My First Month in Lithuania

Hello, my name is João, I'm a Portuguese volunteer, after a month from the beginning of this adventure in Lithuania, I only have good things to say about the country and about my volunteering project at Širvintos youth center.

I'm going to describe this month full of moments in chronological order. I started my volunteering by doing a training, where several volunteers from all over the country meet to conduct a training in order to gain a knowledge about the European Solidarity Corps volunteering project. In the course of this training, I met many amazing people that I carry into my life forever. People I've collected amazing moments with and many more to come.

After my training, I started my activities at the Youth Center. I started by going to the secondary school in Širvintos , however, my responsibility would be more mobile work, on Wednesdays in Gelvonai and Thursdays on Musninkai where we do some activities, such as board games, sports activities, conversations about various subjects, we celebrated earth day, and much more.

During this period, I also made several presentations about myself and my project

and, from a more cultural perspective, about my country in a few schools.

But since Life is not just work, as

volunteers, we always try to travel as much as possible. First I went to Riga, although I only visited the Old Town, I really liked the atmosphere of the city, then I went to Tallinn, where together with one of the friends I met at the training we created some funny stories to tell at my next family dinner. Within Lithuania I visited Vilnius and Kaunas, the two largest cities in the country. Both cities are very beautiful, I went to the Old town and some museums, but it was the bars that captivated me the most in both cities, a great way to meet locals, and during the night everyone is more open to talking.

Shortly before my project ends, by living this experience I feel more able to deal with young people properly, I learned new techniques to capture attention and entertain young people. Giving presentations and consequently speaking in public is more natural than ever.

To conclude, I insist on saying that time flies, I feel fulfilled and very happy for the opportunity. Everything went very fast, and today, 2 weeks before the end of my project, I am thoughtful as I reflect on everything, I have experienced here in Širvintos , in Lithuania and in all the corners where I have been.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my volunteer companions (Gülsüm, Kerem and Aydan) for all the moments, also Vakare, my mentor Jelena and Živilė who is my project coordinator and tutor teach me a lot. Thank you so much for everything.