Ciao a tutti,

I know, I know, long time no see! What can I say, I’ve been busy. Since May I started having holidays for a few days each month to discover Italy. 

So, in May my first adventure was with my beautiful girls, Juliette and Reme. We rented a car, and we had a small tour in Tuscany. First stop Firenze. If you ever go there, I suggest you have brunch at Le Vespe Café. I’m sure most of you expected a sightseeing place or museum or street. Well, no, this brunch tops it all. Of course, it wouldn’t be an adventure if we didn’t have a hiccup during this tour. After visiting Firenze, Siena, Volterra, Piombino, isola d’ Elba and Bologna, on our last day while driving back home and making a stop at a lake on the way I scratched the wheel while trying to park. Oups, I know it’s just a scratch, but it cost us a lot of money. Sorry girls.

Next stop, June, and Venezia with Juliette. Again, when you go there you need to visit Iguana, a Mexican restaurant. It’s so funny to me because while writing this I’m also realising that it looks like I enjoyed the food more than the places. It’s not true, I’ve enjoyed both equally. Burano was my favourite in this area. Beautiful colours.

Also during this time, we managed to have a bath at the beach which was great.

Jullyyyyyyy!! And my sister arrived!!!!!!! This was a sisterhood trip. Me, Juliette and our sisters, Eleni and Romane visited us in Italy, and we all went to Sardegna. At first, flights were cancelled and delayed, we encounter a very strange taxi driver that didn’t seem to know Olbia, but we finally made it to our place after almost a whole day. For this one I wouldn’t give any suggestions as we made an error, and we lost another day driving from Olbia to Cagliari (8 hours of driving). You can laugh in my face about it, I’m still laughing at myself. One thing I can say is that YOU NEED A CAR THERE!

But we were fortunate enough to have been at some beautiful beaches. After we parted ways and me and my sister had an amazing stay at Cinque Terre. It’s a magical place. Riomaggiore it’s a must! I also wanted to show my sister where I live and work, so we visited Casa Lamar together and did the SUP at the lake.

August was the friendship honeymoon. Six of my friends visited me from Cyprus. Organising this trip really felt that I was some kind of a travel agent! It was sooooo much fun, we did sooo many things. We’ve been to Rome dancing on a bridge all night, we had beer with some local people, we were awake almost 24 hours. I thought I wouldn’t make it to bed but it totally worth it. Next stop Amalfi coast! So beautiful! From there we ended up at Capri, where we rented a boat for a day, and we did the whole tour of the island. This was the best highlight of these holidays. Coming next Napoli!!!!! OMG!! What a great city!!!! For me it was a mixture of India and Europe. I loved it. It’s unique to the places I visited in Italy so far. Coming back though from the last holidays I found an empty apartment with no flatmate anymore. And it hit me. I knew it was coming of course, but my mind didn’t comprehend it. I miss you baby! So much! I can’t wait for our next meeting in October and for our future adventures together.

And since that day there was a sequence of changes in my life here in Italy. Even before I had the time to accept my new living circumstances and with Juliette leaving, I found out that within a week a new person was coming to live with me. I had to cha

nge rooms, rearrange and clean the whole apartment to accommodate this newcomer. His name is Sergio, and I hope he brings his two cats soon. Also, the new girl is coming on the 20 th . At work there is a debate, they are not sure if a Polish or a French is coming. We will find out in the next episode, I guess. It’s a bit hard for me to go through so many changes at a small period of time, but I believe it’s a way to build self-resilience when life is unexpected. I am practising for that, I guess.

As far as my project goes, I love that I have been given new responsibilities, like driving the residents to doctor appointments, or doing the weekly shopping for the home. I am really happy about that. Pfff it’s been long because it’s been a while. I’m done for now. Stay tuned guys! A la prossima. To be continued…..

P.S. I miss my dogs.

-Christina Theodorou

 

It’s been 9 months. Nobody really prepares you for when you are about to leave. I have almost built my habits in this place. I even felt so easy and cozy when I returned after a holiday. And it will soon go away. 

I would wake up kinda late, have a ‘cafe lungo in vetro’ at 10:30, lunch at 13:30, leave work at 16:30 to run to the station to catch the train to Caldonazzo to swim a kilometer....return, make dinner and meet at Christina’s balcony to listen to music and chill. (this is for my future self to read...to see what my most days looked like)

The trip around Europe was intense. Mushroom hunting in Austria and feeling poor in Geneva. And Marseille bebe… it made such an amazing impression on me...by simply being Marseille. Marseille felt honest, no filters, no lies. The symphony in Verona Arena was lukewarm (I was too poor for good seats), Rome was too grand for my liking (I did take awesome photos), Vatican’s Museums were impressive and Napoli was just messy enough for me to feel calm in it. 

I reiterate, Italy is the best country for a traveller.

I am in a misty mood. A bit foggy. Like I slept 20 minutes too little. And when I think of happy thoughts, I am reminded of the books Betty gifted me in Marseille, Arthur’s tiny balcony after a long nap and a bit of wine I drank in the middle of Caldonazzo. 

I wanna go for a run. Or a swim. It’s too cold for a swim. Maybe I’ll go run. 

-Sagar Ghimire

Primo estate a Italia e anche il mio primo blog post in italiano (scusi il mio italiano, questo è lo migliore che posso fare dopo di 11 mesi), il mio ultimo post era di maggio e veramente depresso, tutto e tropo diverso ora.

Juliette ha finito il suo progetto e ha restituito alla Francia, anche Laura y Julia sono restituite alla Germania.

Gli miei nuovi conviventi sono Angel, Juan e Jakub. Sono veramente fortunata di avere Angel e Juan, siamo tre spagnoli al appartamento, è come una piccolissima famiglia spagnola. Christina è una persona molto speciale per me, con lei mi sento come quando sono con la mia sorella e posso parlare de qualcosa senza paura di essere giudicati.

Abbiamo conosciuto tantissimi Trentini (Grazie a Angel e il suo progetto veramente e anche a Juan e alla sua socievolezza) e la città se senti come casa, è difficile da accettare che il finale non è lontano, che in meno di 2 mesi Trento non va a essere la mia casa, magari mai ritorno qui (Ancora non è sicuro, forse sono fortunata e posso restare qui un po' pìu).

Ma per ora ho tantissime esperienze che esperimentare, tantissimo che guardare è proprio tantissimo che imperare (italiano specialmente, lo so)

Il mio Ferragosto ha stato terribile, caldissimo e un po' solitario, ma ho andato a Crema, il posto dove si ha fatto il film Call me by your name è la esperienza ha stato bellissima, era la prima cosa che volevo di fare in Italia!

Queste sono alcune foto di queste mese, il mio prossimo blogpost è il ultimo…

Come se dice in Spagna: BAJONA.

This the last post for the volunteers blog. It feels strange because I didn’t write anything here for a long time, the last one was probably for Christmas, and since then I lived an entire life.

I wouldn’t have enough place to write everything that happened those last months, and honestly I am not sure I would want to either. 
I feel mixed feelings about this post. I explain myself, it is the last one and it shoud be like short and happy resume about this ten month’s adventure, but I didn’t digest everything I lived in Italy yet, and I still feel sad that I left so it doesn’t sounds like writing a resume is the best idea. 
So I decided to write about now, about the coming back (who knows maybe it will be useful for someone in the future). 
Guys, coming back is kind of difficult !! I mean if you lived one of your best life experience as I did, the return isn’t easy. In the sense that you put so much effort at the beginning of the volunteering to adapt to your new context, that one day you forget it is not always been your comfort zone, people there have not always been your friends. You forget it until the moment you come back and you have to readapt to what used to be your life before. It is like what was known is now the unknown and vice versa. But I guess that’s how you know that you lived what you had to live at 100%. 
So, at the end I think I can say that I am grateful to be able to be sad today, because it is the sign that everything I experienced this year was really great. And indeed, I think I can say that coming in Italy was one the best decision I have taken. I learned so much about myself, I grow (even if Sagar always laugh when I say that ) it is true, and gain self-confidence. And of course I gain amazing friends, I won’t give a shout out to them on this post because, first they already know everything, and secondly it would be BEAUF as fuck ! ! (They all know what it means). 
But I let you with some pictures of my ten months here. I had to chose ten pictures but I couldn’t (I mean ten pictures among 2500 that I took it was too difficult ) so I let Reme choose them among a selection I made (go baby show them what we’ve got). 

   

-Juliette L'her

 

My name is Juan, and I´m coming from the south of Spain. I arrived in Trento four months ago since now. I can consider myself a lucky one; right after my arrival, Italy was getting over to a long-lockdown period, and most of the shops and cultural centres were reopening.

I decided to become a volunteer in Trento because I was already aware of my hosting NGO activities, as I have already lived in the north of Italy. As I could speak Italian before the present experience, my integration at work and with the local population has been very fast. Since the beginning, I have been part of some of the exciting projects that the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale, the organization where I´m volunteering, manages.

Life in Trento is relaxing, and for those mountain lovers definitely, this place is a fantasy. The city is between the Dolomites mountain and the Alps, so there is an activity to practise nature every week. Also, the fact that we have lakes around is fantastic, as we can confront the warm temperatures of the summer by swimming in the fresh lakes.

Even though I have spent most of my weekends travelling around the region, I have had a great time here in the short free period I have been in Trento. I have many international and local friends, so it is always a pleasure hanging around with them and just enjoying the city.

 Ciao,

My name is Jakub and I have started my volunteering experience after leaving the world of corporate finance and lengthy spreadsheets behind. Although that was a leap of faith on my side I do not regret making this decision. Au contraire; each day proves that I have made a choice that I will thoroughly enjoy. I do what I like and what I am good at, I live a social life that leaves out nothing to be desired. 

Now, do not get me wrong and think there are no difficulties involved, which would be an obvious lie. There are people I still cannot understand, things I need to relearn and new places that I need to get accustomed to. It makes my brain boil when I realize how much this city is different to those cities I lived in previously, to what extent daily interactions vary from the place of my origin. Roaming around the place I pay attention to details I would not have paid attention to, finding an utter joy in discovering foreign culture gesture by gesture, word by word, one coffee or Aperol Spritz at the time. I am sinking into Trento voluntarily and I feel this place sucks me into a warm embrace too.

I would encourage anyone who is open to new experiences and values interesting acquaintances to give volunteering a try. There is no shortage of outspoken people you will meet here - I am yet to meet someone bleak, but I reckon this is unlikely to happen nonetheless. Since the people who take up this sort of challenge are rather adventurous I keep finding myself in awe of the stories they tell. And down the line there will be stories and memories I will create with them. These people have already rendered my perspectives richer and I am not even halfway through!

Regards,

-Jakub Kania

Hi everyone,

it’s been a while since I wrote on the blog. This is only my third entry, but it is most likely my last one! This entry will be long and partly a life update and partly a review. It’s crazy how time flies and suddenly 5 months are over. The school year in Italy finishes on the 10^th of June. After I have to work at InCo, my hosting organisation, until the end of June, since my contract finishes on the 30^th.

Firstly, here’s the update on what I’ve been doing: In the past few weeks, I’ve been in Germany to take an entrance exam to study medicine in October, have received the first shot of the Covid-Vaccine, have been in quarantine twice and have finally made it to Bolzano and Verona.

A few days ago, Julia, Reme and me decided to spontaneously buy tickets for a Maneskin (the infamous Italian ESC winners) concert in April of 2022! Even though we are all pretty broke, this seemed like a great idea and was truly a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Not to forget: we moved! The cockroaches are finally in the past. Now we live closer to the other volunteers and two Spanish guys have joined us! The weather has been great, covid restrictions are loosening and I feel like we are getting our freedom and social lives back. Sadly, the Italian course is over and I have to motivate myself to practice my Italian from now on.

Now, let’s get to reviewing my past few months here and why I have decided to give only 1 out of 5 stars on my imaginary scale.

To be honest, my project, the school, has only ever been “così così”. There are quite often lessons where I cannot contribute anything. I also don’t feel very included in school activities and I never felt like people were making an effort to include me. My supervisor has barely talked to me and I feel like I’m a burden to her. Of course, I should “take the incentive” and try harder, but it’s really exhausting and hard to constantly have to ask to be part of something. I am the volunteer and my project does not promote any activities that are specifically made for the volunteer. I just join German and English lessons all day. I would not recommend this project. This Volunteering experience has, amongst few useful skills, mostly taught me, that I do not want to be a teacher.

The first flat I moved into in January came with many downsides. No one had lived there for three years and it showed! We had mould in almost all the rooms, the shower was clogged, it was incredibly cold and the landlord kept entering without permission to ‘fix’ things. This was a very uncomfortable experience for us. A few weeks later we saw a mouse and then cockroaches… Additionally to the indecent living conditions, our landlord was gaslighting us and we were constantly questioning ourselves . This reached a point where the first reaction whenever there was a cockroach, or another kind of problem, would be to take a video!

Another reason for the bad score is simply the hosting organisation! InCo has barely communicated with me over the course of my stay and whenever there was a problem, us, the volunteers, had to constantly reach out to them. That’s definitely not how it should be… For example, when we had cockroaches at the old flat, we were at first not taken seriously, had to try and take care of the problem on our own, in which we failed, and then were barely updated on if we are moving and when. In general, no one was checking in on our mental wellbeing. During the lockdown I felt very depressed and cried often. I additionally felt like InCos motto is “it’s always the volunteers’ fault”. For example, no one ever properly explained to me the trash system in Italy, but at some point, mistakes were pointed out by them and blamed on us. How would we know? I did not speak any Italian when I arrived here and never had an introduction zoom meeting, personal meeting or training, for that matter. This is barely scratching the surface of the problems with the organisation.

The two factors of 1) the project just running without supervision (thus not really caring much about the volunteer), 2) the first flat and 3) the hosting organisation failing to communicate with us on pretty much anything, heavily influenced my experience negatively and added an uncomfortable feeling whenever I had to talk to InCo about a problem.

Covid and the pandemic were also often used as an excuse as to why things weren’t happening differently. But at that point, we were already a year in and InCo just didn’t have enough staff and organisation to take care of as many volunteers as they were and are bringing to Italy.

The only reason that this does not get a 0 out of 5 score, is the people and the country. All of the other volunteers I have meet here are amazing, very supportive and good friends. Learning a new language and working with kids was a good experience. Once we were in the ‘yellow zone’ , visiting new places also offered a reprieve!

To conclude: Right now, I just want to enjoy my time here as much as I can before I have to go back to Germany. I feel a weird pressure to use every moment, every free afternoon to visit a new place or experience something different, because the truth is that my time here is limited. It makes me sad when I think about leaving all of the people, I have become friends here with, behind. I guess I would do this again, but be better prepared for it. Plus, lower my expectations!

- Laura Kroworsch

 First week of arrival, good flatmates, a different enviroment to what I'm used to but also very comfortable.
I'm very lucky because the project I'm in fits very good with my personality. 
Everyone has received me quite good, even better than I expected. 
I have found a local rugby team in which I'm very happy to take part of and I am really looking forward to the new few
months of work I have ahead. 
- Ángel 

The 7th month has begun! I am officially, undoubtedly and irrefutably past my half volunteering period. I am scared of returning home! 

Scared, not in a metaphorical sense or even in a poetic melancholic way. I don’t know what my life would be like when I return back home. A lot hangs on my experience here. I have to make the next 5 months count, both for my memories (life is but a dream) and my career (a year in Europe means a lot to my job and education perspectives). 

I have therefore, discussed with my coordinator about what I’d like to know before I depart. I want to carry some substantial competence from Italy that would be difficult to find in Nepal. I want to learn how to properly run a youth organization that has volunteering as a main focus. I feel, Inco, through its ups and downs can inadvertently teach me what to do and also what not to do. Most of it depends upon me, what questions to ask and to whom. 

Sono Contento! I am content.  Italy has made me happier.

 

The contentedness comes from so many places; 

1. Books and reflection: I finished Anna Karenina (took me 2 months, felt like 7), The Metamorphosis and The Death of Ivan Ilych. I feel more intense and observant purely due to the books I’ve read. The Death of Ivan Ilych shook me. Death is omnipresent. 

2. Friendship and illusions: I feel loved quindi I can love more. I feel seen quindi I can see. The duality of Māyā माया: love and illusion is omnipresent. 

3. Lakes and cities: The other volunteers will share my passion for chilling on the lake and travelling to other nearby cities. You know it too! <3 

4. Work: We wrote a lovely youth project ‘Polar Positives’! It was pretty stressful, but worth the work. The Deegeays project is now in full-fledge and we are even looking for flights to see if we can have a proper meeting here in Trento for the team (please don’t quote me on this). 

5. Coffee! 

I need to find, however, a method/tool to retain this happiness when I return back home. I am proving this through growing my competence. 

Vediamo!

-Sagar Ghimire

 (Not everything written in this blog is true, my perception of reality is heavily influenced by my emotional state)

This blog has been empty for weeks and it’s ultimately my fault.

I don’t want to force people to write. I don’t want to be the one asking for a testimonial when everyone clearly prefers not to write.

These last weeks have been strange. I have had the best of the times and the worst of the times. I went on vacation with Christina and Juliette and it was lovely but I also came back to Trento feeling empty. We went on a lake trip and ended up hitch-hiking and laughed so much but I also felt like I needed to isolate myself for days after.

Not much has been happening in my life, whilst a lot is happening on everyone else’s life, or at least it feel like that.

Remember how during the lock-down in 2020 the world kind of slowed down? I loved that. For once the world was working on my speed and I could finally catch up with everything. Now I feel like the world has gotten back to its normal speed and I am left behind again. Everything feels kind of foggy and I don’t get to look around and see how amazing the experience I am currently living is.

I’ve been in Italy for more than half a year and I am scared that the only thing I will take from this year is stories, but not growth or improvement.

Over these months we’ve written about experiences, travels, friendships and work but not a lot about what’s going on inside. And trust me, there’s a lot going on in the top floor.

Being a volunteer is not easy, it is in fact very hard. You have to get used to a lot of changes happening all the time and all of them happening as you hear a voice in the back of your head telling you “this is only temporary, you won’t be here in a year”, and for me, it’s very hard to put myself out here for year and then go back, it will feel like none of this meant nothing or that it meant so much and didn’t use it wisely.

I am living in the future and it sucks.

The present feels too distant, it’s sunny, it’s a Wednesday, I am surrounded by people, I am in a different country, I am alive and well.

May the following testimonial be written and less depressing. 

 Preface: I haven’t finished Anna Karenina yet. I am disappointed and a little bit ashamed. Now, back to the blog! 

Since the last time you read my blog (or you didn’t), I have done around 50 km of running (during the process where I saw the limitations of my knees), gone back to learning guitar (during which I found out I can sing only ONE SONG), napped in the middle of a working-day  (I don’t regret this) and eaten way too much tortellini (but somehow I’m still losing weight). AND celebrated Nepali new year and if you didn’t know; spring is officially here! 

Nepal just celebrated their new year; 2078. No, that’s not a typo; it is year Two Thousand and seventy eight in Nepal. Around 57 years ahead of the AD calendar. The month in Nepal is not April, but Baisakh and the weird thing is we don’t even celebrate it. We just go; meh...it’s just another day. 

But in Trento, we did celebrate it because we needed an excuse to meet and make fun of each other. We cooked samosas with chutney and ate 3 different desserts. The girls i.e. Reme, Laura and Julia were very kind to bring two different types of awesome cake/muffin-like-dessert thingy!

Also, I went, randomly during my hike, to the bear conservation area. I was kinda scared! >.< 

And I saw a waterfall, broke my hiking-stick, slipped on the snow, gave up my hike and did a total of 1100meters elevation and covered 15 kilometers in total distance.

 

And in the same place, I saw this. This was funny and very weird. I was so amused by this! Aren’t you? Why would someone forget their cup in the bear sanctuary? And why would someone carry a fancy tiny cup there?

Anyway, I could write a thesis about the red-zone and how I wanted to get away from all that, but I won’t. I enjoyed my last week way too much to bother myself with the nitty-gritty of the lock-down. 

And to all those reading, happy new year!

That’s Juliette, not me!

You will be fine! 

Sagar, from the future (year 2078)