So one month has already passed and I can't say if I think time passed quickly or not. What I can say is that I'm a little happy that one month is already over and that I hope it was the most difficult one already.
I watched some Au-Pair YouTube videos recently and they always had categories in their monthly updates and I thought that's a good idea for this post as well, so it's more structured.
Feelings
This month, as I mentioned in my last post, was a rollercoaster. There were so many ups and downs. Today I had another down and felt really, really homesick. I miss my family and my German life a lot. I must admit I feel lonely here sometimes and it's hard to get to know people in my age. Of course I know some other volunteers but I would like to make Mexican friends as well.
I also struggle to find activities to do close to my home (I would love to do Zumba for example) which means I spent a lot of my free time in my room. I really hope I can change this fact in my second month because I think if I have more to do, I'll have less time missing my home and feeling upset.
So yeah weekends are the worst times for me while I really enjoy going to work, but I'm going to talk about that later.
In the first weeks being here made me miss Brazil very much. I know you shouldn't compare countries but so many things remember my time in Varginha and I missed it so, so much. I don't know if a single country stands a chance against Brazil because it was my first state to go to alone and for a long time. I especially missed the language (I'll always prefer Portuguese to Spanish, sorry!) and the openness and warmness of (most) people. Lots of Mexicans are nice but not in the same way Brazilians are. On the other hand Mexico has more modern things (excluded: busses to go around the city), so yeah, more me I think that all has to do with Mexico being more in North and also being a lot closer to the US.
What helped me in the beginning in Brazil was also living in a host family. Even though I didn't get along with my first one, I still wasn't alone and I had things to do on the weekends because there were family reunions and other events. I think if I had a choice I would have wished for a host family here as well but as my room is so close to work, I said yes (and that's really cool because you can get up later). I usually don't have much of an issue with spending time alone and I also need it some days, so I don't understand what makes it so hard for me. I hope I can improve this from now on and I hope I will get to value the freedom that comes with living alone in the future.
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| Ok, I'm not that alone, I have to cat to keep me company |
The first great thing was my two-day seminar with the other volunteers of my organization and our mentor. On the first day we did a little tour around the city, ate some typical breakfast from Oaxaca (at 12pm) and then did a trip to Monte Albán, an archeologic site of the Zapotec people. I really liked it there and would have loved to spent more time there but unfortunately it began to thunder soon after we arrived (rain in the afternoon was a quite common thing for the last weeks here). But at least we took some great pictures :D
The second day was spent in a village close to the city where our mentor lived. We had some seminar about important topics in a hotel there and all in all it was a nice day even though we received lots of information and it rained again. In the evening we went to bar together where we got to try different types of mescal. I don't like the taste of alcohol in general but I decided to participate nevertheless. Of course I didn't really like it much but it was still fun.
One really important event was the earthquake I had to experience. It was quite scary of course, even more because I had never anything close to it before this day. It was a conscience I was even awake at this time (I usually sleep quite early here) but I didn't grasp what was happening until I heard the alarm going off. But the house was already trembling strongly at this point and I was too scared to leave my room, so I just sat under my desk to be shielded from falling objects. Not the best reaction because usually you should leave the house altogether but hey, learning from experiences.
I must say I didn't really panic because of this event and just went to sleep afterwards and I only woke up again when my mother called me at 6.30am because I forgot to tell her that I was fine and she read about the destructions and deaths here in the state of Oaxaca in the news.
Everyone asked me if I was doing fine at work but I assume that some Mexicans have a bigger issue with dealing with the earthquake than I have. I learned in the past months that I can keep calm even when something horrible occurs.
The weekend after that I went out for the first time with some volunteers (not only from my organization). We went to bar and some club which was fun. I can say that I do feel quite safe here and I was lucky to not having to take a taxi alone. However I usually leave the taxi a little before my house because it's a little hard to explain where I live and walk the rest of way and that is no problem which I would have never thought before. But the part of the city where I live is known to be quite safe.
Last Saturday was the Independence Day here but in the newspaper the told that the ceremonies (which happen on Friday night) were cancelled in Oaxaca due to the earthquake and the mourning because of its consequences in some regions here in Oaxaca. However yesterday another volunteer visited me and told she was in the city on Friday and they still did a ceremony. It makes me really sad that I missed it...
Work
Well that's kind of the best part of my time here. I really like going to work even though I'm still in the process of adapting to the context and therefore read a lot and things like that.But what makes my work so nice are my colleagues. There were all so welcoming and I just really like them.
We all have lunch together every day and that's a really good time even though I don't always get everything that's talked about.
After the earthquake we started to collect groceries and things that are needed in the regions that were destroyed by it and I think I already learned a lot by seeing how this is set up so quickly. I also got the chance to see how a mission into these areas is being organized and before that I was already at two press conferences. These are the kind of things I really looked forward before coming here and I do think that this kind of work and my organization are a really good match for me.
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| Please ignore the mistake if you spot it 🙈 |
In the beginning I was really shocked when I realized I had so many issues with understanding people here. I've never had problems with understanding Spanish before but of course the accents here are different and they also use different words. I think it has already gotten a little better and I feel like I understand more now but for some topics it will always be hard because I just don't know the context (yet). Speaking is ok, it really helps that I had it in school because this way I know how to use grammar but I don't know if I will ever really get when to use Indefinido and when Imperfecto even though theoretically I learned that.
Sometimes of course I don't know some words especially when I'm writing or reading something at work because I've never learned the vocabulary for this kind of context but hey, there are dictionaries for these situations. I hope my Spanish will improve in the next months but as I use it at work so much, I'm confident about this.
Contact to Germany
I do keep in contact with my family a lot, especially my mum. I talk to here on Skype or on a WhatsApp video call every weekend and we write throughout the week. Even though I miss home so much, I still think it's a good way to deal with the situation because when talking to her, I do feel a lot better.
I'm also in contact with some German friends and also some that also do a voluntary service in different parts of the world.
I also do write a lot with my Brazilian friends again since I'm here which makes me miss this country a lot as well. So many things are similar and that why sometimes I miss Brazil more than I do miss Germany.
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| Two more sweet cat pics to conclude this post 😄 |
So that's everything for my first update. As you can see it wasn't a too happy time for me but I'm working on improving my state. You'll see how that works out next month.
Also if you have ideas for some new categories for the next updates, just write me a comment or a message (can be on social media as well).
¡Hasta luego!
Sandra
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