Welcome to the island.
Part 1 – The Three Musketeers
It has been four months since the first time I touched Croatian ground, the night I discovered the island of Murter, I met the President of the NGO in which I will work the next 8 months, and my friendly flatmate, who waited for my arrival with a delicious dinner similar to ratatouille. He told me, “sorry for this super simple dish, but I did not have enough ingredients”, then, I understood that if he could say that it was “too simple,” I would certainly need to improve the cooking skills I was so proud of. Since then, he has taught me the “Italian way” to cook pasta and he seems to have a heart attack every time that I make it softened because it is “too overcooked”. Also, when I drink orange juice for dinner, or when I told him I really like to eat spaghetti with butter and sausages, or the time I said I like soap with Avecrem. I cannot help but laugh every single time he looks at me with his face of fright and indignation as if I constantly blasphemed against his food religion.
The day after my first night in Murter, we both went on our way to Argonauta’s office, but before arriving at our destination, we stopped at a little store to buy some food and not starve. There, we casually met the other long-term volunteer, Costanza, who was buying some snacks for our welcoming in the office. At that moment, I did not know that we both shared something very strong in common, something that I would discover in the next few weeks, which is a connection so strong that makes me feel I know her from a long, long time ago. And thank God it was a mutual feeling and I was not crazy! In fact, she felt the same way towards me, and she confessed to me how excited and impatient she was to meet each other. It is one of these rare moments in life when you meet a complete stranger and your bond is completely disproportionated with time. When you feel that it does not matter that you met her a week ago, you can trust her.
Marco and I entered the office to meet part of Argonauta’s team, they explained to us our future tasks and we did some activities to know about each other and make us feel at home. We were able to know a bit about them and Argonauta, and an interesting surprise came into the discussion: we realized that our main task for our first month will be to help to organize and coordinate the short-term volunteer experience of the nine selected people from all over Europe to come for one month to Murter. We were absolutely thrilled to meet the people with whom we will share great adventures and make the best of our experience, so we got down to work.
