Volunteer Oct24, Río's first blog. Life before Jesi

Ciao, Hola and Hi!

I’m Río Rojas Mayorga, one of the two volunteers here at Caritas Jesi in October 2024. I’m from Madrid, Spain, and in this first blog, I will share my life before volunteering and how I discovered the ESC. The next one should be about my life here.

I would like to start by providing some context about how I got to know the ESC by talking about my life in Majadahonda, Madrid.

After the quarantine, my family and I moved from Aluche (in south-central Madrid) to Majadahonda (on the western outskirts) due to financial struggles, which was a significant change for us. The first year felt lonely for my sister and me.

During that time, I began studying in the afternoons at the youth centre near my home, where I searched about local volunteering opportunities and eventually discovered international volunteering. However, I was still under 18 and thought I had to prioritise my formal studies.

Then, in November 2022, I met someone who transformed my life; it all began with a simple “tell me a story,” which led to an incredible friendship filled with unique experiences. His love for adventure ignited my own, and soon I found myself ready, backpack in hand, to cross borders and explore new places.

In February 2024, he and I went on one of our trips, this time to a small village in the northeast of Spain. I’ve learned something important from every journey we've taken, but this one made me realise that I wanted to see more. More ways of living, more people, more places, different ways of thinking, and more of myself.

The following months were quite mentally challenging. First, I had to accept that my true desire for these years was to travel, despite the consequences. For my family, it felt like I was giving up the career we had fought for over the years, and for my friends, I was leaving them behind. This is when I turned to the ESC.

I began searching for the project I wanted to participate in, then I had the interviews and meetings with Vicolocorto and Caritas Jesina. Eventually, by mid March, I had my tickets to Italy.

From April to October, I worked at my first two jobs to help my family and save for my future studies. During these months, I processed the fact that I had to leave the neighbourhood I had come to adore after four years. My family and friends understood that this decision was what I truly wanted and what was best for me. Especially in September, as I went on an interrail trip thanks to an NGO, they all recognized how well I coped with being abroad by myself, along with all the stories I brought home and the lessons I learned.

I believe my best advice and the main point of this story is that while there are clear paths to follow in life, many unexpected opportunities can arise from randomness. Change begins with your willingness to embrace it.

Comments

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...

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...

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...

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