My name is Guillaume Libralesso and I am from France. I grew up in Grenoble and lived in Montpellier, the best city ever in France, comparable to Alicante in Spain. My EVS started in the beginning of July, it was a really peaceful time and I did some workshops. School started in September and I will finish at the end of April.

Here we are in a special school for autistic children (Centrum Autyzmu i Całościowych Zaburzeń Rozwojowych w Krakowie) and I learn a lot because I never worked with autistic children before.I studied about autism but I was not really an expert. You can say that every student is different, you can say that they all have an autistic syndrom but actually it is impossible to put them in cases. I tried that because for me there were some cases to put children but in reality you cannot do so.

My advice for new volunteers In Krakow: Try to enjoy a lot. It all depends on you and you have to find your own role. You have to try a lot and don`t be scared. Try to find your way and try to communicate with people.

K: What would you never write a song about?

G: Sports!

K: If you had to write a song about sports, what would be the 1st line of it?

G: Why? Why so much suffering?

K: Are Polish people strange?

G: For me sometimes yea. Sometimes they look so sad.

K: What surprises you most about Poland?

G: The difference to my country. It`s a diffence of people, a difference of history. Sometimes it`s difficult because we (our countries politics) are different about immigration, integration, multiculturalism. Also about how I can speak with people, about polite distance. I mean I need to learn to not shock Polish people, for example when I`m singing in a bus I can the the faces of the people. Then I say “oh, I`m not in a right way“.
The kids surprise me a lot, me coming to the Center of Autism and this kid speaking better English and French than myself. Comparing to France we cannot speak any languages.

K: Tell me three emotions to describe your work as a volunteer?

G: I feel I`m very useful. I can feel the love when I`m with the kids. It`s a lot working with behavior therapy and so on and I try to be passionate. I try to find my way. I try to give passions and love to kids. Sometimes I feel very useful, for example last lesson with Ania (name changed) because we can speak with people and can improve their language skills by talking English or French. Sometimes however, I`m just waiting for the end of the lesson and being useless.

What feelings I feel? It`s a lot of feelings, sometimes my work is very important, exciting, also boring. I feel love. One kid is very touching me, because he can`t speak and has problems and I try to help him.
They are different but in the same time they can give a lot of things to normal people.

K: What`s your favourite food?

G: It is Japanese food.

K: What`s your artist name?

G: I don`t have. When I was young my nickname was Marcel but today I`m just Guillaume and I try to be Guillaume.

K: What do you plan to do after your EVS?

G: I never plan nothing! I want to stay until September in Poland, maybe find a job just to have money to stay.

K: Dziekuje bardzo for the interview!

G: Thanky you too!

interviewer:

Katharina Becker

interviewee:

Guillaume Libralesso
volunteer in EVS project “INTERvolunteering”

The European Voluntary Service project “INTERvolunteering” is organised within the framework of Erasmus+ and financed by European Commission.