{"id":776762,"date":"2026-02-18T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/?p=776762"},"modified":"2026-02-18T15:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:30:52","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-noyon-by-kasey-polo-londono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/2026\/02\/18\/a-day-in-the-life-of-noyon-by-kasey-polo-londono\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of Noyon by Kasey Polo-Londo\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noyon<\/strong> is a volunteer from Bangladesh who participates in food pick ups and distributions every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday without fail. He says he\u2019s not a morning person, yet volunteering early in the morning is a great way to change his routine by doing something good. That\u2019s exactly how we started off our day and began talking about his life in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nNoyon<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was different when I wasn\u2019t in Serve the City. Now that I do food distribution, I feel a change in myself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

When asked what motivates him to keep volunteering, the answer was simple: \u201cPeople\u2019s reaction, especially when they smile. You can\u2019t buy it, it’s priceless.\u201d<\/em> Noyon points out that volunteering has made him realize how much people take for granted. It has helped him learn how to appreciate the smallest things, and hopes others do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really grateful that I’m doing this.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serve the City Paris has helped Noyon find his sense of community in Paris now that he\u2019s been living here for about a year. By volunteering, he has been able to make great friendships, improve his English and connect with others. He also loves to talk with people from other countries and learn about their different cultures. \u201cYou can’t find this on Google or anywhere else!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As we walked between Gare de l\u2019Est and Gare du Nord, you could see restaurants, barber shops, grocery stores and more, all with signs in Bangla. Noyon speaks Bengali (Bangla), Hindi, English and understands Urdu. After asking him how he feels speaking in his native language with other Bangladeshi people in Paris, he answered: \u201cIt feels really good to speak Bangla. It\u2019s still good that I\u2019m speaking Bangla in a foreign country with my people. I really love my language, my mother tongue.\u201d<\/em> Noyon shared with me that the 21st of February is International Mother Language day in honor of the Bangladeshi people who fought for the recognition of their language.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of my culture.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time Noyon and I hung out, he took me to a Bangladeshi restaurant. There was a cricket game on and everyone spoke in Bangla. I ask him in what ways does he stay connected to his culture and he says, by tuning in to the matches. \u201cCricket is religious in my country even though the Bangladeshi team is bad.\u201d<\/em> I laughed. \u201cThey never win the important tournaments.\u201d<\/em> Additionally, he enjoys walking around Aubervillier as there\u2019s a big Bangladeshi community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Food is one of the best ways to connect with one\u2019s culture. That\u2019s why after doing food distribution in the morning, we decided to pop into a Bangladeshi restaurant. Here we ate bhuna khichuri, kolija and drank some chai. Last time, we also got to eat a bit of samosa, singara, chanabora and jilapi. Everything was delicious, and as we ate, Noyon shared with me some great facts about Bangladesh. They have the world\u2019s longest natural sea beach (Cox\u2019s Bazar) and the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world (The Sundarbans Reserve Forest). Impressive!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bangladesh is also the second-largest exporter of clothes in the world. However, the workers get paid extremely low wages. \u201cIt makes me sad\u2026 What\u2019s happening in Bangladesh.\u201d<\/em> Noyon explains that he admires those who work in garment factories as they are always thinking about their children. He believes they are very brave. Noyon often reflects on his country\u2019s reality and the experiences he\u2019s had while living in foreign countries. Inspired to write, he shares this excerpt with us:<\/p>\n

Sometimes, when I think about life too much, I write, ‘Life is so complicated to understand.’<\/em>
\nLife doesn\u2019t give everyone the same starting cards\u2014only the same heartbeat.<\/em>
\nOne child grows up planning dreams; another grows up learning how to survive.<\/em>
\nNot because one is better, but because the world treated them differently.<\/em>
\nEvery life is different because chance decides where we begin,<\/em>
\nbut courage decides how we continue\u2014slowly, painfully, beautifully.<\/em>
\nIn the end, we are all human:<\/em>
\nWe hope, we fear, we try.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cA Day in the Life of _\u201d is a project by Kasey Polo-Londo\u00f1o where she interviews beneficiaries who are also volunteers, with the intent to get to know their efforts within the organization, the city and the sense of community they\u2019ve created while connecting to their countries and cultures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noyon is a volunteer from Bangladesh who participates in food pick ups and distributions every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday without fail. He says he\u2019s not a morning person, yet volunteering early in the morning is a great way to change his routine by doing something good. That\u2019s exactly how we started off our day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":776763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776790,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776762\/revisions\/776790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servethecity.paris\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}