Olá,

I have now been doing my ESC volunteering service in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, for almost 9 months. Figueira is a small coastal town located roughly in the middle of Portugal and is very well connected by long-distance buses and trains to almost all major cities in the country.

I work at a rowing and kayaking club. My main tasks are supporting the coaches during training sessions with children aged 7 to 17 and helping at competitions. In addition, twice a week there is a project for children and teenagers with disabilities, who, together with us volunteers and a coach, learn rowing and kayaking and take part in other sports and group activities.

What I especially like is how international our club is. Both coaches and athletes come not only from Portugal, but also from Brazil, Cuba, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Argentina, so you are constantly interacting with people from many different parts of the world. The same goes for my fellow volunteers from France and Spain, whom I get along with really well. In general, there is a very open atmosphere among parents, coaches, and athletes alike. I have also had the opportunity to gain insight into the lives of professional athletes and even meet European champions and Olympians.

Of course, language is very important when working with children, but that also forces you to speak and helps you improve quickly. In addition, I attend a language course together with other volunteers from Germany who work in kindergartens here, where I can expand my rather specialized work-related vocabulary into something more useful for everyday life (outside of work, I rarely have to correct someone’s kayaking technique :)).

During the winter, we definitely noticed that even in the south it is not always warm, especially because the houses are hardly insulated and there is no heating. Portugal was also hit quite hard by storms and flooding in January and February; in our city, even a Ferris wheel and a crane collapsed.

But now it is basically already summer, and I am looking forward to the remaining three months in Figueira.

Beijinhos from Portugal.