This week we’re hearing from Sandor Andras Marton, who came from Hungary in June 2016 until March 2017 to volunteer in Estonian Toidupank (Food bank) in Tallinn.
-Toidupank sounds very interesting! What is your typical day at work and what is important for you in your work activities?
There’re 2 typical days – day of food collection and day of food distribution. On collection days we drive to the supermarkets and then we pick up expired food or food that would actually go to the waste and then we get it to the Food bank and from there other organizations are coming and distributing for themselves or for the people who need it. On distribution day we actually prepare support boxes at the Food bank from the storage and then we deliver those boxes to social centres, sometimes kindergartens or schools or churches. There’re volunteers in the warehouse who pack and store the food, I’m mostly working on picking up and delivery because there’s always should be somebody together with the driver.
-So, this project wouldn’t be good for a girl?
Not really. It’s a physical job.
-When you were choosing the project, were you choosing the country or activities?
The activity definitely.
-If future volunteer in Food bank has contacted you, what message and advice would you give him? How should he set his mind?
Start physical training, at least a little bit. Prepare patience: I didn’t know that a person that I’m going to work directly all day with is a driver and his personality takes patience and maybe just have some basic ideas what you could possibly contribute – just try to visualise how the work will be and try to think what you can add to your EVS project.
-So, before coming here, what did you know about Estonia, did you have any stereotypes?
I think I just had information, no stereotypes at all. Once I googled how Estonian girls look like 
But it didn’t really help because it was bunch of blonde girls 
-So, having no stereotypes before, when you came here, were you positively or negatively surprised?
I was just a little surprised in a positive way because my first impression was that it’s quite similar to Hungary and it’s kind of like any typical European country but it’s still a bit nicer and a bit more modern than Hungary. And at first I thought it’s gonna be colder but summer was really nice!
-What are the things that you really enjoy in the country or in this city?
Free public transport – that’s really awesome! It’s easy to be here with knowledge of English, not in all countries it’s like that. There’re plenty of places to visit, a lot of people are travelling all over the country and because it’s a small country, that makes it easy to go to border countries and discover a lot of places.
-We know that you’re vegan, so how would you evaluate attitude here to vegan and vegetarian people and in general? Is there infrastructure here for them?
Whenever I meet people here who are interested in healthy eating, they’re really cool, not like anyone I met before. And here I have been to Vegan fair, something that I never experienced before! But in general Estonians base their diet on meat.
-Would you agree with the statement that it’s hard to make friends with Estonians or you didn’t find it a problem?
It is hard, it takes a lot more effort to become a friend of an Estonian than for example person from some southern country.
-Did you learn something important for yourself? Do you feel some big change?
I realized that I can’t be volunteer forever When I found out about EVS and volunteering I thought that it’s super cool and I could do it forever because I don’t like monetary system (meaning working for money) but after a while I realize I have to get back to work. Of course you can still continue volunteering next to your work! I learnt to make new place where I moved comfortable and “homey”. I think I learnt about time management, because when you volunteer, it’s kind of free schedule, so you have to discipline yourself and spend it effectively!
-Imagine you will open this article in 4 months, when your project is finished. What would you want to have by that time?
For the people that I live and work with, I hope they’ve learnt something from me (not just because I’m 10 years older than everybody I hope they can refer to a lot of things in the future, like – Sandor did something this way, or he taught me this or “you should better do it like Sandor did because he was good at it”.
Sandor Andras Marton is staying in Estonia within EVS project “Care to Make a Difference” supported by Estonian National Agency of Erasmus+.
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