Helloooo !!!

I'm Fatima. I am originally from Emilia Romagna and the Ivory Coast. This summer I participated in a month-long EVS in Estonia because, in everyday life, I do volunteer work and I wanted to have the opportunity to do it while travelling. Since the project in Estonia would allow me to do it inside Estonia as well, I was very motivated. Through this experience I have enriched my personal baggage, I have seen incredible places with my own eyes, and I have had the opportunity to get in touch with Estonians and at the same time citizens from other European countries and with similar backgrounds to mine.

Being also an active member of the non-partisan political movement #ItalianiSenzaCittadinanza, a movement composed mostly of second generation boys and girls, i.e. Italians with foreign origins and protagonists in the fight for citizenship reform, here ... for and not only for this and that other : Voyage! I enjoy doing it and I always try to do this with knowledge of the facts as well. Because I believe that through these experiences I continue to spread our battle, by comparing myself and acquiring new elements.

Below you will find a “brief” summary of my Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Estonian trip. A summary; because as Voltaire said: "It is very difficult, in geography as in morals, to understand the world without leaving one's own home" for this and for that one I wish whoever reads this to be able to leave even just once, even not too far away, for an EVS.

I wouldn't have believed I'd be so fascinated by a country that in many ways, before this experience, I would have defined as: so far away and different from everything I've always been used to.
Yet here I am with tears in my eyes, while I throw you in black and white what are now memories of an unforgettable experience.
We started from a sunny Rome in a hot July.

We thought we'd find it cold, or at least a little cool, up there. Also given that we had also been prepared for this eventuality. Arrived in Tallinn with just a little wind, we then proceed to Tartu. Where they welcome us with what was then our vehicle during the entire project. A minivan. Arrived in Vana Kuste, the place where we lived during the weekend for all the weekends of the project, it was early evening, and tiredness soon took over.
The next morning, when we woke up we realized that: Global warming is really happening!
“Never has it been so hot!” Said Jane, our mentor. Thirty-four degrees, thirty-five at times.
In the evening, however, we were always lulled by a mild temperature. And what a sky and how many stars! The sky was always clear, the tips of the trees could be seen until late. Till midnight. At XNUMX in the morning sometimes.

First week.
We start from our base camp, and walk towards the train station. A binary. After a few stops we get off at Llumetsa.
“Our boys” were also on the train. But let's get to know the descent as we begin our week.
We enter the Estonian forest. In a piece of it, because actually Estonia is 50% forest. This piece we will tread on is the “beautiful forest” in Estonian: Llumetsa. we are all ecstatic and it shows in how we relate. We spend the first night in a prepared base camp.
We will find out later, that in Estonia it is the practice.

 

The first night had already promised to be long and difficult. The boys were full of adrenaline. For them it was a vacation. The days followed one another with kilometers to be covered during the day, immersed in nature, surrounded by lakes, always well received as a meal by mosquitoes and other insects (we've almost all gotten used to this, obviously equipping ourselves always of autan and surrogates).
  

Until you get close to the Russian border.
And even if at the end of the day we were all physically exhausted, the group got along well and managed to overcome any adversity. We all got busy. We've all tried. Volunteers \ and boys \ and.

And thanks to technology and the internet, the kids themselves have created a group where we keep in touch with especially those who are able to express themselves in English and it has become a Safe-place for them I would say, where sometimes they still write to us, and they confide in us their fears but also their ambitions and where some of us try to be their older brother or sister, since basically this is what we were there during that week. A model in some ways.
Some of them asked some of the volunteers if we would come back next year. Others apologized for the nonsense they had said to us in moments of physical fatigue, where we had encouraged them to keep walking.
They also showed interest in what our role was, why we did it and how we managed to do it.
In saying goodbye we cried, we were moved.

Second week.
Change of location and boys, this time 55. Double compared to the previous week. Children of law enforcement. And in a certain sense, compared to the first week, the difficulties here were less, especially as regards the team-building mechanisms. Because the boys of the first week were boys/girls with a disadvantaged social background, while instead the boys/girls of this week were precisely boys with a completely different background from those of the first week.

 

With me especially and other volunteers, they were extremely curious. Because we were black.
They were enchanted, curious to touch my braids and above all much less wary.

 

As a result, from the first moments a relationship of play and complicity was established. Here too we had an intense week, divided into four groups by country of origin of the volunteers, we struggled in various physical activities, recreational workshops, cultural games, sports competitions alternating with water balloons, we gave assistance, plasters or more simply hugs to rejoice or cheer up during activities.
 

At the end of the week as well as in the first, there was a presentation of diplomas to crown the journey carried out together and above all to have a common memory. From this week I remember on the one hand: the affection of the children\e, their great desire to participate in sporting and non-sporting activities and the great desire to get involved in any activity that was proposed, and on the other: teamwork of us volunteers including the exchange of ideas and putting our personal skills into practice during manual and recreational workshops.

Third week.
For me this has been the most challenging week, physically and emotionally. Even though I injured my ankle at the end of the second week. Like everyone, I made myself as useful as I could. I can say that it was the most exciting week for us as we mostly had to help with the definition phase of a military historical festival that would last for one day. There was furniture to be moved, passes cut out, sweeping, painting, wearing a mascot and parading through the streets with the flags of European countries. We were greeted by local authorities, who thanked us and rewarded us for our time and dedication.

We also made time for ourselves by the lake and were given the chance to have a softball battle. Each of us enjoyed making the of him. And that's why, at this point, I wanted to do a rewind. As we were aware that our experience was coming to an end.
We still had a few days left to spend all together.

The experience of the festival has helped us to understand a lot about Estonia, especially politically: during the morning of the festival a market was set up where they mainly sold items that were very reminiscent of the historical period of the Second World War and the post-war period.
And socially it was useful to understand that even during concerts most Estonians would sit without saying a word while sipping a beer.
Finally musically! And what to say? Estonian music is yet to be discovered, meanwhile we were able to attend the concert of Daniel Levi, a promising pop-star who won a talent show and a rock\metal band.

 
Fourth week.
Baltic sea and eco-farming.
 

At this point either due to tiredness, the thought of returning or simply not wanting to pack, we were a little lazy.

Our stay on the Baltic sea was short but during it we had the opportunity to go hiking and above all to have the opportunity to discuss a lot on various topics: cultural, linguistic, musical and in this week Ly and Jane from the host association let us give unleash our creativity by simply doing what we thought was most useful for the farm. We consequently cleaned, helped fix the sauna, pull weeds from the pond and so on… We also had the opportunity to discuss the past weeks and visit the city of Parnu.
   

From Estonia then I brought home a new family.

At the moment of the final evaluation and of the embrace with my travel companions, Spanish, Italian, Slovenian, Lithuanian and Estonian, I understood that Estonia had amazed us all.

Fatoumata