We are back with the third installment of our European Solidarity Corps volunteer series. In this week’s blog we hear from Mercedes and her experience of the project so far.
“My name is Mercedes, and I am one of the volunteers from the European Solidarity Corps in Citywise. I am 25 years old and come from Spain. I studied Audio-visual Communication in Madrid but, I have always wanted to work with kids since I was younger and so I worked with children taking care of them and giving private lessons. To work in Citywise for the year was my chance to do more of this!
What can I say about Citywise and my experience so far? Everything is positive when it comes to here. The biggest surprise to me when I arrived at Citywise was the overall good vibe between the people that work here, and those who come in to visit or do lessons. Everyone is willing to help you and have a chat, and so it made the first few weeks much easier than I expected.
This is a very rewarding experience for me to take part in. It is helping me to grow in so many ways, both professional and personally. When you are away from home, in a different country, with people of other cultures, working in a different language and teaching kids, everything is learning. I get to improve my English through working with everyone at Citywise also, but especially thanks to Vincent, who as well as teaching us English, also shows us many interesting sides of Ireland and its culture. I really enjoy Vincent’s classes.
My favourite part of the experience though, is having met so many people who have now become good friends. Getting to spend time with the kids and getting to know and support them with everything they need is one of the most fulfilling things of the experience. Each one of them has something special about them and which I can learn from to improve myself more for the future. I know that when I return to Spain, I will miss them a lot.
The last thing I want to say before I finish is that I am happy to get to live out this opportunity and it is something which I would recommend to everyone!”
We have no doubt that all of the staff, volunteers, and young people will miss Mercedes and our other ESC volunteers just as much.
Don’t forget to come back next week for our final instalment in the series!