{"id":1473,"date":"2019-03-25T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T13:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ib-polska.pl\/youth\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2021-04-08T16:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T14:07:49","slug":"izabela-on-her-evs-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ib-polska.pl\/youth\/meet-volunteers\/izabela-on-her-evs-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Izabela on her EVS in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Merhaba! I\u2019m Izabela, 23 years old and I spent two months in Ankara, Turkey doing my EVS project. Was it worth it? Am I recommending EVS experience? You\u2019re about to find out.<\/p>\n

When anybody asks me, why Turkey, I always answer that it wasn\u2019t like I chose Turkey but Turkey chose me. I\u2019m during my gap year, so as it is commonly assumed it\u2019s time for travelling. I hadn\u2019t any specific country I want to visit, nor things I want to do. The only thing I was aware of was my will to travel abroad, no matter where. I found out about EVS projects by accident and applied for some random ones. My project, Meeting of Generations hosted by System & Generation was first to answer my application, so I was like – why not? Ok, I\u2019m kidding, decision was the hardest part of my experience. I talked a lot with my friends, family, hosting and sending organisation. I was afraid of losing my job, taking a break of my volunteering in Poland and most of all that I\u2019m doing it due to social pressure, not because I want it. Words aren\u2019t enough to express how much support and kindness I got; people understood my fears and at the same time enabled my journey. So I took my stuff and flew to Turkey.<\/p>\n

My project focused mostly on disabled people but it was a mix of everything. In addition to this activity, me and other volunteers were teaching English in one school, taking part in meetings with politics, hosting language exchange, working in the office and many many more one-shot actions.<\/p>\n

What I really want to share with you is my experience of disabled people\u2019s attitude, which I was happy to came across especially in the cafeteria I was working. Cafe Down is small cafeteria in the centre of Ankara. Almost all of staff has mental disabilities, not to mention nobody speaks English there so communication was a challenge. Many times we didn\u2019t understand what they want us to do and they didn\u2019t understand what we need. However, despite that everyone were so thrilled that we\u2019re there. We weren\u2019t able to give them much, just a little help in cleaning dishes or making tea, we couldn\u2019t give them even a small talk but that didn\u2019t matter. All we could give and all they needed was our time. Time spent together meant everything. How wonderful philosophy; everyone, no matter of age, religion, country, education is able to give and receive time and that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n

Disabled people taught me that I don\u2019t need anything more from people that are willing to see me. It\u2019s like disability opens their eyes for this simple truth that I can\u2019t see. That\u2019s of course not everything I learned during my EVS. But what I find important is the fact that not everything I learned was so beautiful as the lesson above. I found out that what I considered my strength isn\u2019t this strong as I thought. I found out about my new flaws. Everyone before my EVS told me that it would be the greatest experience in my entire life. Everyone said that travelling is so amazing. I blindly believed in all this stuff without any thought and that was my bad. During the journey bad things happened too. And it wasn\u2019t like excitement all the time, I faced everyday\u2019s life and even boredom there. It was my first real journey abroad and the first time I really felt like foreign somewhere, so it was a surprise to find out that there\u2019s something beyond all this great adventures that people always talking about when giving you speech about their travels.<\/p>\n

Okay, I\u2019ve got probably little too deep into this but I really hope that my experience and words will be helpful for someone who\u2019s not sure whether to make EVS or not. For me it was worth it, even if I learned there that I did it because of social pressure and travelling is not for me. Now I know that everyone is different and I don\u2019t have to feel about something the same way most people feel. It\u2019s a surprise that it took all of this for me to finally get to know that. Take care and see you somewhere somehow!<\/p>\n

Text and pictures by Izabela<\/em><\/p>\n

The project was organised within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps and financed by European Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t