Hello!! It’s Maria, I’m 23 years old and I live in small town near Málaga, in Spain. I have volunteered since March in Øhavets Smakke Center, a camping place with a lot of maritime history, located in the small island of Strynø.
The main tasks I need to do during this half year has been preparing the camping place for the high season. It included a lot of cleaning, organizing, painting, preparing rooms, putting up tents. Occasionally upkeeping the boats and cutting the grass, activities I found pretty cool 🙂
When I arrived I saw the potential of the place. The camping is located in a cute, small, barely populated island with beautiful nature, basically the perfect quite and peaceful place to spend some time off and relax. The nature in this place is beautiful. I have never seen more beautiful sunsets and night skies as in this island 🩵.
I was very looking forward to prepare the camping place for summer so the people coming to the center would have an amazing experience and be happy. So I tried to take action. My volunteer partner, who eventually left, and I, organize and cleaned up the place. We got rid of broken and unnecessary things. We painted the new outdoor kitchen and the new rooms. We also sanded, oiled, and painted a boat that was used before to do sailing trips and observe seals around Strynø and other small islands nearby.
I came up with different ideas to update the booking system since it was a bit off. I suggested to have a website for the “bookings of camping site”, so the customers coming with their own tent. A problem they got was that sometimes they were not accountable for new bookings, and who paid or not. So like in different camping sites I have been, you need to reserved or select in the the booking system a spot in the camping place. If paying was not an available option when arriving, in the system it will appeared that someone arrived and reserved something, and will pay the next morning. The website sounded like a good idea and they might work on it in the future 🙂
I also helped creating content for the instagram profile of the camping place @strynoenaturcamping, and Airbnb. I basically took picture of the family tents and camping area, as well of the island and its beautiful nature and cute streets. I also when biking in recording videos.
Baking Journey 🍪🥐
Another thing I wanted to participate in was the Café, which nobody was running this year. I wanted the cafe area to be a place that brings people together and where customers could enjoy a little snack and coffee or tea, and talk and relax. By doing some baking I could help Smakke Center economically. Overall during summer I baked different types of chocolate cookies, like dark chocolate and hazelnut cookies, white chocolate and cashew cookies, dark and white chocolate cookies, etc. I have also baked brownies and bagels for the cafe.
I also participated in different dinner events, what they called “Long Table Dinner”, we had a total of 3 this summer. I love cooking and baking; sharing food with people and the happiness and joy it comes with it, the change of ideas and opinions, not only about food, but different topics in general when having conversation around food.
I helped prepare, chopping, cooking, placing, and serving dishes, as well as cleaning afterwards. I could also come up with my own dessert idea for one of the events, so I made doughnuts filled with pastry cream for the kids.
Another opportunity I had while living on the island was to come up with a power point in present it at the Strynø Skole. They wanted the kids to know a bit about me and my country so it was a way for them to get to know me and being more comfortable talking in English.
Conclusion
These almost 7 months that I have spent on this small and lonely Danish island have been very nice. Like everything in life I have had ups and downs moments. Moments when I have felt lonely, isolated, and even bored. However, I consider myself a positive person who enjoys the little things in life; someone who is very simple in that sense. I have learned to be more independent, to be more self-reliant, to make decisions without looking back or having regrets, and to appreciate and enjoy nature even more <3.
I have been able to learn about the Danes and their customs, thanks to my wonderful host family to whom I will be eternally grateful, they are really the best. The coexistence with them was always very familiar from day one, and if it were not for them, my stay on the island would have been much more difficult. I cannot thank them enough for everything they have given me. I told them they are more than welcome to visit me in Spain, and it will probably happen very soon.
Some of the working days became monotonous and a bit boring. My volunteer partner left the project at the beginning of June, so I found myself alone in many situations. However, the volunteers working at the reception, which are from the island, have really made this experience much better for me. Very nice and funny people to be around. Listening to their stories and the different points of view in life is something that has taught me a lot.
Although the project itself was not 100% what I expected, the overall experience of this ESC volunteering project has been very positive and it is something I recommend. The people on the island, the volunteers I have met thanks to the ESC trainings, the places I have visited in Denmark, and the quality time I spent with people, has been without any doubt an enriching experience. This half a year in this island has showed me a different way of seeing life. The people in this island are a very caring and loving community, and having the opportunity to be a part of them has been a privilege. In the future I will look back and say that these months have been a very happy moment in my life and a learning experience I will not forget ❤️🔥.
ESC Solidarity Projects 