Embedded Files
Are you not at peace with yourself?
Does your current situation feel hopeless?
Do you feel like you need a break?
Would you like to step away from your life for a while?
Do you wish you could slow down and live a less stressful life?
Well, I would have answered “yes” to all of these questions before I started my volunteering project.
As a volunteer with the European Solidarity Corps, I spent six months in a small town in southern Spain. Among many other tasks, I spent most of my time assisting at a high school as an English language assistant and helping out in a kindergarten during lunchtime. One of my favourite memories is when I introduced Hungarian culture to Spanish high school students. We laughed a lot as we recited the Hungarian alphabet together and they tried to pronounce Hungarian words.
Before I started the project, I had challenges both mentally and physically. I felt stuck, saw my life as a failure, and couldn’t find a way forward - I didn’t know which direction to take to make a change. As a last resort, I turned to an old dream of mine: volunteering abroad. I saw it as a chance to break out of my situation.
Ever since finishing high school, I had wanted to take part in an international volunteering project, but at the time I couldn’t find the right one for me. Still, I never gave up on that dream, and after turning 23, I finally set out to make it come true.
With the experience of an Erasmus semester at university behind me, I was confident that whatever project I chose, it would be worth it. I saw it as a guaranteed win: I knew I would get to discover a new culture, use my English skills, learn the local language, and - most excitingly - work and live in an intercultural team with young people from across Europe. Even before I left, I felt that no matter what challenges the project might bring, these positive aspects would always outweigh them.
These six months were a time of healing and growth for me. Far from the problems I had left behind at home, I was able to rest and gain a new, more distant perspective on my life. I lived in a small town in southern Spain, where the sun shines often, the pace of life is slower and more relaxed, mornings start later and evenings last longer. People live their lives out on the streets, and in the evenings the bars fill with groups of friends talking and laughing loudly.
It was a place where many people grow olives, run small shops or restaurants on the town’s main street, and most of the population is retired. After a few hours of work each day, I could attend Spanish classes and go dancing.
We celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve together with the other volunteers. On New Year’s, I made a resolution: that I would no longer be the person who constantly tries to please others, doing or saying what they want to hear. I decided to prioritise my own needs and stop pretending just to gain approval.
Not long after, I found myself in conflict with some of the other volunteers. Even though none of them supported me and I stood alone, I stood up for myself and didn’t let them walk all over me. It was absolutely worth it - I was proud of myself, and the others could also see that I wasn’t someone to be pushed around.
Later in the project, I had plenty more opportunities to practise saying no and setting my own boundaries, and I’m happy to say that I’m getting better and better at it. Since returning to Budapest, even when a tourist stops me in the city centre to ask for directions, I no longer drop everything to show them the way. Instead, I simply tell them which bus to take - and if they ask whether I can come along, I tell them honestly and without apology that no, I have other things to do.
From home, I miss the little life I built for myself during those six months. I've grown attached to Spanish culture. I discovered that I enjoy small-town life. I miss the unhurried daily rhythm I got used to there, the familiar Spanish flavours, my favourite café, the view over the town from the hilltop with the fortress and the sunset. I miss the dancing, the expressive Spanish way of moving, and the local community.
The good news is that everything I discovered and learned about myself there can be carried with me wherever I go. I can fight for it, make it happen again. Not everything has to be left behind—if I plant the seeds of what I gained through volunteering into my life after the project, I won’t miss it all.
Hosting organisation:
Hosting organisation:
Asociación Socio-Cultural VerdeSur Alcalá is created by a group of people who would like to create a social change in Alcala’s town while focusing on the young people and involving the young people to the mobility activities as well as the local socio-cultural activities.Later on, it grown up to a something bigger to provide capacity building trainings for teachers, adult educators and adult people.
The association is supported by the local municipality, and it is based on the youth building of Alcala la Real where has a very diverse environment with a great historical trajectory where it can bring too many opportunities for events and social activities for young people and adults.
Volunteering in Alcala la Real volunteering project
Date: November 2022 - April 2023
Volunteer: Sári Kéri
Google Sites
Report abuse