Hello, S&G fans!
My name is Iulia, but people call me Lulia, Hulia, Giulia or other names.
But I understand that they are talking about me, because they are looking into my eyes and I think this is a stronger connection than only putting some letters together and defining a person by something that we call –name-. My first week in Ankara was about people and places. Erasmus is about discovering the world and understanding that we, as humans, are not that much different, only the circumstances and the events in this life make us be different.
I heard so many good things about this organisation and I am happy that they accepted me as their volunteer and they gave me a huge opportunity, to get to know myself better and to challenge myself with coming to a different country, completely alone and, at the same time, to help other people through my volunteering activities. I feel really blessed for being here and I already feel that, at least for 2 months, I belong here.
We have activities at the kindergarden, Saray center for people with disabilities, at Cafe down, where only people with Down Sindrom are serving and preparing the coffees and teas and we help them how much we can. Other activities are going to Beypazari, where we are having conversations with the teenagers from the local highschool on different topics, and service with refugees, where we are preparing the food and sorting the clothes donated.
Volunteering with S&G is already a great experience. I love the activities and I think this kind of work suits me the most.
Ankara is a wonderful city, and what I like the most is to walk around, get lost and try Turkish food. I really like that Turkish people are hospitable and that they love when you negotiate.
The S&G team is amazing and helpful all the time, day and night. They are very dedicated people and everybody can see that they love what they are doing.
