Testimonio María Sierro | 25 años

Today 6th of May I’m arriving to Madrid’s airport to take a flight to Milan. In the evening I’ll arrive to the Ostello dei Balocchi in Ligonchio, Reggio Emilia, Italy, where I’ll start my adventure as EVS volunteer.

Ostello dei Balocchi is a hostel in the middle of the nature, in the National Park of Apennines, where activities of ecotourism takes place.

I will spend the next 5/6 months there, participating in different activities (excursions, workshops, animal caring, reception, cleaning, communication…).

Yesterday I was packing my bags for this adventure and I cannot avoid thinking about my childhood; for example when I went hiking with the mountain’s club of Miranda de Ebro in the beautiful nature of Burgos and Basque region. Along the time I have turned into a ‘city girl’, becoming more sedentary and both working and living in urban environments. Now I want to reconnect myself with nature knowing flora and fauna, living a more active life, far from pollution. It’s possible that living 5/6 months in another country, in such an isolated place, could be mentally and physically hard, but I’m starting this adventure with a lot of energy trying to do the best of myself.

In the past I had other volunteering experiences (like WOOF in a Eco village in France during a month) and I know it is a great opportunity when you being able to learn new skills, meet new people, new costumes and participate to interesting projects. However, this is my first time in the European Solidarity Corps. I participated in other European programs like Erasmus (in Milan, Italy) and I’m so glad they are giving all these amazing opportunities to young people of travelling and learning in other countries. In the beginning the steps to follow to arrive at this kind of volunteering seems complicated (find a sending and a hosting organization, the right project for you in the dates you could go…). Then I found Mundus Association that had a lot of nice projects in his website and I decided to send the request to one of those. I received the positive answer from them and the process started. I had a Skype interview and now here I am with my tutor Anita taking care of me till the arrival to my destiny, starting a new adventure with a lot of curiosity and happiness.

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