And suddenly... Summer came

I have been in Slovakia for 6 months. Half of my project. When I look back it seems incredible, because it is like one of those summer camps, which are a week long but it seems like you have lived a lifetime. The experience in the city has been incredible, I have met a lot of new people, from lots of different cities. I have done a lot of new activities, incredible trips and countless adventures and it has been only 6 months.

But it's not all just fun. We must remember that this is also a work and personal experience and contrary to what it seems at home it is sometimes very difficult to separate one from the other.

Because when you arrive exhausted after a day of work and need to relax, the people you live with are still your job. And if you have a problem at home, the person you go to to solve it is your boss and if you are not clear on things it is exhausting. Among the things that I would have liked to know in order to improve my experience ... ask from the beginning for a detail of your functions and what is expected of you. Make sure you understand that everything is formal and that the things that you think that "nothing happens" or "can be understood" for being a volunteer experience may be for you, but not for them in most of the times, occasions.

Make sure to maintain a good relationship with your shipping association, especially when you have any kind of problem and especially if your command of the language is not perfect. Because no matter how hard you try or how well you think you can handle things yourself, you will never be able to express or understand things as well as if you do it in your mother tongue.

And from here on, enjoy, enjoy very much and try to remember that in the end ... when 3 months, 5 years or 20 pass, you will remember what you have lived, what you have sung, the friends you have made and the nights you have danced. . And everything else will be just a passing memory until it's gone.

Foto a text: Mylena García Vargas

Mylena je dobrovoľníčka na projekte Európske zbory solidarity v detskom centre Krtko. Projekt bol podporený z projektu EÚ Európsky zbor solidarity.