Merhaba,
I am Coraline and I will be an ESC volunteer with Pi Youth Association for 12 months. I started in September.
Like most volunteers, I arrived on September 1st; like a new back to school. School has already finished for a lot of years for me, but you can feel the same vibe: new place, new people, new things to learn and to do. And I have a lot of things to say about all these things.
City tour by Turkish volunteers
For the city, we go from discovery to discovery ; between the landscape (yeah because put sea and mountains together it’s always so appreciable to see), food, and the language… and we can thank a lot the Turkish volunteers of Pi Youth Association that helped us to find the best places during these last weeks.
For real, taking the ferry to go to the office, we have seen worse transportation (think of the Parisian subway for example!) even if it’s not completely sustainable … Thanks to all the transportation, we could go to some beautiful little cities next to Izmir, like Cesme, or Sığacık and to finish, Foça. Such a nice place to swim in a transparent sea. It’s a good way to send some photos of our feet taking in the sun in the sand to friends that are going to work in France ahah. And it’s so nice to feel the summer while you are working. In addition to that, the city is really chill. It’s difficult to realise that 4.5 million people live here.
The main street of Karsiyaka that we take every day The Turkish unity during the Independence day of Izmir
So, we met a lot of different people. Türkiye, and particularly Izmir, is so welcoming and warm (like you saw with my quote about Turkish volunteers every time). Even if people want to be the first to enter the subway, they will help you sit if you have some disabilities for example. Or you can go to find some shoes in a shop, and you get out with a big hug from the owner instead of your shoes. So, we met active, dynamic, engaged, nice, warm and curious people that are incredible.
And of course, I don’t talk about the welcoming of the association… We arrived with a heavy on-arrival training and a big support to do all administrative tasks (what is so kind to have taken this time for us). They also took the time to bring us to the different workshop places, to listen to our activities ideas, to answer all our questions… Everything feels more comfortable and not completely lost in this new country… so I think we can be grateful for these things.
Bornova municipality centre’s visit Turkish Cultural night
Few days later, we started our first activities (excited like kids and stressed like teenagers) with children. Of course, we were not prepared to use that much energy, but also to receive that much love from them. Just to see their joy with simple activities, their implication to learn, it’s a big gift they give to us.
And one thing that I will remember is the fact that I am able to do spider-man face painting!
To this part of our daily life as volunteers, I can add the On-arrival training made by the Turkish National Agency. We had the chance to go to Samsun in the beginning of October where we learned more about what volunteering is and to meet beautiful people from different places in Türkiye. It has been a great way to exchange about our daily life, our activities, and our structures.
A part of the training
And to finish, I should talk about the French Cultural Night that we organised with the 6 other French volunteers. We have been so grateful to welcome a lot of participants during this night where we shared a part of our culture. To the schedule: games, laughs, food, dance and more knowledge about France! And yes, the sailor’s shirt, “la marinière” in French, is a big part of our culture, so we had to wear it during this
night.
French volunteers team!
So, 6 weeks to discover Izmir, it means to learn fast (and to speak better English fast too), to be amazed by every cat, to eat fat but tasty and to be more tanned than in a summer in France.
Görüşürüz (Yes I just know some words in Turkish for now but I try to use it a lot)