O testemunho No. 2 do Moka

So no one told you life was going to be this way?

[in a somber singalong of the Friends theme song]

As I am approaching my 26 years on this delicate planet, I start to realize more and more how chaotic my approaches, opportunities, and behavior in different situations are. As much as I still find it harder and harder to deal with humans and not make mistakes, I am finding that there is no place for me to perfect my stance on life other than Lisbon and Portugal.

So hi! It’s me again! Coming at you after a rollercoaster start of 2023. Actually, for the most part, life has been fulfilling. Let’s start with the headline: I am no longer a volunteer at SPEAK. Yup, that can happen and has happened. Like any relationship in life, I found out that I am not a good fit for the organization. They have a certain approach to implementing projects that made me and they suffer to the point that it was best for everyone to sever ties. It was not the best thing that could happen to me, but it certainly made me realize more about what I want and what I am trying to avoid. I am very grateful that the folks at Spin have embraced me as a member of their team and that I have been given another chance to continue my life here in Portugal among amazing people and a welcoming environment.

Otherwise, as part of SPEAK’s mission, I have organized a few language exchange meetups in Almada and met very lovely people from different nationalities! And on a personal level, I have made trips to Marrakech, Valencia, and several cities in Italy with friends! Being in Morocco was actually my first time in another Arab/African country and I couldn’t have picked a better place to visit. The only problem was how different the Arabic they spoke there from the one I have learned all my life. Do you know these videos on TikTok where people make fun of how fast Arabs speak and how weird Arabic might sound? That’s Morrocan Arabic right there. The struggle was real. And Italy? I can’t even begin to tell you about the food and history. Molto fantastico!

The next steps in my journey are to work on my project in Lisbon and do more volunteer work. I already have some ideas in mind that I want to work on, so I will leave that as “to be continued…” until my next testimony. See you soon, whether in Portugal or on another page of the Spin blog. 

Moka

O testemunho da Ewa

Olá! :)
My name is Ewa and I would like to share my story about participating in an EVS project Healthy Human, Healthy Environment, which I made in Lisbon.

Firstly I want to say few words about myself – I’m 26 years old and I come from Gdańsk, beautiful seaside town in Poland. Shortly before coming to Lisbon, I graduated in Logistics and Transport Management on Gdynia Maritime University. During my studies I went to Finland for and Erasmus exchange programme. In general, my story with volunteering started in 2011, when I took part in a recruitment process for EURO 2012, that was going to happen also in my city. And after that it went really fast, as I helped as a volunteer organising several events, mostly connected to sports (for example EHF Handball Championships, U-21 Football Championships and with EUSA some events in other European cities – in Zagreb, Madrid and Coimbra. Sports events and its organisation started to become my passion and I tried my best to be involved in it professionally in the future. I also wrote my thesis about Sports events logistics.

Okay, now let’s focus on the project!

Why did I decide to go? I wanted to experience something new and try living in a different country. I love to travel and get to know new cultures and I wanted to check how it is to live in Portugal. I was looking for projects in different countries, but Portugal was my main goal – and it worked out! I can say that the project HHHE came out in the perfect moment for me. I came to Portugal for the first time in 2017 and I fell in love. Following year I visited it another 3 times and I felt like I have to come back again and again. Also, quite important point – my boyfriend is Portuguese (we know each other since 2010, but we met first time in real life and we are together only since July 2018! Quite a crazy story :)).

What was the project about? It’s hard to describe it in one sentence. My host organisation –Viver Telheiras, came to life mostly for integrating the local community of Telheiras. It connects different types of organisations from this neighbourhood, so that can co-work together and for example organise events together. That’s the reason I helped those chosen organisations in their daily work and in organising events that were happening in Telheiras.

My first event was Magusto, that happens every November (around 11 th of November – day of São Martinho). The main point of the event are baked chestnuts, that actually I tried for the first time in my life! And I highly recommend, they’re perfect for cold evenings and winter time During Magusto I worked as a photographer and I tried to save the event in pictures, which besides chestnuts, was full of dance workshops and performances, and stands from the organisations from Telheiras that were selling their products and describing what exactly they’re working on.

As SPIN was the coordinating organisation of many different project in Lisbon – as well mine, they invited all of volunteers working with them for the Christmas party. Each of us had to bring something typical from our countries – For this event I made Pierogi, very typical Polish dish. They disappeared from the table before I was even able to eat one haha.

I was getting more into my work, which in the beginning was quite slow, because organising meetings with all of organisations from Telheiras, to talk about our cooperation and concrete tasks for me, was not so easy, especially around Christmas time. In January I started to work in ReFood – I decided that I will be helping them 3 days in the week, because their types of activities I liked the most.

Three days meant three different groups of people that I was working with, which I loved. Thanks to that I met a lot of people, mostly local ones, in different age, different experience and various lifestyles. It also helped me to open for Portuguese language, because there were some people that didn’t speak English and I was “forced” to use Portuguese :) What was the work about? On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I helped in the evenings to prepare the place for the next day – I was responsible for checking the amounts of Tupperware that came back to us from the families that ReFood helps and filling the missing ones if necessary – so the volunteers from the next day had everything ready for preparing food packages. On Thursday mornings I helped in deliveries of food from the supermarkets (I also used to be a driver sometimes, which was really nice as well!).

On Wednesdays we usually had the reason to celebrate –almost every week there was
someone having birthday (even me in January!), and this photo is showing it the best:

Viver Telheiras was one of the participants of Pilot International project called MiT –

Municipalities in Transition.

The main goal of the project is to integrate civil society and public administrations of neighbourhoods in couple of countries in the World. Viver Telheiras and organisations working on this project, created some ideas, in which implementation I also took part. One of them was the idea of School Gardens, of Associação Educativa para o Desenvolvimento da Criatividade.

I participated in the preparation meeting for schools, in preparation of the ground and control visits, on which we could see the effects of our work.

The other idea was preparation of recyclable instruments by kids from schools of Telherias, organized by Banco Social de Comunicação. The final point of this project was the concert of the kids with real orchestra on Telheiras Festival that took place in May.

In February, we hosted in Telheiras the final meeting of MiT project. I was also involved in it, mainly in the logistical part and preparation of daily activities. Those couple of days were really nice experience, as we were groups from 6 different countries. People were really great, we had a lot of fun, and also workshops and activities were quite intensive.

What besides EVS? Apart of working for Viver Telheiras, I tried to participate in different events that were happening in Lisbon. I attended Portuguese language course, I worked as a volunteer also in different places. In January I joined the team of Lean Academy Portugal, where I was involved in organisation of the event Lean Summit Portugal 2019, that took place in May 2019. In March I was a volunteer on the football match Portugal vs. Serbia  Besides that I took part in various types of workshops, meetings, I joined local ESN, I travelled a bit too. Christmas time I also spent in Portugal, with the family of my boyfriend in a typical Portuguese village – and it was first Christmas away from my home, so it was also special because of that. It was really nice, quite different than typical Polish Christmas, especially when it’s sunny and 20°C outside :D

Do I recommend? Of course! Lisbon and all Portugal is beautiful, I feel there as at home. As I’m from the seaside, the closeness of the ocean was great for me, I felt way better knowing that it was so close to me. Especially in the last period of my EVS, because I moved to the place where I had 15 minutes by walk to the beach  :D For sure I will be coming back to Portugal, maybe even one day I will decide to stay there for longer if I’ll have the possibility.

My project was supposed to last 12 months, but I had to finish it already in August, because I get the chance to work in UEFA in Switzerland, which is all I ever wanted and dreamed about! :)  Hope it’s the beginning of something great that started from being a volunteer!

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 do Simone

How is it possible to resume a year of your life in a few lines? Surely it is something impossible, especially for someone like me who isn’t very good with words. The only thing I can say is that it was a FULL year, full of people who from complete strangers became friends, full of trips, full of experiences and shared stories and why not, full of food too!

I wanted this experience so bad, I remember that living all my life in this small village in Italy made me stuck in this comfort zone that was making me feeling ok but at the same time a bit unsatisfied and after my University graduation the only thing that I had in my mind was finding a way to leave my city and to experience around the world, that’s how I came across Spin and Boutique da Cultura. I took this gap year to reflect on myself and to understand what I really want to do in my life, which direction I have to take and after all this time my conclusion is that I still don’t know, but honestly is fine like this! This EVS taught me that is ok if at the age of 26 years old you are still not sure about your place in the world; good things take time and sometimes you have only to enjoy the road that takes you to them. This year I also experienced that is true that life can be unpredictable: personally I never thought to find myself on a stage acting in portuguese dressed as a green sheep, to hitchike in the middle of the Azores and end up in a rally competition, to eat pasta taken from a big plastic bottle in the darkness of fancy beach in Algarve (long story!) or even to find friends that now I consider for life.

I also never thought that I would end up to live in “Casa Anjos”, at the beginning you could not be superimpressed about this place, you could think is messy and too crowded (9 people and 2 bathrooms, just to be clear) but after some weeks I felt that this crazy flat was my home, because at the end what makes you feel at home are the people and there I met the most important people of my EVS. All of the time that we passed together will be forever a sweet memory in me, in particular when we danced the soundtrack of “High School Musical” in our livingroom, yeah that was great!

During this year I did my volunteer job in Boutique da Cultura and in this final moment of reflection I realize that I was lucky to finish there. This colorful group of people made me feel part of the team from the first moment and they never made me feel uncomfortable, despite the fact that I was speaking very little portuguese. Working in Boutique also allowed me to experiment different types of work, making this experience more dynamic: in fact, this year I found myself selling books and handicrafts in some fairs, I managed a solidary bookshop with my colleagues and I acted in a theatre play impersonating a green talking sheep.

In conclusion I want to give this suggestion to those who are unsure about the choice right now but have the desire to leave everything and get involved in these experience: go! Just do it! I know that often what keeps us at home is fear, the fear of not being ready, the fear of not being enough to be able to do everything alone and plus abroad. What I can say is that often these fears are imaginary and that probably a person will never be completely ready to leave their home for something unknown, but this is the price and at the same time the beauty of the game. Because in the end the unknown can cause anxiety, but if you take the risk it can also be what changes your life forever.

O testimunho do João - EVS in Bulgaria "Deep Roots"

Estou a participar num projeto de voluntariado em Kazanlak na Bulgária. Eu, uma mala e a ideia de que algo precisa de ser mudado no planeta bastou para me afastar mais de 3500 km de casa durante dois meses.

Juntamente com onze voluntários de nove nacionalidades diferentes, pretende-se que organizemos um festival “Eco”, cujo objetivo é abordar os vários problemas que este país enfrenta no que diz respeito à proteção do ambiente. O festival terá um impacto a nível local e queremos informar o máximo de pessoas possível sobre as consequências das suas ações no dia a dia no planeta Terra. Além disso, fazemos também recolhas de lixo semanais, apresentações em escolas e pequenos vídeos informativos.

Kazanlak fica numa área conhecida como vale das rosas, bem no coração da Bulgária. É uma zona rodeada de bonitas colinas cobertas de árvores e com incríveis tempestades de relâmpagos que cortam o céu ao meio seguidos por trovões que fazem tremer a cidade. A natureza aparece aqui no seu estado mais puro e sinto-me privilegiado por poder contemplá-la. No entanto, há demasiado lixo espalhado pelas florestas, caminhos e lagos, os carros são antigos tornando o ar pesado e poluído e os locais não mostram grande interesse em mudar essa situação.

Nós estamos aqui para tentar inverter a situação e gerar cada vez mais interessados na proteção do planeta. Nem sempre é fácil trabalhar e viver com onze pessoas, mas o desafio faz parte do projeto e se eu quisesse que fosse fácil, tinha ficado em casa. Por outro lado, divertimo-nos muito juntos e acho que isso reflete-se no que temos feito.

Para terminar, quero dizer a todos os que planeiam sair da sua zona de conforto, quer seja para ajudar alguém ou para trabalhar no estrangeiro que espero que o façam. É uma experiência que não vão esquecer!

O testimunho da Nerea

Os últimos meses em Portugal foram mesmo intensos. No março tive a oportunidade de visitar a Madeira com 4 pessoas muito especias, the Special Force Team, outros EVS de Espanha, Alemanha e Luxemburgo.

A Madeira é incrível: natureza, cultura, boa comida e bebida. Eu, como biologa que sou, disfrutei imenso dos percursos na natureza, as plantas e animais endémicos e os paisagens. Voltei a ver a outros EVS que conheci no On Arrival e no Mid Term Training e que estão a fazer o seu EVS na Madeira. Foi uma viagem incrível.

No Caldeirão Verde, durante a nossa visita
a ilha de Madeira.

E na Pascoa visitei o norte do país. Voltei para o Gerês, a Parada do Bouro, perto do lugar onde correu o meo On Arrival Tranining. Durante esta viagem visitei Aveiro e Braga, e cumpli a minha promesa de comer uma francesinha uma vez por ano. O norte de Portugal é tão especial e bonito.

Aveiro mais bonite que nunca.

O trabalho na SPEA durante estos últimos meses também foi intenso. No março fui para Peniche ao X Congresso de Ornitologia da SPEA. Participei como parte do staff e também com a apresentação dum pôster sobre linhas eléctricas e aves de rapina noturnas. Foi muito fixe conhecer a muitas pessoas dedicadas a conservação das aves e da natureza, num ambiente distendido. 

Staff da SPEA durante o X Congresso de Ornitologia da SPEA.

No abril fui para a Ria de Aveiro a participar no festival de natureza ObservaRia. No meio da ria, rodeada de zonas humedas e de natureza, realizamos atividades de observação de aves para o público geral e ficamos o nosso stand para atender as pessoas e falar sobre a nossa ONG.

ObservaRia, com staff da SPEA e outras associações. 

Visitas de outras ex voluntarias que já são amigas e despedidas de outras decorreram durante estos meses. E agora é o meu tempo de dizer adeus a Lisboa. 11 meses a vivir na bonita capital lusa estão agora a acabar. Saudade, esta palavra é a que define-me neste momento. Saudade. Mas também estou muito obrigada por tudo e muito agradecida a gente que conheci durante este tempo por ter aparecido.

O meu novo tatuagem para lembrar-me 
sempre desta experiência.

Dou uma olhada no espelho antes de sair da minha casa em Lisboa e vejo a mesma pessoa, ainda que diferente, com as ideias mais claras, que tem certeza do que quer fazer agora.

O testimunho do Nico

12 months, 365 days
Living in Lisbon was a surprise in all aspects, I didn't have many expectations, I just wanted to experience life in a city, keep on making music and possibly participate in a project that was “cultural” related, the EVS experience gave me this and so much more.

I believe I had a rather atypical EVS year, interfacing with the other volunteers, a lot of them traveled a lot, both in Portugal (continental and islands) and around Europe, but since the beginning I choose to try immerse myself as much as i could in the Lisbon music scene, first through the free Jam sessions that allowed me to play with people from all over the world then trying to participate in as many musical projects as possible from a jazz / funk band to the Brazilian carnival bloco to collaborations with electronic artists, all this musical activity has changed a lot the perception of myself as a musician and an artist, this evolution had already begun with the return from Mozambique, but here has found fertile ground, if before I saw music as a hobby now I see it as a possible career, as something that could happen in the future, with this new mentality I decided to enroll in a music production course that ends in March next year extending my stay in this beautiful city, which I now see as a second home!

The experience in the library was very gratifying and formative, the fact of having a lot of free time was an excellent school in terms of initiative and creativity. During the summer there were activities with children that kept me busy both in terms of time and in terms of creativity, then after September in which the Feria Da Luz took place I had no idea how to occupy my time so I had decide to divide my time in 2 parts, a part dedicated to study / personal projects and the other dedicated to the organization of activities/helping in the library, in addition to this I had the opportunity to participate in the various events of the Junta de Freguesia.


Another key part was living in Casa Marvao, located in the historic district of Mouraria, it is more a community than a house, there's people who come and go every month, it has given me the opportunity to live and share with persons from all over the world and get in touch with cultures that i didn't even know they exist, it was (and it is) very tiring from a social perspective sometimes (14 people and a single kitchen is not a simple situation to manage) but always stimulating from a creative standpoint, living here has made me know beautiful people that i still have contact with, we have organized parties, artistic projects, jam sessions in the living room etc etc.
Definitely the part that marked me the most.

Despite having spent a year here, the city continues to surprise me, from discovering breathtaking miradouros to neighborhoods I had never seen, I still love walking, stopping in a bar to drink a cafezinho with pastel de feijao (pastel de nata is way too mainstream)

I could go on talking for hours but ultimately the concept is always one
.

Thanks Lisbon

Thanks EVS

O testemunho da Magda

There are thousand reasons to do EVS, and I do believe all of them are important. Each volunteer starts project with his own story. Questions about why now, why this country, why this project, why EVS are frequently heard questions. You may ask, why I left my dog, family and friends, stable job and cool apartment to start everything from the scratch in a foreign country? I have only one answer: Porque não? 

Now, after few years of dreaming, I'm writing to you from sunny Lisbon, a place where winter is only in your room, a place where you have to go out in order to get warmer. Lisbon - a city of thousands view points, from which every next sunset is more beautiful than the one yesterday. Yes, I could complain about countless amount of hills and stairs that are always on your way. Nothing is going to destroy the feeling of being in the right place in the right time, even the 76 stairs that I have to climb few times per day in order to reach my house. 

I could talk about Lisbon day and night, but EVS in not only about the place. If I should describe my typical day of work I would be in serious trouble, such day does not exist. I moved here 9 months ago and so far, each day was different.

Spin Association - my hosting organization, is a youth organization that promotes youth mobilities, share youth information and also develops their own international projects (both Erasmus+ and others). We also have first social hostel in Lisbon. 

My ESC is quite peculiar, in a nutshell, other volunteers are my work. By saying this I mean coordination of voluntary projects, ad hoc support of all volunteers, organization of social events for volunteers, preparation and development of European projects as well sharing youth information and support the hostel stuff. 

At first I thought beginning was intensive, later on I realized that time flies faster and faster and my days will never be as calm as they were during first few weeks. I arrived to Lisbon on Wednesday afternoon and already next day at 8 am I started to work. Few days later I've already delivered workshops for a group of 30 people from all over the world, became friend with Portuguese bureaucracy, worked in hostel, was a tour guide in the city, a chef, trainer and facilitator. Today, 9 months later I'm not able to name all the things I managed to do here.   

You may wonder how does it feel to meet a former trainer from a project who is now participant of your training? Or maybe you are curious about the feeling you might have, when after you design a game, the biggest pessimist discover his passion for games and becomes a running horse? How is it to know foreign country better than your hometown? Cooking pierogi for bunch of hungry people? Sewing clothes, creating seed bombs, eating million variations of bacalhao and pasteis [ps. there is also pastel de bacalhao]? All this and even more happened during my project. My bucket of memories is full of memorable moments, thanks to which piece of my heart will always be here, in the city of seven hills, on the coast of Tagus river.  

People say EVS is not a year of your life, it is whole life in one year. EVS is kaleidoscope of emotions and impressions. Majority of them cause big smile on your face. By doing voluntary service I wanted to have an adventure that will change my life. I'm not sure if my life has changed, but for sure Lisbon changed me and I admit, not all changes are scary :) My last task of this adventure is to say goodbye - to the project and volunteering, to Spin, to Lisbon and after all to the group of wonderful people, thanks to whom even the worst day could transform into the best day in a blink of an eye. 

Would I do EVS one more time If I had a chance? Absolutely yes! Would I chose Lisbon? OF COURSE! Even though my EVS has finished, I decided to stay here a little bit longer and continue SPINning the world, because WHY NOT?

O testimunho do Damien

As time goes by the ending clap of my EVS is already around the corner, "desculpe "of my ESC. 
9 months of everything. Like an explosion of emotions, feelings, reflection on yourself, some small and big challenges along the way. Well, you understand the concept, it's a bit of everything.

3 "moments" of my journey could give an idea of this experience. Picking up only 3 of those multiple moments was hard because it's like having to choose between coffee and Pastel de Nata. 
Why not both?

Portuguese language. Learning Portuguese was definitely the biggest challenge. Since I arrived I attended to several classes and met so many people. As I was starting from zero I've been through various levels, from beginner to intermediate. Been progressively an active user of the language gave me the possibility to feel myself more integrated and involved at my workplace. By a good day I am even able to hide my strong French accent when I speak Portuguese… but only for 2 minutes, after that it will come back again. I do believe that learning a foreign language is more than communication. To me it's also a stepping-stone to integration, interaction with locals, cultural exchange and probably much more.

Lisbon half-marathon. On March 17 I ran the Lisbon half-marathon and got the unique chance to pass by 25th April Bridge. The bridge is open to pedestrian and runners only for marathon and half-marathon. It was such a great view. Going out of my comfort zone was challenging and at some point uncomfortable, especially because I didn't knew what to expect as It was my 1st time on this distance. I'll always remember how I felt when I crossed the finish line. So happy and proud, I did it man! This experience showed me that if you focus on what you can learn from a new challenge you already did half of the way. In a near future my next challenge will be to run a full marathon.

Picnic. Together with Crescer's team and beneficiaries of the project we did a Picnic in - Jardim da Estrela. This friendly environment full of life and colors is a beautiful garden. The idea was to share this time together out of work routine and to take this opportunity to get to know each other as persons and not only as workers and beneficiaries. In addition to cheerful mood each one of us was free to bring food and drinks. Adults were eating and speaking about their own experience in Portugal while the kids were playing together. After having enough food in our stomach we ended up dancing a traditional Kurdish dance. Let's call this "go with the flow moment". Beeing responsible of organising this activity was exciting and the best feedback I had was to see a smile on everyone's face when they left.

As my journey will finish soon the best I can do is to enjoy as much as I can till the end. Big thank you to Spin, Crescer and all the people I met that made my stay so special. Obrigado para todo Lisboa, vou me lembrar de ti.