We tried to volunteer, but...

Ever since we arrived in Rijeka, Caroline has pointed out the trash on the streets and graffiti on the buildings.  Of course, these things exist in American cities too, but in the States, we live in a small village in a rural area, so by comparison, there's not as much graffiti and scattered trash there.  Caroline often has asked if we could do something about these problems ("can we wipe the graffiti off of the buildings?").

I had discovered through the web that today Croatia would be participating in a waste removal project, and I thought that volunteering for that might be good for us.  First, I tried calling the person listed on the website, who told me to e-mail someone--and that didn't lead anywhere.  So yesterday, after conversations with four different people, I was told what we needed to do to volunteer.  Caroline and I bought plastic gloves, and we were excited to pick up trash in a place that particularly needed us.  I learned that this would be the first time that Croatia would participate in this particular world-wide initiative to help the environment.

This morning, someone was to call me after 9 a.m. to kindly take Caroline and me to the location outside of Rijeka where we were to volunteer.  By 10:30 a.m., I decided to call to see if we'd been forgotten.  No, we hadn't been, but this volunteer coordinator had to transport many people.  He would pick us up at 11:15 a.m.--which he did--except that he also had to pick up two others.  By the time we got to our designated location, it was nearly noon, and the volunteer group there had finished picking up trash.  So we went to a second location, but that volunteer group was done too.  Third location, same problem.  Before we went to the third location, the volunteer coordinator, who was embarrassed by this situation, promised, "If the third location doesn't need us, I will take all of you out to coffee."

So Caroline, the two other potential volunteers in our car, and I--all frustrated because we had wanted to contribute--joined our driver, along with two other volunteer coordinators, to go out for coffee.

We spent several hours at coffee (at a cafe near a playground, happily for Caroline), and this was lovely.  The five people with us were an interesting group--two young women who are undergraduates at the University of Rijeka (our companions in the car) and the three volunteer coordinators: a shipyard worker, an artist and teacher, and an archaeologist who is currently working as a tourist guide.  We spoke a lot about volunteering, creating change, and Croatian attitudes.  My coffee mates claimed that there's little tradition of volunteering in Croatia.  One said that the attitude here is "something should be done."  She argued that Croatians like to complain but don't want to do something to change what they see as problematic.  Another said that people here have given up on the possibility of creating change--that they figure that the only way to get things done is to work the system, and that they assume that grass roots movements won't have an impact.  A third person agreed, commenting that these attitudes keep Croatia from moving forward.  The archaeologist/ tour guide and I had a lively conversation about volunteering, democracy, history and historical sites, and bilingualism (or in his case, trilingualism).  His commitment to improving Croatia--and the world--in various ways is inspiring.

I ended up enjoying this day very much.  I suspect that there was much about it that was quintessentially Croatian.

Caroline and I plan to pick up trash on our own.

Laura