The last few weeks I’ve been living my life on the Island of Chios. Now that the time that I’m leaving is getting closer, I wanted to describe to you how this life has treated me so far. I’m going to tell about the first impressions when I got here, my impression of the school I worked at and my cultural impressions in my free time. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
When I got here, I arrived on a Tuesday night right in the middle of the week. So I had to jump into the life and work immediately. At first it was a bit hard because I had to get used to the rhythm of here and didn’t really have time to adjust to being here. Luckily the other volunteers who were already here really helped me out with explaining how everything worked here and what they usually did during the day. The day after me another volunteer arrived, so in the weekend we went to the city to get to know each other a bit more, which was a really fun first weekend for me.
My first impressions of the surroundings here and the landscape were that they were so beautiful and very different than where I’m from. I’m from the countryside of the Netherlands so with having the ocean on one side and big mountains on the other I felt really lucky to be here. There are a lot of trees with citrus fruits and beautiful churches scattered all around the island and every time I go on a walk I discover something else. The streets in the city are narrow and there are a lot of little cafes and restaurants hiding in the alleyways, which I think is very nice.
What I also noticed is that all the people on the island are very friendly. I was surprised the first day when we walked to school to say good morning to almost every one we came across! It’s very common and actually expected to say hello to the people you see on the street when you go somewhere. Especially here in Vrontados. The people here are also very curious and since we’re obviously all not from here they almost always start up a conversation and ask where we’re from. This is always very fun since we also get to know a lot about them and have a fun conversation.
We see the same people every morning on the way to school and now that I’ve been here for a few weeks, I think it’s very funny that we know that we have to hurry up when we see a person on a different place than we usually do.
My first impressions of the school that I was going to be working in for the next few weeks was actually that it was very small. It is a kindergarten with kids that are about 4/5 years old in two different classes. In the Netherlands we have a different school system and I didn’t really know what to expect here and what kind of lessons there would be. The director didn’t speak a lot of English but luckily another teacher was able to translate for her. The school was very colorful and had a lot of projects from the kids and other different decorations hanging all around the classrooms and in the halls. I got introduced to both of the classes and the kids were very curious and happy to say hi to me. As it turned out, I was going to be the one making the decorations and little projects for the kids to work with for the next couple of weeks. I’m working on a table in the classroom and whenever the kids are playing a couple of them always come up to me to see what I’m doing and talk to me (even though I hardly understand them). When I’m not working on something I play with the kids. It was really hard at first because of the language barrier, but you can achieve a lot by body language and pointing. They figured out I draw a lot and now keep asking me to draw things for them that they can colour in, which I do happily.
A cultural difference that I noticed here is that it is much more religious than I’m used to. They all start the day with a prayer and also pray before eating. That all the kids now this prayer and most of them do it without needing prompting was really interesting to see from an outsiders perspective. Religion is a very big thing here, and almost every one is religious. You can also see that outside where there are a lot of churches and there are also little shrines at certain places along the roads with candles and pictures of Jesus and Maria.
Since we don’t have any other mode of transportation than walking, I’ve walked a lot the past few weeks and discovered a lot of the area when we had some free time before doing computer work or in the weekend. Especially in the first weeks this was really nice since I was still getting used to the life and everyone here and for me, walking is a great way to calm my mind.
Another thing I’ve really enjoyed here is the food. Getting lunch or dinner in the city is always a fun time and the food is obviously very different than where I’m from. It was great to try out a lot of new things and the other volunteers who were already here for the better part of the year already knew the best spots which was perfect!
I learned a lot the last few weeks. About the culture and people here, but also about myself. I think this was a really great experience and I’m very thankful to have participated in it. I still have a couple of days of school and I’m actually very sad that I have to say goodbye to the kids that I’ve seen almost every day for the last couple of weeks. But I’m also excited for the week of vacation where we can explore more of this beautiful island and have some fun before I go back home!
