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Let’s first do the boring introduction everyone expects.
Hello, my name is Jan and I am 23 years old. I am from Belgium, Grimbergen. I normally work as a truck driver but for the next 6 months I will be in Mrachenik to help as many people as I can.
My interests are more or less anything you can imagine since everything is worth exploring, some honorable mentions are: debating, politics, philosophy, nature, hiking, rock-/wallclimbing, music, video-/photography, …
I still think most of the people reading this still have one big question. Why would I go to Bulgaria for 6 months to such a rural and small village of only 50 people?
To answer that question I will have to take you back to the unfortunate day of 05/06/2024. On that day I was working as usual, driving containers to and from places to where they needed to go. But when I was unloading the final container a giant block of hardened concrete fell out of the container onto my right leg/hip. The concrete block weighed 600+kg, my leg was completely broken and I had many injuries and a crush trauma. I also lost a lot of blood, 3-4L. I went from being close to death to maybe losing my leg to a very long rehabilitation. I was in intensive care for 2-3 days, and then I still had to stay in the hospital for 3+ months. But after multiple operations, a total rehabilitation duration of more than 2 years, intensive physical therapy, … my surgeon told me that the fracture was finally fully healed on 02/09/2026.
During all this time I always tried to keep an iron mindset to focus on my rehabilitation. To have an unshakable discipline to go to my physical therapy, to try and walk on my own when I was home, to go to all the doctors appointments, … . Before I was even fully healed people were already talking to me about work and for sure at the end of my rehabilitation. I had the feeling they thought I was just doing nothing and had entire days full of free time. They could not have been more wrong, 4 out of 5 days I had physical therapy and then there is also all of the doctors appointments. So yeah even though I might not have been driving trucks, I would say that I was pretty busy. I would even say that my full time job was to heal my body.
And after all that I felt I had the need to heal my mind since putting my body first, ‘mind over matter’ style, had taken a toll on my mind. So even though my body might have fully healed, my mind needs healing from what happened as well.
That is why I chose to go somewhere I have never been to people I have never met and to do something I have never done. My mind needs to process what has happened, not only the physical event but also the frustration for sure the frustration from the people at fault who refuse to take responsibility.
This is why I chose to come 6 months to Mrachenik to give myself some purpose, a reason to get out of bed. So that I can heal my mind and get ready for normal work again.
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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.
