Volunteering with personal challenges - Suljo

My story called volunteering service in Halle begins last year in February, when I found out about volunteering service in Bosnia from my sending organization. Back then I liked the program itself, but I had an enormous fear which didn’t let me to assign on a program. That fear was a bad knowledge about English and a German language.
“How to communicate” constantly was passing through my head and it would be very hard for me how to live.
I have talked about everything with my families and friends and then decided to assign in which application I hinted that it's a perfect way for me to learn German language.
Many would say it was a crazy thing to do, but after a year I found myself in a very beautiful city called Halle in which I will continue with my German course level A2 and there is no more fear about not knowing language. I came in Halle on 27 September when I actively start with my volunteering program.
You remember my story with fear of not knowing language? In the end that affected highly my participant in this volunteering service and because of my other references they actually accepted me. Then my POA saw as a great chance for me to learn foreign languages.

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Another adventure in Germany - Juliane

As a volunteer in a German school last year, I decided to stay in Germany for another year. The European Voluntary Service was the best opportunity that came to my mind. It was the perfect outcome after my first volunteering experience though I needed a bit of time to switch from a great experience  to a very different adventure. 

I arrived in Halle last September, after a very long journey by train, with my big and heavy suitcase, and on the first days I already knew I would appreciate this city. If anybody asks me about culture shock, I won’t be able to answer what surprised me most the first time I came to Germany about 5 years ago. I know there are differences but they are not shocking me any longer, so I forgot them. And now I feel the culture shock when I come back to my home country, France, therefore I feel now a bit more German than French.

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In Halle, expatriates from the Balkans don’t want to go home

 While the Covid-19 spread seems controlled by the Balkan countries, their nationals settled in Halle, in Germany, prefer to stay in their host country. The healthcare system is to blame, they say, underfunded and a victim of corruption.

Facing the coronavirus epidemic, the Balkan countries barricade themselves. As soon as mid-March, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which are still waiting to be included inside the EU, have put in place drastic confinement measures. "People who are older than 65 are not allowed to leave their homes, except three hours during the week", explains Bojana, from Bosnia and employed by Friedenskreis in Halle, in East Germany. The rest of the population isn’t allowed to leave from 5 pm to 5 am. If they dare to return, nationals settled abroad must be put into isolation : “The police is waiting for you at the airport and sends you to the dormitory”, says Armend, 24 years old, who comes from Kosovo and takes care of Europan volunteers in Halle.

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Welcome in Halle, the German New York - Louis

 When I got into this quiet provincial town, between Leipzig and Berlin, I didn’t expect I’d actually be surrounded by so many foreigners, with so different backgrounds. Neither did I expect we’d be so similar, in a lot of ways.

A friend of mine once told me a joke about going into a foreign land. “How do you know if someone is considered an immigrant or an expatriate ?” I don’t know, I replied, how ? “You’re an immigrant if, when you tell where you come from, no one asks any question. And you’re an expatriate if, when you tell where you come from, people ask : why did you come here ?”

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A few words about my voluntary service - Nina

My story begins on September 23rd, arriving in Halle. This is actually the day I moved, and as soon as I arrived, after the coordinator met me at the main station, all the volunteers went to the municipality together to report our whereabouts. Pretty exhausted and tired of the road, with suitcases in which I had packed my hopes, dreams and expctations, also clothes for windy days (because I was warned). I enter, sitting and waiting my turn. Until yesterday at home, today I change my address, but at that moment I feel satisfied. My turn is coming, lots of papers, signatures, rubrics and signatures again. Confused, I read my new address on the screen (which I still do not know where it is), and many other sections, citizenship of one country, residence of another, ultimately automatically throws out that I am Yugoslav.

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Drei unglaubliche Monate in Jajce - Simon

Moin Moin,

Ich bin Nord-Deutscher, wir sind dafür berühmt uns kurz zufassen und immer alles mit „war nicht schlecht“ zu beurteilen. Das trifft diesmal bei mir nicht zu, denn die letzten drei Monate waren nicht nur „nicht schlecht“, sondern unglaublich. Unglaublich in vielen Aspekten. Unglaublich anstrengend; unglaublich aufregend aber vor allem unglaublich gut.

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Lydias Frewilligendienst bei Svitac in Brčko

Die letzten drei Monate sind unglaublich schnell vergangen. Jetzt sitze ich hier und muss mir trotzdem überlegen, wie ich die drei Monate in einen Text verpacken soll.

Ich bin am 02.09.2019 von meiner Heimatstadt mit dem Zug nach Karlsruhe losgefahren. Ich weiß noch ganz genau, wie ich ein komisches Gefühl im Bauch hatte. Ein ganzes Jahr in einem komplett neuen Land zu verbringen, mit Leuten, die man kaum kennt, in eine neue Umgebung, eine neue Kultur und Sprache zu lernen.

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Lanas Freiwilligendienst in Brčko (2019/2020) - eine kleine Gedankentour

Am 05.09.2019 komme ich übermüdet und plötzlich doch aufgeregt nach einer 24-stündigen Busreise am Busbahnhof von Brčko an. Ich erinnere mich noch sehr gut an die Taxifahrt mit meiner Mentorin vom Busbahnhof zu unserer Unterkunft. Die Stadt erschien mir so groß: Überall Cafes, ein Park, viel Abbiegen nach links und rechts und Menschenaufläufe vor den Schulen. Mittlerweile, drei Monate später, habe ich gemerkt, dass Brčko schon ein kleineres Städtchen ist (im Vergleich zu meiner Heimatstadt Oldenburg). Ein Ausgang in das Zentrum reicht aus und schon sehe ich ein paar bekannte Gesichter. Es ist mir tatsächlich leicht gefallen, Bekanntschaft mit neuen Menschen zu schließen. Nicht zuletzt haben meine Grundkenntnisse der Sprache und die hier existierende „Cafékultur“ dazu beigetragen. „Wollen wir Kaffee zusammen trinken?“ heißt man geht zusammen in ein Café, unterhält sich (auch mit anderen Leuten, die man aus seinen Stammcafés so kennt), trinkt Kaffee, eine topla čokolada oder Exotic. Und das mehrmals in der Woche. Für mich ist es schön, mal in einer Stadt zu leben, die etwas kleiner ist. Wo man nicht durch die Anonymität geschützt wird. Es gibt mir das Gefühl zu der Community dazuzugehören.

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