Hello World!
This is Ana (Yeah, the Portuguese one)!
I arrived at the EVS project with CALA in November 2017, and I will stay here until September 2018. It seems like a long time, but in fact the first 3 months have started to run!
This blog's main purpose is to share our experience with those interested in carrying out a European volunteer service with CALA in Alburquerque. To make it simpler to understand in a context of linguistic diversity, we will try to translate the shared information into our native languages and into English and Spanish in future posts.
You can read our descriptions to get to know us a little better, and wait for our entries on the most diverse themes that will color our experience living in Alburquerque and collaborating with CALA...while growing a little more!
To tell you a little about my first months, of course I did not escape the syndrome of "Lost Volunteer" , specially in the first week! Spain is very close to Portugal, but very far away in terms of habits and culture, and my "Portugunhol", which I considered sufficient for a good communication, proved itself to be insufficient, and I like so much to talk! - being my biggest obstacle in the early days. Fortunately, the CALA team integrated me as if I were part of the "house", and quickly I got into the rhythm ...
Till now I've been contributing with my skills (multimedia, psychology and portuguese), and, if not, learning from the CALA workshops, and giving a little help in maintenance tasks of the sustainable shelter . Impossible to get bored!
About on arrival training: I had the opportunity to get to know Seville (and fall in love with it), and 22 volunteers from 14 different nationalities. It was an incredible opportunity to put into action one of my personal goals - to overcome ignorance - as part of a larger goal, being a piece in the great puzzle of the European Union. We have had the opportunity to remember the atrocities that occurred before us, but which are not so far in time, reinforcing our responsibility to play a role in a change that is urgently needed, and will only be possible through the rich alliance that forms in the of cultural diversity.
For now I will leave you with some pictures of the activities I've been colaborating, and you can also check my facebook album where I share my photographic memory about the whole experience.
Let's wait to here from Marie... and her training!
See you later !
Ana
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