My ESC voluntary service for the organisation I-Dare began in 08.03.2020. But the idea to do so came much earlier. I found a display for this voluntary service online and in the beginning I was very sceptical about going abroad for half a year. But with time going by the idea became more and more appealing for me. So I decided to applicate for it. I made first contact with the NaturKultur ESC coordinator and she was great to me and also following down the road I got to know the ESC coordinator at IDare via video call, she was also very nice. I prepared for my flight and checked everything with NaturKultur. Then at March 8th I flew to Jordan.
I arrived in Amman where my voluntary service took place. At my first day I went to my apartment and met the other two volunteers. These two showed me the city and gave me a first insight into local culture and behaviour. Regarding the apartment it was in acceptable condition. On my second day I went to I-Dare, the organisation I was planned to work for. I met all my future colleagues and they were all very good to me. I promptly began my work there and together with two team members, we filmed and edited an advertisement video for I-Dare. While working there my main task was to write articles for the Alternative Knowledge Hub of the organisation. E.g.: While I was in Amman I wrote an article about the internet and how to surf there safely. I also got Arabic lessons at I-Dare, these were coordinated by Ahmad who was also my mentor.
At the end of the first week in Amman the organisation and I went to a farm in the valley of the Dead Sea. There we did a workshop about how to do proper dialogue and we all cooked a delicious meal together. This cooking was also very good for bonding with my colleagues because we all had to work together to create a good outcome. On the weekend I went around Amman and visited the city.
Sadly when the new week came around, the Corona crisis also hit Jordan, which resulted in a complete lockdown of Amman. Since we couldn’t work under these conditions and since I was a foreigner in this country, after one and a half week of lockdown I decided to leave Amman and to come back to Germany. I was safely evacuated by the German embassy and landed in Munich on March the 24th.
But this didn’t mean that my voluntary service was over. In May, I sat down with NaturKultur and IDare in a Video conference and we thought about new ways to continue the project. We decided that I would do a video about rural life in Germany, together with the help of my mentor at IDare. From there on my voluntary service was completely online based because this was the only opportunity to keep working with my colleagues in Amman. My mentor and I successfully created a video although there were some difficulties due to the fact that we did all of this online together. I also kept on writing articles for I-Dare and submitted them via Email.
There were many difficulties in my service because I had to leave Amman, but in the end it all played out very well. I learned much about foreign culture and how to behave correctly and respectfully. Sadly we had to end the voluntary service one month earlier as planned but with all the experiences I made I decided to one day do it again just so I can do the whole voluntary service properly. I also gained a lot of friends in Amman and everybody there was very nice to me. That’s why I am also planning to come back there when the circumstances are right.
Luca
Luca was hosted in Amman on the project „Global Change Makers“, financed by the European Solidarity Corps and Jugend für Europa.