Hello, beautiful readers of the Vitality Blog! Mia is here after almost two months. I know you didn't miss me because our blog was updated weekly and you could read stories about life in Bergolo from different perspectives whenever you wanted.
Focused people working hard after Monday cleaning in our warm and cozy office
It's kinda hard to get to write here nowadays as we are 7 volunteers (and we also have volunteers from Parco Culturale Alta Langa to share an office with) and everyone is literally fighting for the possibility of representing our project on a Monday Post. Probably Tim who is already famous for being our French model and favorite sarcastic-notes-generator is still mad at me because he had so much to share with you either but here I am, taking away this precious opportunity from under his nose. hehe. I feel so proud of myself. So honored and special. Maybe future generations of volunteers will read these words as an example of the best times in the Vitality Project's history... By the way, is there a future for the Vitality project after us finishing our volunteering program? I was just wondering...
OK, I'll cut these creepy fantasies of mine and I hope you're still reading even if I go too far with it sometimes. So, no one else was eager to write the post, as usual. Ok, maybe Tim really was, but you never understand if he is serious about anything. And maybe Sofia could be interested but I didn't ask her because I wanted to spend my Monday morning showing off my graphomania skills. That's why I just happened to volunteer for this weekly mission in advance so nobody would dare to do it but me. And it goes without saying that not a single person in our office looked like being upset about it.
You know, even if you enjoy something (like writing and speaking to our imaginary readers sharing all the fantastic experiences of our volunteering days) when it becomes a routine you can easily get overwhelmed and burned out. Actually, almost everyone in our group passed the equator of staying here, and some activities are still essential but don't feel as exciting as they were at the beginning of our journey as volunteers. Yeah, it's again me with a philosopher mod on. And before it goes to a part where I start quoting Kant or try to develop my own theory of stoicism let me check on what was going on in Bergolo lately.
First of all, we should definitely celebrate the end of the season of hosting projects! It was great and full of enlightening outcomes experience but I feel like we had enough of it and it's time to change focus, process everything we learned, and implement gained skills and knowledge in something different. For example, starting from this week we will have a Project Writing Course (Erasmus+ KA1) so we can try to create something based on the experiences of this year.
If my craziest dreams come true, from now on we will have more time to dedicate to our personal projects, doing some team-building activities like workshops or knowledge sharing, learning goals, the Italian language, interacting more with the local community, and exploring the area of Alta Langa. Maybe we even will go for our missions again to spread talks about youth mobility among citizens of the Piemonte region! What I mean is we still have a lot to do as volunteers in the Vitality project and now it finally feels somehow doable after we have no more hosting projects in our schedule. Or is it just me being delusional and super excited over nothing special again? We'll see... As we discovered this year of volunteering we're the only ones responsible for our experience here and among all the given possibilities no one else will decide which one we take. As they say, progress happens one life-stage at a time and we are in a perfect place to figure out how to make our goals a reality.
What I like the most about our project we never have time to get bored. Even if one of the essential stages of the program is finished we still are busy. Last week we started attending the Italian course in Cortemilia. We just had our introduction lesson on Wednesday.
As we already know, our project is about giving and taking we also started our English course for local kids. Angelina, Tim, Raùl, and I were the first ones to present the Vitality project on Thursday.
Some updates about Bruno-The-Vitality-Cat. He eats well, grows fast, behaves like an angel, and everybody is fond of him and kindly reminded that he has one and only mom - Milli. She takes good care of him and creates a pet-friendly environment in the office with help of hand-made toys and attractions. I wish I be a cat, he is just being himself and has all the love in the world
Meanwhile, Sofia is finally back from her journey to Chez Republic so we decided to go for a short car trip on Saturday
Besides other news, Milli is taking care of Cascina Crocetta garden with some help of volunteers of Parco Culturale Alta Langa (oh! almost forgot to mention that we welcomed a new volunteer from Turkey - Sila), Sefa came back from his vacation, Adele is back (but we had no chance to see her yet) and Tony was lucky enough to get covid for the fifth time.
Now that we have peaceful days in Bergolo I have more time to think about how much I miss all the people who made this place feel like home. So I hope all of them are doing well and planning to visit Bergolo again.
Hugs and kisses. See you soon.
And yes, I still love you, guys.