Why would you find an Estonian, a Japanese, a Slovakian, two Russians and two Mexican laughing in the bushes in a tiny town of Iceland called Hveragerði? How many explanations this situation could have? Actually, not so many! Because we have come all together thanks to SEEDS, from all over the world and had decided to do something more meaningful while travelling – to volunteer. 

 

So all of us at somepoint, months before this shared moment weeding in the bushes and laughing at our host's jokes, we wanted to travel and meet great people while doing so. So we ended up signing ourselves up for a workcamp in Hveragerði to help the municpality with some gardening! We helped to make surroundings nicer by weeding in the park, around the church, kindergarten, camping site and the local art gallery. Some of the locals even stopped traffic just to pass on their appreciation towards our work!

 

And why should you sign up for this!? Because this is a great way to immerse yourself into a local community and culture, experience the Icelandic nature and its beauty first hand and doing this with kindest and warmest people from all over the world.

 

We had a chance to create friendships across cultures and learn from eachother that otherwise would have stayed distant. Origami nights, eating Mexican spices with fruits, Russian borš, Slovakian pierogi all spiced up by our host whose "stand-upish" jokes during dinners left us laughing and crying.

 

Volunteering brought us together and their kindness will make me remember them!

 

Ethel