O testemunho no. 1 da Miriam (Viver Telheiras)

SUN, LAUGHTER AND FOOD

If I were to pick some words to describe my first two months in Portugal It would be for sure these ones. 

My name is Miriam, I am 23 and I arrived in Lisbon on May 1st but it already seems like I’ve been living here for at least one whole year. 

I had already spent some days in Portugal in 2019 and I remember falling instantly in love with the country and already having the feeling that somehow life would bring me back here. This feeling together with the desire to learn European Portuguese are the main reasons that made me decide to apply for this ESC project. What has been really surprising me from the first day on is that I can almost perfectly remember the streets, the buildings, the miradouros and I can actually orientate myself even without the maps which I think is the reflection of the sense of belonging, familiarity and connection I have with this city. It’s a feeling that I already could sense before leaving Italy when people asked me how I was feeling about this new adventure and I remember answering that to me it was exactly as if I was just coming back to someplace I had already settled in...As if I had been home just for a quick holiday break. Life here reminds me a lot of my homeplace: the sun, the food, the warmth of the amazing people I’ve met plus the spontaneity of Portuguese people randomly starting to talk to me at the bus stop or in the shops and their kindness really fill my heart with joy. In this time of incertitude one of the few certainties I have is that Lisbon is a great place to live such an experience!

I have started working on my project only in these last few weeks and I am already enjoying it sooo much. I am volunteering at “Viver Telheiras” a NGO that organises cultural events and promotes social life and cooperation in the beautiful Telheiras neighbourhood and I am really looking forward to the decrease of Covid restrictions which will allow us to concretize all the projects we are planning - many of which are unfortunately still stuck because of the pandemic.

Last but not least  I would love to spend some words on my stunning flatmates and on all the other incredible volunteers I’ve met so far. It always amazes me to see how such different people coming from so many different backgrounds can get along so well sharing a lot of interests and spending their time together so spontaneously which is by far in my opinion the best expression of the volunteering spirit:

Volunteering connects people, volunteering connects brains, volunteering connects souls.

Até a próxima!