Volunteers’ stories

Dzien dobry

Ok, so next abroad experience starts! 25 years old polish girl from Wroclaw in Chisinau Moldova. I don’t surprise you – I always love traveling, different countries, cultures, being on the road, just moving… like most of us, so when I finished psychology studies and also closed other chapters of my life the only right decision could be – let’s TRAVEL! Boring, 8 hours table work in the company will wait for you. Go somewhere for longer, check how it is to live in another country. That’s why I started searching some interesting programs, cultural exchanges, etc. My father is from Ukraine, east part of the Europe has always some super-special place in my heart so when I found volunteering in Moldova it was easy – WHY NOT? Why not open yourself for new, learn as much as you can, listen, give attention and your heart, make photos, new friends, try local cuisine, speak in another language, get lost and in the same way discover great places without guide? It’s the beauty and the biggest treasure of traveling! You can be a little bit scared and shy at first, it’s normal… but remember that you make your own borders and you are the only person who can decide where the line of your comfort zone is. Remember, outside of it is another zone – “magic” zone where amazing things can happen… like unicorns, rainbow and the most importantly… your dreams, so go for them – go on volunteering ;-)!

published here on the 18th of August 2014

Our volunteer Mihaela sharing her volunteering experiences from Estonia

Ma olen Mihaela, Moldovast vabatahklik . Ma elan Kohilas ja ma olen juba siin viis kuud…
Feels like only yesterday I met everyone, yet feels like I know these people since childhood.
I had no expectations when I came here, had no ideas how it will be or what kind of things and people will be here. I was just going with the enthusiasm of travelling. The first person I met was Veronika, she had a big smile and gave me a worm hug, for me it felt so much, being in a foreign faraway country. It was the moment I realized I am in good hands.Then I got to the beautiful village of Kohila, where the warmth and coziness hit me immediately. The feeling of being more than 1000 km away from home was gone. I had a tasty fish-pie at my other supervisors place, got to meet more people and then I got a fortune cookie, with a message I will never forget „Dream the impossible today“….this is when I realized a great journey has started and It will be more than if I have had any expectations.
And now, after  almost 5 months I can confirm that I am dreaming the impossible. The volunteer service…in Estonia… made me rediscover the whole world.
I started working in the Noortekeskus and met all these teenagers and got to go to all their events and meet even more people, old and young and I was feeling like in a happy movie with beautiful people all around. It felt nothing like home, Estonia culture and lifestyle is so much different than Moldavian.  And, of course, since childhood I heard a lot of stereotypes about Estonia, during USSR, it always was that totally different country in the north, that are awkwardly calm and peaceful. For us Latin people, everything is done in a hurry, in this big quick passionate way. Here…times goes by in a slow gentle  valts. It is even related to the first word I learned here…“oota“ ja “ole õrn“. For me this environment  is perfect, I am a calm and slow person, that likes to enjoy every moment and day. In my first months I felt like everybody around is the same, no rush…I understood that people here like to work, a lot…but do it reasonably and think more than twice before. It is known for me that northern cultures think more and act once and it is enough, but I believed it only when I got to live it.
As I said the lifestyle here is absolutely different, maybe because we are still this small poor country, that can´t overcome it’s social and economical condition, but once, some time ago, Estonia was in the same place….and it makes me think a lot about my people´s motivation…because  only a couple of days ago I witnessed the „Lipu Heiskamine“ on Iseseisvaspäeva in Tallinn and understood  the love of Estonians for their country more: it is soft, subtle and natural. In this months I was present for more events, like Jõule, Aastavahetus, Hingatapäev, Sõbrapäeva and etc. And on all of them I saw  Estonians getting together, celebrating, being happy…together and enjoying it to the fullest. These people tough me a lot about myself and social relationships. I tend to be shy and awkward sometimes, and here, this is OK and nobody asks from you more than you are able and want to give…Of course, only at the times when there are important meetings and my inner mind starts going crazy from not understanding the language, but yet again even because of the language barrier, it doesn’t feel distant and cold. It is also up to me to learn as much Estonian as I can and for them to help me with this. By far, this cooperation has been great, and I don’t think something will brake it. So as I said, I got to know myself better, by interacting with so many different people, it wasn’t ever a problem for me, as I am away from home since 19, but I learned that the process of integrating and always discovering yourself, and mostly creating one’s self personality and spirit, is never-ending and emotionally challenging and exciting more over. I should say that in my 7 years of architecture studies in Romania I haven’t met such a diversity of interesting people,and most of all are able to talk with you about anything, not put any social statuses or age differences between you, this goes both to adult people, as well as teenagers and children. I still don’t know if these experiences made me reinvent myself or just discover an extension of myself.
About my project…it’s mostly flexible, creative work with youngsters. My organization allows me most of the time to do most of the ideas that come up in my head, and this, as well, made me discover some important assets in myself. I realized I like to organize events, be responsible for what and how is happening, give as much creativity as I can to any detail and make sure everything is alright. And all the results come from deep frustrations I had in myself actually, and thought they are not good for me:  like being a control and clean freak, that needs to put everything in order; like my inner creative sensitive side – yet not enough talented to be an artist; like from my wish of making people feel secure and pleased, yet forgetting to think about myself… these and many other details in my personality, that until now where bad, or I was confused about in my life, kind of started putting themselves together in a big beautiful puzzle-picture that is of course…me, in my deepest corners. I realized am I nevertheless still confused, I am still under a big question mark of who I am, but there is still a lot o get to discover, know and learn about me and about what surrounds me. The interesting and ironic part about this project is that I had no idea that EVS is about this or will bring me this epiphanies. I assumed it was about the outside world, creating it, helping it, being a part of it, but actually it got me to look inside me more than outside myself, dig in and look in the places I was scared of or I was just ignoring. EVS, until now, is what I wanted to experience with myself when I went away from home to study art, and unbelievably curios is that the project was far from this idea I had 7 years ago, and yet it is exactly what I wanted and needed…be careful what you wish for, because it all comes to you in ways and at times we don’t understand. And as I said at the beginning, dream the impossible today…because it all becomes reality…eventually, with patience and tenderness.

P.S. This is a diary of my accomplishments in general by far, I promise from now on to write monthly and in more details. I am keeping a daily dairy of events actually, so it shall be easy. I guess I missed some important things that happened here with me, but,  as I said, in big letters, this is what I can relate to at this moment. Maybe by the months coming I can add some more happenings from the past.

Päikest ja sära igavesti!
Miha

published here on the 08th of May 2014