Experiencia dunha voluntaria de longa duración en Grecia

Texto de Antía Fernández – Proxecto Grecia- Novembro 2017 , Agosto 2018

SVE EN KALAMATA:  A MIÑA EXPERIENCIA

Os camiños do SVE son, en ocasións, non sei se inescrutables, pero ao menos si, inesperados e incertos. No meu caso, o proceso de chegar a Kalamata durou case un ano. Un ano no que cheguei a esquecerme do proxecto, e no que o seu anuncio, a verdade, pilloume un tanto por sorpresa. Unha longa espera, a do EVS, que tantas cousas fermosas regaloume polo camiño.

Pero comecemos polo principio… Eu decidinme a facer o SVE tras acabar os meus estudos, e o destino o tiña claro dende o primeiro momento: Grecia. Tras falar con Abertal, a miña organización de envío, puxéronme en contacto coa organización KANE, en Kalamata, coa que traballaran anteriormente. Envieilles a miña documentación, e unhas semanas despois tivemos a entrevista por Skype. Queríanme alí como voluntaria, pero tiña que esperar ata setembro do ano seguinte (practicamente un ano) para poder ir. Para aquel ano non tiñan vacantes para España.

Teño que recoñecer que o primeiro a nova descolocou todos os meus plans… esperar un ano parecía tanto tempo… Pero inda así, a miña resposta foi afirmativa a espera, e aproveitei ese tempo para facer un SVE de curta duración (sen ningunha dúbida, unhas das mellores experiencias da miña vida) e outras experiencias no país grego. Non tiven a confirmación do proxecto, para empezar en Novembro, ata finais de Xullo, despois de moitos meses sen ter ningunha nova acerca do voluntariado, cando xa non o esperaba. Pero alí estaba aquel correo dicíndome “en Novembro témoste aquí”. Así que fixen as maletas para un novo destino.

O proxecto no que entón comecei a traballar chámase kNOWledge vol.3 e consiste, principalmente, na axuda e colaboración no kentro neon, isto é, no centro xuvenil, da cidade. Alí pasamos a maioría das nosas tardes, atendendo o “bar” e a xente que se acerca a preguntar (neste punto o meu coñecemento de grego xoga un importante papel), coidamos do seu mantemento, impartimos algúns dos cursos que alí teñen lugar (no meu caso, as clases de español e de  sevillanas), axudamos coa organización de eventos e de festas… É dicir, somos parte da vida do centro durante os meses que estamos aquí, con todo o que elo implica.

Ademais, todos os voluntarios de KANE, independentemente do noso proxecto, colaboramos coa revista online LINK (aquí podedes atopar o noso último número: https://issuu.com/Kane.kalamata/docs/link_15th_january_2018_no106), que nos mesmos diriximos, e organizamos diferentes eventos na cidade. O último, por exemplo, foi a celebración da Semana do Voluntariado.

Para min que xa levo un tempo vivindo aquí en Grecia, e estudando a súa lingua e cultura, o choque cultural foi apenas perceptible, pero teño que recoñecer que probablemente este ritmo de vida non é para todos, e para facer un voluntariado como este, é necesario ter moito iniciativa. O único que vai ocorrer é aquilo que saía de ti, e realmente aproveitar ao máximo este experiencia ou non facelo depende unicamente dun mesmo!

 

The ways of the EVS are, sometimes, maybe not inscrutable, but at least, unexpected and uncertain. In my case, the process of coming to Kalamata lasted almost one year. One year in which I even forgot about the project, one year in which the announcement of the project caught me by surprise. A long wait for the EVS, that so beautiful thing gave me during the way.

But let’s start for the beginning. I decided to do the EVS after finishing my university studies, and I was sure about the destination: Greece. I talked with Abertal, my sending organization, and they put me in contact with the organization KANE, in Kalamata, with which they had collaborated before. So, I send the documentation to them, and, some weeks after, I had with them an interview though Skype. They wanted me there like volunteer, but I had to wait until September of the next year (almost one year), because they didn’t have vacancies for Spain that year.

I had to recognized that, in the first moment, the new unsettled me… waiting a year looked some ages… but, even that, my answer was affirmative, and I took advantage of the time of waiting to do a short-term EVS (without any doubt, one of the best experiences of my life) and other activities in the Greek country. I had the confirmation of the EVS project (beginning in November) by the end of July, after a long time without having any new about it, when I was not expecting it anymore. But then, there it was that email saying to me “we will have you here in November”. So, I packed my suitcase for a new destination.

The project in which I started then to work is called kNOWledge vol.3 and it consists, mainly, in helping and collaborating with the Kentro neon, the Youth Center of the city. There we spend the majority of our afternoons: we attend the “bar” and the people that comes to ask (at this point my knowledge of Greek plays a really helping role), we take care of the space, we run some of the workshops that take place there (in my case, the classes of Spanish and o course of sevillanas), we help with the organization of the events and parties… I mean, we are part of the life of the centre during the months we are there, with everything this implies.

Besides, all the KANE volunteers, with independence of our project, collaborate with the online magazine LINK (here you can find our last number: https://issuu.com/Kane.kalamata/docs/link_15th_january_2018_no106), that we directe, and we also organize different events in the city. The last one, for example, was the celebration of the Volunteering Week.

For me, that I had been living here in Greece and studying its language and culture for some time, the cultural shock was barely perceptible, but I have to recognized that, probably, this rhythm of life is not for everybody, and that for doing a volunteering program like that it is needed a lot of self initiative. The only thing that it will happen is this that comes from you, and to deeply take advantage of this experience or not depends only on oneself!