Lizett in Plasencia

How it all began?

I spent my last 10 months in the west of Spain in a medium-sized town, named Plasencia. The place is not really turistic or special and so not many people know about it. That's why I was asked about my decision to choose it. The reason was the project which takes place here and the organization that I fell in love with. After my first interview with them I was feeling this is the community where I would like to belong to. They were so kind that I was pretty sure I will have somebody whom I can get support from. I have never experienced this type of interviewing before, I actually felt relaxed and comfortable during this generally stressful situation.

Coping with difficulties

After I made my decision, I was pretty sure that I will overcome the challenges. Actually it came true and this period couldn’t be spend without difficulties. My mentor said that the voulunteering is a wave with ups and downs that keep changing. If I can live up to that metaphor, I touched the bottom of the sea at the beginning. Everything was new, I couldn’t really understand myself with the citizens and it was really hard to make new contacts. It takes time to get to know the people around you and find those you can trust. To feel myself more involved in the community I started to learn their language before I could go to language school, I went to the local library with my flatmates and lent children’s books, which were easy to read. I remember that I was suffering about that I couldn’t go for hikes as I used to do it at home, so I was asking some recommendations from my mentor. Besides, I joined the town's running club and did so many sports such as climbing, swimming, yoga and kayaking.

Workworkworkworkwork

At the office, the work was quite less for me, especially in the early days, because I didn't really know how to be useful. I had to ask about everything, how to solve the tasks that I’ve never met before. I started to use different kinds of systems and applications like Canva, where I could use my creativity in the designing part of flyers, schedules, social media posts and hoodies. I managed the beneficiary modules of Erasmus programs, where we had to upload the participants' details. I answered emails, communicated with people who were interested in our projects. We organized and implemented programs for the European Day, Innovation Day and spreading information about our organization. We helped in the organization part of youth exchanges and training courses and I got a taste of writing these kinds of projects which I really enjoyed and I think this skill will be really useful in my future.

On weekends I was working in the Respiro Familiar Program, which actually was the reason why I chose this project. In this program we organised a wide range of leisure activities for young people with different kinds of mental and physical disabilities. Over the years, the organization has built many partnerships, so we have been invited by organizations to participate in their events. The program takes place on Saturdays and Sundays for 4 hours a day, in different locations. So we have not only been to Plasencia, but also to other cities to go horse riding, bowling or boxing. Other weekends we just went downtown to hang out and have a drink. Or we went to University Popular, which is kind of the base of the Respiro programme. Here we had a free room and a courtyard where we could organize our activities. The funfact is that one day I also organised a workshop here for Christmas which was one of my personal projects.

About personal projects

During the volunteering period, everyone can create their own personal project(s). My first such project was to organise a Halloween party open to all Plasencians. One of the main goals was to let people know more about us, our work and our culture. I was supported by volunteers and my colleagues to organize it. I looked for some fun games on Pinterest for all ages as it was open to anyone. To promote it we used posters in key locations around the city and put it on social media and made a video. In the process of organizing the Halloween party, I had difficult times but it helped me to see my weak points but also my strong ones. For example, for creating the schedule, the posters and organising what activities I would like to do, I was pretty sure and well prepared. On the other hand when I had to present it for all the people I started to be anxious and needed some help.

I think my second personal project was much better. I organised a Christmas art workshop for children in Respiro Familiar. We made Christmas candle holders from jars. They could use their creativity to design them, and I also brought some "models" to represent something similar that they could make. During the creative process, I felt myself glad and satisfied, they were asking me advice about their work, meanwhile some of them wanted to copy exactly what I showed as an example. I can say that it was successful, they enjoyed the activity and were proud to show the creations to their parents.

First summer in Spain

The summer was one of the best, most intense times of my volunteering life. It was also the hardest, as the weather was hotter than ever. Now I can understand why Spanish people have the siesta time, the weather could be intolerable in summer. I remember it as a month of fiesta without sleeping. It was hard to find the balance of my personal time and the social time. We went to a lot of concerts and parties organized by the city, and spent most of the afternoons at La Isla beach, because that was the only place where we could tolerate the heat. The first event of the summer was a very strange one, the Noche de San Juan, the night when the Spaniards lit a huge bonfire and the firemen started spraying water on it and on us.

It was also the time of the Active Villagers project, through which we made new friends with the short-term volunteers from Romania and Turkey. These volunteers organised activities for children and people with disabilities, in small villages near Placencia, such as San Gil and Galisteo. Their task was to prepare age and disability appropriate sport activities. The workers of our office also joined this project to help their work and to make suggestions to the coordinator. It was a lot of fun.

Trainings during the ESC

Within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps Programme we had two chances to meet with the Representative of the Spanish National Agency. They organized us formations at the beginning and in the middle of the program. During these trainings we got to know the volunteers from the other parts of Spain and listened to their experiences with their organizations. We could talk about our working conditions and share if we have problems (in this case they investigated the complaint). We had a lesson about the strange things we experienced in Spain. It was good to listen to other people's experiences, because they confirmed mines. Besides, we got Spanish course, workshops about conflict management, cultural awareness, personal project and kind of preparation for the future after the ESC.

Cultural Awareness

Before this experience, I thought it was too far to go other countries and difficult to prepare myself for it. But I have to admit that it became easy and so natural to live people from other countries. The volunteering opened me a gate to go anywhere in Europe because I think I could handle the situations in another European country as I know more about their culture and the habits they have.

Some of the volunteers took the effort to show us their culture. As French volunteers were organised a party for us, where we have learnt about the french regions, food and language. It was really interesting, that four French were from different regions and they don't even know how to pronounce the words of the other regions. They served us many foods like quiche, camambert with garlic pan, black olive pasta, roquefort cheese, butter cookies and Bordeaux wine.

I know more about Halal food, Arabic culture and Turkish snake-move dance (Me encanta mucho). I started to recognize accents, mainly Italian, French, Greek and of course Spanish which is so identifiable. I found out that in Romania, Serbia and Finland they don’t syncronise the films, they only put subtitles on it.

Final Thoughts

I would like to share some thoughts that I wrote in my monthly diary. I think after this experience my baggage is full of stories, motivation, knowledge and new skills, the only question is where I would like to bring it.

“During this month my social battery was on full, everyday there were some programs, I was surprised on my adaptation on the new situation, because two months ago I couldn’t spend this much time with people.”

„In the past I felt that what I was doing was not enough because I always wanted perfect. Now I'm okay with good, I don't need a perfect job, because perfect does not exist, but you could do even better by taking the pressure off of you that perfection puts on you.”

“I am not afraid to start a conversation with a Spanish person anymore, it’s easier to start communicate with anybody than it happened in my head before. I don’t know the language very well but I trust that in some way, we can understand each other. And I have really good experience with Spanish people, they are happy if you are just saying some words on their language. I like the way that they make contacts easily and can speak about nothing. “

“I’ve realised that in many cases it’s easier, if I have something on my mind to just say it , I don’t have to solve everything on my own.”