Volunteering with UpDoo World Blog

I’m volunteering with an association called UpDoo World, which has set up music schools in Burundi and Cuba. We raise money by hosting events, selling used instruments, and by selling guitars we make ourselves. This is my favourite part of the experience. These guitars are called chiquiticas. We sell them here in Italy and we also send them to the students in our music schools so that they can have a cheap guitar to learn and become more interested in music with.

I’m really enjoying the way of life in Rovereto. It’s a small city with nice people, cafés, and museums. It’s so easy to cycle everywhere and isn’t too far from Lago di Garda. My biggest problem is the cold, seeing as I grew up in the south of Portugal. I have great flatmates and we regularly eat dinner and watch movies together.

Learning Italian has been tough, but I’ve been having lessons since October. I don’t think I’ve learned a lot of new things in the class, but they’ve made me a lot more confident to speak. I can understand the language pretty well seeing as it has similarities to Portuguese, but I’m definitely more comfortable with it in general after having started the lessons.

Until the end of my experience I have some goals. One is to walk up the mountain I can see from my window. Visit more of Italy and improve my Italian. And to just take advantage of being in a great part of the country where so many interesting things can be done.

Luke Redmond