O testemunho do Nicolò

"Well ... how did I get here?" the Talking Heads sang in Once in a Lifetime, and it's basically how I felt lately, my life has changed so quickly that I did not even have time to think.

Hi, I’m Nico, 27 years old, from a really small town in northern Italy, I consider myself mainly a musician even though I have had many different jobs in my life cause unfortunately music does not pay bills. 

After a 1-year volunteering program in Mozambique i returned to Italy and immediately realized that something was wrong, something was missing and the time only confirmed the need to change and live again that feeling of confusion that accompanies living unknown situations. Lisbon immediately seemed a good choice, I already knew Portuguese and after having lived 26 years in the countryside in Italy plus 1 year in a small village in Africa my desire was to experience life in a European city so within a couple of weeks I chose an EVS project, took part in the interview and after a while I was traveling to Lisbon.

This happened 2 months and a half ago (as usual I’m late) and since the first days i immediately fell in love with this city, a really multi-cultural environment, music, art, lot of concerts and events… I practically found everything I was looking for when I applied for the EVS

The theme and the direction of the project in which I participate with Spin is very similar to the one in which I participated in Mozambique, in that case I was in a school, here in a library in Bairro Padre Cruz, a working-class neighbourhood really far from the centre of Lisbon, the main part consist in a lot of cultural activities with children and maintenance of shared computers.

I spent the first month, as expected, trying to find my role in the library, understand the city and struggling with the Lisbon accent but as time pass everything started to stabilize a bit, in July the summer activities with the children began so every Tuesday I have to organize a music-related activity like dance games or how to built rudimental musical instruments, in the meantime, with the staff, we started to plan a free basic digital literacy course for the people living in the bairro which will most likely take place in October, this will give me the opportunity to stay in contact with the community even more!

So, after these two months, I feel very lucky to have an opportunity like this. Hope for the best in the future with new and exciting projects!