INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY - 5 DECEMBER

What is volunteering and who are volunteers?

Volunteering is generally considered an activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain to benefit another person, group or organization. Volunteering is known not only to be related to happiness but also to increase happiness. Studies have also shown that volunteering can cause a decrease in loneliness for those volunteering as well as those for whom people volunteer.

Learning about history of Turkey

This blog will be a short introduction to modern Turkish history. So the blog will be maybe boring but full of information.

Being a longterm volunteer in Turkey means to get familiar and used to Turkish culture, it means learning a lot about their history. What you can’t miss is the picture of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, his Picture hangs everywhere as he is considered as the national hero. Even little kids in kindergartens are learning about this legendary hero who achieved an outstanding military and political victory and established a republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. In two weeks there were 2 big days, connected to the history of Turkey, especially to Mr. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Experience Turkey

Merhaba dear friends,

It’s Karolina, again. Before my EVS I was reading a lot of articles about EVS, what is it, why to join and so on. I found a lot of information about it, for example how is EVS unique, how it helps to communities, to the society, how you can acquire new skills and abilities useful for your personal and professional growth. But it was all just written information for me, without any specific examples. And also, till you don’t try, you don’t know. In the previous blog I also tried to be more specific, how is it when you live in a different country with different culture. This time I would like to share my adventures from the last month, it will more look like a traveler blog, but don’t forget that EVS is also about traveling and exploring.

I just started my 7th week of volunteering, that’s mean that my volunteering time is almost over. Unfortunately, time flies too fast when you are having fun. During the past month, I have visited Pamukkale, Denizli and Antalya. If you are planning to visit Turkey, don’t skip Pamukalle. I saw many pictures of Pamukalle before I visited this place, but anyway it took my breath away. This surreal, brilliant white travertine terraces and warm, limpid pools filled with calcite-laden water, truly spectacular in its own right is called in English Cotton Castle. I also caught the perfect season for travellıng Pamukalle, it was not so crowded, the weather was perfect and we felt as celebrities (there were plenty of tourists from Asian countries and every time they saw us, wanted to take pictures with us). Besides of this geological phenomenon, you can find in the neighborhood an ancient city of Hierapolis. The thermal spa of Hierapolis was established by the kings of Pergamon.  The ruins of the baths, temples and other Greek monuments can be seen at the site. Hierapolis is an exceptional example of a Greco-Roman thermal installation established on an extraordinary natural site, even thanks to this combination Pamukalle- Hierapolis are on the list of World Heritage. By the way, if you are already in Pamukalle and you like history, make the effort and visit another ancient city of Laodikeia. It’s also on the list of the World Heritage and it’s one of the important archaeological remains for the region along with Hierapolis. Here, you may find the largest ancient stadium of Anatolia.

Also thanks to IYACA, where I can do my short EVS, I visited Antalya. The association organized a great training course about non-formal education for youth workers. Our journey started early in the morning, as we went with a car I could enjoy the spectacular view of nature. We passed a lot of mountains and some lakes, especially the view of Karacaören Barajı stayed in my mind, clear lake surrounded by mountains, it reminded me the nature of my home. After the hilly part of Turkey, we finally arrived in Antalya, seaside. I had the chance to discover Antalya as well.  Antalya is full of natural sights, we visited Düden Waterfalls, it consists of the The Upper Düden Waterfalls and The Lower Düden Waterfalls. The Upper Waterfalls are a series of small cascades in a tranquil municipal park. We could experience a fabulous view through a curtain of a falling water from a cave situated behind the waterfalls. The Lower part of Düden Waterfalls with the ending at the mediterranean sea provides an unforgettable view. Our group was lucky and we even catch the sunset. Not only I could learn more about non-formal education, also I met new, amazing people, full of new ideas and willingness to improve themselves and the educational system in their countries, to make a better world. Thanks to them this week was wonderful. Besides I learnt a lot about the cities we passed on the way from Ankara to Antalya, about the history of Turkey. By the way, did you know that there is a different between çay served in Antalya and çay served in Ankara?

New Culture, New Experiences

Above Ankara (taken in the Ankara Castle)

Hello everybody! İ am Karolina and İ am a volunteer of IYACA youth organization in Ankara. Exactly 2 weeks passed since İ arrived in the capital city of Turkey for my EVS. I come from a small country Slovakia, which has the same population as Ankara has. After a long day, which İ spent in plane or at the airport in Vienna and İstanbul, İ finally found myself in Ankara. The city welcomed me about midnight with colorful buildings and rainy weather, even though I was prepared for an extremely cold city covered by snow (guys don’t believe to gossips that Ankara is sooooo cold). After a small walk we came to our apartment and my mentor Sinan shared with me very ımportant information, that we don’t have any elevator, so he had to carry my 20+ kg heavy baggage (I am really sorry for it). During my stay in Ankara İ have learnt how to prepare a turkish “çay”, I trıed to learn a turkısh card game called “Pişti”, unfortunately, I haven’t learnt how to use turkish keyboard yet (sorry for mixing the ı/i in this blog).

We live in a very city center where almost every country has their embassies, so I expected that people will be used to foreigners. But when İ walk on the street everybody knows that I am the "yabanci", maybe it is written on my forehead. Anyway, turkısh people are known world-wide for their hospitality and warmth, so is it true? Definitely. People in shops, streets or in restaurants want to help you, even if they don’t speak english. İ try to speak turkish, the reason is that İ thınk ıt ıs nıce if people at least try and İ belıeve it’s a kind of showing respect (also people in Ankara don’t speak English) and when people hear it they are so cute and polite, asking where am İ from and so on, tıll we get to level where my turkish is over (mostly the conversation is very short :D).

A part of awesome people in gorgeous İstanbul

The two weeks passed really fast, İ traveled to İstanbul where İ stayed for 5 days. The reason of my visit was On-Arrıval trainıng organized by Turkish National Agency. During this training, I had a chance to meet so many nice, talented and motivated people. İ have to mention our legendary room 228 (İ can see your smile guys). I am very thankful for this opportunity. No doubt that İstanbul is the biggest city ın Turkey, so you expect that people wıll be less caring, but the truth is the opposite. I went to a patisserie with friends of mine. We ordered 4 “salep”, as İ am a big sweet lover İ was wondering about one sweet which i have never tried (I am really bad wıth names) so İ asked the waıtor. He directly saıd me, don’t order ıt because you wıll not lıke ıt. İt made me even more curious so İ ordered it. Thıs turkısh “tatlı” was different, a bit hard, the chocolate pastry, fruits were covered by peanuts and it made a perfect combination of tastes. İ really liked it, so İ shared my opinion with waiter who was waiting for my reaction. He was so surprised and on the other hand so happy that İ liked the sweet, that he served us different kind of sweets just to try them.

Some tips:

I found the monumental Kocatepe
on the way home (yes, İ was a little bit lost)

If you don’t know the way, always ask 2 or more people. Turkısh people never say I don’t know, so they can show you the wrong way. (happened to me many times)

You can meet here one philosophy, I call it “problem yok”, where everything is okay, never seeing problems, which has of course pros and cons.