Hello, my name is Murat. I am 24 years ago. I am a senior student in electrical and electronics engineering. I live in Istanbul, one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey. I feel very lucky in this respect. I have worked in many jobs such as trainee engineer, bellboy, receptionist and waitress. We did various activities at the university with my friends. In this way, I developed my teamwork and sense of responsibility. I took part in the dance club of the university for about 7 months.
I am a person who loves to teach people and learn from them. I volunteered teaching math and chess to young children. Since my childhood was in the village, I have a very good relationship with nature and animals. I feel lucky in this regard. I'm also interested in music. I play bağlama (musical instrument), an instrument which is very popular in Turkey.
I love learning new cultures, learning a new language and meeting friends from different cultures. So I applied to many volunteering projects before I was selected for this project. The projects I applied for were mostly about the environment, ecological life and children. My sending organization (Topluma Destek Derneği) was very helpful in choosing and applying for this project and actually for ICDET. I've never been abroad before, so Bulgaria is my first experience abroad. That's why my visa process and journey was very exciting for me. It was 9:30 pm when I arrived in Sofia. When I arrived at Sofia airport, my friends from ICDET helped me. We had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant that night. After we had our meal, my mentor showed me where I would stay.
I was very happy to receive such a warm welcome. I realized that I am not alone here. We visited Sofia in the first week with my friends from ICDET. I really liked the historical buildings, churches, mosques and museums in Sofia. Because I am also very interested in history. In the first week at ICDET, I received training on topics such as the European Union, European Solidarity Corps, multiculturalism, culture shock, communication skills, self-management, goal setting. I think that learning these in the first week will be very useful during my volunteering, so I feel lucky. The subject that I will work and focus on here will be ecological life and environment. I will focus on these issues. For this, I have thoughts such as preparing a presentation, camping, organizing vegetarian workshops, clearing the forest or making videos about ecology.
So, let's build an ecological life together.
Murat Bilmez, volunteer@ICDET