Hello and welcome to my fourth and final blog post about my volunteering experience in Türkiye. I’m Laura from Italy, and I have been living and volunteering in Izmir for the past nine months. In this blog post, I will share my final updates about my workshops and my life here, and I will wrap everything up by saying goodbye to you and to this whole experience, which was amazing and has taught me so much.
Workshops
My work schedule has changed quite a lot lately. While I’m still doing some of my pervious activities, like yoga, new ones have been added – once again pushing me to try new things and giving me extra motivation.
I have a new class of kids aged 3 to 5, and to be honest, it’s not always easy to keep their attention for two hours straight. Still, I enjoy it and I like seeing how the bond between us grows stronger over time. Something similar happened with the teenagers group: once they started trusting me, working with them became easier and fun sometimes.
I also started a new workshop with adults, mostly retired people, which I’ve really enjoyed, even though coming up with new ideas is not always easy. We’ve built a very nice connection and we even went out together twice: once for a picnic and once for a rooftop dinner. It’s interesting how age doesn’t really matter when there is a good connection.
Life in Izmir
Over the past few months, I’ve explored more of Izmir and its surroundings than ever before, and I’ve really come to appreciate it. I visited the magnificent ancient city of Ephesus and explored the archaeological site of Bergama – both of them were just stunning. It’s incredible to think about how life must have been there and to imagine people actually living in those houses. With the summer coming, I also went to the sea and swam in the beautiful waters of Urla, where there was also a local fair, full of people and delicious food.
Lately, I joined the protests in Izmir and I found very inspiring to see many young people caring about their future, but to be honest, the reaction from the police and the government was quite scary.
I also had some local experiences, like going for Kahvaltı – Turkish breakfast – at a friend’s family home, where we shared food, relaxed, chatted, and, of course, ate again. Together with other international and Turkish volunteers, we also went to a meyhane, a traditional dinner spot, and had a great time—at one point, we even ended up dancing there. I really enjoyed these last few weeks of life in Izmir.
Exploring around
At the end of the month of Ramadan, there is a three-day holiday called Bayram, and I went to Fethiye with almost all the ESC volunteers. It was a very nice trip, even though the weather was not the best. After that, I went to Istanbul for the second time and had the chance to explore more of the everyday life there, without the need of visiting all the typical touristic places.
At the end of April, some friends from Italy came to visit and we went to Cappadocia. It was just amazing: the landscape is absolutely breathtaking and the air ballons make it even better. But most of all, I enjoyed spending time with my friends after a long time – it was priceless.
Looking ahead
During the final evaluation we had at the office, I read two letters I had written to myself, one in September and one in February. It was quite emotional, and honestly, it’s crazy to see how much I have changed over these past months. I think I’ll keep this tradition for the future.
I am very thankful for this whole amazing experience, and above all, for all the people I met in this journey. The connections I made, whether they lasted a long time or just for a day, were the heart of this volunteering and I couldn’t be more grateful.
I am very curios to see what life brings next, but I know for sure that I am ready for new adventures. So, this chapter of my life has come to an end and I would like to say goodbye with this picture of yesterday’s sunset in Izmir.
