O testemunho final da Melissa (JFC - Culture)

 SPIN – last testimony.

For the past few weeks and days, I have been stubbornly postponing writing this last testimony of mine. I did not want to write it because that would mean that I would have to admit to myself, that my time as a volunteer is coming to an end. A lot has been happening, and if I would need to summarise everything, the first word that comes to my mind is „home“. I still feel a bit overwhelmed trying to put a full stop behind this experience and wrapping it all up. I would not know where to begin and where to stop but let’s try! 

During the past months and weeks, covid restrictions have been mostly lifted, and not only has the library become more alive but also our nights on the still-warm streets of Lisbon. For me, it was amazing to finally welcome children into the library and to see my colleagues cheer for me because they were super happy for me too. We also went on a walking tour through the Bairro with school kids, walking past all the amazing street art and graffiti of our beloved neighbourhood. On the last working day, I went to have a shared dinner with my colleagues, who definitely have become more than just colleagues. I am super happy about their support, because all they ever wanted, was for me to have a good time. I remember, that when I was a bit sick, they brought soup for me.

I am happy to say that, even though I finished work, I still have some days left in this most beautiful city. I will spend them with all of my friends, fresh Superbock, and vegan pastel de nata. Looking back at the past year, makes me feel grateful beyond expression. I am grateful for all the people I have met, especially for those, that I will take with me in my heart. I am grateful for the miradouros, for the food and the drinks. I am grateful for an experience, that changed me for the better, that made me consider different perspectives and learn more about myself by learning about others. 

I will carry the Spin spirit with me wherever I go and I will for sure never forget about the warm-hearted people, which I will without a doubt, come to visit soon.

O testemunho final do Mikk (SPEAK)

 Everything has to end at some point. Including this voluntary service from February-September 2021. It has been nice 8 months here and
I would like to return at some point, but this would be mostly because of the friends. At this moment, I have many more places that I would like to visit before I come back to Portugal.

A big big respect for all the organizations and my friends, tutors, and mentor. Without these people, the experience would not have been amazing, but in the end, what matters in life is the people. This is something that you can’t buy or measure in money, these people are giving you memories, experiences, and much more.

Also, the party scene in Lisbon is something that I have fallen in love with. People playing guitar on the miradouros (aka viewpoints) while you are enjoying a refreshing drink, is amazing. They are having a chill vibe and everyone is really calm and enjoying a good time. Also, I love the way that people are organizing common events like dinners together and everyone brings their national food. It is really nice and tasty.

Sightseeing has been really great too. I started my experience by just watching the architecture and layout of the houses, but now I have realized that there is more than that. There are numerous places to visit like Belem, Oriente, Telheiras, Entrecampos, Sintra, Palmela, Viana do Castelo and much more coming on my last trip before I leave.

I can’t lie – I have had thoughts of my future elsewhere for the past 2 months now. The First 6 months were good here and all you can do is to enjoy what Portugal has to offer, but now I am thinking of a way to return home and maybe even look further to Taiwan, Asia that is completely on the other side of the world. At some point, I got even a job offer here in Portugal for my logistics specialty. It looked really interesting until I heard about the salary. And the salary was lower than the Estonian average salary at the same post by a big margin. Therefore I realized that it is very difficult to build the future here especially when the rent costs for 1 room are that high. In Estonia one apartment costs the same amount and that is also a big big difference.

The food is one thing that has also made me homesick: can’t wait until I can eat sült, good chips, and sashlik again. Also, there are nice drinks like kvass and beer there. I am not missing my family yet, but I do miss my cute cat. My family will visit me on the last days here anyways and then we will all go back to Estonia together.

O testemunho No. 1 da Teele (SPIN)

 Olá! 

Today is my 10th day in Lisbon. I’m still in the process of settling in, but everything has been going well so far. All the other volunteers I’ve met have all been super nice and I’m already quite sure the next nine months are going to be amazing.

Actually, I applied to this project later than the deadline, but fortunately, the process of choosing volunteers was still ongoing. I had an interview with Giulia and after some days I got a letter saying I was picked and had to be in Lisbon on October 1st, which gave me exactly three weeks to prepare. The preparations went surprisingly stress-free. I had been 110% mentally ready to go anyway, so no goodbye tears were shed, no second thoughts had, because there was only room for excitement.

On the day of arrival, another SPIN volunteer Victorien picked me up from the airport. I chose to go to my new apartment by public transport. Not so wise decision after all, since my luggage weighed 22 kg and there were numerous stairs on the way, but Victorien kindly helped me carry the luggage up and down. My apartment is situated on top of a hill and the “final boss” was the staircase in front of my apartment. I call it The Stairs From Hell and I still struggle to go up the 77 steps daily.

The apartment itself is very Portuguese, it is old but has its charm. For the first time in my life, my room has a balcony and a double bed and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Currently, I have 3 flatmates (2 recently moved out), a fellow volunteer from Spain, a guy from Brazil, and a guy from Spain. I did have some uncertainties about how a girl from northern Europe would fit in with a bunch of southern folks, but so far it has been really chill. I especially love how there is a lot of music and singing in this apartment.

So what have I been up to these past 10 days? Well, just getting familiar with my

neighborhood and its shops, learning how to get around on foot and using public transport. I’ve also gone to a few bars with other volunteers, had a walk on the promenade along the river, took a train to the Cascais beach, drank a beer at a scenic viewpoint, and wandered around the steep and narrow streets of Alfama. Some days ago I started self-studying Portuguese, but I’m still confused about the pronunciation, especially the nasal sounds.

A few days ago, I, another volunteer from Estonia, and my flatmate from Spain had our Welcome Day at SPIN’s office, which included a lot of practical information, a delicious three-course lunch (what? wow!), a game around the lovely Bairro Padre Cruz neighborhood, and talking about our goals, fears, etc. Giulia has been the nicest tutor ever, so I feel like I am in good hands. 

Overall I really like the diversity and abundant culture here in Lisbon. It seems very colorful and international, full of cool young people. Kind of makes you feel that you can also be

whoever/however you want to be. I’ve been told that it’s easy to get to know new people here, so that is certainly one of the many things I’m looking forward to. 

O testemunho No. 1 da Annamaria (SPIN)

I’ve been in Lisbon for 13 days and it has been wonderful.

  When I arrived in Lisbon and was in the taxi I was nervous because I was gonna meet my new flatmates and didn’t know what to expect but when I arrived at the apartment and saw a sign at the door that said ‘’Welcome Annamaria’’ and balloons on the balcony, I knew that we are gonna get along just fine. Everyone in my apartment is so nice, the first thing we did was a little tea party to get to know each other.

These past few days I have been exploring the city and meeting new people. I have to say that the architecture is so different from Estonia, especially for me because I'm from a small town where about 1050 people live and now living in a BIG city is a whole new experience.  One of the things I have noticed is that in Estonia we don't have these little balconies and tiles for our walls. Sidewalks are made of small square rocks, in Estonia, the sidewalks are made of asphalt. The biggest culture shock that I had was on the first day when I learned that people smoke inside. In Estonia, it’s prohibited to smoke inside if it isn’t a smoking room in clubs or bars. Here in Portugal there are so many mountains but in Estonia, we have small hills and one ‘’big’’ mountain, that isn’t really a mountain, it is called Suur Munamägi. So walking around the city was already pretty hard because of the hills. On my second day when I was walking around and saw what type of a hill I had to walk up to, my first thought was that I’m gonna get super strong legs thanks to Lisbon. 

Also, the people I have met are so friendly. Like the other day, some people came to our flat and we all just talked about how life was going and how life is in everyone's countries.

  On the 6th of October, I had my first meeting at the Spins office where I, Teele, and Amundelia were. We got so much information about our organization and what we need to do and talked about our expectations, fears, and how to get over them. We had this amazing lunch that other volunteers had made for us. We ate tomato soup with mozzarella, rice with vegetables and ice cream. After lunch, we had to walk around this beautiful neighborhood a bit to answer some questions and take pictures on an app. One of the questions led us to a viewpoint that was breathtaking.

O testemunho no. 2 da Mikk (SPEAK)

I have been in Portugal for 7 months now and I have been enjoying the different lifestyle experience very much. Here is different culture: people are more socialising, work-culture is more freestyle and there is a lot of beating around the bush, but having fun at the same time situations. For example I have seen that everybody is out at the daytime not doing work and enjoying their coffee. They do the same in the morning and always have these coffee breaks outside the office in the sun. That is cool, but at the same time I am always wondering are they not hungry. They start morning with coffee and sometimes eat melons and apples in the lunch time. I would starve if I was like this. :D

But as for socializing aspect, I am really impressed! People are really friendly, helpful, supportive and also it is much easier to make friends out of nowhere. That is because the culture is international. When you are in a centre, yes sure some can argue that it was so much better 10 years ago when it was mostly Portuguese people in Bairro-Alto and so on, but now it is even better in my opinion. If the culture has only local people, then it will be difficult to make connections due to the language barrier. International environment brings more friends, happiness and cause to stay so much more than only local people. As for Portuguese people I only have one good friend so far and that is my mentor. It is difficult to approach them, but when you do, the results are usually really nice. Same as Estonians hahah. Much sun helps a lot too, but sometimes there is even too much of it. Would personally like some rain sometimes.

As for the language, I can understand the basics now, but not being able to understand many conversations and I am not fluent in the language. I have no problem to order anything on the restaurant and that is the most important.

I am going to leave after 8 months of my project however, because the future is not that good in here. It is almost impossible to have any savings with this high prices for rentals and low salaries. There are more reasons why I am leaving, but from what I have seen so far, it is great place to retire, but you would have to spend a lot of your time when you are young that otherwise can be put under your career. And that is one downside that I felt through my experience. 

O testemunho final da Perrine (Crescer a Cores)

 Oi gente,

Time for me to say goodbye (for now) to this little piece of paradise called Lisbon.

It's been 10 months that I've been living in the beautfiul city of lisbon and now because of my studies, unfortunately, I will have to leave LX a little earlier than expected. 10 months of making new friends, building relationships, discovering portugal, learning portuguese, learning about portuguese culture, trying new food and drinks, trying new sports, falling in love and just living life.

Since my first days I fell in love with this city and its atmosphere. Lisbon gave me experience, lisbon made me grow, lisbon made me believe in my dreams, lisbon helped me realise what I want in life, lisbon makes me happy.

I am so happy and grateful that I made the decision to move to lisbon in fall of 2020, I couldn't be happier about my ESC experience and everything that came with it.

I must say that it also wasn't just all good experiences, since my work did not fullfill me personally and due to other reasons sometimes but all in all I had an amazing time and I would recommend to everyone to go abroad and take this opportunity that is given to us ! Working as a volunteer is a very special experience and can be extremly challenging or also be the most chilled thing you ever did in your life, you just have to try. I already did two voluntary services and it won't be the last one. Being abroad volunteering, meeting new people from all over the world with different cultures different life experiences and views on life is one of my favourite things ever. You feel part of a community that wants to do good, to give back in some way and just tries to give joy. I won't forget all the support, advice, strength we all shared in good as in hard times.

Thank you European Solidarity Corps for making these experiences possible, thank you to my collegues at Crescer a Cores who open heartly welcomed me and gave me the chance to discover this workfield. Thank you to all the lovely people I met allong my way. Thank you for strangers becoming friends, for friends becoming family.

Beijos. Perrine

O testemunho final da Emma (Associação Salvador)

During these months in the European Solidarity Corps, I learned a lot. Lisbon was a city that cradled me, made me believe in my dreams and made me love it. Someone told me that Lisbon is special: it is a little bit mother and a little bit lover. I thought that this is really how it is.

Being part of the European Solidarity Corps is a very complex experience. It means living in a different city, getting to know many volunteers from all over the world, getting involved in your chosen project.
I spent these months with the Salvador Association, in the areas of accessibility and finding donors for the association. Our main mission was the social inclusion of tetraplegic and praplegic people.

Unfortunately, during these months I did not have much personal contact with friends and workers of the association, because the covid and the needs of the association at this time did not allow it. In my case it was perhaps a somewhat limited experience, but I certainly learned a lot. As I was saying, being part of the European solidarity corps is a complex experience and goes beyond the chosen project: in my case, getting to know many volunteers and supporting each other was fundamental.
It made me feel part of a wonderful and supported community, made me believe in my dreams and definitely become a more adult person and citizen of the world. I will never forget all the wonderful moments I spent in Lisbon with the other Spin volunteers, the mutual support we gave each other, the advice, the strength.

Unfortunately, I had to end my project early for health reasons, deciding to return to Italy where I would have had an operation with a rather long and unforeseen waiting time.

I hope I have left my mark in the hearts of all the people I have met and shared with, as they have done with me!