Skip to main content

From Warsaw to Jesi

 My name is Kamila, I came from Poland and I'm 19 years old. I've started volunteering in Caritas in February. 

The story of me coming here is a little bit complicated. I really wanted to do an ESC project since I was... a little bit younger teenager. I was inspired by my sister, who did it after her studies, a few years ago, but since I was probably around 13 years old during that time, I was definitely too young. 

During my last year of high school I was really overwhelmed and decided to take a gap year. I didn't want to stay in Poland during that time, and I recalled about ESC programme, so even before the exams I began searching. Initially I wanted to apply for a project in Ireland, but in the meantime my parents convinced me to go to university so I threw that plan away. I was studying for few months, and during that time I was doing some works in community, like Food Not Bombs, but I still wanted to do the ESC project, so I've decided to temporarily drop out of university and do some project.

It was really important for me to do a project that could inspire me and allow me to find a new ideas that I could propose to the local governments/organizations especially if it was related to the people living in poverty or the refugees, which is why I eventually chose to apply for a project in Jesi.

I think the last really important thing that motivated me was that I wanted to be out of my comfort zone - I wanted to try living in a country in which I knew basically no-one, and see how would I handle that, which was kinda funny idea given that I am the second most anxious person that I know.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arrivederci, Jesi!

I can’t believe time has passed so quickly. It feels like yesterday that I arrived in Jesi and got a tour though the whole Caritas facility. But since then, six months have passed. This experience has been valuable to me in more than just one way and I will never forget the precious time that I spent here. It’s hard to put into words how much this project helped me grow personally and how much I learned while volunteering here. I’m so grateful for all of the people I got to meet during my stay in Jesi. My ESC project here gave me the opportunity to make friends from all over the world who shared a lot about their countries and cultures with me. Therefore, they made it possible for me to widen my horizons and it’s their fault that so many places got added to my travel list 😆 Of course, I also found a lot of new friends from this area who introduced me to Italian dinners (something I’ll certainly continue after coming back to Austria!) and who often planned trips to show me around the a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ciao, sono Emma!

Ciao! My name is Emma and I joined Caritas Jesi three weeks ago as the new ESC volunteer. I have only recently gratuated from school in my home country, Austria. After having studied for years, I could not picture myself attending university right away, which is why I decided to take a gap year. I wanted to use it to improve my knowledge of the Italian language, as I had already studied it at school. However, finding something suitable, even after I had learned about the European Solidarity Corps, turned out to be rather challenging. I eventually came across Caritas Jesi and decided to send in my application, which turned out to be just the right decision. After having completed all the necessary steps before my departure, I finally arrived in Jesi three weeks ago. As you can see, I haven't been here for long, but I already feel like being a part of the diverse, committed and unbelievably welcoming team of Caritas Jesi. At the beginnig, I had this fear of feeling alone in a foreign...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ciao, cześć, hallo, hola, olá, salut, szia, tere and terve!

Ciao! It's Louise and Emma. Today we would like to share a wonderful experience with you, which we have made last Saturday. But first, we need to go back in time a bit… About 4 months ago, I (Louise) was called for my "On Arrival Training" (if you're wondering what is the OAT, go see  our blog post on this topic ). There, I was lucky to meet other ESC volunteers who have the same coordinating organisation as us (Vicolocorto), and also live in the Marche region. I particularly bonded with Laura, a finnish girl who is doing her service at the Red Cross of Cingoli, and Madalena from Portugal, who is volunteering in Caritas Senigallia. After the training, we kept in touch and decided to see each other again... which we did. We visited the Frasassi caves, Ancona, and -more important for our story- at the end of August, we organised an ESC lunch at our appartment in Jesi, where we all cooked traditionnal dishes from our home countries. From that day, we had the idea to do s...
Post a Comment
Read more