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 10th of June. After I have to work at InCo, my hosting organisation, until the end of June, since my contract finishes on the 30th.
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.
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
