My EVS experience in Molfetta Blog dei volontari

Hey! My name is Nargiz and I am from Russia. 

I have spent the last 9 months of my life between 2 small towns in Puglia, at the very “heel” of Italy - I lived in Molfetta, and my volunteer service was held in a middle school in Bisceglie. My responsibilities included the preparation of informal English and French classes - basically, when I came to class, my students and I played linguistic games, conducted quizzes and actively practiced the language. In addition, I took part in various extracurricular activities - school events, sports competitions, school trips in the region, and so on. I became very close with the kids, we had a lot of fun together, communicating and learning the Biscegliese slang :)

With InCo, we also did a number of projects on the city level in collaboration with the local town hall. We went to the association for the elderly people and learned to cook local recipes like focaccia and lasagna from Italian grandmas, sang Christmas songs in the Molfettese dialect, and I even took a diving course - Puglia is located on the Adriatic coast and is famous for the beauty of its sea.

At InCo we were more than 15 young people from all over Europe and the world, which undoubtedly made my experience even more interesting and rich. During my service, together we visited 6 countries in Europe, not to mention the many cities in Italy itself. I am sure that we will keep in touch with many of them and we will meet again in somewhere in this world.

I can surely say that these 9 months were one of the most memorable periods in my life. I had the chance to fully immerse and feel the spirit of a small Italian town with a particular lifestyle, a huge amount of bureaucracy and an immense love for food, wine and life.