Davide's experience in Portugal

I have always been fascinated by a mural in one of my favorite areas of Porto that features a Latin phrase, “In varietate concordia”, which can be translated as “unity in diversity,” and I believe this sentence perfectly sums up my experience with the European Solidarity Corps.

I discovered this project almost by chance and was immediately captivated by it; the idea of spending time abroad working and living with people from all over Europe was extremely exciting. I accepted the proposal to carry out my ESC in Ermesinde, at the Junta de Freguesia.

As we know, leaving home is never easy, especially when it means moving abroad. You have to deal with many different aspects, ranging from personal organization to relationships with others. Working abroad is not easy either: you have to face a different work mentality and communicate in another language. And this is where that varietate that had fascinated me so much at first began to scare me. I had many doubts: Would I get along with them? Would I be able to build good relationships? Would I be up to the job? 

Today I am almost at the end of this experience, and I can say that so far it has been the best experience of my life. It gave me the opportunity to grow personally, to see wonderful places, and to build meaningful relationships with people from all over the world. That diversity which had initially worried me turned out to be one of its greatest strengths.

Personally, I shared a house with two other volunteers, a French guy and a Spanish girl—people coming from different backgrounds, customs, and traditions. Blending our differences together was truly wonderful. It was an emotional roller coaster: I experienced incredibly happy days, but there were also difficult moments. It was sad when we had to say goodbye to certain people, and it will surely be sad to leave, but one of the most intriguing and controversial aspects of this experience is its fleeting nature, the fact that it is temporary.

The temporariness of relationships and events is precisely what makes everything even more unique and precious once you become aware of it.

A special thank you goes to my flatmates and to the hosting organization, which took impeccable care of us and made us feel at home from the very first day. Yes, this was certainly a temporary chapter of my life, but it will remain eternal within me.