I m Müberra Polat from Turkey. I m a Mechanical Engineer. I had a good job. But something was missing in my life. I wasn’t exactly happy. That’s why I wanted to take break from my work, to do something different. Then finally I quit my job and I applied for volunteering. Now I’m in Poland. I’m volunteer in special needed school “Zespół Szkół Specjalnych Nr 4 w Sosnowcu”. I have been living in Poland since 29 th October. As we are all lockdown due to Covid so I wrote the article below.
When I heard first time about the corona virus, I didn’t care. I wasn’t following the news. I thought I’d get over it like a normal flu if I got the virus. I did not know that the result was very bad when it got to an elderly, sick or immune-poor person. Meanwhile, I was still making trip plans.
I realized the magnitude of the situation only when the schools were interrupted. I started researching more. I noticed how selfish I thought. We decided to quarantine ourselves. We started to live 6 people in the house of my other volunteer friends because I will bored if I will be alone. We were watching movies, cooking, playing games together. Then I started to stay with another volunteer friend this week. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to think more. Since the school I was a volunteer with had children with disabilities, we could not do regular online lessons. But I started thinking about the things what I could do with them. It was very important to be creative at this point.
I decided to record video them about the things they could do with simple paper and few material. In this way, I would be in contact with them and even if we could not be together, we could do something together. I will also teach a traditional Turkish dance, which is simple at the request of my lovely tutor Dagmara, by video. So when we get back to school and everything is ok, we can dance together.
I noticed how much I got used to them during the quarantine. I really miss the loving hugs of my special children, the sincerity and friendliness of the teachers. We have become a family. I hope this bad situation passes as soon as possible and we can celebrate our return to school with spring.