Effatha scented with walnut cake

"Ahoj everyone! My name is Käti, I am a volunteer from Estonia and here my placement is Effatha Krnov. What we do are creative workshops with people with mental or multiple disabilities.

I have been here for one and a half months by now, so I have gotten some understanding of what Effatha exactly is. There are many aspects to describe when it comes to experiences like this. Everything is different from what I have known and been used to before. With moving to a new country there comes another language and traditions; doing a new, let’s say job, there are new co-workers and clients with needs I have never before had to deal with. A lot to describe.

So, I want to tell you about a little thing that I truly appreciate about our daily rhythm here. It is including the season and holidays into our activities often. For example, we have a walnut tree back of the house and I have been picking nuts together with both clients and co-workers twice. And I have a feeling they did it also when I was at a seminar. Later we baked a cake from some of those nuts and ate it together.

Last week we went outdoors to pick some leaves and decorate our hallway with them as well as with pumpkins, chestnuts, fruits and pinecones. My supervisor got really into it and I found pleasure in watching her and clients being busy with wondering how to make it look even nicer. October is coming to an end, Halloween is getting close and since last week we have been preparing for our celebrations. Our every-Tuesday cooking club will be Halloween-thematic, likely there will be cupcakes with paper pumpkins on top. I hope savory dishes are going to be associated with spiders, vampires too! 

Since Chistmas decorations make up a big part of the products we sell (I already had a chance to join for one market!) we put great emphasis on them. When I came in September, they had already started. All it means is that we are well-prepared and I can’t wait to participate in all of the seasonable activities!" (Kati, Estonia)