Greetings from Romania

All things in life started with a little bit of desire to dreams, from dreams to goals and from goals to reality. What we want in our lives are just desires, but there are also things to do. Then there came a moment in life when I really wanted to change something. And I succeeded.

So I am currently in Romania, in the town of Sighisoara. I am here because I had the opportunity to participate in the European Solidarity Corps program. All I had to do was meet my support person in the sending organization, chat a little and write a motivation letter. Then I called the Romanian organization, and we were off!

The moment I found out that I had been accepted into the project, I was so excited that I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes. Every day I thought about what I would do here, why I was even going to the project, and all these little questions worried me a little, and the people around me also made this whole waiting moment a little crazy. That's why I felt both happy and thoughtful, sometimes maybe a little disappointed or sad. Since this project will last half a year, I'm writing this on the second day here. There are volunteers from different countries - France, several from Spain, also Germany, Denmark, Belgium (my roommate), from Poland. In any case, no one is bored here. On the second day, a lot of information has accumulated in my head, sometimes I even wonder how a person can experience so much in two days, starting with the trip itself, not sleeping at airports, the several-hour car ride, and of course, the heavy bag that still needs to be moved. Who in the world would do that, who would travel with almost 20 kg of luggage? Mhmm, I guess it's me. Anyway, I'm sitting in my apartment right now and enjoying the touch of a keyboard. Yesterday, on my first day, I got to know almost all the volunteers who live here and work on various projects. Two more of my colleagues will join later. Even though I had only slept for two hours, I was able to “rest” a little on the first night. Today I met with the project leaders Aleksandra (we call her Ada) and Florentina. A very warm welcome with hugs, meaning that the volunteers themselves all feel like one big family, even though they are working on separate projects. Ada had an anniversary today, and that brought up even more lovely emotions. Although it may seem like the days are spent having fun here, at the same moment everyone is focused on their work as one. I have never seen such efficiency of work - everyone sits at their own work and is really so engrossed that you can’t even tear yourself away from the table. For example, in one of the rooms there was filming, and in the other room there were about 10 of us, and when they asked us to be quiet and not talk during the filming, we all remained silent as mice and continued working. Well, this is one of the things that fascinates me the most.

During the introduction activities, we played a funny game called “HA” - people sitting in a circle, the first one says “HA”, then the second one says “HA” twice, and the third one says “HA” three times, while everyone, especially the last one, laughs out loud. Volunteer David from Spain had to say “HA” about seventy times, and it was so funny that we all got out of breath. This morning I also managed to run with Theo from Belgium, we ran a couple of kilometers to the stadium, then around the stadium and back. This place is very beautiful, the architecture of different colors is beautiful, there are mountains around. And where can we go without Dracula conversations! People are actually quite nice and welcoming in stores or on the street.

The main thing right now is not to give up and go forward towards your goals. You have to believe that everything will work out. As I have always said, “I WANT, I CAN AND I DO!” The main thing is never to lose heart, no matter what my next day will be, always to get up and continue working with full force. If there are any disagreements, they can be resolved, because you can never do without problems - that's just life, and you and I, we all live it only once!

Marks Daniels
The project "REST, Eco-social touristic network" is funded with the support of the European Commission's "European Solidarity Corps" program.
The article reflects only the author's opinion.