O testemunho final da Leila (SPEM)

Time flies, you have to enjoy every moment, every day.

It’s probably the advice most people give when someone is having an experience abroad, or at least out of their hometown.

I tried to apply this advice every day since I arrived in Portugal. Enjoy every little thing, can be going to work, going out with friends, a coffee under the sunlight, or just on Sunday watching movies in bed.Living abroad taught me this, taking the time to enjoy valuable moments, to take time for myself and the things that matter to me. When people give the advice of “enjoy every day”, maybe they think more about going on weekend trip or going out. And it’s true, it is part of it. But it’s also about making a place that at first, you knew nothing about, home. It’s to make all the little things that were strange or incommun to you before, habits. Lisbon now is home. 

Now, it’s habit to take tremoços with my imperial, to ask for a coffee “cheio”, to see the old men of the neighborhood meeting at the end of the afternoon and seat in plastic chairs just around the corner, to spend most of my time outside, to go listen to jam session at A70 or Arroz Estudio, to eat soup as a starter at every meal, to know some of the songs of Tony Carreira by heart, to not be afraid of the hill or not to be out of breath when you arrive on top, to see trees with flowers all year long or even just to speak Portuguese. It’s also habits to complain about the buses always being late, or about the winter without heating. But there is also things we never get use too, we are always amazed, such as the orange light of the sun that makes all the city golden, the blue sky, the beautiful landscapes, and the amazing people we meet.

My experience was, in the major part, about meeting people. About making myself a new home and a new “everyday” life. I’m so grateful for what I have and what i built here. Indeed, I’m staying to live in Lisbon for a bit longer, I’m not ready to leave this life behind me. With the group of volunteers (at people that we met along the way), we created an amazing group.

It’s like family and I know that I built a friendship that will last forever. We can be separated, not be living in the same country, we will never lose each other. Maybe you create an even stronger relationship because we know that “time is flying”. My experience was also about my work. Even though I arrived in the middle of the pandemic, I had the chance to be in one of the few projects where we were still working “off-line”.

I loved my experience working in SPEM. I was sad and nostalgic to leave this work where I was finally feeling part of the team and part of the project. “Finally”, because, of course, it takes time, especially with the language barriers but also just because it takes time to enter a team and to feel comfortable. I learned a lot with the team, but also with the beneficiaries and I’m truly grateful.

Maybe I’m not a volunteer anymore, but I think I will feel like being one for still a while. It was an amazing experience that changed me and pushed me to achieve personal goals and to grow in a way that I’m happy and proud with. I would recommend to anyway to do this kind of experience, and I will. I would also recommend Lisbon of course, which completely took my heart. I’m writing this lines seated in a café in Paris, I’m there to visit friends and family. But then, I will go back home.