Arrivederci, Louise!

After nine months of volunteering here at Caritas Jesi, Louise's project has come to an end. However, she wanted to say goodbye to you:

It's strange to think that it's already over. As I write these lines, I'm already on the Flixbus, but I find it hard to believe that in a few hours I'll be in France!

If I had to sum up my experience here in one word, I would say: encounters. I've learned a lot in 9 months: speaking a new language, opening up more to others, learning how to cook pasta properly 😅...but none of this would have been possible without the people I've met. Whether it was the other volunteers, the beneficiaries of Caritas, the people who follow us on our ESC journey, and above all the friendships I made along the way! Thanks to you, I decided to extend my experience, I gained confidence in myself and, sitting on this bus, I'm already thinking about when I'll come back to see you!

So thank you very much, everyone, for everything, and welcome to all the future ESC volunteers... I hope your experience is as wonderful as mine has been! 🌞

Having spent the first four months of my ESC project with Louise, I want to take this opportunity to thank her for everything. From my very first day, I understood how precious she was for Caritas due to her dedication and her passion for helping others in the course of her volunteering here. No matter in which service, people were always happy to see and work with her. Impressively, she even managed to become fluent in Italian within a few months without any prior knowledge. But even though her vocabulary was really good, her favorite word remained a very simple one. Together, we truly perfected the pronunciation of "boh" (The Italian version of saying "I don't know") 😅

Louise and I in the old town on my first day in Jesi

Louise was truly able to do anything. On one hand, she said she wasn't a good cook, but on the other hand, she prepared a very tasty Quiche for us. I was even initiated into the secret of her grandma's cake (which was a bit of a challenge with a recipe only mentioning the ingredients 😆)

As you said on your very last day, Louise: When one door closes, another one opens. I'm sure you'll find your way and I wish you all the best. It was a pleasure having you as a roommate and sharing this experience with you. Wherever the future might take you, be prepared for my visit!

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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