On the 9th of March I wake up very early to take the plane in Lisbon, my brother gave me a ride there and I said goodbye to him to embrace a new adventure, my destiny was Palermo, a beautiful city located in Sicily.

I had some idea of ​​where I was going, I knew it was a Historic City, old, with good food, warmth, good beaches so I had good expectations.

I discovered this opportunity by a colleague of mine who knew that I was interested in a project of this kind, I researched a little about CESIE and realized that it would be a very important step in my life, the decision to say goodbye to my old job and to leave my country was due to my desire to grow professionally, grow in terms of Graphic Designer, acquire knowledge to use it later to reach other levels ...

Around 7:30 p.m. I arrived at Palermo airport, took the bus to the center of Palermo where Balaram and Mattia waited for me, the people responsible for me during my ESV.

My first impression when I arrived to Palermo was a mix of emotions, I realized that it was a little chaotic in terms of transit, everything happening very fast, sirens of ambulances, cars whistling, but normal things of a Big city ...

I was very well received on my arrival both by my mentor and by the volunteers with whom I was going to share house.

As I had not dined at Yaiza, a Spanish volunteer took me to eat something close to home, a pizza to start my volunteer well in Palermo.

The next day I visited a little bit the city walking without destination, I realized that the city go from 8 to 80, with beautiful places, monuments, environment , but on the other side I saw areas and streets very degraded and dirty, the contrast was quite large but this contrast fascinated me in a way this gave me enough options to work my favorite hobbies illustration and photography.

The reason why this project motivated me to accept to be a volunteer was the fact that I could continue to work in my area of ​​study graphic design, working with a new team and without doubt it was a fantastic experience working with this team. I started working the week after the weekend of my arrival, I was introduced to the whole team, Alberto, Alex, Mariana, Valentina, Aday and Claudia who received me in the best way possible, very open people, very friendly and fun, with a great sense of teamwork and sharing, excellent professionals but most important of all very human people, I never felt bad in the bosom of the team, it was a pleasure to work with them and wish everyone the best in the world. In these 4 months of volunteering, I met people that I would never know in my life, people with whom I shared my life during my volunteer work, people with whom I had dinner, talked, drunk, smiled, amused, and without a doubt I will never forget them because without them, I’m sure it would not have been such a good experience.

This experience was not as long as I thought it was going to be, but it was certainly one of the most important steps I took to achieve my dreams, it was my launching pad for new horizons and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity they gave me and for the good pizzas that made me discover, thank you for all and see you soon.

Steven Martins

What is EVS?

EVS (European Voluntary Service) is an international volunteer program funded by the European Commission. It enables all young people legally resident in Europe, aged between 18 and 30 years, to carry out an international volunteer service in an organization or in a public body in Europe, Africa, Asia or South America for a period ranging from 2 to 12 months.

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