My First Month in Romania

“My time doing EVS so far has been great! I’ve really enjoyed working with Alina and Dede at YMCA Romania, as soon as I arrived I was made to feel welcome in Baia Mare and made aware of customs and laws here that are different in England (my home country) that may affect me. I was also made aware of how to use my Axa insurance if it is ever needed. Working with everybody to plan and successfully have camps for Romanian children has been fun, even though its work I’ve really enjoyed it. Before coming I was worried that everybody being from different countries and speaking different languages communication would be an issue but everybody communicates and gets along really well. I also like how whilst we are here the YMCA Romania have organized for us to be able to go and see important historical sites within Maramures (the county we are staying in whilst doing our EVS in Romania). We have also had help with communicating with the children that we are doing camps for as some cannot speak English, what amazes me is how lots of the children within Romania speak fluent English from such a young age.My only wish is that this EVS was longer, Ive now been in Romania for just over a month (over half way through my two months here) and I am not looking forward to going back home to England, I wish that I could stay here volunteering in Romania for longer as its such a beautiful, relaxing country. Hopefully if I apply for another EVS in the future I will be accepted and get to have another great opportunity to do something like this again. I will always remember my time in Romania as it is completely different to England and I have been able to see how others live in different parts of the world. Before coming to Romania I did not think I had any stereotypes about the country but since being here I have found that I thought a lot of things about the country that were untrue, for instance I thought that I would see much more poverty than what I have seen, although the poverty is there in some places there isn’t as much as I thought there would be. Hopefully one day I get another life changing experience like this again.” – Daniel Watkins – United Kingdom (YMCA England)