Hello! My name is Berna and I arrived in Ortanova on June 7th as a Beyond Borders volunteer. The first week we arrived was full of fun. First, we had the opportunity to explore the city with the help of local volunteers with the Mission Impossible task, and we had the opportunity to explore the city and mingle with the locals. In the following days, we started preparations for our cultural night with the girls and we organized a very nice cultural night in Melagodo and had fun all night.Many people thought the cologne was alcohol that could be consumed, but we prevented any accidents. The favorite of the night was definitely the kisir that Irem and I prepared together (which I was making for the first time in my life). It was really exciting for me to meet other volunteers and local young people during the night and to have the opportunity to explain our culture. In our first week we played a volleyball match with Italian volunteers and of course my team won. We were also lucky that there was a celebration of “La Festa Patronale” in Orta Nova and so a small amusement park was set up. Together with the Italian volunteers we spent a fun night at the amusement park, racing at full speed to crash into each other on my favorite bumper cars. At the end of our first week, we organized a trip to Foggia with the girls and had a day full of laughter.
The next days were spent with project preparations.Together with the Italian volunteers, we organized, cleaned and made Kiyathos suitable for the project for our future participants. (PS: the cakes offered by the host were wonderful). It was an incredible experience for me to be part of the project both in the organization part and as a participant. It was great to meet a lot of people from different cultures during the project, to work with them on a common topic and to produce creative projects. I especially loved the secret friend game, it’s a great idea to connect with people you don’t know and don’t know at all. My secret friend was Rocco the first week and he gave me great gifts. Flowers, candies, group cheers, group hugs…
Even though the fact that Italians eat pasta every day doesn’t seem normal to me, we had a lot of fun with the team. Especially Mhappe the donkey is my favorite among the Italians. I spend a lot of time with him and we have a close bond. My day is usually spent picking fruit from the tree (which I have never done before in my life and it is really tiring and hard work), cleaning the fruit from the ground, serving food to Mhappe and taking care of the participants. This is my first Erasmus project so everything is very new for me. Our first week in Kyathos was spent for me to understand the project and how youth exchanges work. Our participants are also getting better with each project. Our project topics are more interesting every week. The first week we did yoga and work on a healthy mind and getting away from social media. The second week we are working on the theme of music accepts diversity. Next week we will do our last project. I am very happy to have the chance to try graffiti.