Final Month at TOLA

May was the final month of volunteering here at TOLA, and coincidentally, also the month I was finally able to do my “midterm training” in Mollina, Malaga. Due to circumstances, it kept getting postponed, and now I ended up doing it right before my final week of volunteering.

During the training, volunteers from different projects came together to reflect on their experiences, share challenges, and talk about everything we learned during our ESC projects. We also did group activities and had conversations about personal development, future plans, and life after volunteering. One of my favourite parts was meeting other volunteers and hearing about their completely different experiences across Spain.

Even though I enjoyed the training a lot (especially the day trip to Malaga), it was probably less useful for me than for most of the other volunteers, simply because I only had four more days left at TOLA by the time it started. Still, I was happy that I finally got to experience it before leaving.

My goodbye at TOLA was really nice, although it didn’t completely feel like a goodbye yet. Next week there will be a big party called Festola, and I think that’s when the real goodbyes will happen. For now, it still feels a bit strange to realise that these nine months are almost over.

Looking back, volunteering taught me much more than I expected. Besides the work itself, I learned a lot about adapting to new situations, living abroad, and connecting with people from very different backgrounds.