I have never believed that things are happening just so, without any reason. After the project in England in Loughborough, which was oriented on human rights, I really wanted to attend some course on religion. It was because I read some small book about symbols of religion. And than I saw offer for project on Indian religion. They did not take me but it was offered me to goo on project about Islam. I was not so much interested but I said to me: “Why not, everything is interesting”. So I went. And it was till now one of the best decisions that I did.

I always used to go to the projects because of intercultural experience, because of visiting foreign cities, countries.. .but to ASHA, it was different. I went because of the topic. My journey started on the 23th of January in Prague when I took the airplane from Prague to London, Stansted. There I had more than 3 hours of free time to spend, so I decided to buy a charger for my phone. It was the wrong one, did not work for my notebook. But because of that, I met at least one French guy, who was really nice and shown me the way how to charge the phone in England without adapter (just do it with a lot of power :D). Than I took bus to Victoria Couch Station where I sat to Nero Café and waited for my second bus. In the bus, I met Jana (leader of my first project), Patrick and Gaia, but did not really talk to them. Arrival to ASHA center was AMAZING. Such a nice place! (but that day I saw it just in the darkness). In the night, I was singing with Giussepe, Kalin till 1 a.m. And went to sleep to the most cutest room ever, to the amazingly comfortable bed. My room was named after C.S. Lewis. The guy, who wrote Narnia and I had always struggles to remember the capitals of his name (I was exchanging them for J.K.).

The first day, we played games to getting to know each other, speed dating, deep talking (I was with Ina in the living room with pink couches and had talk about me being good and not good :D). I had pretty blocked my neck, but fortunately, Daniela did massage for me the day after, it was nice experience, but did not really help me. First morning, I did workout and short run, the second day, I did only run and the third day, I was running with Misha (Romania) in the morning.

First days, we learned basic things about Islam, we were talking about Sufi psychology, were creating Sufi art…but actually, in these days, I was still not really aware, what does it actually mean, to be Sufi. I knew, that it is spiritual part of Islam, but did not really knew everything. Later on, I realized, that it actually does not need to be about Islam, it can be whatever religion, Sufism is more about practice, enjoying…and than whole week totally changed and started to happen things, that I was never expecting. We were doing meditations, danced.. I remember my first dance therapy that I did with Gaia, she was leading us and changing music and according the music, we were changing our style of dances. There was also very fast trans music, which was really perfect and amazing for me. I loved that so much. I loved how people were really connected to themselves. There were candles, beautiful smell, it was dark. That day it was the very first time that I did something like that. And I felt blessed and felt, that this is not happening because of no reason. After that dance, we were singing with Patrick and we were still looking at each other with Alessandro and I thought, that I feel some connection to him, but later on, when we were sleeping in the studio, I realized, that there was nothing. I was not attracted to him. It was Giuseppe ti who I really felt connection. Spiritual connection. I feel that I could talk to him for ages.

About Giuseppe. His father is Sufi. He converted to Islam when he was twenty something. Mother of Giuseppe converted to Islam, but finally, she realized, that she is not very into that and now she is kind of religios in different way, but Giuseppe is not sure in which way. When she is cooking she is saying loud some weird words without any meaning for Giuseppe. When we came back from Brighton after the whole day there, I had very enriching conversation with Giuseppe in the van. About Allah, about God, who is in everywhere, I could not really say how I feel, what I feel, but I started to know, that I am in the beginning of the long way to find my own spirituality. I loved that conversation. It was so powerful in a way. I wanted to talk with him whole night.

About the day in Birmingham. First, we visited some institute, where was one of the biggest Shia library in the Europe, than, we were listening some things about Sufism from the Sheyk. Later, we had some free time in Birmingham, which I mostly spent in the bookstore. In Birmingham is amazing library, with Helena (AFS), we splitted from the group, because we did not want to waste our time being with the group. And we did well, because apparently, they spent whole their time just on the roof of the library and than in the restaurant. In the afternoon, we visited mosque, where we were observing small children learning Arabic language and Quran. One Imam also showed us how he is calling people to pray. He had very beautiful voice. They also served us some snacks, like sandwiches, hummus with bread, fruits, sweet stuff and coffee or tea. It was great to talk about Islam and going deeper and deeper with the knowledge. But it was actually nothing in comparison to the evening. We went to some Sufi center, where were volunteers prepared for us with some programme. First, there was some small discussion, young people were talking about changes in their lifes because of the Sufism. After that, they tried to show us some video about Sufi art, but that guy was not able to put the video on full screen, so it was not so nice to watch it. Later, few guys were singing with their strong voices some prayings. It was so powerful! Amazing was, that when I closed my eyes, the feeling was so strong, that I could not almost listen. I felt vibration in my whole brain. Really cool. What I will take from that? If I really want to feel the music, I NEED to close my eyes. And than came the prayer with ladies. We were repeating all the time Allah and “there is no god but God”. For me, it was very strange, because I was thinking on my mum by that, that she would be very shocked and sad, that I am saying and repeating this word. But in the end, it is only Arabic word for The God. And everyone of us has her/his God. The food, that I was craving for more than 2 hours of the program, was for me personally not so cool. Firstly, I did not like, that we had just bread and meet, no plates, we needed to eat the meat with our hands or put the bread into the sweet sauce.. I don´t know. As a dessert, there was some cool apple “cake” with caramel, but I did not eat it. I got as a gluten free person a box with some cake and cookies and bábovka(lemon one), which was not so much tasty. After the trip, we again slept in studio, finally only me, Giuseppe and Fotine. I wanted really to be there with Giuseppe but I was actually not sure, what he feels or if he felt also like me, that we have connection.. and he did! (But I realized that on the very last day on 4 a.m. when he gave me a kiss).

Last day, we did reflection on the previous day, I was in the group with Agniezska, Jacub and Ina. Jacob was actually pretty good guy, in the evening, we were talking about sex during projects and I think, that he was the only person who went to more projects than me (12). But actually, as usually, I connected strongly only with few people. But it is ok, I think. In the last reflection group, people cried, they could not really describe their feelings about the course. It was beautiful. I was sitting next to Giuseppe and he was playing with my hair (I mean like only with one hair, which fell on the floor). In the evening, I did some work for DarkSide and than we were doing quite boring things. Playing guitar but not really singing, so we went to smoke weed. First two joints, which Miriam did were not strong, but than, we went with Emil and after that, I felt really, really stoned. I ate a LOOTof peanut butter with Giuseppe and Fotine and than, I was laughing to Alessandro and Bara. Alessandro was really weird.  After that, when I went to my room.

In the morning, me Jana, Patrick and Giuseppe went to Gloucester to see the cathedral, where Harry Potter was shooted. It was super beautiful, very extraordinary. Than, we took bus too London (Victoria Couch Station) and from there, I went alone to Stansted, where I later met Giuseppe again, gave him a kiss and received from him beautiful drawing.