Hello!! I am Ali from Tunisia, and now I am doing an ESC in Romania as a youth worker. let’s go back to the start. I have been volunteering now for more than 4 years as a youth worker in my local community since I graduated in 2016 and the last year I decided to start looking for international volunteering experiences as EVS or ESC. After a long long while, I had the chance to be a part of “Set the Tempo!” project with FITT in Timisoara, Romania.
But “Why Romania??” This is the first question that comes to my mind. So, before I confirm my participation, I started searching for information about Romania and Timisoara specifically and even joined too many Facebook groups as Arabs in Romania before being there just to make sure that my decision is right. After I finished, the information that I come out with except that the Romanian women are extremely beautiful, and that’s more than true, Timisoara is one of the biggest cultural and historical cities in Romania and it has beautiful places to discover and to take selfies in. But the most important thing that made me uncomfortable in the beginning is my background. Will I fit as an Arabic Muslim in Timisoara’s community or not? Luckily, I have found a big Muslim and Arabic community and even I discovered that there are a mosque and places that sell Halal food. Eventually, I have confirmed my participation without any doubts.
And after I have been officially part of the project, the same question
“Why Romania??” comes to me again, but this time from my entourage as family, friends, and even from the people that just heard about me going to Romania. Each time I was explaining that it is an amazing place and that things are not at all as they are presented in social media. What was most interesting for me was exactly that similarity and connection with my community.
I have been nowhere in Timisoara for more than two and a half months and so far I could see it is a wonderful city and each corner of it has a story to tell, and the people here are amazing as much as the city. In the end, I want to say never ever ask “Why Romania??” if you have not been in Romania before.