One decision that changed my life – My story about how I become a volunteer

All decisions that you take change your life in some way, some more than others. In May I took one of these decisions when I choose to become a volunteer and here is my story.

Two months ago I didn't know much at all about volunteering, of course I had heard about it but just vaguely and I didn't had any clues about what opportunities there were. I had never ever considered becoming a volunteer and I thought that I therefore never would become one.  I didn't had anything against volunteering but for me it was something unknown. A random event got me in contact with volunteering and made me change my mind.

In May this year I knew that I was going to graduate from the university in the beginning of June and that it was completely up to me what I wanted to do afterwards. Honestly I had no clue, but I felt that I didn't wanted to start working yet. I applied for some jobs anyway and tried to look for other possibilities to do something else. Like all days I also went online on Facebook time to time and it was here I encountered the post that were going to give me an occupation for the coming two months. 

In some way a post turned up on my Facebook news feed. A post proposing to go to Poland for a bit more than 2 months during the summer as a volunteer. As I was looking for something to do the post directly got my attention. I replied to the post and told SIP (my sending organisation) that I was interested in participating. The rest is history and now I'm here in Szczecin, Poland as a volunteer, something I thought that I would never become.

When I sat on the aeroplane on my way to Poland I didn't really know what to expect, the only information that I had was a written A4 page. In some ways that was good because if you have too much expectation the risk is that you can get disappointed. I was a bit nervous but mostly I was eager to know what I was going to do during my two months in Poland. Retrospectively I can say that it was nothing to be nervous about, you adapt really quickly and I soon felt like home. 

So how is it to be a volunteer abroad? The answer is that it’s great. It’s an experience that is hard to get somewhere else. You’re discovering a new country, meeting new people, acquiring new skills in different domains and so on. Do you like living and working in an international environment? I'm living with 17 other people from five different countries, meeting polish people every day, it’s as international as it can get. 

How is the daily life as a volunteer? For me and the others participating in this project is very varying, one day we’re working with children and another day we’re sailing. It’s mainly fun to be a volunteer even if there’s days when not everything is so fun, but it’s like life, it has its ups and downs. Now I'm really seeing forward to the Tall Ship Races.

One thing is sure, I'm very happy that I encountered that post on Facebook and that I decided to become a volunteer.  This two months here is an experience I wouldn't like to be without.

If you’re thinking about becoming a volunteer, don’t hesitate because it’s an unforgettable experience. An experience that will you make grow as a human being.  

Szczecin - opinions and impressions from two directions

How will Szczecin be in the future? Photo: Lucas Dujon

Szczecin, a Polish city where over 400 000 people live their lives, many of these young people in our age (18-30 years). What do they think about their city? What do they like and dislike? And can they see themselves living in Szczecin in the future? We decided to find out the answers to these questions at the same time as we the authors wanted to give our impressions and opinions of the city.

The general impressions we got when we spoke with people about the future was that they wanted to see something else, they wanted to travel and discover the world. This is a feeling we share with them and in fact one of the reasons why we decided to become volunteers. Most of the people didn't dislike Szczecin but for them it’s nothing new living here and as one of them said “the world is much bigger than Szczecin”. In our age we think that it is common that people want to discover the world for a while. Afterwards they often return to their hometowns, probably mostly for one reason; you often have your family and closest friends there.

Some people said that Szczecin is a bit boring without so many things to do. We can understand them, they have lived here much longer than us. But our personal opinion is that the city offers quite many activities, especially cultural ones. It was also mainly the cultural offer that many people said that they liked with Szczecin. Some places that they mentioned as worth visiting are the Kasprowicz's park big, maritime academy, the selection of thrift shops, the castle, the theatre and the surrounding environment. Many people preferred the area next to the river, we agree with them. It’s a nice area which offers a wide range of restaurant and bars, especially in the “old town”. We also like the parks that the city offers and the proximity to the Głębokie Lake and its surrounding forest.

A downtown that was described as a bit cluttered was one thing that was mentioned as something that people didn't like. There were also wishes of a better night life and a subway system. Something that we don’t like with Szczecin is the lack of adaptation to pedestrians and cyclists, Szczecin is still a city mainly for cars. A good example of that can be witnessed by clicking on this link.

It’s quite evident that this city has great plans for its future, by for example the floating garden project 2050. There is and there has also been a lot of renovation of many buildings, like the renovation of the castle. So what we think is that Szczecin will become a better city in the future. It’s already good but it can become better, it can especially get a bit more tourist friendly.

Language classes in Walki z Kalectwem association

The teachers with their hardworking students.

Yesterday was our last day we had language classes for our very ambitious senior students. During a couple of weeks some of us have taught them French, Spanish, Swedish and Russian. For us “teachers” it has been a lot of fun and it’s hard not to feel a bit of proud that someone wants to learn your language. Our students have been hardworking and some of them have even on their own initiative studied at home.

Most of our students didn't speak English, but for the most of the time that wasn't any problem. During our lessons they spoke about their life and we learnt to know them.  The fact that they didn't speak English forced us to try to speak Polish, so it was also a great way to improve our Polish.

To thank them we decided that our last lessons with them would be a bit special. Therefore we prepared some nice food from our countries like some Swedish herring sandwiches, Spanish ham, and French cherry cake. We also organised a karaoke where we sang famous songs from our countries. Before saying good bye we also organised a small competition where the goal was to find a word for every single letter in the alphabet, our students performed well but apparently our Polish is improving because we won.

One thing is sure, we will miss giving language classes and we’re happy that we got the chance to share a bit of our languages to the Poles.

Check out images in our Facebook album .