A Spanish volunteering in Palermo.

14/7/2020

Who am I and why did I choose Palermo?

Hello, my name is Leticia and I am from Spain. Here there is some information about my experience volunteering in Palermo.
I was 26 years old when I arrived in Sicily in August 2019, within this opportunity I was looking for trying a different professional field than mine (I am a pre-primary teacher); to live in a foreign country, to learn the culture and language; to live with people from other countries and to find out who am I and who I want to be in the future.

When I was searching for a volunteering project, in my priorities list was to work with vector images and I found out this opportunity within IG in Palermo.
At that moment, I did some researches about the city and the population, like reading old volunteer’s articles and talk to them, and the answers were different depending on the person so I realised that I didn’t want to have any expectations and just let the city surprised me…
When I arrived, it caught my attention all the differences with my city and culture: the crazy traffic, the trash and cats on the streets, the Italian language, the food… little by little the new became normal and I adapted to this place, incorporating into myself the culture and language. I realised now that after these 11 months in Palermo, I end up loving the good things and understanding and respecting the rest.

What was I doing during my time in Palermo?

Working time: I was supporting Massimiliano and Monica at the office of InformaGiovani. In resume, my tasks were to create logos for projects and banners for events; to support preparing informational meetings with youngsters and to support the international projects like youth exchange, workcamp and training course. In this time was included my study time of the language courses, very helpful to learn Italian.

As the final project of my volunteering, I wanted to do something for Palermo’s society so I decided to do a workshop about sexuality. Searching for information about contraceptives, I realised how broad the topic was and that I had to focus on one point, so I came out with a new idea that became my final project: to create a board game about contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections named SAFERSEX.

In my opinion, the work during these last 11 months has been pleasant and smoothy. Furthermore, I can now work with agility on vector software and image edition, I consider that I am more able to do team working and I have improved my languages and communication skills in both Italian and English.

Free time

At the beginning was a priority to learn Italian, so I joined a theatre group and Wingchun lessons. It was very helpful to raise my confidence in speaking Italian and enjoy learning theatre and Wing-chun.
With friends I used to go to the beaches and natural reserves nearby: Monte Pellegrino, Cefalù, Capo Gallo, Mondello beach, Virgin Maria beach...

Also, the historical centre was a usual meeting point to take a walk, eat pizza, listening to the musicians playing on the street.
I discovered the best ice cream shop of all Palermo… I did a great investigation, the winner?
A famous ice cream shop of the centre… I love it.

Finally, I would like to outline that each volunteer service can be different.
I am happy about my experience because having in mind to be useful to the association but also to myself, I developed skills and abilities that I didn’t have before and now I feel more experienced and ready to the next adventure.