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22 September 2018

Hello to all,

I'm Sulaiman, I'm 19 and in July I did the European Voluntary Service in Spain.

The days before my departure I was very excited about the preparations. It was my first European volunteering experience and I wasn't sure what to expect and how to best carry out this new adventure.
I decided to have this experience to have more knowledge of other cultures, to get to know other people and enrich myself with the exchange with other people.

On July 13 I take the plane from Palermo, direction Barcelona, ​​I arrive in the late afternoon and I am welcomed by the La Rotllana association. Together we head straight to the goal. On the evening of arrival, we go to the place where the activities will take place, Badalona, ​​and introduce ourselves; I get to know my house mates and they explain to me the activities I should have done.

My task was to help the association in the free time activities for the Spanish children.

   

In particular, they divided us into small groups, with which we had to follow specific activities: I was assigned, together with two other companions, the "sports" one. I had to follow the children enrolled in sports activities, make sure that everything was done in order, let them play and have fun.

   

I also discovered a new sport, Korfball. It is a team game similar to basketball, but with different rules, and in particular it is played in mixed teams, girls and boys together.

 

In my spare time I discovered the city. We all went around Barcelona together. I visited the monuments, I tasted the typical dishes, we went to the sea thanks also to the summer weather.

Before leaving, I expected from this volunteer experience to make new acquaintances and learn new things. My expectations have been fulfilled and I have enriched myself as a person; I was able to get to know places, places and people who have remained in my heart. Relations with known people have been excellent, I've been in contact with helpful, good and approachable people; we always spent our free time together and a close-knit group was created. We are still in contact with the boys and we talk to each other every day.

 

Among the emotions that I bring back from this experience, there is that of having shared time with the children and having given them moments of leisure and happiness. They also gave me the nickname “joka, joka”. They gave me this nickname because I couldn't pronounce the word "jugar" in Spanish and when I had to start the activities I always said "joka" as in Sicily.

Jarama,
Solomon