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In the afternoon, the candidates ploughed gamely through part two, being then split into two groups: 5 candidates underwent the oral examination that afternoon; the remaining 4 the following morning. We had a problem with the internet, so we included Stefan on mobile phone for the first ten minutes, leaving me with the job of interrogating the candidates for the remainder of the allotted time.
I have gone through a similar process many times as an examiner with the Faculty of Homeopathy and I found the standard of the candidates in Slovenia every bit as high as those I had examined in the past. In such rather intimidating circumstances, there is always some variation in how candidates perform, largely dependent on each person’s level of confidence – or anxiety! Undertaking such a process takes a great deal of courage and sometimes the role of the examiner is to coax out of the candidate the knowledge, which their nerves are preventing them from accessing. Over time one gets to recognise when a candidate is struggling due to a genuine lack of knowledge, as opposed to just ‘nerves’. Thus it was this group of candidates included some who were supremely confident and others who had to work a bit harder to come up with the answers. Nevertheless, when Stefan and I had our final discussion there was no doubt in either of our minds that we had witnessed a group of hard working and competent veterinary homeopaths who we are confident will grace the name of IAVH.
Congratulations to all of them:
So the exams over, a group of us had a very pleasant afternoon wandering round the delightfully picturesque town of Piran (bolstered against the cold by something in a plastic bottle from Boris), then returned to the hotel for the lecture. We had a single person to persuade of the merits of homeopathy, but they were joined by the successful candidates seemingly still keen to revise! We had a rather spookily peaceful evening meal; the footballers had managed to get a flight home! We also received the news that the hotel had decided to close as soon as we had finished on Sunday so requested that we skip lunch and leave early. Fine – a quick break for sandwiches would suffice!
By now Stefan’s predictions about flight cancellations had started to come true so before I went to bed I felt it would be wise to check on line about my flight from Zagreb. Well it was still flying – BUT they had that day added UK to the list of undesirables: if I had been in UK within the last 14 days I would be obliged to self isolate at my own expense for another 14 days. I subsequently found out I would also be fined for entering the country, which seemed a bit strange, but leaving from Zagreb was clearly out.
Searching the internet I found an Easyjet flight leaving Ljubljana at 11 a.m. on Monday to London Stansted – it’s at the wrong end of London, and indeed is so far from London it probably shouldn’t be allowed to call itself London – but it was better than nothing. So off to bed and in the morning we started the seminar half an hour early.
At the morning coffee break we heard a rumour Ljubljana airport would be closed on Monday morning. This news was delivered by David, who had passed the exams the previous day, and by the time he rang he had actually been to the airport and booked me on a flight to London Gatwick that same day, Sunday evening at 9 p.m. Thank you David – I shall be eternally grateful to you! Gatwick is
still not the nearest airport to Wales but I was just grateful to have a booking. With an arrival time of 10 p.m, it was too late to get home the same night, but Booking.com came to the rescue and I found a small cheap guesthouse near the airport. We left the hotel at 4 p.m. and the lights went off and the doors were locked behind us. Just time for a leisurely drive to Ljubljana, a falafel plate in town and a large piece of Burek to take with me. All went smoothly, and 11 o’clock found me safely in my hotel room, eating Burek and watching the latest news – rather relieved to be back in UK.
Slovenia is a beautiful country and everyone I met was kind and hospitable, but being locked down there for 14 days wouldn’t really be much fun, either for me or for those whose hospitality had up to then been so generous.
The following morning, as I sat in the sunshine with a large vegetarian breakfast, planning my train journey home, I thought of all those lovely people I had met and will always be grateful to: Stefan for inviting me and facilitating the process; Mirjam for her organisation and hospitality; David for making sure I got home; the candidates for making the experience so enjoyable; and of course the IAVH for providing the framework for all this. It’s a strength of IAVH that all around the world there are people dedicated to spreading the knowledge of homeopathy, heading groups like SHVA, consisting of truly special people who keep the light of homeopathy shining. To meet such people and to contribute in a small way towards their homeopathic journey is a joy and an honour.
My train journey home was uneventful and very pleasant and Jane actually picked me up from Carmarthen station 2 hours earlier than I had originally planned.
So as Shakespeare said: ‘All’s well that ends well’
Andreja Rusjan Špela Suhač
Mojca Cerovšek Nives Mavsar Veronika Radobuljac
David Zorko
Monika Prvulovič Lucija Baznik Ksenija Perše Sajovic
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