Hello, my name is Ramona and I’m from a small country called Latvia.
I am just a human being discovering myself and understanding my goals, guided by things that have felt close to me throughout my whole life. Life for me is art, it is nature and people that surrond us. At some point in my life I was quite lost, with no ideas what should I do. Some experiences in Erasmus+ projects pushed me in the right direction and helped me to find the beginning of this path I want to go. I decided that I want to help solving social and ecological problems, if possible, using art in any of it’s forms as a main tool.
I decided to apply for this exact ESC project because it seemed like a great combination of things that I love and stand for. I knew that I have knowledge and willingness that I could invest in this project. This project offered to use land art as a tool for reaching out to people and helping them to understand how even saying no to a small plastic bag changes the world. Who are we without the world that we live in? – Nothing. And that’s the reason why something should be done about the negative ecological impact humans give to this planet.
Me and fifteen more amazing volunteers with similar mindset gathered here, in Bodrum, to make a change. It’s hard for me every time to go somewhere without knowing anyone, it can be hard to get those first words out of my mouth, but the feeling that you get when you get to know these different people, when you open up yourself to new stories, to new cultures is incredible and worth every minute you have spent being scared before. We had our ups and downs, but with time we managed to become a team. First days we were getting used to each other, we had on arrival training after which followed preparation, promotion and festival. Sadly our activities ended faster than they should have, but I still gained a lot from the work we managed to do. I hope that next volunteers will also have some use out of the work we did and maybe they will get a chance to deliver this projects message to people through Bodrum Land Art festival.
Volunteering for me means investing myself into helping others, but at the same time it’s a way of gaining a lot of emotions and knowledge. The main thing is to never forget that you should bring those things you gained back to people again and again. Sometimes things won`t go as planned, but even though almost everyone had to go home, I could not, so I`m still here, still learning and giving as much as I can back to you, reader. 🙂
The magic that ESC and Erasmus projects open up to you is not comparable to anything.
My message for future volunteers would be-
Let your creativity out! Step out of your comfort zone, seek discomfort! It will open up a whole new world to you. :))
Photo by: Daniel Dluhý