After my graduation, I promised myself I would have spent the next year doing something far away from books and Italy, but the place was still to be decided. 

I wanted to do something for others and rediscover the pleasure I used to get from it in my years as a scout. I also wanted to test the competence gained during my last three years in my university, where I studied science of communication.

My friend, soon to be colleague, Eddy showed me the possibility to do an ESC, and I discovered that it was exactly what I was looking for. However, my expectations were nowhere close to what was actually waiting for me. 

Once I arrived here, I immediately met Iryna and Alessandro, very kind people, who I’m now happy to call friends. They brought me to the student campus where I live. 

Next door With Alessandro, the other volunteer that’s working on the Youthquake project, a good friendship matured that actually helps us a lot during the job. 

The night of my arrival I went out with other two volunteers Alina and Jose, who don’t work on the same project as me, but I’m lucky to share the office with. Since the beginning they showed a lot of love, they invited me to ice skate the day after and never hesitate to help anytime I asked. Throughout the weekend I got the chance to meet the rest of the volunteers of Bonafides, so I felt like belonging in the group since before entering the office!

Once in the office, I had the chance to meet with Mariachiara (the group coordinator) and all team that’s working in Bonafides. Everyone there is very positive and passionate, and that helps to make your work easier and more interesting. 

The job is very various and it changes day by day. When I’m in the office, we take care of our projects, and we promote them on different platforms. We also take care of the promotion of other ESC projects. When outside the office we get in touch with the surroundings and the people who live here, we go to different schools presenting our project about the disaster caused in the center of Italy from the earthquakes in 2016. Here in Poland no-one has ever experienced an earthquake, so talking to children about it, always generates a lot of curiosity, and that’s a very good fuel for me and Alessandro to do our best anytime. 

Since the organization is very radicate in the community we also do other activities like helping kids with fewer opportunities or mental illness, and even if there is a strong language barrier, we manage to have fun with them and I consider that very humbling experiences.

One of the things that I wasn’t expecting about this ESC, was the possibility of giving birth to projects of our own with other volunteers, I really hope in the next month some of the things we talked about will happen, and I’m ready to work hard on it. 

Katowice is far more multicultural than I expected: almost every day you have the possibility to know a little more about another culture because of a different “International meeting” organized on Facebook, which helps integration with both other foreigners and locals.

People from Poland may not look as friendly as they actually are, they are really curious and friendly, and talking to them is many times easier than talking to strangers in Italy. 

A month has passed since my arrival, and my luggage is already full of new experiences, I sincerely like it here, and even at work the responsibilities are increasing, but I’m not scared about it, just excited, very excited!