"Why Germany?" - a report from Aida 11.01.2019

One of the first questions that people ask me, here in Halle, is always: “ Why Germany?”. Hello, my name is Aida, I am a 19 year old volunteer in Kinder und Jugendhaus e.V. Halle and I choose to be here because Germany is one of the countries that never attracted me.

First things first this whole volunteering year is an amazing thing for the greater good, the society and building peace but it is also a huge personal challenge. So far, after 3 months, I already proved myself wrong and I started enjoying Germany and everything it has to offer. Even the German language, that always sounded so rough and aggressive to me, found its way to crawl under my skin and now I catch myself listening to German interviews and songs ( not understanding a single word ) before I go to sleep just for the sake of the language. The circles I am a part of here including my volunteer friends circle, my work circle and all others give me safety but also a lot of space to wander and experience things I´ve never faced before. The most challenging one must be the work circle since I am forced to talk in German with children all day long. A language barrier is one of the hardest ones to cross. I often feel sad when I can´t express myself exactly how I want to but at the same time I am finding my ways to overcome this problem, therefore earning a new skill. At the end don´t we all have some difficulties in shaping words even in our mother tongue ?- They don´t always sound right how we want them.
In conclusion I realized I can still build amazing friendships, give pure love and happiness even without talking that much at all.