“Living the adventure is part of the experience”, thus ends the short summary of a volunteer this summer in Brazil. His story, like that of many other volunteers, teaches us that these are the experiences that make you grow and leave your comfort zone.
=One of the experiences that most marked him was just arriving at what would be his home for six weeks, Salvador de Bahia: “On my first day of the project, the members of AIESEC in Salvador de Bahia accompanied me from my home to the NGO with the that was working. They told me a thousand times that I could not go with my mobile on the street since both my house and the NGO were located in the most disadvantaged and dangerous parts of the city. So, we started a 2:30-hour journey crossing Salvador -which I would have to do alone every day for six weeks- with paper and pen in hand to draw and learn the route ”, she explains”
“The next morning, after a tiring and hard day for the first few times, I woke up in plenty of time for my daily excursion. I took the first bus, waited more than 40 minutes for the second and finally got on. Confident of myself and trying not to seem lost -another advice from the members of AIESEC- the stops went by and by. ‘ Tall gray building with windows and it’s your stop‘I kept repeating myself. But suddenly, I recognized the building far away and saw that we were not heading for it. I tried to speak with my “Portuguese-Spanish” with the driver but it was impossible and I decided to get off to the next one. My first reaction was to get my mobile phone, google maps and in less than 10 minutes to be in the NGO. I got stressed out, I thought ‘why does this occur to me’ and tried to find solutions. They had told me not to do it if I didn’t want to fear for my safety. I walked a few meters lost thinking until I ended up in a store that looked like a pharmacy and I looked at my mobile secretly between medications. Five streets and you arrive. Come on, you can . Yes, that morning I arrived at the NGO and the bus never made a mistake again. ”
Like her, and like many other volunteers, when you venture out to experience the country, you see everything in a different way. You learn to see things as part of the experience, without stress and worry. Everything goes its way and you discover parts of yourself that you didn’t know or even existed. You learn to discover, love, break, miss, value … You learn in an environment drastically different from yours. And that, it is very very difficult to do it in your comfort zone .
If you want to learn and get out of your comfort zone, don’t hesitate to ask us how to go to Brazil or to the world by clicking here: aiesec.org.es/global-volunteer
