Today we are less than four weeks away from the end of our project, four weeks away from the big departure and the big goodbyes. To imagine myself living without the others is just not possible anymore. It’s going to happen very quickly, and that thought is so sad that we avoid talking about it. But it won’t be new to us. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned here and practice, it’s saying goodbye.
For 7 months, we’ve had the opportunity to meet a large number of volunteers. It’s common that in the middle of a conversation, we learn that “a new volunteer is arriving next Monday” “Oh cool! How old?” “Girl or boy?” “For how long? Long term or short term?” “What project?” or even just arriving at the office one morning and oh, new faces! “Hey, nice to meet you, welcome, what’s your name?” And it’s as simple as that. Today we’ve seen faces, from high school students to retirees, coming from all corners of the United States, as well as from Australia, staying for a week or for 4 months. It’s crazy, we’re completely used to it now, it’s become normal for us. Making connections and becoming friends has never been so easy, a handshake, some random question like “Was the journey not too long?” and there you have a new friend with whom you’ll end up traveling and experiencing crazy adventures just a few days later. That’s the best part of being in Care2Travel, having the opportunity to meet so many people from all over the world, with so many different cultures, personalities, and future projects. With each conversation with a new person, a new world opens up, each of them is unique and leaves a considerable mark here on us after their visit.
However, the inevitable aspect of this adventure is having to say goodbye. Whether you spend a week or months with someone, it might be really difficult to say goodbye. We create connections, we get attached to someone, we get used to seeing them all the time, in just a few weeks sometimes they’re already part of your daily life, and then suddenly you have to continue without that person. So you learn. At first, it was the hardest, goodbyes were even more emotional. And then you get used to it more or less. For some, we manage to move on quickly, we have a good time here with them, good memories, and then during a last evening we say goodbye, it’s emotional, it’s intense, and then they leave and life continues here. Then for others, it’s more complicated, months later we still think about them, we talk about them almost every day, because on the one hand, they really marked our experience here and our memories, but mainly because we would give anything to have them here again. Ultimately, we think that we’ll see some of them again, or at least we’ll try, for others, we simply keep the good experience we had with them. But ultimately, we couldn’t be more grateful to have met them.
But some goodbyes are so hard that we can never say we are used to that. During the month of February, the first member of the After-School Clubs project left, Hubert. One less in the house, already creating a significant void. Then last week, in one weekend, we had four goodbyes to make, it was the hardest weekend since we’ve been here. Greta, one of our best friends here, left first, it was very difficult but also a beautiful moment full of emotions, everyone was gathered, crying but united and there for each other. It was tough but really intense and we’ll never forget this moment. We really miss her. Then the next day we also had to say goodbye to Marc and Valentina, two IVHQ volunteers very dear to our hearts, and to a friend we have here in the city who was moving away. A difficult weekend, but also one of the most intense, with lots of good-bye parties, a great opportunity to get together, lots of emotions and lots of love. So we started the following week tired, exhausted by all these emotions, but it wasn’t over, there was no rest for the goodbyes. Because in the middle of the week, the mom of the family we live with, who’s also been our mom since we’ve been here, and Minas were leaving. The same morning. A terrible day, we start crying at 7am, time for goodbyes, then we cry for half the day. Very nice.
If Candice, who was supposed to leave at the same time as Minas, managed to postpone her departure by a month, there is inevitably a day when it’s going to happen. In 4 weeks, we’ll have to say goodbye to everyone, the volunteers, the Care2Travel staff, and especially the host family with whom we live. But there’s something good about goodbyes: it’s a beautiful, emotional moment when we look back on the good times and say what’s on our hearts. But there’s one thing we haven’t yet learned enough about, and that’s saying goodbye to each other. The relationship we both have is very strong, and it’s hard to imagine that in 4 weeks’ time we’ll have to relearn how to live our daily lives, the big moments and the little ones, without each other.
Gesine & Candice
ESC Volunteering with Care2Travel in Miercurea Ciuc 