O testemunho da Jeasmine No. 1 (SPEA)

Hi 😊

I am Jeasmine from France and I started my volunteering with SPEA (Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo 

das Aves) in Lisbon at the beginning of march.  Everything went super fast because I knew I was coming only five days before flying to Portugal, and I was super exited of this radical lifestyle change and above all incredibly happy to return to Portugal, to Lisbon! 

The first week I have met my flatmates, they were very nice, and they explained me everything I needed to know about the house. I am sharing the room with another volunteer, Veronica from Italy, and even though it is a particular experiment sharing a room for a long time and that I was a little bit scared about “what if we don’t get along AT ALL ??”, I am super happy that’s her because we get along wonderfully and I am sure that we are going to be very good friends ! We had the time to know each other better and had already really good moments together!

 Also this first week, we went to the Miradouro Santa Catarina, that has an amazing view on the river, the bridge 25 de Abril and the Cristo Rei, and there I met some other volunteers. We also went to the beach, that is pretty close to the city center and really easy to access! <3 We had our welcoming day where we get to know some other volunteers more.

The next week was the beginning for me with SPEA, I was sooo exited!! On the first day I get to know all the team and the afternoon I went to Moinho do Sado to count shorebirds. And back to the office I was told that I had to do 14 days of quarantine before going back to the office but finally the general quarantine and state of emergency started and I decided to go back to France has we didn’t knew how long it was going to last, and I was doing telecommuting so it was okay. I spent April, May and June in France, working from home with SPEA. We also had an online on-arrival training in April. It was very cool, we met other volunteers, had fun and it made us felt less alone. 😊

By June I was a little frustrated and sad not being in Portugal living at 100% the volunteering life experiment, but now that I am back I am being more optimistic and  I can’t wait to do my best and enjoy the adventure !