by LHI Volunteers Davide and Thomas
Thomas has volunteered at our center in Greece multiple times. So cool he’s in Moldova now!
Two of our amazing international volunteers, Thomas from the UK and Davide from Italy, have been spending their summer volunteering at an LHI-sponsored community center in Basarabeasca, Moldova. We are excited to share Thomas and Davide’s travel journal, starting from day 1!
July 24th 2023, Basarabesca, Moldova
LHI volunteers – first week report
One week ago we arrived in Basarabeasca, a small town in the south-east of Moldova. It is here where we will be volunteering for the following five or six weeks. On Monday evening we reached the city and went directly to our accommodation: a former dormitory for railway workers and students located only 500 meters from the Ukrainian border. We are sharing the space with a few refugees from Ukraine. We learned that Basarabesca was—and partially still is—an important center for rail transport.
The Phoenix Center—the local community center in which we are volunteering—is a precious resource for the city. It offers recreational activities, seminars, courses, free access to a gym and much more. We met the director of the center, Ms. Klara, the same evening we arrived in Basarabeasca. She was waiting for us on the side of the road not very far from her house. We stopped the car, and had our first meeting right on the spot, communicating in French, using some Russian, English, or Italian words when we could not understand each other.
At the end of our first day, the mayor of Basarabesca came to the center just to meet us! Just like Klara, he was glad that we’d come to the Phoenix Center. He was enthusiastic and ready to help with anything we might need.
Day 2: The children arrived around 9 am and were soon busy playing table tennis, using the computers in the computer room, making bracelets or necklaces, or practicing some of their favourite dances. Once everyone was assembled, we headed outside with Maxim, who runs the gym, for outdoor games and activities.
The summer campers at the Phoenix Center made sure that Davide and Thomas felt very welcomed and included!
The children happily welcomed us into their activities and were excited to show us what English they knew. We were both struck by the kindness of the children. It was important to them to make sure we were included and that we understood and followed the rules of the games. By the end of the second day we were both decorated in bracelets, necklaces and rings and had been given several drawings (which the children were careful to make sure were in our favourite colors). It was clear to us that the children were happy to have us there, and we were honored to have been so warmly welcomed.
Davide (right in black shorts) encourages the kids to PULL!
By Friday, we were feeling confident that we knew how the center worked, but we were soon to find that no two days were the same at the Phoenix Center! Klara had managed to secure a visit from trainers from Chisinau, Moldova’s capital city, to lead a seminar on financial responsibility for teenagers and young adults. We were invited to join, and so we gladly did, thinking that it would perhaps be an hour or so. How wrong we were! It turned out to be a whole day affair including many icebreaker games and a long role-playing game in which we assumed the role of family members and had to make decisions on different scenarios. With Davide playing the role of the breadwinning son in his team, and Thomas the disruptive Babushka in his, we did our best to steer our teams to victory. This also gave us time to chat and get to know some of the young people of the area.
Weeks at the Phoenix Center run from Tuesday to Saturday. The day got off to a slow start, but after lunch the children began arriving and we were soon back into our routines of table tennis and arts & crafts. As we left the center at the end of the day, we were both buzzing with inspiration and ideas for what we would like to put in place in the following four weeks here.
Be sure to check out Part II here.