Projects From The Heart - Traditional Dress Fashion Show

Hey, beautiful people!

This past Friday I had a great opportunity - my wondeful friends, creators of Palermo based cultural association Flowerful Embrace, invited me to participate in a fashion show. And not just an ordinary fashion - the traditional dress fashion show.

It was the second time when they organised this type of a fashion show and both times it went great. I love the fact that it unites fashion, diversity and cultural richness and functiones as an amazing tool for social inclusion and cultural dialogue.

2016 in pictures

Hey, guys! Happy New Year! 

One of my favourite New Year morning traditions (besides eating leftover salads with a spoon while watching old movies) is to look back at the past year. Yes, I usually don’t do it before midnight (maybe I just want to make sure that the old year actually retired and will not get offended?). 

My last year’s post you can find here – 2015 in pictures. 

So, here we go. Many things had happened in 2016, good and bad, it was quite kind to me personally. I got to travel much more than I ever did, I got great opportunities, I worked hard and I’m quite happy with myself. I also got very aware of some of my limitations and started my own personal self-education – mostly on the topics of self-love, self-respect, not putting myself down and not letting anyone else do it.

I’ve met many wonderful people and sadly parted ways with some others. So let’s look into it month by month. 

#45daysofblogging 43: Searching for equilibrium

Day 43 - September 29

So here's Ana's story. Created during two days in July 2016 in Slovenia, in the framework of the TC Facing the Street. 

#45daysofblogging 42: creating a photo story (and a photo exhibition)

Day 42 - September 28

As I already mentioned, I went to Slovenia not for tourism, but for a project. It was focused on developing our skills in the field of digital storytelling and also on helping each participant to create a photo or a video story. 

The best part was that we were not creating out stories. We were going to tell some one else's story - the stories of people, that lived through tough times, encountered obstacles in their lives and decided that they want to tell their stories to us (and to public).

#45daysofblogging 36: BookClub... but not really

Day 36 - September 22

Palermo always knows how to impress me, especially with cool new projects I've never seen before.

For example this event, that now takes place in Palermo every week, each time in a new location.

#45daysofblogging 09: fun times in Debrecen

Day 9 - August 26

In April I've visited Hungary for the second time. First time I went there in 2014 for the Coucil of Europe study session on gender-based violence and fell head over hills with Budapest, even though I barely had any time to walk around (on the way back I had to pay 45 euro to Wizzair monster, because my suitcase was 2 mm bigger than their frame, and then searched in Bergamo, because... wait for it... I had to many books in my suitcase. Honestly, I don't even want to comment on this)

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Aren't we adorable? Team-building activities at their best!

But this time I had a chance to see a smaller Hungarian city, and I loved it a lot too. It's so very different from Budapest, but has so many nice features that I can honestly recommend it to those who want to really discover Hungary and spend a few days in a quiet, charming and beautiful little city.

Project: 45 days of blogging

Yes. Yes! I know, I'm crazy, but I'm in a need of a personal project for these days, as I am literally one of the three people, who stayed in Palermo for Ferragosto time.

* Note for people who are new to this - Ferragosto is an Italian holiday, celebrated at the same time as the Catholic holiday of Assumption of Mary (as far as I know, as I'm not a Catholic). But celebrations of Ferragosto have basically nothing to do with religion. As August tends to be the hottest summer month, especially here, on the South, it's also a time for a long vacation. People are going to their summer villas, offices and shops are closing, and police pretends to control at least something in Palermo (which manifests in them closing two or three beer places for a few hours every night). 

So, as I'm left alone, face to face with August heat, closed bars (not the ones you go for a happy hour to, but the Italian ones - where you have your coffee and cornetto every morning) and my PhD research, I am in a desperate need of something creative to do, apart from staring at the questionnaire, that I really need to finish by September.

I know it will require a lot of discipline and prioritizing, but I was travelling a lot this year, and almost never blogged about it. So I know that if I won't do it now, I'll probably never do it. So expect a lot of photos, travel notes, packing guidelines and thoughts on minimalism, living a happy life and living in a foreign country. 

See you tomorrow! 

Living in times of change

*UPD*: Unfortunately, I had to edit this post delete all the nice things I have written before about one of the YouTubers who participated in BlackLifeMatters protests. I just can't keep a rec for a channel, whose creator things that it's acceptable to fight discrimination with discrimination and bash Eastern European women on numerous occasions. I never supported discrimination and will not support it now. I'm absolutely disgusted by the whole situation and don't want to have her name on my blog. 

In my country people love to quote an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times (times of change)”, even though, as far as I know, it’s highly unproven that a Chinese curse like this ever existed. In any case - I never agreed with this. 

We live in times of change and we need to appreciate it. We can see the history being made and can even help make it. For example, I’ve participated in two revolutions and, as horrible, tragic and difficult as it was, I’m happy I got to see everything with my own eyes. To be one of the people that change history is a huge honour and a huge responsibility. But also it’s in some way a blessing, as all your experiences and opinions are your own. 

As I love authenticity in everything, I don’t believe in sterile blogging, separated from real life and serious topics. It will never work for me – I’m a human rights activist, I volunteer a lot and work in the social field, I’m doing my PhD research on domestic violence and it’s a huge part of my life. So, as the result, it is also a huge part of my blogging life too.

* I’m not going to go into details on my experience of blogging during the revolution – for many reasons it was not a nice experience. Let's just say that I had reasons to delete my old posts when I moved my blog to this address. Maybe once I will dedicate a post to it, but for now, I still remember it all too well (including quite ugly comments and accusations I received while describing my life at that time). 

What is EVS?

As I mentioned in a few of my previous posts, the first time I came to Sicily for a volunteering project. Actually, it was a complete accident, but yeah, some people call it coincidence, I call it fate.

After returning to Kyiv from Thailand, I was very happy to be back home. Well, I was very happy for about a month. After that, when all the emotions faded, all the Thai presents were gifted, all the delicious food and all the Cambodian coffee was finished the reality kicked in (even though I still have dreams about that coffee…)

I realised that I’m back to where I started from - in my room, just that now it was decorated with lovely Thai lights. And somewhere there, far-far away, the world continues to be interesting and full of adventures. Just that someone else was living it, not me.

Don’t get me wrong, it was my decision to leave Thailand and go back home. It was a great experience, but for various reasons, at this point of my life, I can’t see myself moving to Chiang Mai permanently. But the desire for adventures was already fully awakened and wanted to dance.

So I started researching volunteering opportunities – my newly grown sense of self was telling me that I shouldn’t even be bothered with searching for a job as I will not be happy in a corporate environment anymore.

My article about the life of Palermo

A few weeks ago I got an offer to write an article about Palermo and the way it embraces diversity for a Ukrainian cultural magazine. 

Of course I agreed. Palermo became my second home two years ago, and I have a lot of admiration for the way people here find ways to live together quite happily, even in the face of economic crisis, all types of migration and high levels of corruption. 

Sicily is one of the most diverse regions in Europe - not only due to migration, but also to comparatively low prices and developed civil society, that brings here many international volunteers, interns and Erasmus students.

So I wrote an article about all the projects I personally am involved with and the ones I know about, about block parties and Palermo Pride, about Catholic church that invites Muslim community to pray, as they currently have no mosque and works with LGBTQI organisations to organize manifestations against hate crimes, about international volunteers that make workshops on urban gardening for children from underprivileged neighborhoods and many other things that I see with my own eyes every day.

Unfortunately the article is available only in Ukrainian, but if there's any interest in this topic, I'd love to write something regarding this topic also in English. 

You can read the article by clicking on the link:

PALERMO: THE PLACE FOR EVERYONE

My article about life on Sicily

Some time ago I was contacted and offered to become a part of a project about Ukrainians who live abroad and write an article about my life on Sicily.

I had the best time writing, editing and looking through my photo archives, so now I'm very, very pleased with the result. Unfortunately it's only available in Russian, but I plan to translate it into English in the nearest future.

You can read the article and/or look at the photos by clicking on the link:

LIFE ON THE ISLAND