Hi, I am Hakan Kırlıdurmuş. I have been accepted to the aid project for students who do not have good conditions in Craiova, Romania. Our goal was to go to high schools or schools, collect donations (clothes, hygiene and school items, etc.) from students and transfer them to the other students. My first days were extremely easy, other volunteers and my host organization were very helpful and I received a very warm welcome. One of my greatest chances was the house provided to me and my friends in it. My house was right in the city center and in the middle of every possible opportunity you can think of. Since Craiova is not a very big city, my house’s place at the center made my 4 month project perfect. When I arrived to Romania, I realized two things; the first was the cold, the other was the warm interest towards us (the Turks). Their attitudes against us were really good since we have many similar cultural things with Romania including their interest in the Turkish TV series. The country was not very rich, but we could really do a lot of things with the amount given to us from project’s budget.
Talking about my project, as I said before, our working hours were not very busy, especially compared to other projects. And our coordinator was very tolerant towards us and helped us in every situation. I’ve been meeting with my mentor once in a week, after discussing the topic of that week, we’ve been discussing what kind of problems I could experience in the project and what could be the solutions which can fix the problems. And they wanted me to speak with them regarding all sorts of possible problems. Since my project is related to the education, as a teacher, I adopted the project without experiencing any difficulties nor problems and enjoyed it very much. Apart from that, I made very good friendships and these friendships were more important than all of the other things within my project. I got to know the cultures of other countries, expanded my horizons and had unique experiences. With the language course provided to us, I learned how to use the language of the country to live in daily life. And with all of the EVS project volunteers in Romania coming from different countries, we attended to the “arrival training” in Bucharest. This was the training that happens in every project, and in the future, it creates opportunities for you to get to know quite important people and teach you lots of things related to your project.
If I got a chance to participate in an EVS project once again, I would pick the same city and the same country. But of course, I have couple friends from other EVS projects who’ve been unlucky throughout their projects. Therefore, ask for the photos of your project’s venue and the accommodation place that you will stay before going to the project. And one of the most important thing is, learn well the things about your project during the pre-departure training provided to the EVS/ESC volunteers by your sending organization (Pi Youth Association) before leaving your country (Turkey), because you should definetely learn your rights when you arrive to the host country. This could be beneficial to you and decrease the problems that you can face during your project. After all, you know that there will be problems in every project and nothing is perfect, but, if you deal with these problems in a proper way, everything will be okay.
AGH-172 Romania Project Volunteer “Hakan Kırlıdurmuş”