O testemunho da Alina

“I want my every  day to be new and different from the previous one, so that I discover something new every day, and I want to travel every day”. I thought in my room in my country when I accidentally saw this EVS project in Lisbon. And now, when I want to share my story and feelings about my EVS life and do the opposite look,  I am amazed that everything was exactly the same as I wanted. Now I can’t even believe that the end has come of my EVS and I also needs to pack.

My EVS was for one year, but time spilled so fast that I did not even have time to look back. It seems everyone knows this feeling, doesn’t it? It seems, like it was yesterday, when everything was interesting, new, unusual for me. It has been a year of my life in Portugal, but until now almost everything here is still interesting and new for me, there are still a lot of places that I want visit and have not visited yet.

 They say that “your homee is where you were born”. But why then every time when  I was coming back   from another trip to Lisbon, I was telling  me that “ I’m at home again” and I felt that I was at home. Why, right now, when I am writing about this, I feel sad and want to cry. Why, since  my  first days in Lisbon, I felt me at home. Probably the whole world  is our home and we can feel ourselves at home espechially  in the places, where we are comfortable, where we feel the energy of the home and the heart feels  good. Lisbon became my second home, and sometimes I feel  it is  my first home.

The smell of Portuguese coffee and pastel de nata’s, the smell of the ocean, with which I became very close, the Miradouro’s, who I so passionately sought to clymb from my first days in Lisbon and still there are attractive for me.

Probably all EVS volunnteers write at the end of their project,  that it changed their life. But the truth is that my EVS also changed my life. More precisely, this experience changed a lot in me, in my views on life, my principles, lifestyle, language barriers, style of communication with people. Thanks to EVS, to my coordinating organization and of course to my Hosting  organization,  where I worked for one year, I learned a lot and opened myself  in a new way, brought new challenges in the professional sphere and in the personal sphere as well, made me learn a lot about myself and to work on myself.

There isn’t even enough pages to count how many things my IVS has given me, how many I have learned, what ideas and new plans for life this amazing project has given me.

I was going to work in the same field where I worked before my EVS: with children with special needs (I have 7 years of experience). It seemed that there was probably nothing more to learn about this sphere, but it only seemed so. And now, having summed up, I realized how many things I discovered for myself in a professional  way, how many new skills I received and managed to realize myself in many projects. During my EVS, I was able to do:

– establish contact with the boy with Autism, overcome language, cultural barriers, get closer to him, to teach him new things and make a Art  project: Personal exhibition at the school where we worked together. This was my personal Art Theraphy project, according which I was working in that school , especially with this boy who has a talent for drawing. The project was very successful and for the school, and for the boy and his family, and for me too.

– In my Coordinating  organization, I organized Yoga Classes with volunteers and with everyone who was interested in the practice of Yoga. I had another interesting and cool experience, that gave me new skills.

-I had an interesting experience of traveling. It was and remains the most magical, emotional, amazing experience in all my life, full of meetings with amazing beautiful and good people, with whom I managed to make friends, full of crazy adventures, that taught me a lot, and of course full of a lot of new knowledge  in general , about new, interesting places. I can say I traveled a lot during my EVS and which is most important  I enjoyed it (started of discovering Latin America` Brazil and finishing travelling  inside of the country` in Portugal).

-in cultural and personal terms, in a new way  I opened myself up. I  acquired a lot of new habits and hobbies of life, such as surfing, Capoeira, drinking Portuguese coffee and making typical sweets,  discovering new insanely beautiful beaches in Portugal. I also learned to communicate with people from different countries, with different outlooks on life, with a different culture, I have made a lot of good and interesting friends.

I am grateful to everyone who was in my life during the period of my 1 year life in the amazing beautiful and magical city of Lisbon. This was the best year of my life, which is probably never can be forgotten. And I’m not  saying goodbye to  Lisbon, I would like to say see you very soon my pretty and lovely city. I’m going back with little sadness, but full of a lot of important “personal  luggage”,  with pleasant emotions.

I’m saying good buy also all the EVS people, who were near me here and with me and who gave me something or a lot of things. I’m very thankfull all of them: take care of the Lisbon and enjoy your EVS, beijinhos)).

O testemunho da Alina

For the first time, when I saw a TV program about Portugal, I was looking at the screen for 2 hours and on that very day I felt in love with that country, particularly the Lisbon: Red Houses, the narrow streets of the streets, emotional, good and very beautiful Portuguese, the locals, enjoyed indulge in Pastel de Nata, Porto wine, Bacalhau, admiring the oldest and the visit card of Portugal of Azulejo, with wonderful warm climate, amazing beautiful beaches, 25th April Bridge through the River Teju, which  became a necessary for me to see it every day.

Each of us has ideal initiatives about a beautiful and unique country or city where you want to live and which is considered to be the most beautiful. Portugal, particularly, Lisbon, is the ideal  city for me, which I intended to visit. And when I turned 29 years old, after being informed  about EVS, and respecting,  sharing the idea of a volunteer program, I decided to find a program in a European country (mainly focused on Spain, Poland and Switzerland), and I was looking for new projects every day. You would ask me why you did not look  a project exactly in Portugal? Each time I sent a motivating letter to a country project, I always imagined that I walked through the narrow streets of Lisbon, feel the smell of river Teju, but I did not think it was possible to find a EVS project in Lisbon, to find the program, where Armenia would be included in the list of countries, that in spite of the distance, they would still choose a participant from Armenia. 

Once again, when I was searching the programs in the Facebook group, I accidentally found myself the EVS program in Lisbon, which was related to the work with children with special needs. That moment was very much like to the situation when a person who has been hungry or thirsty for a long time finally finds food and water, or when a long-awaited person finally meets his object of love :). Without delay, I opened the program. Everything was in line with the nature, conditions, the country, the city. I told myself: "Alina, you know, you  have already worked and still works with children with special needs. You have 8 years of work experience with children with different mental disorders; you dreamed of living in Lisbon, you should go". Inspired by my breath, I look at the list of countries looking for Armenia, where there was no such thing. But my desire to participate in the project was so great, so immediately I saw me in this project in Lisbon that even did not stop me, and without losing time, I wrote my motivation letter for Lisbon project. After sending my coordinates, I was sure that they would accept me, but I was not sure they would be express wiliness to give so much money to the Armenian participant, as in the case of faraway countries, the costs are grown and not all EVS promoters are ready to cover the costs. But how great was my joy and surprise, when I received a nice letter from all the contestants that I had chosen and they are ready to caver all the travel expenses. I'm going to Portugal.

And here I am here, in Lisbon, for 1.5 months, I've been working for 1.5 months  in Externato Flor do Campo , with children with different mental disorders, (Rett Syndrome, Autism, etc). I've been hearing Portuguese for 1.5 months and trying to understand and talk, which is not so easy, but it is necessary,  I have been trying to expose Portugal, Lisbon, culture and traditions, national cuisine for over 1.5 months and more so felt in love with this country and I appreciate this opportunity, which has been granted to me.

On the last day in my country, my friends arranged a goodbye party for me and many of them asked me if I could go out of my comfort zone,  can I share the room with someone else?. I should live with a different countries' and cultures' representatives, change a lot of things in myself, learn a new language, adapt to the new collective and their working methods and approaches and, finally, leave my work, children with whom I have worked for a long time and have achieved some results and managed to communicate with them. I left also my family members and friends. But since I have started to love going out of the comfort zone, I have started to like and have been not afraid of drastic changes, I have started to love developing and moving, learning new languages, getting new impressions and acquaintances, learning new techniques and approaches in professional issues, so moving to another country and working my decision was clear and justified. And now not only I regret, but also every second I enjoy Lisbon and this opportunity, every second I am getting sure, that I have made the right decision.

It was an interesting discovery for me: my workplace, the workshop itself. Almost all my colleagues  speak only Portuguese, which is very good for me to learn language very fast. The children with different special needs are very nice and I have already communicated with them. From the point of view of work, it is a little difficult for me to show and demonstrate my full potential of work and professionalism, which is related to neither   to  not knowing the language, nor knowing the children yet, and nor clear about what I have to do. But every day, I learn something new there, both colleagues and children, and me as well, work every day to be useful for them in my work and to give them something new. Hopefully, I'll success. I already work with children, they already trust me and love me. I think it's a great proof that I have made the right decision and I'm in the right place.

A few days ago, when once again on the way to home from work, I explained to some tourists how to go to their destination, how to be oriented in Lisbon, what to see and where to go in the subway,  and I am already able to shop in Portuguese and get a little  what they told me,  I understood, that I'm not a tourist in Portugal anymore and that I felt me at home in Lisbon.

In Lisbon, I like almost everything: endless stairs to my home, endlessly rising and descending, and getting tired of it at the end of the day, and the idea that you do not need to go to the gym in Lisbon, to be in a good sport conditions, you can walk in the city and it's enough. I like the narrow streets, where so far amazed how the people drive cars and motorcycles, the aroma of coffee that comes from every step, which is very pleasant and tasty, Pastel de Nata and the other sweets that you can see in every cafe and store, and which are so fond of locals  and now for me too. The city's trolleys, the River Teju, where I like to spend my evenings, looking at the beautiful bridge and enjoying the evening street concerts, the Portuguese language, which is hard though, but very nice for me, castles and buildings, museums and libraries, which have a rich and old history... 

In a short,  I'm in love with Lisbon and I am open and ready to the new discoveries.