My Special Person - Ria

It feels right to start my story with something informative (I am avoiding word “boring” as hard as I can), so you could get the image of where everything started and why it was and IS so important for me. So here comes the setting…

2014. A freshly graduated teacher of English who has never been abroad, nor had much experience of interaction with English-speaking world. In the country with rather poor (let’s be honest) reputation in Europe. However, a person with enough ambition and faith that if one tries hard and stays open for opportunities – then eventually, things will go their way…

I guess I am making it impossible to miss the point that I was really eager to see the world and get in touch with new people and cultures. The urge to try myself in something new, while family and job did not get me to settle, kept me highly motivated. Skipping all the gory details, I did my best and was finally selected by a Child Care Center Pinnochio that is in Peer, Belgium. How happy and proud was I! The difficulties lying ahead did not scare me at all, because I believed - best things don’t come easy! And started all the paper work deeply assured that everything will be fine.

However, I happened to have no idea that finding a host family was SO much trouble. No one expected them to grow on trees, of course, but… As I learnt later, AFS even posted an article in “Het Belang Van Limburg” – a Belgian news portal. That’s where my little miracle happened – thanks to “AFS zoekt dringend gastgezin in Peer voor Russische Olga”, Ria and Robert found me and I found them.

Cutting a long story short (or at least a little bit shorter) - after a long and exhausting visa procedure I finally took off at Domodedovo airport in Moscow and… landed in Heathrow! – just to take off again and finally make it to Brussels.

The first thing about Ria that caught my attention was her hair. She has it really short and my impression about her was “Strong. Daring. Confident”. And then, as soon as I reached my little but hearty welcoming committee, she burst into crying. The flights and a sleepless night left me slow and confused, so at first I couldn’t even find words – and even my extended teacher’s vocabulary wouldn’t help. But Ria broke the ice and started telling about a little speech she had prepared, and the sign with my name that I actually noticed only after she had mentioned it. Everything with so much feeling and emotion and hospitability… I never expected to be so welcome.

 All together we started off to Peer and during this little trip Ria was making me feel more and more comfortable, talking about everything at once - sharing and asking. Everything: from minute things to significant ones – from the fact that she is also a cat person, just like I am, to her family history. The latter, actually, greatly affected her decision to host me: her father worked with some Russians WWII prisoners in the mines. That is how Ria and her sister Vera got so interested in Slavic culture - Russian and Polish in particular. They both studied these languages at University, and Ria hoped to practice her Russian with me and learn something new about the culture, of course. Being absolutely honest, we didn’t make much practicing after all, as we both were working full day and Ria was volunteering a lot herself. But we tried!

After we got home I was introduced to some traditional Belgian dishes right away – Ria and Robert cooked Stoofvlees for the dinner and that’s when I fell in love with Belgian cuisine! And that’s when my Belgian life started.

At the very beginning, when I was getting used to the new world and language around me – Ria was basically taking care of everything. She showed me around, introduced to the locals and even involved in cooking! She shared some of her favourite recipes – as a vegetarian she became unbelievably inventive in the kitchen and I even felt intimidated about my skills. Only by the end of my stay I overcame it and made some borsch – which, according to Ria, was delicious (I bet she was just polite).

Bit by bit I started feeling at ease and then, Ria made another gift to me – she took me along to the local badminton club. I never expected to see myself enjoying this game as I used to be a really poor player. However, Ria’s lessons and support, and incredibly friendly club members got me to fall in love with the game. Especially I loved the time after – when everybody gathered at the bar to have a chat and a beer. There I made some good friends, and words simply cannot express my gratitude to Ria for taking me along.

And that is what kind of person Ria is – “Caring. Attentive. Supportive”. She introduced me to her family and always made me feel welcome at family dinners. We did shopping together and went to the hairdresser’s, looked after a new member of the Aerts family – kitten Silvesterje. Robert and Ria took me to see Amsterdam! I could go on for really long… but I guess everyone who is reading this, has already got the idea. She was always there for me to share “ups” and help through “downs”.

Frankly, I never noticed how the time passed and my project was over. When we were saying goodbye to each other one last time, Ria was in tears and I couldn’t cry – just didn’t believe it was happening. Felt as if I am going to see them tomorrow again somehow. It was a weird feeling…

The story seems so tragic at the moment, but we still keep in touch – so, dear reader, cheer up if you’re still with me!

There were difficulties and bad days, of course. We all are humans with different views and background, lifetime habits and simply “things”. But isn’t that what these EVS projects are about? – To let people learn to live together, overcome difficulties together through sharing and discussion, to explore and be explored. Because this is how you get to know the world – by letting the world to get to know you.

Hope you have enjoyed reading and feel inspired!