I recently participated in a workcamp in the village of Písečné, south of Bohemia, near the border with Austria. The main goal was to help renovate the local school of Písečné, whose main aim is to teach German to the children: the school was founded 120 years ago, so it was very old and out of use.
Arriving there was quite difficult: first, I had to take a bus from Prague to another town called Moravske Budějovice, and from there I took a bus to Písečné. The journey was quite long, up to 5 hours. I had the opportunity to meet the other people who would be participating with me: two of them were from Spain, two others from Italy and some from Ukraine, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We were certainly a wacky bunch.
The accommodation was a bit old, but we knew that workcamp volunteers don’t stay in luxury hotels. We started planning the shifts for cooking and cleaning: we were divided into pairs and each day some of these pairs would either cook or clean. I also had the opportunity to meet Eva and Zdenka, the campleaders: they were full of energy to do different things and listening to them and their own stories helped me to feel more at ease in this new environment. There was also Pavel and Magdalena, the local partners, who knew the place very well.
The next day we started work: the main task was to remove the paint from the old windows. It was such a daunting task due to the hot days and the extra heat given off by the tools used for the job. But we did it together and it felt very satisfying. As well as stripping the paint, we cleaned and mopped the floor, took out the rubbish, held doors open for drilling and much more. I certainly enjoyed the cleaning, it was my favourite task (Magdalena noticed this and made sure to give me this kind of task).
We certainly enjoyed the time we spent together while working: we put on some music, we talked, we laughed. I think the best times were when we spent time doing something together and connecting: this usually happened during lunchtime, when we talked to each other and shared our stories. The one I connected with the most was Giovanni, a design student from Italy. It was nice to see someone from my own country, because I have been in the Czech Republic for a long time, so talking to someone in my language made me feel less alone during the experience. He was a nice guy.
We also had plenty of opportunities to explore the surroundings: we went to the local chapel of the royal family who founded the village (which we cleaned). There we met with the mayor and the priest and a local journalist even gave us an interview, which you can read in Český rozhlas České Budějovice.
We went to Slavonice and Drusendorf, two small towns just around the corner. The latter was in Austria, it felt so strange to be in and out of another country in just one day. We also went swimming a lot in the local river, it was so refreshing, as the weather was quite hot some days. We even watched the Eurocup final and celebrated Spain’s victory with the two Spanish girls. Considering that I never followed football and I was cheering like I was a big fan, that should tell you how much fun it was. I think that my favourite part was listening to each other’s stories and putting my own into a different perspective. As you may have read in my previous article, at this time in my life, I am trying to understand what I want to do with my own life and hearing other people’s experiences helps me to connect with their emotions. I also really enjoyed being helpful by sharing my own stories and perspective…And even my fried bread recipe: seeing the whole team enjoying it made me smile, because I was doing something that was appreciated by everyone.
