The Show Must Go On

Hello, everyone!

This month we had the opportunity to join the Mid-term volunteer training organized by the Turkish National Agency. The event was really captivating and useful. We had the opportunity to ask many important questions about volunteering, Turkey, about our further plans after the end of our projects. We could finally meet other volunteers participating in other projects in Turkey. We spent some good time together, shared our experience, discussed everything that happened to us during our work. We even got some great tips for “surviving” in Turkey! 

The last day of training was on 25^th of December, which is an important day for the majority of our volunteers - Christmas eve. We did not have the possibility to organize a big party this year, but we had a dinner together and tried to bring some Christmas spirit to the group. It was a really great experience!

For the New Year it was not allowed to go out or celebrate with someone outside your own household. But hey, nobody can forbid you to have fun, right? Together with the volunteers of IYACA we organized ourselves a little celebration at home. We cooked our favorite traditional meals, chatted a lot and played games. It was a very special and unforgettable New Year for all of us! Maybe we couldn't spend the holidays being surrounded by our family members, but for sure we were surrounded by our friends! We had great time that night!
The second month of our volunteering project in Ankara was fairly less exciting and active, than the first one. With the new Covid restrictions imposed by the Turkish government we had to spent a lot of time at home on weekends and holidays. By the way, this is the best time for us to improve our Turkish language skills by watching Turkish TV-series, which are famous worldwide.

To be honest, this is not the easiest period for us, but the whole world is going through some rough times nowadays. We were very lucky with our hosting organization, though. Considering the circumstances, they made our schedule more flexible in order to give us some extra free time for exploring Ankara and Turkey.

I personally decided to explore the art and history museums of Ankara. The Ankara State Art and Sculpture Museum has recently reopened after a year-long restoration. This is the home to some of the most valuable works of Turkish art history. It was a pleasure to see and learn something new about Turkish culture. If you ever visit Ankara, this museum should definitely be on your must-visit list!

We have started the new year with new energy and ideas that hopefully we will be able to bring to life as soon as possible. We will continue to work on our project together and I hope that soon we will have more possibilities to have face-to-face meetings and activities! For now, kendine iyi bak ve görüşürüz!