Not A Usual Summer
An Account of Global Volunteer Harmek Singh’s exchange experience in Italy
Pre-cap:
1. I have already been to Italy on a number occasions.
2. My father is an Italian citizen.
19 years of roving two nations but this time, I have a story to tell, something that sets the summer of 2016 apart from every vacation I’ve spent in Rome: about being in my hometown yet away from home.
Introducing AIESEC to me: The credit goes to my sister who first introduced to me the idea of volunteering abroad, while she was herself serving as the LC President for AIESEC in Dehradun. Though it took me an entire year to bring her plan into action I’ll always dedicate this eventful experience to her.
How it Started: I was anyway going to visit Italy for the renewal of certain paperwork in Rome. Already having spent an year at college with zero level of satisfaction in terms of experience, I decided to spice up my regular vacation to Italy and add a dash of experience to it.
After I finally decided to “make it happen”, I applied to a number of teaching opportunities on the portal, trying my luck in all the local committees of AIESEC in Italy. I got accepted somewhere in North Italy but being the chicken heart that I was, I wanted to secure a project somewhere around Rome, where it would be easier to reach home whenever the authorities would want me to come over for the paperwork process.
APPLIED and MATCHED: On June 1, I received the official mail: YOU ARE MATCHED WITH BELPOGGIO-CULTURAL SUMMER AT BELPOGGIO, HOSTED BY AIESEC IN ROMA TRE! EXCITING TIMES AHEAD (true that). Also, they were excited to have me on board because I’d be the first Indian intern in Rome.
I didn’t actually need any help from the Local Committee in Chandigarh regarding the visa applications, booking tickets or health insurance (the Pre-cap works here).I reached Italy 15 days prior to the beginning of my project and stayed all this while with my dad but the project site was at the other end of Rome, so I’d stay away from him for the next 40 days of my life.
A GLITCH ?
Though the matching process and all had been easy, the only concern still unattended was: I had no accommodation planned out by my hosting LC. They gave a few vague suggestions but I’d been really adamant about a “Host Family Experience.” So, a quick fix on 18th June was made: a host family was sought. The prospective host lady met with me before she approved me as a guest and she was glad to have an English-speaking Indian around. This excitement was cut short by the same host lady the very next day, also just one day before I’d begin my experience: she told me she couldn’t host me because her company was sending her off to the U.S. and she wouldn’t be around for two weeks and for the fact that she was the only person who comprehended English, she couldn’t leave me home with her Italian family.
Still, she was generous enough to host me for 3 days before she left for the States and also assured me that she’d look for another family in the locality who could host me.
20 JUNE: CENTRO ESTIVO, Belpoggio. My experience kickstarts.
My dad drove all the way to drop me off at the site just to come across the fact that my project site was on the outskirts of Rome, a site where there’d be no public transport and I would have to walk up a steep narrow street, 3 kilometers, everyday, to reach the summer camp from the last bus stop in sight.
Day 1: And I’d never wondered that I’d be in tears by the half-time. This was the first ever practical experience of being A FISH OUT OF WATER. While the 70+ kids, aged 4–14 years, ran around me, played, laughed, swam, sang and ate, I spared a few minutes for myself and started making a checklist for the number of days at the project and wrote all the dates clearly, 20 JUNE-29 JULY, some rough calculations and I tried to assure myself: Just 40 days, I can do it. It’ll be over in just 40 days.
I cried all the way home, in a metro, alone, to a house which was only my temporary shelter for two more days.
By the next afternoon, my host lady #1 had found me a new host family and my host lady #2 wanted to meet me before I could move in. So, I decided to pay her a visit after my 9AM-4PM work shift. A new address, a new family- another jolt to my hopes, this new host family had a dog. After talking to my AIESEC buddy, I had to give in and I made this (then loathsome) decision of moving in anyhow and just ignore the existence of this pawed-creature.
Day 3, MOVING OUT AND MOVING IN.
It was this day, that even after wanting to leave the project, I decided to stay. And the credit goes to 2 wonderful events:
1.When my host lady #1 came to drop me (with all my luggage) at my prospective new host’s abode and the moment I met with my host, Marco and his beautiful daughters , Stella (12) and Camilla (6), I felt this urge that wanted me to stay. Just one hello exchanged and I knew I’d found what I’d been looking for.
2.A little girl at the summer camp came to me with an Italian to English dictionary that she’d bought exclusively to be able to strike a conversation with me.
Her little gesture made me stop and think: God was just putting me through a test and I’m glad he did this to give me the experience I can never get over.
My host lady #2, Teresa, came to pick me from the summer camp at 4 and we tried to converse with whatever we had at hand, her broken English and my broken Italian. Once back home, she took me to my (beautiful) room and then, it was time to get acquainted- Stella and Camilla were so excited to explore India via me, one brought the globe to locate India, the other, her iPad to listen to some Indian music. I also helped Stella with her English homework and went around the house-The most beautiful one I’ve ever been in.
Also, it was the time the Italian team was playing in the Euro Cup 2016 and they’d often call me from my room to join them to watch the match. There were better days right ahead, evenings with the family, eating together, telling them about India, learning about Italy, about their families, about their beach house, our walks to the gelato bar and so much more! At work, the kids and the fellow coaches had started understanding me better.
June 2016 will be the most challenging period of my life: from nagging and trying to hold back my tears while talking to my mom on the phone to telling her tales about the amazing events at work and home, I saw myself evolve.
JULY 2016.
I met with all my fellow exchange mates who were from Mexico, Greece and the U.S.A at an AIESEC meeting. Also, it was great to meet all the Italians who worked for AIESEC.
Another week later, I visited the Vatican City with all the other interns and even after having been to the Vatican a lot of times earlier, this visit will always be etched in my mind: the day of real cross-cultural talks.
At work, my goal throughout this month was simply to give those kids through conversational instructions, as much of my knowledge as my abilities enabled me to. I dealt with all kinds of kids: the fussy ones, the shy ones, the jolly group and the unmanageable ones. There were kids who kissed me goodbye and there were others who never even held my hand when I walked them to the EXIT.
Slowly and gradually, it turned into something habitual : waking up early and getting dressed, coming down to the kitchen where Marco served me the breakfast, going to my work in the car with Marco and my two little hostesses, where he’d listen to the news on the radio and translate it for me, the sequence of events at work, coming home and playing dominos with Camilla, sitting together for dinner, after meal discussions and so much more.
Also, I went through this personal evolution from hating the existence of dogs to hugging and kissing them.
16 JULY: Gala Night and the Global Village event.
A fancy dinner by the beachside, followed by the awards and the Global Village event where I changed from my little white dress into my desi Indian attire, that probably everyone fell in love with. Also, I had a lot stacked up to display at the event followed by a presentation. Not being boastful but I impressed them so much!
There were few more “meets” with the fellow interns, roaming around Rome, an outing one evening, probably our last meet ever where my fellow mates enjoyed beers and shots and I sat with a gelato, trying to trace all the events in this past month.
28 JULY: Second last day at work.
I wore my Indian attire to work –a suit with a bindi and the typical Punjabi ear-accessories. And in no time, there were little girls begging me to put bindis on their foreheads and I had a tough time dealing with the guys and telling them why they couldn’t put one on their foreheads. The kids taught me the most happening summer song and they were overjoyed with the idea of me singing an Italian song. Back home, the same song is my #happysong.
This day of July, I thought to myself: Just 2 more days, huh? Is that it?
29 JULY: My Last Day At Belpoggio.
I don’t know what I miss more, being by the poolside with the kids or helping them paint BUT the events of this day are still a memory I don’t want to do away with. I was pampered, showered with gifts and little adorable drawings the kids gave me, an Italian flag signed by all of them and a picture with the best kids ever.
The next morning, I said the hardest goodbye to the most humble and selfless couple I’d happened to meet in Italy. Marco and Teresa came to see me off at the station, it was hard to accept that the temporary exchange was finally over. But now, the FINALLY didn’t matter, I wanted more of it, more of those kids at Belpoggio, more of my host family, the home cooked food and the stories at the dinner table. But the time had elapsed.
Maybe this is what life teaches you: the exchange is just like a trial version of life, it teaches you a lot in a few days, you go to places that remain etched in your heart, you taste meals that can never be matched in your hometown, you experience missing trains and the happiness of boarding the right bus and being at your destination in time, you learn to appreciate what you have back home and what you tread upon, you meet people that are hard to get over and detach from but the biggest thing that happens to you is: the newer, better version of YOU.
It is important that we as students embark on something of this sort, an experience that never leaves your mind and heart. I still narrate tales that sound plenteous when thinking about the 45-day project plan. I’ll always be thankful to AIESEC for giving me such a platform to come across the beauty of life and helping me in appreciating the little chunks of happiness that we all have been blessed with.
