Story an experience of Claudio (Portugal)

Being a volunteer was definitely a once in a life time opportunity that made me grow in every aspect of myself.

First, being a volunteer in Rujiena was of course not easy, because it´s a small town and not with a lot of things to do in your free time and to enjoy with other young’s, but being small also give another sense to this experience, because I was able to see more close the culture and daily life habits of Latvian people and be more involved in the community, also being small made all volunteers from Rujiena more as a family and had to spend more time between ourselves.

Working in youth center was other way around, of course sometimes hard to deal with young’s especially if you don´t speak Latvian, but my time working there was amazing, which I have to thank Daina and more specially Ketija and Francesca for all the moments and stories that I will always bring with me. Youth center it´s a special place, kids from all Rujiena and surroundings came to spend their time, either with some table games, sport games, outside activities or just a normal talk with some of their friends. I definitely enjoyed to work there as a volunteer, made me grow as a more understandable person, be more patient, give more to the others and most important it show me a bit of I want to do in my future. It was an unbelievable time there, a lot of summer camps, team building training, KKC, Rujiena city festival activities, boat trip, youth exchange, kids camp, between all other activities  where I had a lot of fun with the young’s and with my partners in crime Francesca and Ketija. More specifically on what was my time spend on there, so Youth center is a place for young’s to come and have a good time with their friends, we played some table games, see a movie, go outside and play some games, football, beach volley ball, walk around Rujiena, some flag games, talks about school and problems, some cooking workshops, drawing, between some other activities connected to camps.

Why do I say now that it was a once in a lifetime experience? In the begin coming to Latvia as a volunteer was something in blank for me, I didn’t know nothing about the country and what to expect, and now I look back and if I had some expectations it exceed them by far. You grow as a person, first because you learn to live by yourself, either if it´s by cooking, cleaning your room and flat, cleaning your clothes, manage your money, solving problems by your own and living outside your family circle and comfort zone, besides this you get to travel around Europe and Latvia, learn new cultures, new ways of live, new cities, new people from all over the world with amazing stories. If I had to choose what was real amazing for me, it´s the fact that you get to know people from every part of the globe, as also live with them, I had the pleasure to share a flat with amazing people that now are as family to me, this was definitely the highlight of this experience, living with people from France, Italy, Turkey and sharing some incredible moments and stories that I will never forget, besides them you also get to know some special Latvians, and in this case I can´t say thanks enough to Ketija for all the support, friendship, time, words, moments, walks, she was a truly phenomenon of a person. So I would say that people and meet new persons from all over the world and learn and see how they live was my favorite thing in this project.

I want to take this moment to emphasize that EVS is something that can definitely change the way you see life, you get to know other ways of live, new cultures, new people, you get to work abroad, you learn to manage by yourself, you realize what’s real matter in life and most important you get to see how important life is and that you have to pursue your dreams, so I would say that people should go in this type of adventure because this can be a special moment in your life.

I said in the begin that Rujiena was small as a town, but big with people, amazing people that I met in this special place, some almost as family, friends for life and amazing stories and moments to share all the rest of my life.

At last, I want to say a personal thank you to Daina Roze for choosing me as a volunteer, to my mentor Viktorija, to all the young’s in youth center that helped me grow, to Ketija for being like a rock always next to me, to my volunteer partner and friend Francesca, and of course to my flat mates friends, Cihan, Robin and Arianna,  and to all the people involved somehow in this project, it was definitely an amazing 6 months that I will always bring in my heart forever.

Rujiena will always have a special place in me and I will be back!