Brief Account of My Project in Spain

I am a person who is in constant search for the good, for the human and for the things worth living for. I am 23 years old and the last few years of my life had passed within the walls of my university and work place and one day I simply realized that I have cut me from people and have driven myself far from one important point in my life, which is to help people. It was then that I started searching for something that would help me re-build my life, which would offer new challenges that would be used as a material to “renovate” the basis of my life and make it stronger, and eventually, help me with the goal I had set for me, but of which I had become oblivious.

My project has to do with blind people. Dealing with blind people bears a huge responsibility, and I was afraid of not being able to handle it, to fail them or just to disappoint them. This has its reasons – I didn’t know the language too well to be able to freely communicate with them, I didn’t know the city (I live in Santander, Spain) and accordingly, the streets, too, and most importantly, I didn’t know how I should act and behave with the blind people.

Photo by Ani Babayan

My fears got dissolved as soon as I had the first service with a blind person. With every other day I am getting convinced of one thing – they see more than I do. It’s a pleasure to work with them, as these people feel the life deeper as most of them have strongly switched on the rest of their senses, and they teach me many things. I know they appreciate what the rest of the volunteers and I do for them, but this is the case when I really don’t know who gains more, they or us? In my case, it’s me because what I learn during the hours spent with them is a “lesson” I could never attend in any university or institution. It’s an experience that is radically changing my views.

I have been here for three weeks now, and I have managed to learn many things from them, the most important ones being the following – never give up on life and lock yourself in your room, always compare your pain and sorrow with the ones people around you have and you will see how small yours is, always be patient, care about others and why not, say hello to people you see in the streets, because most of them need that simple hello in their lives.

Here I got acquainted with Alejandro, a person with whom I enjoy talking. He recently told me one thing, with which I find it necessary to share – he said that if we are to choose, then we should choose to get things in life little by little because then in case of loss, failure or disappointment you don’t go through much stress or pain as you are having time to step back and draw new paths for your life or just improve the previous ones. Alejandro is a man in his brightest forties who is gradually losing his sight…

As a conclusion, if you ever think of applying to this project or a similar one then do it without hesitating. Also, choose the project and not the country or because you want to travel. This is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so you have to make the most of it, and you have to learn and take the best of it.

And lastly, I want to thank YIC NGO for assisting me with everything regarding the project and eventually, sending me here to be part of one of the best projects carried out in the very north of Spain, in one of the cleanest, most impressive and most well-organized Spanish cities.