Living in your own and volunteering, Fitore about her volunteering service at Lebens(t)raum e.V. WG 2

Changes are always challenging. I always wanted to try what I can do and what I can not. When I applied for this amazing program, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and to face my fairs out there. For me those 6 months have been really powerful and teach me a thousands of new things, even though I was working from a really young age and taking care for the budget of my family, but living alone far away from my parents, hometown it was my first time.

To be adapted in a city like Halle it is not difficult, because Halle is a small city, where you can find everything that you want in the center of the town which is 7 minuts by walking from where I live. The advantages of Halle are that If you meet someone, the opportunity or the chance to meet that person again are so big, and for sure you meet again on the tram, on the market, on the street ,on the bar, biblothek and everywhere.

Halle make me know myself more, make me know how to manage anger, how to avoid conflict, how to communicate, how to raise my voice when I have right, how to protect what is belonging to me, how to ask for what I want otherwise I would never have it.

I am very active and energetic person, at least I think that I am so. So since im here, I remember myself just the first 2 or 3 weeks going only at work and doing nothing else. After I started the language course, I started also with my dance classes, when I had days off of work I jumped in the tram and was going in different stations just to see where the tram will bring me, then coming back from another direction. This was a way to be fast connected with the city and to know almost every part of it. Thanks to the Friedenskresi that they gave to us bikes as well, so I was using it also to explore some amazing places here in Halle that even local people don’t know about them.

Making friends wasn’t so easy, because from where I am coming it is a little bit different to make friends, and let’s say it is more easy because friends of your friends are also your friend so you end up knowing everyone in the city, and here in Halle you can meet great persons talk with them the whole night and don’t even ask about the names of each other, so when you see next time each other you just greet and that is. To become friends with someone you have to meet at least 4 or 5 times and then you maybe share your numbers or decide for a next planned meeting.

There are some difficulties that I faced here, one of them is the language barriere. Even though when I came I could speak some basic words I still could not understand. This was also a big problem for me at my place of assignment, because already none of them was speaking English, and for me was completely new environment plus to not understand what I have to do or what are my tasks was pretty hard. When I am at the place of assignment I can share some experiences and why not some hints about the next volunteers that will come in Lebenstraum.

Working with people with disabilities for me always was more than doing just a job or a volunteer service, it was and still it is blessing to help this lovely people being adapted and accepted in the society just the way they are.