Sofie Holthuis | Germany | Short term ESC mission 2023 | Coordinating/ Hosting Organization: IDC
Hello, my name is Sofie. I am a 19 year old ESC volunteer from a small village in Germany.
In the beginning of summer 2023 I finished with school and after that I wanted to step out of my comfort zone, experience the world, collect experiences and develop new skills.
(Especially with being restricted from traveling and going outside in general for the last few years, because of the Coronavirus.)
I knew I wanted to do something ecological, spend time in nature and get to know new, like minded people. Because I am interested in Film and video making as well, I chose to apply to the social media project of IDC, so I could do all of those things.
I arrived in Lastours the evening of the fifth September and am staying here for two months.
My main tasks are creating posts for the social media pages and shooting some mini documentaries about different parts of the project, but I am also helping anywhere I am needed. I have been helping around the campsite and caring for the animals a bit. It is especially nice to see all the cats that always want to be petted. (They help against missing my own cats from home.)
Before starting to volunteer I didn’t really have any prior experiences with video shooting and editing, but I am working together with another volunteer and learning a lot through that. Working together in a creative process is what I was most excited for when applying, so I am always happy when we have the time to share ideas, work together and see results.
Because I hope to work on something with video editing or similar creative things in the future I think this project was really helpful to get started in the right direction. It helps to begin somewhere with an already given objective.
Another thing I have been learning a lot about is food. Because we are always cooking together and mostly making vegetarian meals I have been trying a lot of new foods and recipes I normally wouldn’t have.
Being in France has also made me more motivated to refresh my French knowledge. Learning a language directly from the people living in the country is definitely more fun, than learning it just in school. And, while I am pretty confident in my English, I also get to use and practice speaking it more while living with the other volunteers.
But the best part about the whole experience is probably meeting all these cool people from all over the world, with different histories, experiences and viewpoints.
It has been a lot of fun. 🙂
All in all, volunteering in a different country away from home, even just for two months, has been teaching me a lot. Not just in the sense of the project, but also about myself.
