O testemunho final da Maria (SPEA)

After a year of pandemic, the whole world stopped. I was at my home looking for new opportunities, a little bit worried about the difficult situation that we were living...

One day I received an e-mail, and everything changed. One year ago, I moved to Faro (Portugal), and I started one of the best experiences I ever had. Connecting with a new country, nature, and people around the world is definitely one of the best ways for a young and adventurous person to gain perspective about life. 
From the beginning, I felt at home. Portugal is a very international country, we worked with people from different parts of the world (Poland, England, France, Australia...).

Over the last year, I have lived in close and peaceful harmony with a lot of different people, developing an intercultural close relationship between our international team.

 It was a very constructive way to develop empathy, teamwork, support each other’s and understand how important cooperation is. Due to my multilingual competencies, I can deeply understand new cultures, social and natural conflicts around the world, I discovered a wide variety of music styles and I make lovely new friends.

Since I was young, I felt admiration for the marine world. On vacation, I used to go to see dolphins and whales in the Strait of Gibraltar with my mum but until this year I didn't have yet the opportunity to take part in a marine conservation team. It is a dream that has come true. I am really motivated to discover how many people are part of environmental initiatives to improve nature around the world. 

I feel very fascinated about how many are connected with marine conservations projects, sustainable fisheries, and responsible consumers. I also learn to check better the origin and the quality of the products that I consume. I could learn how different is everything when you cross frontiers and how natural resources create international conflicts that apparently are not related to us, but our way to consume and live is directly responsible for that. So I also deeply understand how important is to be a responsible consumer. This year I had the opportunity to work on a LIFE conservation project (Life Ilhas Barreira). 

The Life program is a European funding instrument for the environment and climate action. It was very stimulating to get involved with an institution that is part of something bigger focused on nature conservation. I feel very lucky because the attitude of the others members of my “new little family” influence me in a very positive way. 

Facing new situations I discovered how strong and flexible I am and also that my role in the groups is very important because I am a very enthusiastic person and that is contagious. Thanks to my EVS experience, nowadays I feel more confident, very motivated to develop my passion for marine biology, and ready to participate in new conservation projects.

I also improved my African percussion skills and it contributed greatly to my integration into the local community. From the first week, I get in contact with a very active cultural association with a wide variety of artistic and social events that I enjoy a lot and also was a medium through which I learned about different cultures, music, history and had fun.

Also, I was very lucky to find a Bird Ringing Station, close to where I lived, located in a beautiful natural area, that give me the opportunity to disconnect from my daily activities and give me a different perspective about wildlife. I took part in a ringing group of Portuguese experts about wildlife focus on birds and I improve a lot my ringins skills, at the same time that I learn more about the country. Thanks to this lucky experience I could pass my ringing test in my country and I obtained my professional ringing license that is really important for my professional future. It is difficult to express my feelings after a year full of lovely experiences: navigate with dolphins and whales, Sleep on a desert island, monitoring wildlife, nature, lovely people, beautiful sunsets and sunrises, support nature conservation actions, learn

Portuguese.....but, definitely the people that I met were the best of the year.

I am so grateful for this amazing experience.