Témoignage de Kamila, bénévole Russe !

Normandy, July 2016
9 volunteers from France, Spain, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Turkey and Russia, 2 camp leaders Soukeina and Louis. 

I and a friend of mine were the volunteers in Normandy this July. Our project was about reconstruction of the farm frontage and it was our first experience of being volunteers abroad. Actually, we didn’t expect it would be so amazing.
I will separate main topics to be completely clear: 
1. Working day
We worked 5 days, 4-5 hours per day, one team in the morning, another team in the evening. It was a little bit uneasy first 3 days but then we got used to it.
2. Home. We lived in a house but slept in tents outside. We had also the backyard and it was my favorite place of the house to have a rest. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t believed we would have to sleep in tents until I saw it with my own eyes and surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad. 😀 I still remember this feeling of sleeping in our cozy tent with several blankets under and over us and even miss it.
3. Guys. We worked together, cooked together, had a rest, travelled and spend all the time together and of course, it was pretty uneasy sometimes but helped to learn how to be more patient and attentive to another people. Generally, it was fun and enjoyable to get such an experience of living with people from different countries and cultures.
4. Food.
Oh, I can talk about it for hours and probably nobody will be able to stop me. Vegetables, fruits, cheese, cider, bread, croissants – everything is wonderful. We even tried mussels one day and generally cooked lots of traditional dishes. I even learned how to cook several of them and now I cook it here, in Russia.

5. Camp leaders.
I can’t even find the right words to explain how much they are amazing and cool and I think they did their best to make us feel comfortable and free. That’s the best thing about this topic: at first, you came and meet camp leaders but then they become your friends 🙂 

6. Free time.
Picnics on the beach, the championship final in a bar, Friday fires,the fish festival and dances with old nice people, music festival with its crazy dances, street games, fireworks, our working mornings with cookie breaks and long trips in the van. I still have this song in my head: « …and we are rolling, rooolling, rolling on the river »!

So, I can say for sure it was my best month and camp ever and I want to say thank you , Concordia, for these emotions, for this opportunity to be a volunteer and people who worked for this project ! 🙂