The job of volunteering

The project in which we are involved here in Lisbon is an exchange between us and Spin association. Spin covers our board and lodging and our travel expenses, as well as our local transportation throughout Lisbon, it gives us the opportunity to attend a language course and to discover a country through its culture. We return the favor by making ourselves available every day in order to help Spin with its activities, according to our attitudes. They are obviously different from the others; they are the famous superpower that I was talking about in the first chapter of this blog. In this phase, our interests and timetables parted, and we lived different experiences with only contacting each other a few times. 

                                                               Angela

                                         Superpower: Heart of Italian Mamma!!

 Our sweet Angela was assigned to be an assistant within the nursery school “Crescer a Cores” which is located in the same building as Spin, and is managed by a partner association. Angela has also been praised as a cook on a few occasions: we wanted to please the other volunteers with some Italian recipes. The dinner of Monday, the 17th of March, was unforgettable. 

In the following text you can find Angela’s impressions about her voluntary position at Spin.

“What can I say about my experience with the nursery kids.. The feeling from the very beginning was love. They welcomed me straight away with their sincere smiles! The physical contact with them stole my heart, I have warmed their cold little hands and I have smothered them with kisses. After a few days all of them were repeating the games I had taught. The oldest were running after me, competing for my attention and including me in their games… All of the colleagues and nursery staff gave me a warm and friendly welcome. In conclusion, I will always remember the lunches and dinners with Spin’s team in its entirety. They have always been very affectionate and kind with me and I felt like they were my sons and daughters. THANK YOUUUUU!!! Finally I want to thank my wonderful travel mates and everybody that contributed to make this experience UNFORGETTABLE.”

                                                               Pinuccio

                                               Superpower: Brute Force!!!!

The Spin office needed many things to be fixed and/or arranged: the storeroom needed to be emptied and reorganized, shelves to be assembled, walls and ceilings to be painted, heavy things to be displaced… It’s precisely the kind of things that requires a strong man!! Our Pinuccio gave his body and soul with dedication and enthusiasm, carrying out his tasks with accuracy and pride.

                                                            Fernando

                                              Superpower: Handyman!!!!!

 Our professor offered himself from the very beginning for any kind of tasks… indeed he did whatever, helping in everything that was needed, especially in collaboration with Pinuccio. They are both satisfied for having done everything possible to help the Spin’s team.

                                                          Stefania

                                              Superpower: Creativity!!!

Since when I was born on this planet, everybody asks me for drawings. Spin wasn’t an exception and asked for a decorative solution for its office. The big room was as white as a sheet of paper. I thought of a dynamic color and of an informal, joyful subject for three reasons: for the wall’s irregular and rough features, for the harmony of the people working there and for the little time available. The subject represents the activities implemented by Spin, that is to say the cultural and European exchanges; it is conceived as an straightforward drawing in terms of the color, with only the suitcases of the youths moving from capital to capital being colored: they are their counties’ flags, their cultural “baggage”. 

We managed to carry out the job with the help of Zofia, Alvaro, Maja, Enric but above all Aneta and Pinuccio (Saint Pinuccio who gave four layers of yellow!) who worked with the roller flat out. The professor participated as well by making adjustments, hence a work “in harmony”. Outside I have also painted some flowering plants hanging out from the vases. At Spin they don’t exactly have green fingers and the plants struggle a little bit. Thanks to those drawings they will look flowered all year long and they will have a bit of a spring feeling over the winter too. I hope that I could leave something that will remind them of me, as they have left something in my heart that I will never forget.