4 years ago me and my friend decided to volunteer in a refugee camp. We were both 16, so there were not so many options for us. At first we could only cook some food with LORCA organisation and send it to the Potzneusiedl camp. But we still felt kinda... useless. So as we reached the 18 milestone, we decided to volunteer in Serbian camp for three weeks during the upcoming summer.

Few weeks before the 'trip' we realised we're not vaccinated against.... well anything Syrian! 😂 The friend of mine freaked out and decided to dump the camp. However, I truly wanted to go, so I talked to some people just to make sure it's not that dangerous, got a last-minute one against hepatitis and packed my bags. Suddenly, I was all alone outside the EU borders, in an overcrowded night bus without air-conditioning, but with two crying kids on the seats right behind me - one of them actually got herself a head concussion, when the bus rushly stopped. Moreover, I had a 70litres backpack full of picturebooks and bubble blowers for little refugees. By the way, to pick the backpack up, I had to do the following:

1. put it on the ground,
2. sit down next to it and put the shoulder straps on,
3. place my feet in some weird position, so that I could:
4. move my bodyweight forward - on my hands,
5. straighten my legs a little,
6. lift the upper part of my body using a lamp or a traffic sign pole.
   It looked like I was performing a veery creepy yoga.

I was lucky enough to find an exchange office right after my arrival (spoilt by euro, I was stressed by this 😄) and a smaller bus station, where I managed to buy a ticket to Šid - my destination. I could even take a walk across Novi Sad 😊.

5am me in Novi Sad
Then I, of course, got off the bus on the opposite side of Šid thinking the volunteer accomodation is near. So instead of having lunch, I made a 2 hour stroll in 36ºC with the backpack and felt like a walking dead.

But I made it! :D I met the other volunteers and spent a nice evening in the refugee camp.. Well, I'll tell you more in the next post!

Slovak language version

Ešte pred 4 rokmi sme sa aj s kamarátkou dohodli, že pôjdeme dobrovoľníčiť medzi utečencov. Mali sme ale 16 a tak najviac, čo sme mohli robiť, bolo varenie pre utečencov s organizáciou LORCA (vtedy sa ešte takto nevolali).

Stále som sa ale necítila veľmi užitočne a chcela som spraviť viac. Tiež ma zaujímalo ako to vlastne naozaj v takom utečeneckom tábore vyzerá a chcela som sa s týmito ľuďmi rozprávať. Keď prišlo leto a s ním moja 18tka, vybavili sme si v auguste 3 týždňové dobrovoľníčenie v Srbsku.

Tri týždne pred odchodom sme sa zrazu zostrihali, veď nemáme očkovanie proti... ničomu utečeneckému! 😂 Kamoška nakoniec nešla a ja som si na poslednú chvíľu dala vakcínu proti žltačke. Aj tak by mi vlastne nikto nevedel poradiť žiadne iné očkovanie.
A tak som sa ocitla v nočnom autobuse do Nového Sadu. Prvýkrát sama mimo EU, v preplnenom autobuse bez klím, ale zato s plačúcimi deťmi – jedno si pri prudšom zabrzdení rozbilo hlavu. To všetko so 70 litrovým batohom obrázkových knižiek, učebníc nemčiny bublifukov atď pre utečenčiatka.... Mimochodom, batoh som nevedela dvihnúť o viac ako 20 cm. Vždy som ho musela:

1. postaviť na zem,
2. sadnúť si k nemu(čupnúť nestačilo) a remene si dať na ramená,
3. dať chodidlá tak, aby som mohla:
4. presunúť váhu dopredu - na ruky,
5. trochu vystrieť nohy,
6. pomocou lavičky alebo stĺpa dvihnúť postupne vrch tela
   Vyzerala som akoby som cvičila veeeľmi zvláštnu jogu.

Chvalabohu som hneď pri príchode našla zmenáreň (vieteako, rozmaznaná eurom som mala stres) a menšiu autobusovú stanicu, kde sa mi rukami-nohami podarilo kúpiť lístok do Šidu – mojej destinácie. Dokonca mi ostalo pár hodín na prechádzku Novim Sadom 😊.

5 ráno, ja a Novi Sad

Potom som, samozrejme, v domnení, že je dobrovoľnícke ubytko neďaleko vystúpila na druhom konci Šidu. A tak som sa namiesto obeda s tým obrovským batohom dve hodiny v 36º trepala cez mesto a cítila sa ako zombie.

Ale dorazila som! Dala som sa trochu dokopy, zoznámila sa s ostatnými dobrovoľníkmi a večer už šla na pár hodín do tábora. O tom ale v ďalšom poste... :)