O testemunho da Maria

I can’t write much about my EVS experience, yet. After all, this is the first month; I’m still getting used to my new routine, I keep meeting new people, I discover new places every day and I form new habits. In other words, I’m still setting up my reality for the next nine months. 

Like in every beginning, I feel like a child that has been given paints, a brush and an empty canvas to fill it with the colours they want. I’m full of excitement and anticipation, willing to undertake challenges, to create an impact to the society, to see myself grow and improve… I want to develop new skills, learn more about the area of youth work and discover new career prospects. I want to find new passions, learn Portuguese, adopt elements of a new culture and get a fresh perspective. This is an opportunity for me to fill my canvas with colours I haven’t used much before. The other days I heard some EVS volunteer who’s been here for a while already saying that this is the “honeymoon phase” when everything seems exciting and ideal and that later on there will be some moments of crisis along the way. But I’m looking forward to exactly that: the creativeness, the tiredness, the fun, the homesickness, the friendships, the frustration, the laughter, the “nice to meet you”, the goodbyes. It’s all part of the learning process. I don’t know if after my EVS I will know how to write or run a project or if I will be fluent in Portuguese but I’m sure that I will be more self-aware; a better version of myself.

So bring me the paints, the brush and the canvas and I will create a painting to make my life a little more colourful!