Skip to main content

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 something similar again, in Senigallia, on the beach.

Madalena, Laura and I at the Frasassi caves

On the last weekend of September, the time had finally come. Just like Emma, a lot of new volunteers had arrived in the beginning of September and that lunch had become a great opportunity to get to know each other.

There were 10 of us: Laura, Madalena and I, Louise (the original trio) plus Emma (of course!), Ema (Spain/Colombia), Iris (Austria), Liisa (Estonia), Lucille (France), Lotte (Hungary) and Wojciech (Poland).


For us, the meeting started at the train station where we first encountered Laura, Iris, Ema, Liisa and Wojciech. All of them are volunteers at the Red Cross of Cingoli, a little town near Jesi. In their project, they get the opportunity to contribute to the ambulance service and thus get in touch with a wide range of people (volunteers and patients). They also have other tasks, but their schedule isn't regular like ours, and they are often told very last-minute what their day is gonna be like.

On the train, we realised that we were not on the same page about what was going to happen during the day: we had prepared dishes to share with everyone whereas most of them didn't even know we were having a picnic. According to them, Laura had forgotten to mention this aspect, but maybe this is just "Italian spontaneity" that has gotten into her after 5 months of volunteering here! 😅 
Luckily, this wasn't a problem a 5-minute visit to Eurospin couldn't solve!

Madalena, Lucille and Lotte joined us at the train station of Senigallia, the city where they are doing their service. The project of Caritas Senigallia is divided in two. Lotte is doing her service in a vegetable garden managed by Caritas, while Madalena and Lucille work in the shelter for homeless people, in a project similar to ours (preparing the food, serving the beneficiaries, talking to them, …).

Meeting all these other volunteers gave us a great chance to learn more about the diversity of volunteering experiences here in Italy. It's always fascinating to exchange stories and compare our day-to-day routines.
For Emma, it was great to meet other volunteers who had just arrived as they shared their first impressions of arriving in a new country. It was also nice to meet new people outside of Jesi and start building connections here in Italy.
As for Louise, she was very happy to see Laura and Madalena again, but it was also bittersweet as we had to say goodbye to Madalena on that day! But that's part of the beauty of international volunteering: Portugal has just got added to our travel list! 😉

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 si...
Post a Comment
Read more

May 2024 highlights

🌟 Reflecting on May 🌟 After a great start in April and returning from a long trip to Naples and Rome we decided to enjoy a more relaxed side of Jesi. Here are some of the things we did in May.  On Arrival training May started with a 5 days training in Rome. This training was organized by the Italian National Agency. During this training, we shared our volunteering experiences with others from all over Europe who are currently doing their volunteering experiences in Italy. We learned about our duties and rights as volunteers. As well as other opportunities after this experience.  Exploring Rome Exploring Rome is a captivating journey through history, culture, and cuisine. As Italy's capital and one of the most historically rich cities in the world. Our first point of the trip was Colosseum meaning one of the most iconic structures in the world, the Colosseum is an ancient amphitheater that once hosted gladiatorial games and public spectacles. The next stop was Roman Forum. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volunteer Oct24. 3 months so far!

Ciao, Hola and Hi!  I’m Río Rojas Mayorga and it's been 3 months since I'm an ESC volunteer here in Caritas Jesina. Let me update you briefly about my experience! The arrival and first week in Caritas was a mix of emotions between the excitement to start and the confusion of all the new people and information we were bombarded with. At first we didn't have a schedule and it was a little bit messy but, I'm glad I shared so much time with my project partner; it was nice having someone in the same situation. First month Once the schedule was set, we had to adjust not only to the work but also to the people we shared the time with. As all the services are done with local people, at first it was difficult the communication as I had no words in Italian, but I was gladly surprised to find out my will of talking and sharing was lovely appreciated and corresponded, I found out the language barrier was a challenge but i wasn’t fighting it alone.  My birthday arrived eventually an...
Post a Comment
Read more