My name is Oltjon, I have just four days that I am staying in Altamura and I feel like I have been living here for ages. I am from Albania and I thought that here it would be much different; I was not expecting to find what I actually discovered here. I was surprised to see that all the people that I met are great, hospitable, funny, generous, they made me feel like home. And this amazed me, since I was thinking that I am just going to stay with them for 1 month, they don’t necessarily need to be kind with me, and I would just be an EVS volunteer. But this is the beauty of being an EVS, u break your stereotypes and u see that there are so many nice people and things to discover, it’s just about the will to take over these experience and once you try it, trust me, you are gonna love it and remember it forever.
Yesterday we went outside the city, we played different games, we had couple of beers and some wine but the most special were 2 bottles of Padre Peppe. It was a very special day, just like the first night that I had just arrived and guys decided to go to the Circus. Today we go to a local radio, we will have one hour to discus about different things and play some good music. Being on Radio Regio is special for me because it is something I never experienced before, talking about Italian music, about the role that has got into me and the youngsters of the same age as me in Albania. This was just great! That evening we also went to a bar to watch the football match Barca-Arsenal. This was also a learning thing for me, since Italians are sometimes associated to the football, in the meaning of a positive stereotype. I liked to be there among them and see the emotions the match gives.
Me and the kids, we PLAYED-IT!
First day playing football with kids, reminds me myself a few years ago. I can’t get out my mind all those happy faces running all over the place, just like we used to do. I felt like I want to turn back the time, to be like them, to feel like them, to run like them. But actually the time I spent with them, I felt I was one of them, and this gave me such a pleasure. I just hope they also enjoyed time with me, I was trying to do my best for this.
My on-arrival then was on the way… so I spent 8 days to Verbania. The first thing that impressed me was the Lago Magiore (the Great Lake), a very special place that gives you a special feeling just by looking at it. On the on arrival I met 30 participants from several countries and I can say we really had a good time together and I learned so many things from the training and from each of them. Intercultural learning was one of the main things we were exploring in the training and I really liked it a lot. The different workshops and sessions we had were so good constructed to teach to us what does it means to be living and exploring a new culture, meeting new people, sharing with them, experiencing diversity.
One of the days there we went to the Resistance House and I got to know how soldiers used to fight against nazi-fashists. The wall with all the names of the dead soldiers is something I will never forget, it’s just stuck in my mind. I don’t know how to express it but reading so many names of man and women on that wall, it just made me start thinking on how much people can do to have their freedom! They died for it!
Thank you LINK, I had a nice time, a great experience that I would suggest to everyone.
