The following is a post by Adam Lancashire, VSO Volunteer.
Ever since that first induction day with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) I knew that volunteering abroad was something I had to do. The stories from returned volunteers and the collected professionalism of what I saw and heard really made it clear to me that this would be an amazing way to learn and improve skills whilst being in a country, foreign and far away. I would also have the added benefit of being able to experience an amazing culture packed full of history, beauty and traditional delicacies, and who in their right mind would turn that opportunity down?
We had our training days on arrival in Tajikistan and these were very informative, even better in terms of getting to know one-another in the team: an important factor I feel, because being so far from home, friends and family it is easy to slip into that homesick mentality and to know that you have some close friends all around you is that key to revival: a comforting remedy.
Luckily for us we had a week of holiday before starting our work placements, for Tajikistan was celebrating the Navruz festival – the Persian New Year. I feel that this was a perfect time to arrive because it gave us all a great opportunity to get to know our host families better, and there is no better way to experience the culture than a massive festival where everybody is in high sprits. During this week I spent each day doing something new and interesting with my family and I especially got to know my host brother Jafar very well. I learned, ate, felt and experienced a lot of brilliant things which I’m sure I will remember forever. Culture and travel are two things which I feel act as a catalyst within any creative’s mind.
The whole week made the coldness of missing home dissipate and replaced the feeling with one of warmth, something about cross-cultural understanding and bonding really set things into perspective for me and I began to understand that I in-fact, was diving head on into a brilliant cornerstone of my life and was dealing with it considerably well – thank god they drink copious amounts of tea here!
Over the next few days we were pitched the businesses we were to help and also talked to by the NABWT (National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan) about project goals and aims. These days helped significantly in surveying workloads and determining who would be best helping each separate company – exactly what some of the volunteers needed. By the end of the week we had been put into groups and each designated the business we would be helping over the course of the next three months. I personally was to mainly work for a journalism business helping write some fresh articles for them, whilst supporting a fashion group. Being chosen to write I was naturally over the moon, but morale seemed to momentarily waver as people were placed into roles in which they were uncertain how they could help. This of course, is completely understandable. The main thought process now was just to start working and to hope that doing so would help ignite ideas in how we as volunteers could aid the businesses.
As expected, work began and time seemed to fast-forward. This being oddly accepted and seemed as satisfyingly pleasant, I guess it seemed we were getting closer to seeing our families again: a lovely gift with a lessening delivery date. It soon became apparent to those who were concerned with uncertainty that starting work really did ease the confusion and morale rose to an all time high once again.
As well as work difficulties there were also problems throughout the group, the most common being the inevitable illnesses due to change of diet and water purity. A fascinating problem I observed some of the volunteers having was the withdrawal symptoms attained through lack of WI-FI and internet. To spectate this indeed incites some hilarity; tantrums caused by slow connections are actually quite entertaining. Westerners: such a hard life without internet…I’m glad I can be made happy with pen and paper.
Thinking further as I acknowledge this intense sensation, I look at where I am: Tajikistan – a place of absolute naturalistic beauty where culture and traditional values fuse to create an impenetrable community of solemn happiness and content. I feel so lucky to come from a country where this is being made so available to young people, because the youths here almost idolize the UK and travelling to the UK is very rare: ultimately sad when you think how easy it is for us. It’s almost as if these people have been forgotten, left behind by the advancing world, and I must admit that I thought so little about this before I experienced it first hand, but I’m glad I did because this whole journey has completely changed my view on life as a whole and brought about meaning to my life. That is why I am so grateful to the UK Department for International Development for funding VSO ICS and for giving me and other young people such a mind-expanding opportunity, from the very depth of my heart I feel so grateful for these three, important months of my life.
I feel that every young person should at least contemplate doing this amazing voyage for it achieves so much in terms of international relations, helping those who really need it and also in self-improvement. So much good, just imagine if we all did this: a world which collaborated together to create a better place to live, makes complete sense to every brain able to understand that, right? At least one should hope so.
Thank you Voluntary Service Overseas and the British Government for broadening the horizons of the world and thus; the people who live here.