My name is Nigel Connor and I completed a four month EVS placment in Kalamata, Greece.

My own background is youth and community and counter to popular belief I chose my EVS on the project and not the location, I can vouch for this with my strong distaste for very warm weather. The project was a youth centre in a medium sized town called Kalamata in the south of the mainland and the position was assisting in the day to day running of the youth centre as well as being encouraged to run personal projects.

EVS is not all a walk in the park and my first obstacle came very quickly, setting my issues with stifling Greek August weather aside my first big challenge was language. Being a native English speaker can make you complacent and going to a country that’s very heavily dependant on tourism as Greece is can make getting around easy enough but when it comes to functioning as a volunteer in your day to day role, its not you struggling to understand everyone else but its more that you are the thorn in their side and they haven’t a clue what your saying. The combination of through understanding of the language, slang and a Mayo accent came sometimes be far too much for people to understand and you quickly have to result to speaking like you do to a small child or a cat – frustrating to everyone all around.

Like all of life’s issues you adapt and move on and soon I became more acclimatized to speaking in a simplified, slower and less Mayo manner of speaking. There where more challenges to come and these would not be so easy to overcome. Firstly I was not a single little volunteer out on my own little adventure but part of a team of 13 other EVS volunteers that where in Kalamata, all living together and working on similar projects. Thirteen young people from very different backgrounds, working on different projects, living together, socializing together and spending almost every last waking minute together, you can see this can go one of two ways. It in fact went both - when we where not tearing each others hair out we where the best of friends, a constructed family with all the trappings of family life. You got to know peoples moods, their pet hates, their favorite food, their dreams, their secrets and their disgusting personal habits –it was all their, a veritable EVS soap opera.

There is a lot to learn from people of another culture and I did not give the idea of cultural difference any thought before I headed out to the great Greek unknown but this was by far one of the greatest lessons I got from my experience, mix this up with people from nine different countries and the learning curve only becomes steeper. I think now that we are all in this great EU megalith together we do not fully appreciate that we are in fact all so different in so many ways – this came a surprise to me but very much a shock to others. These differences will go on to have a huge influence on how you both work and live your life in your chosen EVS country and now with hindsight I feel it was one of the biggest challenges to everyone on my project.

My Greek experience was no cakewalk but it was not a disaster either, it was what EVS proposes to be – a challenge and a learning experience. My advice to future EVS volunteers is that you can not know enough about your hosting organisation enough before you go. If you are going to give up your life for an organisation for a period of time be sure you know what your getting yourself into – speak with past EVS volunteers, to project staff, to National Agency staff and to your sending organisation before you leave. There is a support structure around EVS so make use of this and enjoy the experience as you will not get such an opportunity again.

Get in touch with Eva in VCI if you are intrested in doing your own EVS placement, she was a great help to me. eva@volunteer.ie