One Year Later: A Volunteer’s Reflection
INPROOne year ago today, I was a nervous wreck at the Lisbon airport, saying goodbye to my family and about to board a plane to the unknown. That unknown was Rzeszów, the largest city in southeastern Poland.
As I left the airport, I faced an empty parking lot and prepared myself for this new chapter I was beginning. I caught a bus and left near Galleria Rzeszów, where I met the first person who would be a part of this new life, Gaia, a half-Spaniard, half-Mexican photographer, who took me to the house where I would be staying.
I had been the second person to arrive out of the six long-term volunteers who would be staying in the house. Later the same day, another person came to the house: Mariami, a girl from Georgia, a country I knew nothing about. That night, the three of us started to talk, and learn about each other, about why we were here, and about our cultures. The next day, two more people arrived: Erij and Mariem, two girls from Tunisia, who had the opportunity to bond during their trip to Poland. As the evening drew to a close, the energy in the house was beginning to solidify.
You might find it strange, dear reader, that I mentioned there would be six people in the house, but currently, there are only five. That’s because Adrian was due to arrive three weeks later. He was also going to be my roommate for the following year. When he did arrive, we bonded even more as a house by going to Krakow together, experiencing more of what the country had to offer, and deepening our connections. During that trip, we discovered a pierogi festival where I tried potato and Oreo pierogi. My first advice for any foreigner in Poland is to stick with the traditional pierogi—they are famous for a reason.
As the months went by, the work became second nature but remained as rewarding as ever. We started to collaborate, share ideas, and use each other’s strengths to the best of our abilities through school visits, workshop facilitation, and hosting local events. Throughout the year, we had short-term volunteers join us, experiencing part of our year together. Additionally, through training courses, vet groups, study visits, networking seminars, and more, I met many interesting international people.
As I’ve previously mentioned, we were open to embracing the culture around us. Following the advice of our INPRO Coordinator, we started attending Polish classes every Monday at the university. Although my knowledge of Polish is not professional, I learned a lot in those classes and met more international students, including some Portuguese, which was nice since I missed speaking my language.
When January came around, we decided to start facilitating another weekly event, an event that had already been active in the organization called Monday Stories, which I co-hosted with Mariem. Unfortunately, it ended shortly before we left so that the next batch of volunteers could get accustomed to the city before restarting it. However, we leave with the certainty that the event will be in good hands. The event presented various countries through the perspective of a country’s natives—the good, the bad, and the ugly of how a native perceives their country. It was not always an easy process to find a person from a new country each week. However, it was still such a rewarding process where I was able to learn a lot of skills from event organisation and social skills as well as public speaking, organisational skills, time management, and adaptability. This was just the tip of the iceberg of how much I’ve developed as a professional, from school presentations I talked about to Open Cafe, which I will talk about now.
Open Cafe is INPRO’s most popular event. Every Wednesday in Urban Lab, the room is filled with locals and internationals from Rzeszów, discussing a different topic hosted by our volunteers. It’s a safe space to share opinions and perspectives, practice English, and just make connections.
As time continued to pass, we began to see the seeds of the connections we had made take root. During our school visits, one of the teachers invited the volunteers to a barbecue with more international attendees, some of whom were familiar faces from other events, such as previous Monday Stories hosts and even past volunteers. Speaking of Monday Stories, I hosted the first edition about Portugal, and to my surprise, one of the attendees decided to take a trip to Portugal as a result of my presentation. He asked me for more detailed advice and even sent me a photo from my hometown. Later, when he returned to Poland, he invited me and other internationals, some of whom were also Monday Stories hosts, to join him for activities like bike riding, kayaking, and playing snooker. Additionally, the volunteers were invited multiple times to barbecues by a regular attendee of Open Cafe. He is such a frequent participant that he will be hosting two Open Cafes after we return to our respective countries. These were all great experiences with wonderful people.
I cannot even begin to express how much I’ve grown during this year. It’s so different to learn about the world by sitting in geography class compared to talking to other people, participating in non-formal education activities with them, seeing other lands, and learning about different cultures. This year passed in the blink of an eye. However, I return to my home country with an abundance of stories, friends from all around the globe, and the knowledge that the best way to learn about the world is through experience. Our pursuit of connection with different people is what allows us, as INPRO says, to live in a smarter community.