Think Bigger Volunteering in Portugal
Episode 1
Piyarat Kittiwat or Palm
A Thai volunteer who participated the activities in Portugal for 6 months. The last one of Thai volunteer who came back from abroad after Covid in 2020
Duration 10 September 2019 - 9 March 2020
This month I will introduce you to some interesting stuff I have found and also training that I just joined.
Firstly, Portuguese are extremely nice, sometimes when I get lost in the middle of the road and I ask for the direction, they then immediately take me there by themselves.
Secondly, Portuguese normally have a late lunch and dinner and their meal is usually with a large portion.
Thirdly, the Portuguese love coffee. Some of them even drink it in the bar at 11 pm. Portuguese rain is like a shower, it comes in every direction, only umbrella and jacket never enough. But don't worry, rain here will come for 5 mins then stop for 5 mins then it will come again lol
And the most interesting thing is they consume a lot of rice and Cod fish. Well, there are many more things about them that you could discover yourself.
For the arrival training, it is a training that's provided for all new international volunteers around Portugal. For this training, I've learned a lot about volunteer responsibility, Youthpass, yourself and the most important thing is, I have met tons of amazing people from around the world, for example, there is a guy how comes from a small country called "Liechtenstein" placed between Australia and Switzerland which I never heard about it before. This training has opened my eyes extremely widely. We all have been exchanging ideas, discussing many interesting topics. 3 activities that have impressed me the most are
On the second day, we are hiking to Bom Jesus do Monte. On the way we need to pair up, facilitators will give us some topics to talk about for 5-10minutes and then we need to change and pair up with a new person with the new topic along the walk.
Next, we have a stimulation activity about the communication of 2 groups. One cannot speak, cannot write and need to ask another to help them to find something. We have learned and discussed a lot about it.
Lastly, we have an opportunity to share our knowledge via workshops and sessions, I did a Thai language class and it's really funny though.