The Month of March + Goodbye

Heyy everybody!

Continuing my blog post from February, I wanted to tell you about how the second half of our project and our life in Ankara went. This month was a wild one, full with great work, travels, experiences and amazing days.

At the beginning of March, we started to work at one of the dorms in Ankara where now victims of the earthquake live. We packed and organized a hall full with clothes and necessary things for everyday life, like shower-gel, toilet paper, books and toys for children etc. In the afternoon we had the chance to participate in organizing activities for the children living there together with the amazing Damla Organization who were there to provide psychological support for the children. We played, danced and draw together with the children and I can honestly say that these afternoons are one of my favorite memories from the work we had. Working with children always feels special, they give so much love for every one of us and appreciate our work in a way that is indescribable. Seeing the joy on their face when they see us and when we are playing with them is a special feeling. The ways they communicate with us, even though we are not speaking Turkish and they are not speaking English is mind-blowing. It was amazing to see that sometimes speaking is not important at all because there are other ways to communicate. I am really thankful that I had the chance to experience this kind of work because it gave so much perspective and truly amazing memories. Other than going to the dorm, we did our social media tasks just like in the first month but it was great to see how much we improved in every field since the first day. At the end of the months the food delivery activities started again and it was such a good feeling to do it two more times.

As of our free time, it was a hectic month. On the 27th of February we started our travels. The first destination was Konya where we spent an amazing day, ate Etli Ekmek, visited mosques and just walked to explore the atmosphere of the city. It was a great start of our travels. The next weekend we decided to visit Izmir for 2 days. On Friday at midnight our bus left Ankara and around 8 A.M. we were at the bus station in Izmir. Going with a night bus was an interesting experience, because they served us tea and snacks on the way, which is something that I am not used to. The 2 days that we spent there were amazing, we walked around, visited the bazaar, went to the coast, eat Turkish breakfast and obviously tried Izmir bomb. The weather wasn’t in our favor unfortunately as it was cloudy and most of the time it was raining. However, the sun came out for a couple of hours on our last day and let me tell you, Izmir with the sun is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited. Fast forward to the next weekend, we went to Istanbul. We decided to spend 3 days there and it was fully worth it.  We explored the city, visited Ayasofia, went to Pierre Loti, walked in several neighborhoods (from which the part of Galata Tower was my favorite one) and enjoyed the atmosphere. We tried Balik Ekmek while sitting on the bank of the sea, talking and admiring the night view of the city and ate Turkish breakfast in a vintage style restaurant. On the third weekend of the month, we went to Cappadocia. Originally we planned to spend there more days, however on that weekend it was raining the whole time so we decided to spend there just one day. Despite the pouring rain, Cappadocia was beautiful and extraordinary. The nature is amazing, the museums we visited were really nice and all the small towns had their special atmosphere. I definitely plan to go back in the future on a sunny day. 

After Cappadocia, our last full week started. We were really busy because we had way a lot of plans. We wanted to try everything that we planned before to go home and visit all the places we wanted to in Ankara. We went to the castle which was luckily open and we could see the whole city from there. It was an amazing afternoon with the sun out and the warmness of the spring. On our last Monday in Türkiye we decided to go to Eskisehir. Visiting that city was a huge surprise and was nothing like I expected. The whole city had a chill but really good atmosphere and some of the streets and parts of the city were reminding me to the streets European cities. We walked a lot in the city, went to the old town area and tried Çiğ Börek and Balaban Kebap. We also walked to Sazova Park and walked in two famous streets of the city, Doktorlar and Adalar Street. It was the perfect ending of our travels throughout this 2 months with a beautiful sunny weather, lots of good news and laughter. All of these memories have a really special place in my heart.
Somehow 2 months have already passed and our project is coming to an end. I still can’t comprehend that in couple of days I’m going home and leaving this project, this city and these people who mean so much to me. It feels unreal when I look back to our first days here, how different I felt, how little I knew the people who I now consider close friends of mine. During this project I grew a lot, I discovered new interests and values of mine, learnt to enjoy the special moments even in hard situations and manage my time in a way that I could both experience the project and all the adventures that came with it and work toward my long-term goals. Looking back at the last 2 months, I know I made the right decision when I applied here. I met with the most amazing people, explored a beautiful country, did work that matters and of what I am really proud. I am forever thankful for all the people I got to know here and who contributed to my experience in any way. And above all, I am grateful for the amazing volunteer team who made these last 2 months unforgettable. 

Panni Mayer