May 23, 2018 – One area where Dalmatian islands are among the best places in the world is in safety and an idyllic, natural and unpressured start to life, surrounded by loving family and without the commercial trappings of other societies. So it would make sense to get a feeling of life on Korčula through the eyes of its most precious resource – its children. We are very grateful to Korčula school and its pupils for agreeing to share their impressions about life on the island – what they love, what they would like to improve. A great start from Dinko in 7th grade, with excellent English! I only wish my Croatian was as good…
The island of Korčula – the green island, the clear sea, all in stone – that beauty is our everyday life!
I am glad to see how tourists react to everything that I am used to. Things that always make me happy is when I see people enjoying the beauties of everything that our heaven on earth provides to us daily. As we live in a small town with many villages nearby and we have one school for Korčula, Lumbarda and Racisce kids so many pupils travel to our school. It is wonderful to watch the old city every morning from the bus as I go to school in the morning. If many people think that we go to school from the island to the mainland, this is a little different for us, actually the opposite.
At the music school, I play the mandolin, a very interesting instrument you can hear in almost every Dalmatian song. I also believe that most of you have already heard about the traditional ” Moreška ” dance, which is performed here in Korčula. There are two companies that perform ” Moreška “, HGD Sveta Cecilja and KUD Moreška. In Sveta Cecilija I play the trombone, better to say, I am still learning. So, we have plenty activities and things to do in our free time.
There are many tourists in Korčula during the summer which is great. Winters can be very boring. It has happened to me several times that some tourists ask me details like where to go or how to get somewhere and although English is not my very strong side, I manage to help them. For our island, tourism is important so foreign languages are crucial to us. In my family, only my uncle has a tourist agency and apartments, my grandparents only have a one-room apartment, so I can say that my family is not so much based on tourism and all its benefits.
In Korčula everyone knows everyone, which sometimes can be good and sometimes bad. The good thing is that the news is expanding quickly, there are no big incidents, everyone is friendly and they greet each other, not like in most of the larger cities where people just pass by without noticing anyone else. One of the bad sides at my age is when you do something bad, it is very likely that your parents will find that out. I love my town, my island, my country, and all their beauties. Sometimes I do not even realise how lucky I am to live here.
As I grew up in a small town, I had a lot of freedom, but my parents didn`t give me everything I wanted. Back then I was angry about it, but now I know that that was the best way not to make me and my siblings spoiled. I think that many parents in our town do the same things and use the same methods when raising their kids. The greatest thing about living in a small community is that it helps your kid to be more creative, you use your imagination when playing. Kids in Korčula do not need a lot of things to be happy, for example, my sister and our cousins have one rope, that rope soon became a fishing rod, snake, an arrow and more. This is what I see as a normal childhood. It is so annoying to see kids who have their own phones, some of them when they are four years old! I am proud of everything that my parents did for me, they have taught us to appreciate what we have and what we get.
