I’ve mentioned the on-arrival training before when we were talking about APV. And from that time everyone was quite hyped about this training that we as ESC volunteers have to go through. Personally, I was moderately excited about it. First of all, it’s a place where people from many different countries meet. Like a big salad of cultures. It would be very Russian of me calling it Vinegret, but it is kinda like it. If you look up Vinegret’s ingredients, you would think WTF they are thinking about mixing that stuff together in one bowl?! But when you taste it…it’s just perfect. I think it was the case with our group for the on-arrival training. It was just how it was supposed to be. It felt right. Right people, right time…But more about it later. Secondly, it’s a nice learning opportunity. It’s time to think again about your place in a group, your behavior in some situations.
Ah, there’s so much to say about the training and at the same time, it’s quite difficult to put it on the paper. It feels like a whole other lifetime has been fit into one week.
Let me start with the workshops. It was a nice touch that all the suggestions and needs of the participants were noted before the beginning. We were asked what we would like to talk about, what information do we need and I believe we got as much as we could.
I think I wouldn’t be wrong saying that we can divide all of them into three categories: personal development or personal awareness, legal information, and culture. Teamworking, adaptation, taking and giving up the lead would fall into personal awareness and development. Legal information is more or less about rights and responsibilities plus some useful information about European Solidarity Corps and everything around it. And the culture was about…Hungarian culture. We learned some words, danced some dances, screwed up, played some games. Fun times!
Kudos to our trainers who stoically suffered through our crazy ideas and a bit of madness. Without them, nothing would be possible! And of course, the team is amazing. Both the official on-arrival training part and the non-official training part. We’ve shared our views on so many things, we’ve cried tears of joy, we’ve laughed and discussed. I really do think that on-arrival is something else! We were together just for a week, less even, but it feels like we’ve known each other forever!
Love you all and see you at the mid-term! or maybe…earlier? Who knows where the road will lead us!
Adventures of a random volunteer 