Abbas Zahidi (24) from Azerbaijan went in March 2008 to Romania to work as an EVS volunteer with Roma people and disabled children. Below you can read about his experiences during his 9 months abroad: ‘EVS experience was definitely one of the best experiences in my life!’

‘First of all, I would like to notice, that the project where I have participated was the biggest one in Romania and one of the biggest in Europe. We had 52 volunteers from 18 countries. It meant, we had chance to discover many-many cultures.’

‘Everything started from on-arrival training, where were also new volunteers from other organization. All of us were excited on our new stage in Romania. In general, main purpose of on-arrival training is to help to adapt volunteers to the local community. In big lines we reached to this. After training we had workshop presentations. We had many options to select our activities. During my Romanian classes, I asked from teacher to increase my classes from 2 to 3 times per week. She agreed to this. To this proposal few volunteers more have joined. So, like this, were my first weeks.’

‘In next weeks, when we had already apartment, we were already working with kids who has disabilities and with Roma people. First days it was quite hard, because of language barrier between me and kids. We had kind of translator during activities. It was new experience for me to deliver training with help of translator. After activities, we had dinners or outgoings with volunteers. We were making different kind of parties. For example, from my side, I have organized Azeri Tea party, where we were drinking tea and eating snacks. Once, when I had guests from Italy, we also made Italian Pasta party .’

‘After some weeks, I asked from my organization to organize a party for the day of Independence of Azerbaijan Republic. They agreed and they helped us with money. We – volunteers from Azerbaijan (we were 3) prepared foods, presentations, books (Azeri books in Romanian by our embassy), Azeri music and some jokes. People were happy to see all these. On that day they discovered a lot of about Azerbaijan and from my side, I found many new friends.’

‘Once, when I was selected to International Training Course by Council of Europe, my host organization Millennium Center helped me with brochures to represent organization. After this training, I made a little report about my “trip” to that training. About reports I would like to say more, that we were giving diaries every week. There we were noting our daily activities. It was kind of time management experience for us.’

‘In the middle of our stage, we had mid-term training, where were participating all new/old volunteers. I think till now it is the most huge meeting of many EVS volunteers in the history of all EVS projects. We were there about 50 volunteers. There we discovered many about project management, as we had to write a follow-up project in the end of our stage. So, this was kind of preparation to that part.’

‘After some months, when we had new volunteers, who didn’t see presentation of Azerbaijan, I asked from host organization to allow me to organize Azerbaijan Evening for them, like before. They approved this and I organized second evening of Azerbaijan in my first stage. Volunteers were happy to participate at this evening.’

‘After ending my 6 month, my host organization proposed me to stay for next 6 month. As I had many staff to do in Azerbaijan, I agreed only for next 3 month. I would like to notice, that in my first stage I was all the time in the city. But, in second stage I was in two villages. In the first village I spent about one week. Reason was simple: host organization on that village was not implementing simple standards for EVS volunteers. Besides this, they were humiliating volunteers. I made report about all these to Coordinating Organization and that HO left project and I changed my community to another village. In second village I had first time experience to stay with host family. They had different rules, different life. Entire my life I lived in capital and I never had lack of “freedom”. But, to be honest, there I spent one of my greatest times. Everything was totally new for me and I was happy to feel all these.Village people are very different from city people. We had to change our way of teaching in order to teach kids in a effective way. Besides this, we needed to include some local tradition methods to our sessions.’

‘Close to the ending of my stage, I had filming sessions. There I learnt how to make movies. During that session, we had competition between teams. Our team took first place and the main present from organization.’

‘As a result of EVS, I learnt Romanian language, project management, many, many cultures, filming and photo making. I improved my English and I met many new friends, with whom I keep contact till now. Even more, we meet sometimes. So, EVS experience was definitely one of my best experiences in my life!’