Arts Lab 5.0: Olha Popova, Ukraine - Month 3

 So the third month of my volunteering has passed. Oh, the horror. Let's remember what happened.
1) The dog went to Germany.
2) We worked for a whole week in Moldova.
3) We held another exhibition.
4) We held a lot of workshops.
5) It seems we got a cat.
6) I found a yoga mat and started practicing.

In fact, it's hard to remember everything that happened. My days were so busy that everything blurred together. But let's go in order.

So, the dog went to Germany. Now, one of the things that all the volunteers do for fun is to watch the videos that Dajana's family sends her. Good for him, what can I say.

A week in Moldova. Oh, that week. Every day we spent the night in a different place. The schedule was like this: you wake up bright and early. You go to some village. In that village, they show you the district. Usually it's a church, a cemetery, some kind of administrative building. Then you conduct a workshop for children. You have 20 minutes for each group of 6-10 children. And there are usually 8 such groups. There are no breaks, which is quite difficult.

But I liked to see how different these groups were. Some children are quite closed, and it seems that only a couple of them know each other. Others seem to have a clear leader, and it's not always a person who can speak English. Others open up in the process like flowers in the sun, immersing themselves in the task, even though they seemed shy at first.

Well, you have worked there and now you are going to meet with local artists and the mayor. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of the villages to give you an example, but the mayors are usually so sweet :). Tea and sweets greet you there.

After that, there are two options, either you go to eat pizza or to the hotel. By the way, we bought food for lunch and snacks in the supermarket in advance. Imagine that you need to buy snacks for the whole week. We walked around that supermarket like lost kittens. But before that, there were a lot of Ukrainian products in Moldova, which made me happy. After that, you arrive at the hotel. You try to sleep, and then the day repeats itself.

About interesting situations: how I was proposed. On one of the usual days, when we were walking around the village, the girls and we saw a horse behind a fence on one of the streets. Of course, we approached to take pictures and try to pet the horse. In fact, it was quite a sad sight because the horse was eating some garbage. A minute later, a man came out of the house behind the fence. He didn't look very happy with what we were doing, so we moved away and tried to explain that we don't speak Romanian and were just taking pictures of his horse. 

Then he untied it and led it to us, gesturing that he wanted to take us for a ride. The girls didn't seem to like the idea, but I had little to nothing in my head, so I went along. Of course, with little success, I asked "Is it free?" but he hardly understood.

Well, here I am on the horse.  At this moment I realize that if he takes me somewhere, I will not be able to jump off. But he didn't. Instead, when I got down from the horse, we hugged each other, and then he started asking me something. I quickly pulled out my phone and opened the translator, and it turned out that the question was "Are you married?" to which I said "Yes" (I am not married). Then he took my face in his hands and tried to kiss me. He failed, but it was an interesting experience... (Previously I`m known to have a military boyfriend and being a Buddhist, but it`s a different story.)

I bought noise-canceling headphones. It's a wonderful thing. I recommend it to everyone if you are going to volunteer. Another tip: make a rule that dishes are simply not allowed to be left in the common space. That way, everyone will have to wash them right away.

Speaking of the exhibition, this one was MUCH better. We were given more time to prepare, so all of us created wonderful works. I made a large illustration of charcoal. Unfortunately, only one, but it was enough. I really enjoyed working with this material. At the exhibition itself, I played the role of a "shaman". I met people, drew a protective symbol from the Trypillia-Cucuteni culture on them, and wished them a good journey. I liked that my role was quite calm but at the same time creative. I had a couple of nice conversations about art and ancient civilizations.

Now, about the little things. My advice to all future volunteers: don't forget about your health. I got a pretty hard bed, so my back is hurting. I put it off for a long time but finally found a yoga mat to take care of my health. I shouldn't have delayed it. Don't overlook these things!

Oh, and the cat. I don't know what kind of luck Dajana has, but an outdoor cat started jumping through her window and walking around our house. So she started feeding it. I think we have adopted the cat.

We started a residency at a school for visually impaired children and are preparing for the next exhibition, but I will write about that later. 

So, it was an eventful month. I can't wait for the weekend. Honestly, I think I'll get sick if I don't have a good rest. It seems to me that this is the type of experience that will later become the basis for some new stage of my life. However, I haven't realized what it is yet. See you in the next report, dear readers. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Olha Popova is from Ukraine, and she is participating in a six-month volunteering program within Arts Lab 5.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.