Memories you want to have later, you have to make now. And starting from this point, EVS is the perfect opportunity to gain memories. The situation was like this:18 years old, just finished high-school and completely ready to see more of the world, to change my life and who knows, also the lives of others. But how?

The idea of EVS started in a pretty funny way:

my mum had brought a little free newspaper from the train, and it included a very small interview with an ex-volunteer. It was enough to make me curious, en look where I am now: thanks to that little piece of paper, I’m living in Italy, in the south especially, in a city called Altamura and so far, la vita è bellissima here, with the small streets, the wide fields full of olive trees, the white houses with in the centre the big cathedral. Even though my project will end in 4 months, I dare to say that coming to Italy was one of my best decisions ever.

Why? Let’s start with the first week in Altamura, at Associazione Link.

After I arrived at Bari airport, I’ve barely spoken Dutch again, since I’ve been surrounded with Spanish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Scottish (love their accent!), English, Polish, Slovakian and of course Italian people. You can imagine that speaking Dutch is completely useless, so the solution was a mishmash of English, Italian, hand and feet.

I like to hear all the different languages, using 3 different ones in just one phrase, and I have the feeling that all (ex-)EVS volunteers are probably unbeatable in the game ‘describe the word’, since we use a LOT of pantomime to communicate. Also in our Italian lessons it’s a big theatre, it’s in my opinion a very nice and effective way to learn Italian. Besides the official Italian and the charming dialect of Altamura, I’m also learning the second unofficial Italian language: gestures, and it’s fantastic. It feels like I can’t speak real Italian when I don’t use or know the gestures. One day, sitting in the bus back from a day in Rome, I asked some Italian guys to have a conversation without using their hands. It was like asking an Italian to never eat pasta again:  Im-pos-si-ble, and actually I’m happy about that.

EVS is a big experience, but for me EVS is also in all the little things. It’s funny to have breakfast with complete Europe sitting on the table, everyone is used to eat in her/his own way. In the first weeks it was kind of a challenge to find a moment that we all were hungry! But at the same time, I’ve never tasted so many different plates, with, I can’t deny it, the Italian kitchen on top…

Besides these small funny things, I’m also seeing a lot of Italy. And I can tell you, it’s  a different world being in Altamura or in a city as Bologna. In every city there’s a nice or horrible dialect, special plate, funny expression, but the nice thing is that every place has its own charm. It’s quite similar to all the EVS volunteers together. Everyone has their own habits and opinions, but in the end we’re living the same experience, in our own way.

Sitting in the train with Henrieta, my lovely housemate to our on-arrival training in Rimini, both writing our story for Scriptamanent, and after we had to say goodbye to our Spanish flat mate and friend Inma, I realize that the people around me are a big part of my EVS. With every new person I meet, I experience my EVS differently. And not just the other volunteers, also the people in Link, the children at the schools, the people at Vivere (an organization for disabled people), random persons in the supermarket (who sometimes, out of nowhere, appear to speak Dutch) etcetera. In this way I can enjoy it in eternal manners and I’m looking forward to all the new people I will meet, and who will (probably without knowing) participate in one of the best experiences in my life, called EVS.

So far, I can say that I’m very lucky to be surrounded by such nice and special persons, who enrich my view on Europe, and enlarge my cultural conscience.

The only bad thing of being a long-term volunteer, living with short-term volunteers, is that you have to say goodbye too often and sometimes too fast.

On the way back of our on-arrival training in Rimini, overlooking the wide fields full of olive trees, it really feels like returning to my second home.

In Rimini I’ve learned a very true statement: ‘if someone says that one person can not make the difference, just think about a mosquito in your room. It CAN make the difference.’  And that’s a beautiful thing of volunteering.

EVS is about expectations, like how I packed my sunglasses in the Netherlands and when I arrived it was snowing the whole first two weeks. For me it’s about dealing with different expectations or just not knowing what to expect and find the best way to handle it. The fact that here in Altamura everyday can be the beginning of a new project, an arrival of a new person from another interesting place, makes me feel that everything is possible and I’ve rarely felt so free before. The consequence of this freedom is that I also have responsibility to make my EVS work, it will be as great as I make it. With this story I hope to inspire you, because EVS is, how cliché, a unique experience. Don’t be afraid to go and explore the world, also if it’s not the world you’re used to. It will not always be easy, but you’re the one who can make it work, and in the end everything will be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.  The time here is flying, running, disappearing, but I try to enjoy every minute of it, even though it’s not always easy to be so far from home. But I think in the end, also the hardest parts will make this EVS so good, but ha, that’s another expectation. For now, looking forward to the next 4 months, the only thing embedded in my mindset, is how I am addicted to progress.