O testemunho da Giulia: Growing Together (ESC - Jobs)

Olá!​

​​Já me devem conhecer, este é o meu sexto testemunho no blog da Spin! 

Infelizmente nos primeiros meses deste ano, estivemos em confinamento devido a pandemia e tivemos que adaptar o nosso trabalho tal como fizemos no ano passado. 

Apesar disto, recebemos 10 novos voluntários CES coordenados e acolhidos pela Spin em Fevereiro (Mikk ), Março (Elsa e Henri), Abril (Ana, Albert, Isabel, Mari e Emma) e Maio (Julia e Miriam). 

Dado que não conseguimos recomeçar com a nossa tradicional Ginjinha, decidimos adaptar os nossos encontros com os voluntários CES e organizámos os "Cafés Spin" para e com os nossos voluntários CES. Durante os cafés, pudemos estar juntos e conhecermos melhor através de atividades não formais. 

Com o desconfinamento conseguimos voltar às atividades "normais" e às reuniões presenciais no nosso escritório! 

Também com a ajuda da nossa voluntária Ana, temos organizado, no jardim do Torel, uma aula de Português onde jogamos ao "Europe quiz", jogo de tabuleiro criado pela associação Rosto Solidário. 

Por último, na semana passada  organizámos um Café Spin edição especial - jantar intercultural! Com os nossos voluntários que conseguiram participar partilhamos pratos típicos das nossas culturas e depois do jantar ficámos a dormir no Hostel da Spin que foi reaberto ao público depois de quase dois anos. Foi uma noite especial e fico feliz que os nossos voluntários CES apreciaram também 😊

O testemunho No. 2 do Victorien (SPIN)

 Here’s Victorien from France and this my second testimony. 

“Time is running”, a random quote that takes absolutely all it sense here in Lisbon. It has been already eight months that I arrived from France and I barely can’t realize it. 

First of all, everything has changed when I decided to move to another flat from the one that my hosting organisation proposed me. I had really good time in the first one and met some of my close friends of now on. However, this change helps me to meet new people and new group of friends that I have here. I really created close relation that I was looking for. 

Obviously the second lockdown from mid-January until the end of march had a hug impact on my volunteering experience. First of all, some tasks that gave me SPIN were stopped and globally the tasks were really few, meanwhile my personal life was pretty quiet. To face this difficult situation, I went to the south of Portugal in Algarve, doing a workaway experience and keep on working with SPIN at the same time. It has been the best idea I had since I arrived in Portugal. I loved the experience, the place and the people which are my friends from now on. It really helps me to enjoy fully my experience here in Portugal. The following weeks has been better along the sanitary situation was getting better as well. The volunteer group came closer to each other and we start create friendly relation between all of us. This feeling is definitely the best one and I am so glad to have been able to make it and being part of it. The following months after the lockdown has been amazing, intensely full of life and activities. We were visiting different side of Portugal every week-end and socializing a lot during our days here in Lisbon. 

On the side, I used all this free time to focus on a musical project that starts having some results. I could play for the very first time in a kind of club in Lisbon in may and I have some shows planned for this summer. Its has been a really long process, starting from the scratch and I am fully glad to see all these efforts starting being rewarded along that seeing my skills improving in music. 

Regarding the volunteering experience with my organisation, beside the quiet months of the beginning of 2021, I am super excited to see that the organisation is working well and see my tasks going as well as new tasks coming over the months. It is such a pleasure to see my proposition accepted by the team and that I can work comfortably. The team is adorable and really open minded regarding the conditions of work, which allows me to travel a lot while working. 

To conclude, I can just say that my expectations were so high before to come that makes me a bit afraid to not live it at 100% but somehow, the reality has been forward the expectations and satisfied me in a way I couldn’t imagine before. 

See you soon for the third and last testimony. 

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!

O testemunho No. 3 do Nabil (Bola p’ra Frente)

I blinked my eyes and in an instant, my ESC project had passed ☹.

Now, it’s time to assess my experience. Since my first day, I fell in love with this beautiful city, its atmosphere, food, and people. Regardless of all the given circumstances, I'm quite sure I had a better experience. 

I'd made a couple of observations about my ESC project and I'd say number one is that experience has turbocharged my capacity to develop activities in ways that I had never imagined before.So, you can always make an enormous difference when you put yourself in such a challenging situation.

Number 2, I learned and understand the power of moving people along, listen and helping them. That’s how you end up ultimately forging bonds.

Point number 3, the daily work at Bola p'ra frente has given a fresh impetus to me for continuing working on social and youth issues after the project. For this reason, I decided to keep up my volunteering work for the association.

ESC is a kinda program that I strongly recommend to everyone especially after getting graduated from the university because I highly believe that it is quite important to experience giving to the community much more than receiving.

Coming to Portugal as an ESC volunteer was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my whole life. It has opened the door for a better future for me.

I would like to thank the National Association of Street Soccer (my family), and the SPIN association from the bottom of my heart for this golden opportunity you provided me with.

This is not the end; this is just the beginning.

Nabil DRAOUI

Shukran! 

O testemunho final do Henri (SPIN)

Like many other volunteers, I also fell in love to Lisboa and thinked about staying to live here after the volunteering project. Sadly life had other plans and it's more important to be back in homeland already.

I will surely miss a lot - chill portugese lifestyle.That being late for 10 minutes is fine. That if you run to metro, some stranger will hold a door for you. 40 euro metro card that can used travelling  around as much as we want all the way to Setubal, Arrabida, Sintra and ohh yess of course Praia da Ursa. That sun is mostly always shining and can sunbathe every morning in my rooftop. Just going somewhere, discovering and meet international people every week.

And more and more of course, anyways specially if planning to stay here long term, can do more, live like locals - get a small dog, move around with electric bicycle and find a flat that is nice and warm for winter time - and life is good! 

Also there is one thing I don't miss about living in Lisbon, and that is peacock around my flat. Birds in general sing very nicely and are more quiet in night time but they ohh me they are something else.

I really liked my volunteering time in Spin organisation, because of the good team. Also nice office/hostel area for workplace. And the projects itself, never gets boring because always new kind of events coming up to plan and manage. New volunteers coming in to welcome. Only problem for this year specifically was that would have wanted to do more work/events, what was obviously not possible. But I think that's actually pretty awesome 'problem' to have. 

There were two biggest event that I was able to take part of - on arrival training and road trip to Castelo do Viana. They were really enjoyable, because it gave good feeling of what ESC project are. Not only volunteering in workplace and living with flatmates, but being part of larger group. These events gave opportunity to see and meet a lot of new people. Learn and to activities all day and I have to say eat a lot! 

Now I have done my short and long term ESC opportunity. All I can do now is keep spreading the good words about it that more young people take part of it. 

Like we learned from conference, there are billions of euros invested into that for next years, and I think its all beneficial for everybody! 

Thank you! Love Henri

O testemunho no. 2 da Elisa (Crescer a Cores)

Olaaa, here is Elisa from Italy and here is my second testimony.Indeed, I have already had more than half of​the experience.

I think the longest and most difficult months have now passed. We have faced winter and quarantines and now the Lisbon sun is welcoming us into the liveliest season of the year.I can certainly say that I was sorry not to experience this city in the way it was described to me years ago but in the company of the beautiful people I met, I still had some good experiences.

During the lockdown period the school where I work was closed and this allowed me to have much more free time. I therefore discovered the north of Portugal a little by mainly doing experiences in nature since the possibilities in the city were limited. Long walks were the protagonists of my days.

During this period I also participated in a meeting with other volunteers. It was good there were some good exchanges, we had some good activities. I wasn't happy because I thought an online meeting wouldn't make sense. in the end it worked and I was happy. One day, while walking in the Graça district, I met some of them by chance and this was really a nice surprise. We finally saw each other in the face, we talked and danced together in the square. It was very nice.

When the situation cleared, getting back to work was difficult, returning to schedules and a rigid routine requires commitment and patience. But in the same way, returning to see children grown up and with greater personal autonomy was beautiful and rewarding. I was amazed to see that children of less than one year, after my lasting distance, immediately recognized me on my return. Now the school I work for has asked us to restore a mural they have had for a few years, this will be a great opportunity to break the routine by alternating work a bit.

The last news that I want to tell you is that now I am on the train traveling to Viana Do Castelo, where the first meeting with other volunteers will be held!

Next time I'll tell you how it went!

See you soon. Elisa.

O testemunho No. 3 da Veronica (Junta de Fregusia do Lumiar)

Hey folks! Well.. What can I say... my volunteering is finished. No way. So sad.

If I could rewind everything, I would love to live this amazing experience one more time. 

I feel so grateful and happy about my ESC year. I haven’t been really lucky with the timing: two weeks after I arrived, the covid pandemic started. But anyway, despite this situation, I feel that I am one of those few people who can say that the year 2020 has been amazing. I have met extraordinary people, very good friends with whom I have lived my everyday life in the city, the travels and many adventures in Portugal. 

This year has run so fast. I swear, it seems yesterday when I arrived at the airport and Tavi picked me up and bring me to Casa Bernardim where Ana, gave me a super warm welcome in the house preparing a party for the new volunteers. I remember that could barely have an English conversation, but the environment and the people were so great, that after some time and a bit of patience I managed to break the language barrier. 

I’m so glad of having had this experience, it was something that I really wanted to do and, since the first day, I understood that it was the right choice. If I look at myself, I realize some of my flaws and some good qualities that before I didn’t know I had. I realised that I don’t like when people feel sorry for themselves, whine, look for excuses, blame others and never do any change. You cannot expect different life, mood, emotions, if you are not willing to change anything within yourself.

In these months I had the chance to get to know many different people, with different backgrounds and stories. For me it’s really surprising to see how so different kind of people can have so many things in common. This stimulating environment leaded me to approach many aspects of life from another point of view and gave me the chance to share and compare me and people from different cultures. I really have to thank all the people that I have met, especially some friends that I’m not afraid to call Family here in Lisbon. 

Thanks also to my colleague of Quinta dos Frades, that welcomed me super well. I had a great time with them. I jus would have liked to spend more time with them and learn more about their beautiful job.  Unfortunately this pandemic didn’t help. Anyway, I’m very glad for the time spent with them, because thanks to it I re-discovered the beauty of being so alive, simple, creative, and so reach of imagination like only kids can be. And it could sound like a cliché, but I think that this is the best way of living the life.

And finally, thank you Lisbon, for all the colors, for the greenness of your parks in the city centre, for all the miradouros, where I enjoyed almost 365 sunsets. Thank you for the super bock (or maybe not?), for the music in the street, for the art in every corner around the streets, for the people full of life despite this difficult and strange global moment. 

Last but not the least, thanks to myself, that I finally took courage to leave everything and come here to live such a great experience.

I still cannot figure which path I will take next, but one thing I know for sure.. This experience hasn’t been just a bracket in my life. I really would like to live other experiences abroad like this one. 

My final comment for all the ones that are thinking about doing this experience..? 

Hey you! Just do an ESC. Leave your hometown, your family and your friends and go abroad. Better if Lisbon. One of the best things about being part of the European Union, is having the possibility to participate to an Erasmus+ project, whatever it is. 

I’m convinced that everybody should take advantage of it and living this experience, at least once in life. Why? 

Because life is so short and the world is so big, and you have already spent 25 years living in the same place. Aren’t you tired? 

Just go!!