Teach & Travel
FEBA’s new project presented to the volunteers for this year became more popular than initial expectations. This project was an excellent opportunity for all the participants, both graduate and undergraduate students of Balkan decent who live in USA and Canada who were willing to take on an experience abroad.
FEBA’s Teach &Travel program is an international project, whose aim is to place participants in different countries all over the world. However, this year it took place only in Turkey. Our volunteers taught ESL to students in middle school and high school during their summer vacation. It was wonderful to see them gain a new and rewarding experience, while at the same time feel excited about showing their teaching abilities. They had the opportunity to make very close friendships and get to know different peoples and their cultures. In fact, FEBA volunteers should be recognized for the good impressions they left to the principals, students and parents as well. The Teach &Travel program took place in a 2-4 week period of teaching and 1 full week of travelling in some of the most prominent touristic places. While enjoying this experience, the volunteers had the chance to earn some income for their participation.
It is important to mention that the “Travel” part was just as exciting as the “Teaching” part. Traveling to amazing historical and tourist attractions, participating in interesting regional activities, tasting different kinds of dishes from other cultures and being hosted by local families were some of the common activities taking place in this program. Beyond traveling, it was a fun and entertaining experience as well. One thing is for sure, that FEBA partners and devoted volunteer’ efforts made this project a success, so we take the chance here to congratulate and thank them for their great work.
I arrived to Istanbul in June, and started my journey in Turkey with the Internship part at Today's Zaman. It was very exciting to get the opportunity to work for such a big newspaper. The work environment was very professional and fast-pace, yet at the same time very down to earth and homey. You could really tell the company makes sure it's workers are happy. It gave me a better idea of ‘where’ and ‘what’ I want to be doing in the near future.
The second month, I traveled all the way to the other side of Turkey, to the beautiful city Adana. There, I did Teach and Travel, and was fortunate enough to experience the kindness of Turkish hospitality and lots of delicious home-cooked Turkish food. The teaching job alone was very rewarding due to the fact that I was able to see the student's English develop within just a few weeks. I was also able to bond with other FEBA people that came to Adana to teach as well since we visited couple of other cities in Turkey like Gaziantep, Mersin, Antalya, Izmir, Bursa, and Ankara altogether.
The third month was an unplanned, extra added month for me. After my 2 months were up, I realized that I was not quite ready to leave this country. There was just something about it that made me want to stay. In fact, I always felt at home while I was there, due to the fact of how much it reminded me of Bosnia. I also wanted to spend Ramazan in Istanbul. Now I had the chance to go home and spend Ramazan with my family, or spend it in beautiful Istanbul with 3500 mosques. A decision I thought about for a while, and decided at the end to stay one extra month. From hearing the drums in the morning for Sahur, to the Azan for Iftar, my heart was full of joy because I knew I had made the right decision of staying another month, hence this Ramazan will be one I will always remember.
On top of all these great experiences, I got the benefit of participating in most of FEBA's complimentary trips, dinners, speeches, iftars, sahurs, and met so many great people along the whole journey. I spent three months in Turkey; three month, but all very different from each other, yet all equally amazing and life changing. Through the Internship and Teach and Travel, I not only got directed on the right career path, but also got reminded to never let culture, traditions, and values fade away.
Sabrina Jahja
