The story of Lorena

Lorena:
“I have been living in Galicia in Spain for many years. I have been working as an assistant dentist and as a dentist for 18 years. However, this job was not well paid in Spain, and I knew from a girlfriend that there is a lack of dentists in Belgium.”

That is how I came to Belgium last year. As I did not yet speak Dutch well enough and as long as I do not have the permission to work as a dentist in Belgium, I decided to work as a cleaning assistant. I had been doing this job in Spain during some months and I like cleaning anyway.

I got into contact with Avanti through a friend of my partner, who had been working for Avanti in the past. I am working 20 hours now, and this is perfect for me. Due to some health problems, working fulltime would be too difficult for me. With my clients I try to speak Dutch as much as possible to improve my Dutch.

I started learning Dutch through the app Duolingo and now I also participate in live group lessons.
I like to learn languages: I speak Spanish, Italian, English, Dutch and I recently started to learn Turkish as well.

The first weeks of my job were rather hard as the houses of my clients were dirty and I am a perfectionist, who wants to clean every single detail.
But after some weeks my job became more comfortable as all the dirt was gone and now I only have to do the weekly maintenance.
I have a very good contact with all my clients, and they respect me a lot.

Working as a cleaning lady in Belgium is better paid than working as a dentist in Spain, so I do not complain about my salary here.

My dream job is to work as a biological dentist in Ghent within some months, but in the meantime, I am happy to work for Avanti. I have an excellent contact with the Avanti head office people.

In my free time I like to do learn new languages, do physical exercises to get stronger muscles and to work in my garden.