Hey people, for those who don’t know me yet, I’m Mohamed, a volunteer for Smokinya foundation with European Solidarity Corps programme for almost 11 months now.
In this post, I would like to share about my experince here at Smokinya Foundation and Bulgaria. First of all what is clear to me is that I become more independent and concentrated for my goals in the near future. Staying for almost one year outside your country with different people from different countries and backgrounds is such a great experience for my personality and helped me a lot in improving my English which is the main language in the communication and the work here.
The first 3 months for me was a bit challenge to learn how to cook, how to buy something, how to deal with the locals by learning few Bulgarian words and phrases also, to understand how it works inside smokinya foundation and what I can do to help the foundation in its tasks and work.
After the first 3 months, specifically in May 2023, We as smokinya team were preparing for international camp “B.R.I.G.H.T Future” in a small village “Mrachenik” near to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. During the prepration time we had a big challenge to find 30 participants to come to Mrachenik to spend one Month in the camp but with hard work from all the team we managed to do it and we went to Mrachenik during this month several time to check what materials we have, what we can do for the locals and the village and to arrange the accommodation for all the international volunteers who are coming for one month and also for us as organising team.
Then the Camp Started!
“Start earlier, finish later” This how was the organising team during the whole month and for each single day during the month. As I mentioned above we went to days earlier to set up the camp and arrange the accommodation for the international participants, also in the last two days we were cleaning and displacing the camp before leaving. Wait! It’s not only the beginning and the end of the camp but also each single working day there organising team were gathering 15 minutes earlier to arrange the tasks for the day and by the end of each day in the evening were meeting for a clearing to see what happened during the day ? what was challenge? what’s the plan for tomorrow? what didn’t work with us and how we can fix it?
The camp was mix between physical work in all the public places in the village, workshops for personal development, playing volleyball and basketball in the free time, board games in the evening, singing, setting around the fire camp in cold night, talking and sharing stories, etc. Overall, the camp had a good vibe but for that to be happened it takes a lot of efforts to make everyone satisfied about what we have from tasks, games, conversations, events.
As each member of Smokinya team, I was a mentor for a group of 7 international participants out of 30 participants also I was responsible about the materials which we were using during the camp. This responsibility with such a big responsibility but I am satisfied about what I did regarding to that.
After the camp!
After this intense camp, It was the time to get some rest and chill a little bit, also for the office work wasn’t that much after finishing the camp. then September arrived. In September I started to learn new skills during my story in Smokinya which is how to write a Erasmus+ project (Youth exchange, training course). Until the time of writing this article, still there is no results but either is positive or negative I see I learnt something valuable and it may help me later.
Right now, In my last weeks in Smokinya Foundation, I would like to say big thanks for Smokinya foundation team, all the volunteer, and special thanks to my friends from Plovdiv who welcomed me several times during my stay and showed me different places around Bulgaria. Taking the decision for coming here from Egypt and stay one year wasn’t that easy but right now I see it was correct. I am glad for being part from Smokinya team and I wish we see each other again in the near future.
shokran,
This program is co-funded by the Erasmus+ / European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an
endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. //
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