Last post - Reflections on what I (re)learnt while being a volunteer

As I promised, here's the last post to share with you what I've learnt from my volunteering year.
To be honest I still find it difficult to sum it up (despite the fact that it finished 2 months ago), nevertheless I will try. :)

In the beginning I didn't have very clear goals for the project, I just wanted to change my environment and see how is life at an NGO and after quite some years in the cold world of big soulless companies, I sort of wanted to regain faith in humanity. (I know this sounds a bit weird, but if you get stuck in a job you don't really like for years, you get burnt out... at least I did.)
Truth to be told I felt sort of stuck personally too: always the same activities, the same circle of people (don't get me wrong I love my friends and family, but I also like meet new people and I felt I just didn't know where and how to do it anymore), the constant itching to go abroad again and all the what if-s and "big questions" of life. 
So yes, I wanted to get out and see what happens. :)

Well, I'm happy so say, that my aim of regaining faith in people was 100% achieved: I've met more great people during this time than I thought I would. They all are special and each have a lot to learn from. Being with them every day (or on a regular basis in case of my "students" and the ones who came to our events) made me see many things differently, sometimes even myself. I'm very grateful for this, because thanks to them I re-discovered some parts of my "old-self" that I needed to see again.
I made some very good friends and I think it's safe to say that my colleagues here became my local family too. However I also realized (again) that nobody can ever replace my family back at home and my closest friends, who all followed and supported me during this experience. Even if virtually, their presence means a lot to me.

Professionally speaking I also learnt a lot, but I don't want to write a list of the things, that's what the CV is for. Working at a small NGO like Ecocompartimos can be very challenging: obviously not the same way as at a big company, but it does have its own difficulties. Money though is also a central item here: not as a main goal, but more as a constant need to survive and keep being able to provide the services to people. This gets frustrating sometimes, because I think an NGO should not be so focused on money... However, in the current world we live in, I understand that this is the only way of surviving. But still, I find it unfair.
Besides the financials, I found working at a small shop very diverse: as we were a small team, I got to do and see a lot of things and Helena involved us in pretty much everything. And she also gave us a lot of space to come up with ideas and make them happen. Though what really struck me was how hard it is there to find collaborators. I'm not sure why, but it seems that in Illescas if you are not an "insider" you can't find anyone to collaborate with. One time we went to a school to offer them free English activities and such things, and after waiting for an answer for a very long time, they just said that they are not interested as they have enough international activities. This was quite sad, since we didn't even ask for anything in return. However there are thankfully a few places that are open to organize things together (like the radio).
One more thing I also liked at Ecocompartimos was that because it is so local, it was easier to see what problems people really face each day and also the positive impact we had on their lives.

And last but not least I've learnt Spanish, this was on my list for quite a while now. :) And not only the language, but a huuuuge amount of things about the culture as well. Not to mention expressions that I most probably wouldn't have learnt otherwise. :)

So all in all I'd say this project gave me more personally than professionally (strictly speaking), but it was actually perfect this way. I don't quite know yet where the future brings me, but I hope I'll have more experiences like this later as well.

April activities

I think the highlights of April were my Easter trip and my workshop that I already wrote about, but of course there were other events as well last month that worth mentioning. :)

We had the usual two intercultural chats (this month we actually managed to have them without the incredible amount food we always have :D): the first about sports and the second about literature, which was I think the best one so far. :) We didn't just talk about literature in general, but as the 23rd of April was the day of books, everyone had to think of a book of his/her country and tell us a few things about it. 
As a 'bonus' the volunteers in Numancia - Filiz and Emmi - joined us and also another Romanian volunteer - Mihaela - who just started her EVS in Esquivias, so we were a more international group this time. :)

Our very international charla

Girl power: Emmi, Amber, Mihaela, me, Dilya and Filiz

Apart from this we had the usual English conversations and games with the kids from what I still have no photos from, since being with them usually consumes all my energy, so I never remember to take photos. :)

One Wednesday after the games we were making some jokes about spying on Paula's (on the right) dance show, so we got "disguised" :)

Also this month I got a bit more active within Banco del Tiempo: I delivered a powerpoint-excel training and a quilling session, so I now I have a lot of hours that I don't really what to use for... yet. :) Also as Sandra got a job and is now very busy it seems that I'll get more involved with Banco del Tiempo things... it's a new challenge. :)

And last but not least another highlight of the month: at the end of April I got to spend 10 lovely days at home with my family and friends. It was great: we celebrated my father's birthday, mother's day, I got to see my best friends and we even went to Romania for a couple of days to visit some friends, so I had a wonderful time.

March activities

Finally spring has arrived! :) And our activities continue as usual. :) 

We had an English event again together with the reading club in the library on Friday 13th which was not as successful as the previous one, yet we had a lot of fun. We talked about superstitions from all over the world and then went to the teahouse together for a drink. :)

Our small but enthusiastic group :)

We also keep doing the English games for kids, though it is also getting challenging - in the first week we had again a nice big group, so we played a "human-sized board game" about favorites and a memory game, but then when we prepared a quiz only 3 kids came... so it's a bit unpredictable. Though last time we had again the whole group so we could play the quiz in the end. :)

Of course we had the usual 2 intercultural chats, the first about famous people (that somehow went into the direction of politics as well at one point :P) and the second about Easter - as it is a big celebration here and quite different from other countries. As usual we had some food too, for the first chat Dilya brought some nice Russian goodies and for the second we prepared some Easter-food from our countries. :)

I made some kaszinótojás ("casino-eggs") and potato salad (and I couldn't miss out piros arany - it's pepper cream, very Hungarian :))

Super delicious sweet potato soufflé by Amber :)

As for non-work activities I had a quite active month too: the first weekend of March was almost like summer, so I spent most of it outside. That Sunday I got invited to a brunch and got to know some new people, it was a lot of fun. :)

11 people from 10 different countries :)

The 11th was a local holiday here in Illescas - as I was sick that week I didn't really participate at any activities, but I went to a concert where a violinist with Armenian origin played together with  Spanish guitarist. Everybody was excited about them so I was curious too - and yes, they were amazing, I'm glad I had the chance to go and see them.

The weekend after I went to a free workshop of natural cosmetics here in Illescas, which was interesting and useful. We made a soap, a body lotion, a hand cream and a lip balm. They were all surprisingly easy to make and we got the recipes too, so from now on I can make my own things. :)

The week after we arranged a trip from Ecocompartimos to Carranque to finally see the Archeological Park and have a guided tour about the Roman ruins and mosaics there. It was very nice, the group we "recruited" and the sights as well. :)

Ruins of a temple

Ruins of a room where we could observe the heating system they had back then

Amazing mosaics made of very small pieces

Speaking of mosaics: I'm done with my second "masterpiece" and now I'm working on a Picasso picture... I think this one will take a lifetime to finish haha, it's quite big and with challenging shapes... but let's see. ;)

My newest piece of art :)

Ups and downs of being a volunteer abroad

Inspired by Dilya's post about her adventures with visa, this post is dedicated mainly for those who are planning to go on EVS/abroad or preparing to leave already. It’s not very much about practicalities (as your organization will prepare you for these), but more about emotional ups and downs.

Volunteering abroad is great, meaningful and rewarding in many ways. Most of the time I love being here and I am very grateful for this opportunity and if I could go back I’d definitely not choose any differently. But there are some rough times when I feel that nothing goes well and I miss a bit my “old and easy life”. And I know this is normal, yet knowing it does not make this any easier.

As in the beginning of January I just got through such a period, I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately and about my experience as a volunteer in general. So here is a list of the good and bad things I experienced so far, I hope you will find it interesting and/or useful:

1. Freedom: This might sound like a cliché, but living far away from everything and everyone I know gave me an enormous amount of freedom. I have been always very independent, but here I really feel that I have full control over my life. This is something I find scaring and deliberating at the same time.

2. The people who are the closest to me are far away: I think this is the hardest for me to handle. Even though I can talk to my family and friends almost every day, it is not the same as seeing them in person regularly. On the bright side though I’m not so far away from home and I know that strong relationships don’t depend on the distance.

3. Start everything from zero: This is actually something I enjoy. Building up new habits (or re-building old ones), new ways of working, new relationships, new hobbies. And balancing this out with everything I already have. It takes a lot of time and effort. And patience – especially with myself. :)

4. Language barriers: No matter how well I speak Spanish or English, there are just days when nobody understands me no matter which language I speak and this is frustrating. Also some people always look at me as if I were an alien. But I learnt here some expressions that I’m pretty sure no language school would ever teach me. :)

5. Losing fear (or handling it better): As I’m in a completely new environment, most of the time I have to step out of my comfort zone to do things: working in Spanish, making new friends, sometimes even shopping for a small thing. :) Doing new things are always somewhat scary, but when you have so many of them at the same time you just stop being afraid, because you realize that so much fear would stop you from actually living your daily life.

6. Value of money: Well yes, from a volunteer’s salary it’s sometimes hard to make ends meet, especially because I had full-time jobs before, so I'm used to a different way of life. Although I’m much more creative now in finding alternative solutions for practically everything and I am happy with it. I think this somewhat brought me to a new level of consciousness with money.

7. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”: I didn’t decide to go abroad to find myself or get to know myself better in the first place (as I’m continuously working on this for quite some years now :)), yet it is still fascinating to notice how the things I thought were my strengths and weaknesses transform. Also some days I feel completely lost.

8. Intensity: I'm not really sure why, but I feel that the days here are more intense. I enjoy more the good things, suffer more from the worse ones and my mood changes more often than it did. But this means that I also value time more, move on faster from the bad and take chances I wouldn't have taken before.

9. Small town life: This was something I was a bit afraid of when moving here, as I lived always in a city. Well, in winter there is not much to do here in the town and sometimes I feel bored or paralyzed. On the bright side going to Madrid is always an option and I also hope that spring and warmer weather will bring back life to Illescas too.

10. Cultural differences: Again a cliché, but as I love diversity this is something I consciously observe and enjoy. Though here I didn't have any big cultural shocks, sometimes the lack of organization and postponing things to the last minute set me on edge. But the fact that people are nice, helpful and easy-going usually compensates for this. Oh and the food (as an essential part of diversity) as well. :)