ESC blog

Feeling awake

November has been a chaotic, overwhelming, and beautiful month. We started the month by going to our On-arrival training in Laško. Throughout that week, I felt more awake than ever, defending my values and being honest with myself. Our On-arrival took place at Therma Hotel, a luxury hotel that, in my opinion, was totally distant from the ecological and local values that I thought the ESC program stood for. These days were based on many empty words, a lot of food waste, and many long conversations with other volunteers. Being in this hotel, talking about solidarity and not even mentioning real social issues such as the genocide in Palestine, the war in Ukraine, or even climate crises or homophobia. In fact, when we mentioned that we missed talking about vulnerable communities, the trainers said, "we consider that it is not relevant now." I can't explain how painful and disappointing it was to hear that from someone who should be a role model. Despite this feeling of being in an unnecessary and absurd bubble of privilege, I felt very proud of myself for defending my values and wanting to create a fairer, more coherent world. Furthermore, we also connected artistically with other volunteers and have decided to collaborate together, which I'm very excited about.