"It is often said that traveling educates and changes a person. I agree with it one hundred percent,
but the question is what is a journey? For some it is a trip to the mountains for a week to take a
break from the hustle and bustle of the city, for others it will be a school trip to the museum to learn
something new. At this point, I am on a journey of life. This is my first flight and the first trip abroad
for such a long time. I have been here for a month and a half and even though I miss my family
sometimes, I can say that I am happy because I pursue my passions such as working with people, or
conducting artistic classes or doing games days for local volunteers, and I discover completely new
passions and dreams such as traveling or teaching other people foreign languages. I run Polish
language classes and it is really amazing how talented my group is. Each of them wants to learn, puts
a lot of work and commitment into it. Everyone is very active and you can see huge progress from
lesson to lesson, which makes me very happy. If they do not understand something or have doubts,
they always write after the lesson and ask. It is very nice, especially when they say that they like
their classes and thank me for this.
After so long, in a different place you see the world completely differently. Poland used to be my
whole world. Now the world has no limits, and I want to discover as much as possible.
My time here is not only about working with people. Thanks to our coordinator, we were in really
amazing places. We saw, among other things, waterfalls, mountains with azure water, we get to
know the culture of Turkey from a completely different side than we are taught at school or in other
words, as stereotypes say. As soon as we have a free moment, we try to use it to travel to various
cities in Turkey. We have already been to Adana, Izmir, Çeşme, Alaçatı, Mersin, Antalya, Alanya, as I
wrote before, mountain views, the sea at night and during the day and waterfalls are also familiar to
us, and we are going to visit Cappadocia and Istanbul soon.
Traveling also means breaking your own barriers, overcoming your weaknesses. This is also in my
cas. Do you know what rafting is? It is a raft ride on a rushing mountain river. Fate wanted us to find
a wonderful couple in search of waterfalls, who offered us rafting and a trip around the canyon.
Despite my fear, I dared to try. It was one of the best adventures and decisions I have made.
However, all this would be nothing if it were not for the people. They shape you and they teach you
life, if I experienced it all by myself, it wouldn't make sense. What is joy for when you have no one to
share it with? I met great friends here and it is thanks to them this volunteering project is the best of
my trips. Everyone I have met here will be in my heart forever and I love them all, and I would gladly
take them to Poland with me. Unfortunately, everything that is beautiful ends sometime. It’s the
same with this project. Someday I will have to come back to Poland, unfortunately I am aware of it.
Sometimes I just hope this is a nightmare that I will wake up and be able to stay here for another
month."

Katarzyna Pińkowska, 18.09.2020, Karaman