Finaly I got the
time and the inner inspiration to write about my life here, in Narva.
By the way, I am Fruzsi, I work here in a kindergarden as an english
teacher. But no more facts about me, lets just bring feelings, events
and thoughts to to world of this blog.
I spent this weekend
alone in town, because my flatmate was in his mid-term training, The
truth is that you don't get a lot of time all by yourself, when
living with another volunteer. But that's fine like that. You have a
special experience after such a long time, that you can spend by
yourself. I think when we are alone, truly we never are. You may have
no company at home or a specific person to go to a program with, but
you are all the time surrounded by others. The same happened with me
during last weekend. On Saturday I cooked myself a meal, went to the
shop before, washed the dishes, nothing special. But when you are
alone, somehow you ( or at least me) start to think differently, you
sense your surroundings differently, you just hear better your own
thoughts. The more intersting event took place on Sunday. But before
I let you know about it, I need to tell the story behind this Sunday
morning.
A few month ago I
went to sliding with my mentor to a big hill in the near forest. We
met there one of her friend, who borrowed us her sledge and we had a
lot of fun. Soon we met another friends of this friend. One of them –
all of a sudden – started to sing in russian some beautiful
folk-song. In a few seconds two other women joined her and they kept
singing for 15 minutes. Later they perezented some dance too and got
us involved as well. It was a remarkable happening, the power of the
songs on the top of the snowy hill, and the sliding with this
friend's sledge became so far the best memori of mine. It was
completely unexpected and I was in the middle of culture- shock,
where I could admire some traditional singing and the beauty of
simple human nature.
Later on I found out
that this women belong to a group, called
Suprjadki
(Супрядки
). They collect russian and
estonian folk-songs and perform on different occasions. I liked them
so much that I decided: I want to join them. I tried to make a
contact with one of them, with no result. Time gone by, but I did not
want to give up. I wrote to their official e-mail address, and soon I
got an answer. I visited a concert in Rugodiv ( house of culture),
where they also performed. At the end I had to call the leader, from
whom I got the answer to my e-mail. I tolked to her on the phone in
Russian, though in our letter we talked in English. She took me to
back-stage and kept talking in Russian. Somehow I was abble to follow
the main plot of her words, which said it would be very hard for me
to join, because they have about 500 songs in thei repertoire, and
they learn all of them only after listening, plus all is in old
dialect. But I can try and meet them next time. I was so excited
about this positive attitude, which did not close doors in front of
me, but opened one. So at this Sunday I could visit their rehearsal,
which was held in Narva castle. I went to the main desk of the
museum, where a lady took me to the room, where I was supposed to
meet the group. I had to go down in a narrow and dark stairs, and it
seemed quite hopeless to find anybody donw there, where everything
just got darker and darker. But
I heard noise from the steps above, turned back and find the gate to
the room. We had a small chat ( I love to say this, that I had a
conversation with people,because it is soo cool to think I could make
in in a foreign language. Usually I just laugh on myself when I think
of therse few sentence talks as a real conversation, but then I need
to admit it, they were real one, and I need to accept the fact, that
somewhat I am abble to communicate in Russian and I shall be proud of
myself). Later all the members arrived, I took part in the warp-up
excercises, listened them to learn new songs incredibly fast, and at
the end, when the male members arrived and gave flowers to the women,
in the occasion of the following day, international women's day, I
recived one too, from the leader, who gave me hers. I said a big
thank you and sang a hungarian folk-song to them. They felt sorry I
have to leave, but I had to prepare a cake for my mentor's birthday,
join the celebration later on, and today another week has started,
which who knows what will bring to the sky of Narva.
Ps.:
I am sorry, if there is any spelling mistake, or some words does not
make sense at all. But today I walked thorough the whole city twice.
Once personal issue, the second time to help a dear friend. I also
went to work, and after that I went to see a free movie screening at
the library. I had a long day. A life of a voulunteer in Narva can be
unexpectidly chaotic and happy. Don't miss the chance to read along,
and find out more about us!
Thansk
for your time, folks!
Fruzsi
