One day I woke up in a different room, in a different bed, in a different country. 
The day before I had changed my life forever. Without knowing I have chosen the path that would make me (re)do my existence and attitude about life and people.
CICD… Here every single day is a challenge. You are tested in several completely different occasions comparing with what you are used to. I believe that only the ones who experiment this kind of life understand what it really means to live in a community. You are used to do less than you have to and, as a community, only if you do a bit more than what is supposed to be done things can work well to everyone.
You are constantly meeting new people, people that in other circumstances you would never meet. You let yourself be surprised with every new discover about yourself, about others and about how people connect with each other.At the beginning everything was strange and different and cold… but here even time is different. People you meet live and work with you and that gives you the freedom to create bounds with them so quickly that is almost unbelievable how fast you can connect with others.
The People… Besides all the work and all the knowledge you acquire… The People!
Sometimes when I’m in the bench outside I notice the people lying in the grass with the sunlight in their eyes.
I notice the conversation and the plans about Africa.
I see good people trying hard and in a completely different way to make a change.
I see amazing creatures opening their soul and delivering themselves to another kind of life where everything you do is to learn as much as you can.
It’s when I’m outside on the bench…
When I talk with people about choices, decisions, indecisions, dreams and fears, it’s in that moment that I’m growing as a person, when I deliver myself to a friend that I have never planned to meet. We explore the World in another way, we see other points of view, we understand things that we have never thought we could understand. With so many different people together we are, for sure, different and special.
I could write about this volunteering life but we all know how different it is… Sometimes is even in the fights and constant obstacles that you learn how to get through the hardest thing… to change and adapt yourself to the hardest situations.
I have watched people leaving and coming back, I have met people with the most amazing stories about the work they have done and I will always remember their shining eyes when they say “It is worth it…”
At night I fall asleep in my room, in my bed, as a citizen of the World, with a smile in my face because I have made the right decision.
Mel
