Liseth from Rio de Janeiro: Let the samba finally begin! (1)

My life in words + Volunteering

Hi, my name is Liseth van der Biest, I'm 27-year-old girl from Venezuela who loves working as a Volunteer. I would describe myself as a really creative person who enjoys learning a lot from people from other cultures. I started this philosophy when I was 17 and had the chance to do and exchange year with Rotary International. I lived one year in Germany and so far it has been the best year of my life. I got to learn a new language, meet people from around the world and travel to the most beautiful places. Living in Europe was a totally different thing than living in Venezuela or Latinoamerica for that matter. After my exchange I came back to Venezuela and studied architecture which is my real passion. Now I work as an independent architect in my hometown San Cristobal. In my final semester in the university I applied for the first time to work as a volunteer for the Women's World Cup held in Germany in 2011. After filling forms on the online application site and having a telephone interview in German (I was scared as hell) I got in the tournament to as a volunteer in Media and comunication, which is an area related to everything that involves press: Tv, radio, written press, photographers, the list goes on and on... The expience was awesome, I had the chance to make new friends and to visit my host family in Germany (the same host family I had during my exchange).

Working as a volunteer opened my eyes to a different world, being behind the scene in one of these tournaments is just AMAZING! When I came back to Venezuela I felt like I wasn't over with the volunteering thing, so I got a mail from UEFA, they were sending me an invitation to apply in the volunteer recruitment process for Euro 2012 Poland - Ukraine. I really never gave it a second thought and applied right away. Poland had always facinated me so I chose Warsaw as my possible host city.

After a similar process like the one I had with Women's World Cup, after some months, I got in once again to work in media and communication in WARSAW! I was beyond thrilled, I prepared my trip and on the end of May I was flying to Poland. Once in Poland I stayed at a Rotary's host family, which was a good opportunity to learn about the Polish culture since I was actually living with a family with jobs and kids. I clicked in right away and loved how friendly everybody was to me. That's something I'm really grateful about the people there. In Poland I felt at home and in a really cozy environment. During Euro I met the best people in the world, people I have close to my heart (I know it sounds cheesse) but it's true. I also had one of the best moments of my life. During the first match in Warsaw I had the chance to stay on the pitch during the opening ceremony and it was OVERWHELMING to feel all that energy there. I wanted to smile, cry, jump, scream and laugh, all at the same time. That's something I will never forget. I usually think about that moment when I'm feeling a bit down and it's amazing the effect it still has on me.

In that moment it didn't matter that a Venezuelan girl with a weird Dutch last name was in Poland surrounded by people of thousands of nationalities, in that moment we all spoke the same language: Football!

Warsaw will be always a really good memory, the best souveniers are those you get to keep in your mind and in your heart, take this for example: I had the chance to do new stuff like flying over Warsaw in a little plane with one of my host brothers. It was really breathtaking, something everybody should try one day.

Poland became easily one of my favorite places in the world. I loved that food (gain 3 kg in 6 weeks - thank you very much Paluszki <3) the people, the weather, the amazing history... It´s hard to believe that Poland is such a great nation after everything that happened there during the WWII, that's something that actually reflects on how people in Poland are nowdays, it reflects a lot of character and wonderful personality. I really hope I could come back to Poland soon, meet all my friends and keep gaining some kg's eating Paluszki.

"The Application + 4 shots 1 day + Brazil taking over us"

Hi folks, I'm back and ready to tell you about how everything started in this amazing journey for the World Cup. The application process started in 2012, FIFA was selecting volunteers for 2 events at the same time: the Confederation Cup 2013 and the World Cup 2014. Something I think was a lot of work to take in. The application process started pretty much as usual: filling forms on the recruiting website, after that came a skype interview in English and later on came the online training. This training normally goes from the general stuff like what FIFA is, the history of the tournament, the host country and cities and then the specific areas where everybody is going to be working in.

The process take a long time, something I still compare to my previous applications during the Women's World Cup 2011 and Euro 2012. After getting my acceptance letter early this year, I started reading about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro (my host city). I also started planning stuff, questions started popping in my head: where am I staying? Do I need a visa? Do I need any shots/injections? The list was endless... After buying my plane ticket (Caracas-Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro) I really got into all that stuff. I don't need a visa to get in Brazil (being Venezuelan has some advantages :D) but I couldn't escape from other things...

In order to get to Brazil I needed (officially) 2 shots: yellow fever and measles. I thought 'ok, thats not bad I got those 2 already'. I just needed to go to the ministry of health in my city to make sure that it was enough. Well, it wasn't enough! The doctor told me that those 2 shots were mandatory for Brazil, but if I was leaving Venezuela, I needed some extra stuff, which happened to be 4 shots (H1N1, Hepatitis B, Toxoid and pneumococcus), one shot per arm and thigh... It was painful and I'm not sure it is legal to have this heavy combination in one day... so I just put on my poker face and acted brave while getting those shots.

During the World Cup I'll be staying at some Rotarians families, something I'm really happy about cause that will give me the chance to have a full experience and learn about how it feels to be part of the Brazilian family. This last week I've been buying souvenirs and Venezuelan snacks and candies for these host families and I couldn't stop noticing that even when Venezuela isn't going to the World Cup, you could easily feel the 'mundial' atmosphere bulding up everywhere. 'Brazil is taking over us' was my first thought. Kids are collecting the official album and exchanging stickers everywhere. Bakeries, supermakets, ice cream shops and even regular stores have decorations regarding the World Cup... The news paper has an entire body for the tournament and it even hasn't started yet! Imagine that!

Venezuela has been going through a really bad time this year, we try to find happiness and hope in each oportunity we have. Most Venezuelans are desendants from Europeans (Portuguese, German, Dutch, Italians, Spanish and Greek), I'm the perfect example of that, my familly comes from Holland on my Dad's side and from the Lebanon on my mother's so our culture is really mixed, so somehow you can see people related to all these countries during the World Cup, you can easily see flags from around the world in the balconies, the windows, the cars, everywhere... The perfect chance to feel part of something big!

Brazil is going through a bad time too, there are riots and protest everywhere, some people is not happy about Brazil hosting this event. I just hope everything works out well. I'm sure that once the tournament starts people will forget about everythinh but football, I'm excited about Brazil, I have tons of Brazilian friends and hope to make 10000 more. Can't wait to be there giving the best of myself... 'all in one rhythm'.