Why Poland...

Why Poland???

Midnight - 12 o'clock. Bus stops again, this time to cross the border to Poland. As Latvia and Poland are in EU already for 5 days, crossing border does not take a long time. Border is already behind, I'm changing my clock to Polish time, 12 o'clock is coming again? I still have some time till the opening of bus-station. Sun is rising, but its still a little bit cold? I still don't know how, but I manage to by a ticket, I was waiting for a bus up to two hours. I'm going to Wroclaw. Time to time I'm falling in a sleep, or I'm trying to read advertisings on the street sides. I even manage to understand some of them... afternoon. Early evening. I'm in Wroclaw. I'm little bit worried not to miss my stop, and if I can reach somebody from my host organization (that I couldn't manage from Warszawa)?

Hello my name is Andrejs and I?m was a volunteer in such a nice city as Wroclaw in Poland. My project was long term project (9 month), but this is not going to be a story about my project. Today I would like to tell some expectations and results of volunteer's life.

Six to twelve month staying in another country is quite a lot. By this time you can get to know a lot of people, or just people with whom you are working, so, the lifestyle which you choose establishes how you will stay in other people?s memories. Will they say: "YES I know that volunteer... blablabla and so on and so forth... or that could be like:... that one..????? mmmm? yes I think I saw him once, he was hiding on the other side of fridge when I was there..? or something like that..
Well? from the very beginning I chose the first possibility, but, in truth, all volunteers more or less are taking the first one, ?cause I think that?s already a little bit crazy to change your nice country, where you understand quite a lot, to unknown world, where everything (starting from language) is new for you. I think that there is no necessity to talk about fact that you are already thrown in a middle of nothing, and all what you can carry with you is your experience and knowledge from your previous life, and all what you will be able to take back is what you will learn in this country. So.. what I?m trying to tell you? Take from EVS as much as you can. Just trust me.. .

Beginning of EVS... nice feelings about the new country, everything is new, you are feeling just like a baby, you are walking in a big world..
When going to shop you find out that people do not understand you, so you learn basic sentences just to ask for a pack of milk, bread, and some other useful stuff. You are speaking slowly, with lot of mistakes and strange accent. People smile when they are listening to you, but that's not cause they are make fun about you. Not at all. (From my personal experience: I took longer holidays in my EVS, just to go back to my country to celebrate Christmas with my family. In this time I met volunteers who are in EVS projects in my country. I heard how they are speaking in my language, although they are really shy, I can't describe feelings which was inside me, that's really great.) One of the secrets to be loved in a new country is: to try to speak in their language (exactly... nobody is asking from you to speak fluently, but if you just try... positive result is guaranteed ;)
Yeah, just remembered, that's really important for all EVS volunteers. You SHOULD know your rights and, I mean, all rights, like food money, and how much you should get as pocket money, how long time you should work and all about holidays... why I'm saying that...? Just cause I met volunteers who don't know that, and that's really sad... And, if nobody gives you this information, you always can read in the web: the easiest way is to open google.com and write down "EVS volunteer rights" - that works! :)

Of course, I don't want to do that, but in the end I will speak about something really sad... leaving...

That's truth, this is not a nice topic, but it does not mean that it does not exist. One of the saddest moments in EVS is when volunteers are leaving. When you are leaving, it's not a big deal, ...cause u are all the time with yourself, but when your fiends going away... and you know that some of them you will never see again, that is sad. So, you are just walking around with your sad deem and thinking about meaning of life and where all this is going...



So.. why Poland????
...and WHY NOT??


Volunteer