Lviv 2010

On 25-26^th of September the first volunteer training took place in retreat house at redemptorist monastery in Holosko. More than 50 people from different communities arrived to create a new volunteer team.

During these days everybody had an opportunity to get to know each other, to have fun, to pray together, to learn how to work as one team. Though it was rather cold, and there were no spare blankets, the volunteers kept a warm and friendly spirit.

One exercise at the training was particularly exciting for all of us – players had to construct buildings out of different materials, and no words were to be spoken aloud. Surely mutual understanding was troublesome, but on the other hand one should simply be more attentive in order to hear the other person. For “uh”, “mmmh” and huge round eyes can tell a lot, and in the end you’ll get not even a cottage but a palace, with arbours, domestic birds, and people to live in.

Evening time witnessed a burst of creativity as young people staged miniature performances, showing their future work during the meeting. In a fun and interesting way it demonstrated our volunteer’s ability to cope with problems, no matter how difficult these might be.

Volunteers have learned to realize how important it is to work as a team. Often it is necessary to substitute each other. For instance, technical team will have to ‘communicate’ with foreigners. These guys are even ready to teach them Ukrainian :)

All we are very different. Somebody is “reliable”, the other one is “fun”, or “ascetic”, or even “fruit-jelly”, as we used to talk about each other. Still we all are volunteers, a lot depends on us. It is only our joint effort that will help us to carry out this meeting, and demonstrate our Ukrainian hospitality and love to God and one’s neighbours.

Lviv-2010 Organizational Committee