around 6pm. I got home, left my luggage there and got to Azahara's flat for an intimate celebration of her birthday. I couldn't help talking a lot in Spanish that evening, since besides Simon and Laimona -her flatmates- and Lubo -our Slovak friend-, Aza, Miguel, Mariano and me were majority of Spanish speakers. It was nice since I realized I don't get to talk so much Spanish lately, and also because talking about finishing our projects they helped me out with my next step -that was kind of clear, but still good to have somebody else's point of view.

Great company, great cous-cous (Azahara's style, not arabic or anything, haha) and great moments -specially when the karaoke serie of 'songs-to-remind-you-how-old-you-are', Spanish hits version, started. I think I'll never forget the acoustic version of 'Que fantastica esta fiesta', top top! It was very nice evening and I felt happy to have these people close to me -pretty people like this party girl in the picture :)

I'm not really fond of this feeling that the end is coming closer each day, but I can really feel it since the last month it's already is here and I have so many things to take care of before departing -buying contact lenses, sending the receipt to AXA together with the previous one, sending a package home...

Regarding my future plans, well, let's keep it secret by now. I think I will only start preparing something back home since I also want to spend sometime there and finally finish my studies -I'm still officially a student, according to my scholarship insurance from University bill. In any case, it would be good to rest sometime before getting in the next adventure^^

And if you think because it's my last month that it would be more relaxed, I think you are wrong -I also used to think that way, but no. So far, December looks even busier, ale to je zivot!

See you in the next post, hugs!
Ali