Report from Zidaine EVS in Cyprus

My Hosting city is Nicosia (Greek: Λευκωσία API: [lɛfkɔˈsi.a] / Lefkosía, Turk : Lefkoşa API: [lɛfkɔʃa]) which is Cyprus’ capital and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (non international recognized). With more than 300 000 people, Nicosia is the most populated town of the island.
Since the Turkish invasion in 1974th, the town has been divided de facto in two. The northern part of Cyprus is separated from the rest of the town by the “green line” a demilitarized zone controlled by the Unions Nationals Organisation (who share equally the whole island between these two states). In Nicosia, this line materialised by the existence of a wall, like the Berlin wall, marked out by many screening points. Cypriots Greek began to bring down the wall in March 8th, 2007: Ledra’s road is now again open to traffic. since April 3th, 2008.

My favorite place in the town is Ledra Street. The main street in the city center where we can find all kinds of shops and restaurants from Lebanese to locales specialities. The city center is little, but we can find anything we might need.

Arrived in Cyprus was really chaotic. We arrived, but our luggages were forgotten in Paris. We were 6 without luggages, we had to find our driver, but we didn’t dare go out afraid that we couldn’t come back. Understanding between our English and there really did surprise me, but by staying calm and with the help of our driver we finally succeed.

Life vision is completely different in Cyprus. The population lives to have in their lives things they exactly want: a house, a nice car. Even if they don’t travel. A totally different interest from us who think first to travel, and enjoy life in a different way. We don’t see it at first sight, but after a while it’s becoming apparent.

Concerning food, I couldn’t try lots of dishes cause there aren’t lots of halal meat  in this country mainly christian. So, we did try a Lebanese restaurant and “mezze” is a plate I do really enjoy since.

Here, life’s classy, good and tempts us to live there. There is no pressure, we don’t feel that country is in crisis and that bring us a good spirit. Aside from my voluntary I visited the town, town asides, enjoyed Nicosia, amusement parks, nature, parties between volunteers…

To live with roommate went very well. We had some arguments, but this is nothing surprising between 6 people who don’t know each other well. A nice little story: at the beginning, it was hard to be organised and to live at 6. One day, coming home we heard some sound under a car: a kitten was miaowing because he was left alone. We took him with us and our couple of friends who slept in the bedroom decided to take him with them. It was the worst night of their life, the kitten mewed the whole night and they couldn’t sleep at all. After that, the kitten sleep with us – my roommate and I- in the lounge. Since then, he doesn’t mew anymore, especially when he sleeps with me.

Some pictures from my EVS in Cyprus …

French Party organised for when we arrived and organised by us. 

<–Before 

                     

 

 

 

    After–>

 

The museum of Larnaca

Salty Lake and the Mosque Hala Sultan:

On the right, a pictures of our Mezze taken in a wonderful Lebanese restaurant.

“If I were a dish, I would be a kebab!”

Abuzer is our new turkish volunteer. Here is a short interview: 

If I were…

…an animal, I would be a bird.
…an object, I would be a mobilephone.
…a plant, I would be lavendel.
…a celebrity, I would be  Nelson Mandela.
…a book, I would be Les misérables (Sefiller).
…a kind of sport, i would be soccer.
…a song, I would be  Maher zain.
…a country, I would be Spain.
…a flavour, I would be sweet.
…a dish, I would be a kebab.

Learn more about Abuzer in the section “Postcard”!!!

 

“Siesta time” might be the most different matter from France…

Laura, our volunteer in Greece:

I’m currently an EVS in Kalamata – Greece. It’s a little port city of Peloponnese – Greece , but don’t believe that this place is insignificant, on the contrary it’s the most important Messenian town. There is a little less than 60 thousand people (there might be even a bit less during winter). I think that, as the majority of Greece towns, Kalamata is a little less alive during winter due to the fact that there are few tourists even if there is cruise ship which stop there from time to time. Otherwise, I would say that it is a welcoming city.

There are lots of places that I enjoy, but my favorite one might be the Central place. Maybe because that’s the most alive place of the town, but I really enjoy the decoration. But I also have to say that I like my flat cause it’s near the sea.

Many things surprised me when I arrived. Firstly the way people drive, cars stopping in a roundabout to allow people to pass, they are also significantly more lax over road security, like for the belt, smoke, call while driving or the indicator. What also surprised me the church numbers in the town, at least 15. But the “siesta time” might effectively be the most different stuff from France: all shops close at 1pm and open at 5:30pm because they are all taking a nap that’s why we ask not to make noise during this time.

Aside from my volunteer time, I don’t do lots of stuff. I sleep because I am a big sleeper, I’m going to walk, I party and I take dance lessons where I’m working. What I’m missing the most? I don’t know, maybe stewed, xd. Seriously, I did  four different shops and didn’t find any so I export them from France :p. Also, maybe the real croissants cause I tried them and they didn’t taste the same as ours and in the supermarket they are all filled up, that’s impossible to find natural ones. And I don’t have a favorite dish, but the most popular ones is the pita and I must say that’s really good otherwise I eat normally.

As recently as last week, a funny story happened. I lock down my flatmate (we are only two for the moment) in the flat, cause there was a broken key in the lock and he couldn’t open it from inside (but we didn’t know about that) so he waited for one hour that I come back to open the door for him.

“I recommend an EVS to everybody”

Lucas stayed for his « European Voluntary Service » six months in Uganda. He worked in a school with three other volunteers form Germany, Italy and Romania.

He decided to make a SVE, because he wanted to learn english. His english was not very good and he thought that some skills in a foreign language won´t be bad for him. So he decided to do an exchange for about six months to make some progress in english. Of course he was also interested in discovering a new culture. Finally, the project itself was also fitting.

You can find out more about Lucas´ mission in Uganda by watching this interview (french):

Some advices from Lucas:

• Prepare yourself and get your inscription as soon as possible to make a reasonable choice and to be sure that you really want what you are going to do.
• Do as much as you can do inside your SVE to get out a maximum.
• I recommend a SVE to everyone, because it´s a rich experience that can teach you things you never learned before.

“Now I have many anectodes to tell…”

Our volounteer Matthias in Malawi:

If I were…
…an animal, I would be a tiger.
…an object,  I would be a                       camera.                                                 … a fruit, I would be an ananas.  …a celebrity, I would be Ryan           Gosling.                                             … a kind of sport, I would be                soccer.
… a book, I would be Le Guide du        Routard.
… a song, I would be «We are the        world» de Michael Jackson.
… a country, I would be France.
… a flavour, I would be sugar.
… a food, I would be a strawberry.

I live in Chididi, a commune in the southern mountains of Malawi. The next city is about 20 km from here and since one year there are also a few inhabitants with electricity. The temperatures here are comfortable, because we are in the mountains. The people here are happy, welcoming and warm-hearted…it is a nice way of living, a feeling like home. In the village I appreciate different places and I couldn’t tell, which one I prefer, but the soccer place is the area where I spend most of my free time. Actually I play almost every day with the local youths.

To be honest, the first thing that shocked me was the poverty, because in France, in Europe and almost everywhere you know that Africa is a poor continent. But when you get confronted with this reality, when you are “in the field” you get truly awareness of the situation that those people live in.

I wouldn’t be able to tell you what matter is the most different to France, because here is actually everything completely different. That’s  why I will give you just one difference that I appreciate very much: the aspect of sharing. In fact all the inhabitants of the village; the commune are living together like a big family. They help each other, they share everything, take their part and less the rest for the others. I never saw a community like this in France…

The food here is not very diversify, we eat rice or « nsima » (a local dish out of flour and water) together with differnt vegetables. So we eat most of the time the same dishes.
I like it to be here, I like the nature and the way of living…therefore the only things I miss here are my family and my friends.
Besides of my volunteering I traveled through the country, visited many locations and go often outside for a longer walk. As well I do many activities with my new friends of Chididi.

Now I have also many anecdotes to tell, about snakes, mygale spiders, scorpions…in our house. Or about a bushfire which nearly destroyed our house. So a few inhabitants, including me tried successfully to stop the fire with buckets of water. But the anecdote I like most is the following: One day I was planting trees with some farmers. When we had finished our work one farmer asked me if I want to buy some “wild meat” from him. Out of curiosity I followed him back to his home to see what he exactly meant with “wild meat”. It was a baby monkey. It was clear for me to do not eat the monkey but I also didn’t wanted to let the monkey eaten by the farmer. So I decided to buy the monkey just to save his life. So I came back with a cute monkey in my arms. The other volunteers of course welcomed him with open arms. So we lived together with him for almost one month before we gave him to an organization for reintegration of wild animals.