I'm Lorenzo, I'm 28 years old and I'm living a volunteering experience abroad thanks to the Erasmus+ project, I've rarely had the opportunity to go abroad and see realities that are different from the ordinary. I am staying at the religious community of Othona, but what is a community? It's a difficult concept to explain in a few words if you've never had a similar experience. In this community, people from all over book the place as a place to relax, some come to do maintenance work, gardening, construction… and etc., groups of people come to practice their religion in addition to the Christian one, others simply to come and finding companions met during one of the events organized by the community itself functions almost like a "second home" open to all.
This Christian community has been open since the Second World War (1946) and pays homage regularly to the chapel of St Peter-on-the-wall, a still respected activity introduced by its founder, Normad Motley.
Returning to my activities as a volunteer, arriving at the beginning of December I spent a few days in the community, mostly looking around and discovering the small differences that can only be noticed when you are not originally from the country you are visiting, from grappling with the 'switch to the fact that strangely everyone starts eating without saying "bon appetit".
I was subsequently tasked with coordinating a Workcamp in London in the Dulwitch area, this was a bit sudden but it was still exciting to step out of my comfort zone and have responsibility for guiding people to planned activities, in this case lots of gardening in the green areas of South London, the group, initially uncertain about what to do, matured together with me and an excellent relationship was established between all the participants. The most curious moment was when we compared our knowledge regarding human rights based on our nationalities, an experience that I recommend to everyone to realize how far it is possible to travel even just with dialogue.
The period in which I entered into this project was the Christmas period, I didn't yet have a clear idea of what it would be like to spend Christmas away from home, but the community didn't make me feel many differences. In fact, instead of relatives, people came through the door from all over the world who had anything to do with the community, all engaged in the abundant pre-Christmas dinner. I admit I was a little homesick, so after dinner, I started teaching the card game “Scopa” to anyone who wanted to have a real Italian Christmas experience (maybe next year it will be “Briscola's turn”) .
After Christmas, we immediately started talking about the next destination, the Isle of Wight. The place of residence of the Program officer: Cedric “John” Medland, tasked with the other volunteers with restoring the photographic museum of Dimbola (complete with a corner dedicated to Jimi Hendrix). While I was there, I took the opportunity to volunteer for the historic Isle of Wight music festival for the period of June, the good time to visit the island, in January…it was all rain mixed with freezing wind.
Returning to the community towards the month of February, we begin to have a period of absolute calm, unfortunately dictated by the low season which is more or less the same everywhere. We continued to keep ourselves busy as much as possible, the jobs given were varied: painting, taking care of the garden, preparing the land for building, cooking, offering ourselves as a cashier for the village shop. All alternating with free days spent touring the various corners of England on our own.
In conclusion, my experience is only halfway through, but I have had a lot of pleasant encounters, I have made friends with the other volunteers in the program thanks to the English that bridges our conversations, and I look forward to the next part of the project... given that, here everyone repeats that "the community will make much more sense when it's summer".