Volunteering at Old Rabka's Charm Festival

Hello, everyone reading this! My name is Kaisa, I’m 27 years old and right now, I am spending most of my time doing team volunteering projects! My latest project was in Rabka-Zdroj, Poland, called Old Rabka’s Charm, where our goal was to learn more about history, art, dance and culture in 1920s-1930s Poland, so that in the end of the project we could take part of a historical festival in Rabka and LARP (Live-Action Role-Play) as historical and fictional characters from that time.

I decided to join this project, because I was just finishing my long-term volunteering project in Italy and wanted to continue having new experiences and meeting new people. As this project took place in a town that used to be famous for healing waters, I found it very interesting and relatable, because I am from Haapsalu, therefore I sent in my motivation letter and applied through the ESC portal. The process was very smooth, I had a video interview with the coordinator of the Polish hosting organization Europe4Youth, Tomislav, and was immediately accepted!

After this, I had to find a supporting organization, so I emailed NYH and got a very fast reply. As part of preparations, I had a meeting with Marco in the NYH office, where we thoroughly discussed my volunteering contract and my rights as a volunteer. After that, I was ready to travel!

I travelled to Rabka through Krakow, as Rabka is very close to the southern border of Poland. The entire centre of Rabka is a big and beautiful forest park that gives shade in the hot June weather. Our accommodation was a very nice old hostel belonging to Europe4Youth that even had a pool, which was sadly only filled on the last days of the project due to unstable mountain weather

Our activities took place mostly in the meeting room of our accommodation building, where we played get-to-know-each-other games with Tomislav and our mentor, Fabio. On our first weekend, our whole volunteering group took a bus to Krakow to see the city, the salt mines, and the famous Krakow Dragon Festival on the river.

The next week, we got to know our LARP characters (I was a modernist painter) and went to the wardrobe of the lady that organizes the historical festival in Rabka. Her wardrobe is incredible, the size of an entire floor of her house, full of historical clothing. We got every piece of our costumes, including the hats and the shoes.

In the following two weeks, we heard lectures about the history of Poland, the most important artists and philosophers of the early 20. century, and made our own paintings and poems in the styles and about the topics popular at that time. We practiced improv theatre, had two small LARP games to prepare for the main one, and most importantly, learned how to dance the Charleston. Paula, one of the volunteers of our group, made a choreography for all of us that we learned for many days. The Charleston song will haunt my dreams forever, but the dance turned out amazing.

As the project was three weeks long, we also had one long four-day weekend, which gave us time to visit Zakopane and the gorgeous Tatra National Park, see Schindler’s Museum and the Castle in Krakow and play table-top games with friends.

At the last weekend of the project, the historical festival was held in Rabka’s park, where we walked in a fashion show, sketched each other, took many pictures and performed our Charleston choreography and small theatre skits to the people of the festival. The weather was great, and everyone had a very good time. After that, we finally played our LARP game with the historical figures of Rabka, which we were very well prepared for. After that, we had a big BBQ and pool party, and then it was time to conclude the project.

On the last day, we reflected on our time in Poland and the new relationships that we had formed with the people there. It was definitely unforgettable and I have made amazing new friends that I hope to see again soon. 

After this project, I am planning to stay open to new opportunities to volunteer, travel and work, as I have been having the time of my life so far. Hopefully I will soon have new exciting things to write about!

This Project was financed by European Commission’s European Solidarity Corps Programme.