By Maria Servetnik

Helping with reconstruction of the school, putting wall-paper, painting windows, spending time we became Paraskoveyevka Team. The symbol of the Paraskoveyevka Team was a pear. Pears in Paraskoveyevka are really very tasty, the tastiest in Ukraine. Beside this that we were helping with renovation of the school, volunteers also cut pears for compote of stewed fruits.

In the free time we were spending a lot of time outside, we were on a salty lake, which was formed on the site of former salt mine. On the salty lake there is a place with clay which has medicinal properties, so we were treating our “sick joints” (being 20 years old!), and building castles and different things, but as a result all this “looked like mess”. We just had fun, were sunbathing and swimming.

Beside this we had national evenings, when each of us could learn something about culture of other countries, try national cuisine. Besides, in the evening we were going to the roof, were drinking champagne from Artemovsk winery, talking, playing games, looking at the stars. For specially extreme impressions one could take a sleeping bag and sleep under the stars.

Days-off we spent in trips: we were in Artemovsk, Donetsk and Kharkiv, visited historical museum and night club in Artemovsk; art museum, sightseeing and smoked hookah in Donetsk, took a ropeway, did second-hand shopping, and were in Kharkiv for celebrations of Independence Day of Ukraine.

I had a great time (otherwise I would be sitting in dusty KHarkiv with 40C heat). I realized it when I have left the group for 2 hours in Kharkiv, I was missing them – Paraskoveyevka Team became a family.