Jaime Navarro from Spain, (European Solidarity Corps volunteer)

I was bored at home when I saw the call to live in Greece and work in a National Park so I did not doubt to apply for it. It happened so fast that I was not conscious of what I was doing, in barely 2 weeks I had to depart for the small and cozy village, Dadia, for 1 year. I chose this project for 2 reasons. First because I am geographer and I love the life in the nature and second because Greece, I have always been interested as country, mainly her history and culture.

Living in a small village is so peaceful. For me that I am from a big city in Spain I realized that people from the rural areas are more authentic than people who live in the cities. Another thing which was remarkable for me is that Greek people love drinking coffee for quite a while so they gather together and they enjoy it. In fact, I also started to do the same. I usually order fredo coffee which is the most common type of coffee between Greek people while I read a book or talk with another person.

Regarding to the work, I arrived to Dadia some months after a huge fire that destroyed the National Park so the environment was a little gloomy, but I realized how the fire is part of life and how the biodiversity starts recovering again. We work in an organization called Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace which offered many tasks to do related to birds, wind farms, restoration, etc. One of the things which attracted my attention was the severity of the fire in the forest. The species planted by human, mainly pines, spread the flames more than species like oaks. So, I get a conclusion that the Nature is wise and the natural species are more prepared to bear hot and fire in the summer than species planted by the Human.