My name is Tosca, I'm 19 and I'm an EVS volunteer in England, precisely at the community of Othona, in Bradwell-on-Sea. I arrived at the end of July and will stay until the end of April next year.

It's hard to explain what Othona is until you live there (my friends and family still don't quite understand what I'm doing here!): it's a Christian-inspired community founded after the war with the aim of reconciling peoples, built around one of the oldest church in England, Saint Peter-on-the-Wall, and frequented by people of all ages, religions and nationalities, often born and raised here, who never fail to lend a hand and cook for everyone, or play and sing around a bonfire at the beach; one breathes a very open atmosphere, and contact with nature: on one side open countryside (the closest inhabited place is a pub half an hour's walk away!), on the other the sea. We host events of all kinds, themed weeks, private events: it often happens that one day we are eighty and for the rest of the week only four! Luckily I'm not far from London, so sometimes on my days off I take the train and go back to the "civilized" world.

With three other EVS colleagues from France, Greece and the Czech Republic, I help manage the place, tidy up the rooms, help in the kitchen, in the office and garden. Othona is our hosting organization, however our coordinating organization is VAP (Volunteer Action for Peace) which organizes volunteer camps all over the world. During the summer the Community hosted three two-week workcamps with international volunteers, in addition, each of us EVS participates as coordinators in another project in the United Kingdom: a few days ago I returned from Somerset, where for two weeks the A group of volunteers we helped set up the Green Earth Awakening Vegan Buddhist Festival and disassembled everything when finished.

    

In the kitchen with the volunteers

 

After only three months this experience gave me the opportunity to learn a lot and meet many people, I'm really happy with my choice; I'm now getting ready for winter as I plan my holidays around the UK.
Tosca (Othona, Bradwell-on-Sea, UK)