EVS roller coaster

A month ago I came back from my second seminar as an EVS Volunteer. We call it “Mid-Term Seminar” and it was right on time, as on the 14th of August, it was exactly 6 months since I came to Germany. Quite a milestone, I guess. So here I am, a 23-year old Ukrainian girl currently living in Dortmund, working in a cultural organization called Auslandsgesellschaft NRW, and still hoping that the future holds something great for me.

These 6 months were quite intense, sometimes overwhelming and inspiring, sometimes depressive and disappointing. What EVS can certainly grant you is the whole spectrum of feelings. At some point you will feel lonely and stuck, yet sometimes you will experience pure happiness and enlightment. With all ups and downs, there was not a single time during these 180 days that I regretted becoming an EVS Volunteer. This experience is extraordinary in so many ways, it poses true life challenges, and it’s up to you how to face them. What I can certainly say from my experience, 70 % of the success of your EVS year wholly depends on you. Yes, you might get unlucky with the hosting organization or with the town/village of your residence, and it will have a great impact on your whole experience, however, you’re the one who is truly in charge. No coordinator or mentor will find friends for you, organize your entertainment, or take you to the doctor when you get sick - you’re in this on your own.

I know volunteers who had pretty good projects but still didn’t really feel happy about them as they spent most of their free time at home constantly complaining about everything. And at the same time, there are people who try to make the most of it, filling their lives with new experiences, gaining new knowledge, finding new friends, even though their projects might be not exactly the way they expected. After all, we all define “success” in our own way.

As for me, I’ll tell you more details, so you can decide by yourself whether I’m doing it right or not ;) So as I mentioned, I work in Auslandsgesellschaft. It’s quite a big organization with a wide range of activities, basically the word “Ausland” (in German: “foreign country”) perfectly describes it. Auslandsgesellschaft offers cultural and political events, various study trips and youth exchanges, and numerous language courses. I work in the department called “International Exchange and Study Trips” and my main work consists in organizing different educational trips. Well, if you think that it sounds like an amazing work, let me tell you two things. First of all, don’t let the word “study” confuse you the way it confused me - it has nothing to do with students. Most of our participants are retired people, who finally have some free time and some money to see the world and learn something new. Second of all, “organizing” and “taking part in” have nothing to do with each other. Before I came, I pictured myself organizing (you see, this tricky word again) and holding seminars for young people, being their mentor and group leader (which I actually have experience at). In reality, I write and send letters, lots of letters (my max. pro day once reached 300), copy and scan various documents, make flyers and brochures, print everything needed for a trip; in short - I do office work.

As for the city I live in, well, let’s say, it’s not my dream place. I was so focused on the project itself that I didn’t take time to make a research on the area. Dortmund is all about football, which I have no interest in. And instead of beautiful old “Fachwerk” houses, its center offers only countless shops. Besides, my organization rents an apartment for volunteers in so-called “Nordstadt”, which carries a reputation of being a poor and not-very-safe district. Originally, it was home for “Gastarbeiter”, mainly from Turkey, and nowadays, it’s a place for immigrants and refugees who can’t afford to rent an apartment in a nicer place. It’s funny though, when I just arrived, I was really surprised that in a bus, in a supermarket, or just on the streets, one could here all possible languages except for German. My thoughts were “Am I really in Germany? How come there are no Germans here?!” :D

Okay, if it might seem that I’m complaining, I didn’t mean too. I’m just explaining that sometimes expectations don’t meet reality, which actually happens quite often in EVS. Moreover, it is completely normal, you just have to be ready for it, which I wasn’t. Nevertheless, there is a positive side as well. I have an amazing team at work, the one you can truly call “DREAM TEAM”, because my colleagues are always supportive, helpful, friendly, and sometimes really funny, and they are the main reason why, every morning I go to work with a smile on my face. Our team is very international, consisting of me (Ukrainian), a French girl, an American guy, and a German woman. And we all speak one language - German.

As my organization constantly holds numerous events, I can take part in pretty much any of them for free - I’ve been to some really nice cultural festivals, interesting political workshops, and book presentations. So there is always an opportunity for me to learn something new - all I need to do is stay late at the office and go down one floor to the assembly hall ;)

Another thing that makes my EVS year totally worth it, and, in fact, one of the main reasons that encouraged me to do it, is…traveling ! Traveling is my true passion, and here, in Germany, I go wild. I go to a new place almost every weekend, and I still can’t get enough. What’s good about Germany is that it’s so centrally located and one can easily reach any European country. Besides, a generous number of low-cost flights (wizzair, ryanair) makes it even better. So far, I have visited 9 countries, and I already have lots of plans for the rest of the year.

So that was an overview of my recent life. I know it’s not very shortly put. I’m sorry - whenever I start writing, thoughts just keep coming and coming. BUT hopefully it might be a pleasant and even useful reading for some of you.