I decided to stay.

 

 

At the beginning I came to Turkey just for two months. Later I decided to prolong my short-term project and stay for six months. It was a quite easy decision for me. I just felt that I was in the right place and I had more important things to learn and to do here. Maybe after my ESC volunteering project I will be able to call Turkey home. I’ve been looking for the feeling of home for a long time.

Every day I realize better how much influence this project has on me and how much it changes me. I feel that I’m becoming more mature, I understand better what I want to do in life, what are my goals/priorities and which path I would like to choose for my future.

At the beginning of the project, I didn’t really understand how works non-formal education and why is it the best way to learn something. 

Why is it so important to give yourself time to meditate on some questions, why do you need self-evaluation, constant discussions with your mentors? Then I saw how all these small things add up together and form my new vision, my knowledge. I’ve started to find important answers for the questions I had by myself, I had no reason to ask anymore. I just gave myself time and tried to be more open-minded. I tried to look at everything from a totally different perspective.

Was it easy? Nope, not easy at all. Was it worth it? Yes, absolutely.

Each small task I received helped me bit by bit understand how I’m gaining new skills and knowledge. Now I became more confident in everything I’m doing. I accepted some things I couldn’t accept for years and found peace with myself. I wouldn’t expect to resolve my personal issues through volunteering, but that’s exactly what happened. 

January and February were quiet and productive at the same time. We had to stay at home a lot, but still managed to come to life bit by bit. We started to train all together at the office. Physical activity really made us not only stronger, but happier. It was a kind of a good way to bond as well. When it was still very cold together with our volunteers we went to Kayseri and tried snowboarding. We had a really good time! Am I a great snowboarder? Nooo. Am I proud of myself that I tried something new? Yeees.

By the way, Kayseri is a beautiful city. The view of the mountains was astonishing, don’t miss it.

We continue to learn Turkish. My roommate and I had our first attempts to read a book in Turkish. A small one, for kids. Pocahontas. With English translation on another page. We’re just starting our journey, really... But you can’t even imagine what a nice feeling it is to finally understand whole

sentences!

What else happened? 

Our first project was approved by the EU. We were so excited about this news!

Maybe we were a little bit confused and scared (you start to think: what we’re going to do next? how will we manage everything? and etc.), but still, we will keep learning and working, hopefully we’ll manage to implement it together and do something very good and useful for young people.

At home things are..always interesting. As we spent more and more time together, we’re going through some rough times. Hey, it’s not easy to become friends/family, when you’re all so different, ok? 

Don’t judge us, we’re trying our best. We need some time and patience. Communication is the key. 

And being kind to each other is another key. I’m quite optimistic and believe that in the end we will have only good memories and relations with each other. 

I will continue my journey and tell you about the final results later. Ttyl, bye!