My name is Anni and I was lucky enough to
be EVS volunteer in Sicily for seven months. My hosting organization was
amazing ArciStrauss. To be honest, my EVS ended more than one month ago, but
somehow it has been very difficult to leave this experience behind. Seems like
writing this post is the official end. But then again, there are no ends, only
new beginnings. Well, here it comes, some monthly stories from my EVS what I
wrote while I was in Sicily.
November
My first month as a volunteer in Sicily has passed very fast. Mainly this
month I spent time to understand my main activities here and get to know the
local life in Mussomeli. At the beginning I was little bit worried that I might
have too much free time but now I understand that I have many different
activities here and I am very happy about that. Now I am working in library
organising books, teaching english for children in elementary and high schools
and also writing articles for the blog what we created together with other
volunteers. Also we are creating campaigns on different topics, first theme is
trash because we discovered that the streets in Mussomeli are full of trash.
Our main idea is to build Christmas tree out of trash and the grand opening
will be on next Friday. So busy days ahead. For me the free time and working
time is well balanced and I feel the support from Arcistrauss for everything.
Even though I don’t speak italian I already have a group of local friends
and that actually helps me a lot. Because they don’t speak English. That means
we are finding different creative ways to communicate with each other. One of
the main activities what brought us together is table football – they are very
good at it and they are teaching me as well. Also from time to time we play football
on Saturdays if it’s not raining. These local friends have helped me to
understand local life very well and I am grateful. Every week we have italian
lessons and I am trying to speak in italian, because I think this is the best
way to learn a new language. I make a lot of mistakes but I can see how locals
appreciate my efforts.
Life together with other volunteers from Spain, France and Romania is
interesting and sometimes challenging. But we get along well and we are
developing our friendships. Conflict management and group processes are useful
knowledges here. But we are growing to become close friends and that is nice.
December
My second month as volunteer past so fast that it is unbelievable. Together
with other volunteers we visited Palermo and my first impression from Palermo
wasn’t that good. We were very lucky, we hitchhiked there and a nice couple
drove us to Palermo and helped us to find a cheap hostel. Mainly we spent time
shopping and since I am not a big fan of shopping I was very happy when we went
to seaside in Mondello. It was very beautiful and calming experience. Arriving
back to Mussomeli was very nice, I really felt like I came back home. So I
guess somehow Mussomeli has already become a home for me.
During the first half of December we continued our normal acitivities – I
went to schools to participate english lessons, helped little bit in library
and worked on our trash campaign. We created a nice Christmas tree from plastic
bottles. The outcome is very nice and hopefully helps us all to remember how
easy recycling actually is.
Since December 19th I had holidays. On December 19th I went to Palermo to
meet my dear friend Ef from Greece. We spent two amazing days together
discovering Palermo. During these two days my opinion about Palermo totally
changed, we discovered lots of beautiful parks and places. After he left I
stayed in Palermo for one day and I met two amazing people via Couchsurfing.
They introduced some places in Palermo as well and offered me the opportunity
to spend a night at their homes. I am very grateful. On December 22 I flew to
Rome where I met Ylaria, a girl who I first met in May 2016 in Romania. I spent
a night in Rome, saw the Colosseum and enjoyed some good local food. Next day I
arrived to Bulgaria, where I met most of my Bulgarian friends. I spent
Christmas and New Year’s Eve there and I consider myself very lucky because all
the people I met there were very nice and friendly, they opened their homes and
hearts for me, introduced the local spirits and made me feel very safe. On my
way back to Sicily I had another chance to discover Rome, this time I spent and
amazing day together with Alessandro, italian who I met in December 2014 in
Romania. We haven’t seen eachother since the project but when we met again it seemed
like we had known eachother forever.
When I arrived back to Sicily I felt like I arrived back home. Even though
I stayed in Palermo for one night I still felt very safe and happy. I love
travelling but from time to time it is nice to spend some time in a familiar
enviroment which is becoming my home.
January
We had lots of snow in Mussomeli. So actually I really felt like at home
because for me it is very natural that during the winter it is snowing. Even
though it was little bit difficult to spend some time outdoors I was grateful
because it was so beautiful. And some quality time with tea and good movies is
always useful. This was the first opportunity this year to appreciate the
moment and make a choice how I see things. I was choosing positive way.
As usually it seemed like time is flying too fast. Evem though first two
weeks we had lots of snow and because of that most of my activities were
cancelled, somehow I still had lots of things to do. Mainly I concentrated on
analysing my experience so far – what I could do better, how to improve my
participation in activities and what kind of new things I could do.
Last week of January I was participating my on-arrival training. It was
difficult in so many ways. First – it was only in italian. And even though I
understood almost everything I still don’t have enough vocabulary or courage to
actually speaks in italian. Secondly – I got sick, so I missed half of the
activities. And now I discovere myself in a low-point. First time during my EVS
I feel really homesick and I truly miss my friends and family. But I know that
this is totally normal part of this experience so I don’t let it to bother me
too much. Because life always goes on and I have new challenges and
opportunities, so I am actually very curious to see how I will manage with
everything.
February
February started as a difficult month, I was struggling with some
homesickness. I was totally aware of the fact that probably at one point I will
realize how much I miss my friends and family. But I didn’t give up, I
understood that this is just one part of this amazing experience and in a way I
am little bit grateful because I think I appreciate all amazing people in my
life little bit more. And it is nice that thanks to social media and internet
we can easily keep in touch. So I didn’t ignore the fact that I was homesick,
it was just part of me.
What actually really helped me was the fact that I started some new
activities and now my schedule is busier that during the previous months. But I
am happy about that because now I really feel useful. I participate in many
english lessons in different schools, I keep working on different topics for
the blog and I also have a very nice opportunity to work on an international
project application. This is little bit challenging, but I really enjoy this
opportunity because that gives me a chance to develop myself in the field I
already feel like very good at. And everything I learn here will be useful in
the future. Both in worklife and personal life.
February is an important month for me – firstly, my youngers brother and
sister celebrated their 25th birthday and a day after was Estonia’s
independence day. In the end of January one Estonian wrote to me, he is also an
EVS volunteer in Sicily. So we decided that the perfect time to meet is on
Estonia’s independence day. And I was very happy to discover that actually in
Sicily here are more estonians. Officially me in Mussomeli, one guy in Catania
and one girl in Palermo. We celebrated our independence day in a proper way –
some traditsional Estonian snacks (black bread, Estonian candies, potatoe salad
and smoked sausage), listening to estonian music and watching how our president
is greeting important people who have contributed to the development of Estonia
as a republic and as a nation. So last days of February were very nice – I
discovered Sicily a little bit (Catania and Siracusa), got to know how tricky
public transportation system in Sicily is and got confirmation to the idea that
sicilians are very nice and warm people.
March
So.. this month has been very strange. I discovered the value of time. I
don’t feel the need to rush all the time anymore. Health comes first. Yes, I
found out that my exhaustion actually has a reason – iron level in my blood is
very low. And something strange is going on with my eyes. It might be some kind
of allergy.. I am not totally sure, but who knows, maybe it is allergy.
I have stayed at home because of my health problems. So that has given me
time to analyse everything. Seems like time to analyse my life here is very
important because this is how I understand what has changed and what I have
learned.
The most challenging activities for me here have been english conversation
club for children and working together with other volunteers to create
international youth exchange project. Sometimes I was thinking that the main
problem is the motivation level and other time I thought the problem is
language barrier. So.. putting these two thing together – nothing is happening
or the level of work that gets done is very low. Even though it has been
difficult, somehow the motivation keeps coming back because understanding that
these two activities may be the most difficult ones, they are also the biggest
learning opportunities. So even it is very easy to give up, that hasn’t
happened so far because I am here to discover something and that process keeps
going on.
What has been wonderful during March is the weather. When my friends form
Estonia sent me photos of how much snow they have, I sent them photos of
sunshine. We have an amazing terrace here and the best moments for
self-analysing and motivating myself happened while laying on the terrace and
enjoying the sunshine. It is so nice that we have the opportunity to eat
breakfest or lunch on the terrace. For me it seems that sun makes everything
better. I have always thought that (well, in Estonia we don’t have so much sunshine)
and it works for me – during sunny days I feel more energetic and I am happier.
And of course the sun has played a big role in our tomato growing process, the
plants are so nice and beautiful.
....and after March I stopped writing. The main reason for that was the
fact that I got used to my life in Sicily. Everything became familiar and I
felt good there. I continued with my activities, I had an opportunity to make
suggestions what I want to do (thank you, ArciStrauss team!) and I actually
felt appreciated as well. These seven months were full of challenges,
surprises, sadness, overcoming my fears, deep conversations, long evenings,
amazingly good food, communication problems, self-analyzing and growing as a
person. I am so grateful that I had this opportunity to do my EVS in such an
amazing place. And I am grateful to people who made my EVS so amazing – Jose,
Roberta, Anthony, Dario, Nuccia, Anna, Hana, Lola, Radu, Hakan and Sebiastien.
We had a good run together, see you again in some other places in the world!
This Project was financed by European Commission's Erasmus + Programme
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