Hello, my name is Memduha. I am 25, and I come from Turkey. I studied Political Science and did double major in Psychology. During my Bachelor’s I have decided to have an exchange period in Budapest, Hungary. This experience has changed many things in my life. I have figured out that I am into folk music and I applied for different master’s programmes after I went back to Turkey. One year after the exchange programme, I went back to Budapest to study my master on ethnic minorities, focused on Balkan Romani music.
My initial interest towards environmental issues has started in this process. As I have lived in a very touristic area, I realized how people treat the environment in a very disrespectful way. Later, my interest ascended by experiencing ‘Lomtalanítás’ which is an event on different dates for each neighbourhood. People put all the old stuff they do not use on the street and others who need take and use them. This showed me the common awareness of recycling and made me more enthusiastic and eager to learn more about an ecological approach and recycling. Therefore, I started to search for EVS projects on environment related topics.
What I have been learning here is not to throw things but try to recycle and use them for something else. Firstly, this is good for me to get rid of my possible wasting habits and spread this mind set when I go back home. For example, we have collected so many old window frames to build up a green house, clean them and make them usable again; we use the used oil to make candles and food waste as compost etc. This raises my awareness about what is supposed to be done and also helps me to take this life style as a habit into my life and internalize it.
The second crucial feature of this place is that I am surrounded by different people coming from different parts of the world which creates a multi-cultural environment in food, activities, conversations that builds a ground to be in interaction with different cultures. Beside this, I can learn various expressions, life styles, habits from various parts of the world which I perceive as an investment for the future to be used when I have to interact with these cultures. In addition, I experience the community life here which teaches me to respect & tolerate the differences among people and adopt & adjust my own habits to find a common ground with others.
My expectation from my EVS period is mostly regarding to replace my life-style with a more respectful one to the environment. I want to adopt this life-style into my daily routine and spread/share my knowledge with as many people as I can.
