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Hello! My name is Carlos Magrasó, and I am one of the volunteers of Rural Future. I relocated from Spain in March, so at this point, if you follow the updates of Smokinya on this website and our social channels, I might be familiar to you!
Today I am writing in first person to reflect about my experience here. Why? Because it’s already been half of my volunteering period here. That’s what we call the mid-term evaluation.
First, I am grateful for this time that already passed away. I joined Smokinya and the Rural Future project looking for something totally different. It was not my first job, not even my first time living abroad, so I didn’t want it to be again the average office job 9-5 in a fast-paced capital city in Europe, you know?
It’s not that I don’t like office job (I’m an engineer!), but it’s what I’ve been doing all my life, so it became my comfort zone. And, you know? They say learning starts out of your comfort zone… And I embrace a lot that approach. That’s why I am here and I’m grateful of having found what I was looking for.
When they ask me to wrap-up in one word Rural Future, I always choose the same one: diverse. And I am not thinking of the diverse background, nationalities or cultures that gather together here… Which is by the way true. This time, I am thinking more of the tasks we do every day. When I remember what I have done these months, it goes from horse shepherding to editing reels for Instagram; from picking roses to tearing down a wall; from facilitation in an Erasmus+ youth exchange to working in the kitchen…
As I said before, I was not familiar at all with any of the tasks I am asked to do here. And I found out I’m not even good at many of them, such as construction work or farming. But that’s exactly why I came here: to face new challenges every week. Yes, that’s also a good way to describe my volunteering so far.
When I first applied for Rural Future, I read somewhere from Smokinya not to expect paid holidays around Europe, but a demanding and intense training course that asks for commitment. I didn’t understand it at first, but with the past of the months, I got it, and I confirm it.
So I am not gonna pretend everything went smooth, joyful and happy. Let’s say there’s discomfort in all this experience. I am not thinking only of accommodation or the lifestyle. It is of course limited by the fact of living in an old countryside house in Bulgaria in an isolated village. I’m also thinking of emotional discomfort, which comes from trying and failing, having to process new stuff, challenging your default thoughts and approaches…
So: there’s been discomfort? Yes. Is it tiring? Yes. Exhausting many times. Not only physically, but also mentally. It’s been still rewarding and meaningful? Yes. I mean, I came for this. I didn’t come to a rural village to ‘live my best life’, to have an easy time or to travel around the country. I came to explore, discover, learn and improve myself while contributing with a great project that is alligned with my values.
Some of the learnings are evident to me. I will start with the personal skills:
– I am much more coachable and I accept feedback much better, which helps me build better relationships. I guess it comes from doing so many tasks that I had never done before, but also from the learning-by-doing approach: a lot of failure on the way to success, so a lot of feedback received too.
– I am now much more comfortable with my imperfections and weaknessess, accepting them as part of me. Again, being so out of your comfort zone means doing a lot of stuff you are not good at, so you finally have to colive with your weaknessess and imperfection. At first you don’t want to accept them, but after some time you realize the right approach is to accept them as part of you and not to pretend you are perfect, because nobody is, and it’s OK.
– The last point has a better outcome: my self-confidence and resilience have increased. It comes from the self-awareness of who I am, what I am good at and what I’m not so good at.
– And, also from previous point: this confidence allows me to lower my risk avoidance and failure fear, which is key to face new challenges.
– Adaptability & flexibility. No, I don’t do stretching when I wake up. I am talking about mental flexibility, or the flexibility of my thoughts. I am losing the fear of not having everything under control. Why? Because this is village life. I booked and payed my holidays two months ago, but I won’t know how I will leave the village until the previous morning. No car, no public transport, you know… Or, for example, having to adapt my dishes to whatever I have available at the moment, because no supermarket here. It definitely requires creativity and flexibility…
– Accept people as they are. It’s what comes from such an intense coliving. Think: Mrachenik is 60 inhabitants, but only 2 or 3 speak English. It means your social circle is limited to the people from the project. You work, live and have fun with the same 5-6 people every time. As a result, I am learning to judge less and accept more. And I learned that acceptance is key for one’s well-being.
– Accept things you don’t like. I learned that accepting what you don’t like doesn’t mean giving up or pretending they don’t annoy you, but it’s the door for proper adaptation and problem solving. For example, when I go to the only shop in the village and it’s closed, even during the opening hours. Or when it’s open but I don’t find what I was looking for.
That was the personal skills. Then, of course, there’s the on-field skills. I will go over them because they are more evident: gardening, construction work and event organization, mainly. Let’s say from now on I will know where to start if I need some renovations in my house, or if I want to harvest my own vegetables…
And, finally, my well-being skills. I already talked about this in the personal skills, because routines like acceptance are very related to well-being. But there’s something else: hobbies and free time. When I arrived here, the first week I was asked to write down my goals for the volunteering. I remember one of them was clear: to learn new ways of fun which are healthier than screen-based ones.
And, I have to say, during the first two months, I failed quite a lot. My main free-time activity was laying on my bed with my smartphone, doomscrolling on Instagram until bed time. It was not ideal, but in my defense, I will say outside it was really cold and rainy -even snowy sometimes-, which definitely didn’t help at all.
But, fortunately, spring arrived! That’s when I thought again about this goal, and I started to try out new stuff. You know? It looks easy, but it’s also a bit challenging. During 95% of our lives, free time is always fewer than we would like, so in our minds it’s a very precious time that we don’t want to spoil. Then, why risk it with some wanna-be new activities and not rely on what’s already familiar and kind-of works?
But, fortunately, I overcame this fear and I could give a try to new hobbies. That’s how I found out that smartphones and social networks are OK, but as long as we control them and not the other way around. As a result of applying this principle, some new free time is locked out of the screen time, and that’s when I found how rewarding some simple activities can be, such as:
– Enjoying the bright sky full of stars after dinner.
– Filling my bedroom with colorful plants and taking care of them.
– Singing alone to my favourite songs (I could spend hours with this one).
– Being in contact with nature in any sort of way.
– Being in contact with animals.
– Baking my own bread.
I was so astonished about these findings, that it broke the volunteering boundaries and became a personal goal. And also a personal project: something we are entitled to develop as ESC volunteers. So, stay tuned because I am preparing a easy-reading guide on how to enjoy free time in a different way. I am writing down there all my findings because I want to share them with the next volunteers that will take my place in Mrachenik.
So that’s all for now. I believe this second half of the volunteering is gonna happen superfast, because mainly it will be about hosting the Bright Future camps, and it’s all about fast-paced days and weeks where time flies…
See you!
Carlos
This program is co-funded by the European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union.
Финансирано от Европейския съюз. Изразените възгледи и мнения обаче принадлежат изцяло на техния(ите) автор(и) и не отразяват непременно възгледите и мненията на Европейския съюз или на Европейската изпълнителна агенция за образование и култура (EACEA). За тях не носи отговорност нито Европейският съюз, нито EACEA.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
