Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Using the sentence “I have always loved learning” which she repeated several times, even as we were standing in front of Studenica monastery where we met while taking our professional exam, Dubravka Bajkin (64) from Novi Sad overcome every hurdle she came across on her way to fulfilling her dreams. When I suggested sharing her heartfelt story with my readers because she changed her profession at 64 and became a licensed tour guide, the first thing this versatile woman asked herself was whether there would be enough material for a whole story. After all, if this had been published in a country where her peers volunteered, rode bicycles, had active social lives, changed professions without thinking about it too much, the readers might not have been so blown away. However, this is Serbia where the majority of her peers would rather retire than take nine exams while in their sixties, to become licensed tour guides; for this reason she represents a rare pearl of optimism in this age of fast living and sombre news.

She first started thinking about this line of work while living in Moscow, some twenty years ago. She daydreamed about being a tour guide for our tourists. She studied Russian history, perfected her language skills, went to professionally guided tours and visited museums. The idea came back to her about two years ago, but she had to wait a year for the Ministry of tourism to announce a public call for tour guides.

“Recently I had a group of young people from Moscow that came for a day trip to Novi Sad, Sremski Karlovci and Krušedol monastery. It was a great pleasure showing them our city and its surroundings”, she told me at the beginning of our interview.

Dubravka was working as a scientist at the Institute of Chemistry, at the University, but then she relocated with her family to the capital of Russia where she lived for twenty years. For 16 years, she was the head of HR for a large business tourism agency in Moscow. She misses that energetic and exciting job working with young people, whose dynamic she has influenced greatly due to the nature of her position at the agency. She told me that in the beginning she hadn’t known anything about this type of work, so she bought and read books and specialised articles, visited seminars and learned to use a computer. When she came back to Serbia she had to change her job for the second time.

“The time when people did the same job their whole life and used skills learned in school and at the University, has long passed. Nowadays, everyone should be prepared to change their job, and even their profession a few times, as well as to never stop learning and improving. For me work represents an integral part of my life, and I believe that as long as you are physically healthy and psychologically fit, you should work, of course gradually reducing the workload to fit you current capabilities”, she adds sincerely.

Dubravka has numerous hobbies, one of them is volunteering. For 10 years she had been a member of charitable organisation United Way Moscow, and at the same time she came back to Serbia, an organisation called NS Greeters was being created so she joined it from the very beginning.

“This last two years I had guests from the USA, Canada, Turkey, Great Britain, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Estonia, Germany, and I spent a few hours with them just talking and walking around town. This organization gathers mainly young people (though we don’t have age restrictions) who are ready to spend some of their free time socialising with our foreign visitors showing them those less formal sides of our city, or just having a cup of coffee with them.”

Dubravka likes reading, listening to music and watching movies. In her free time, she rides her bicycle and spends time with her family and friends who she missed dearly while living in Russia.

“Last year I welcomed my adorable grandson. I spend a lot of time online and on social media. Last year I even taught the Russian language. I think the majority of people I have met in Russia will eventually visit Serbia. I have told them a lot about our country and most of them really want to visit. The ones that have already visited liked our people, the relaxed atmosphere, our straightforwardness, food, music and all the natural beauties.”

Source: www.pricesadusom.com