On-Arrival Training: contacts which last forever!

Last weekend Zura, our mentor Annija and I went to the “On-Arrival Training” for the EVS volunteers (and their mentors) who have arrived in Latvia during the last months. This non-formal training took place in a very beautiful guest house near Riga, “Depkina Rāmavas muiža” and it consisted of 5 days full of activities that will help us to create an excellent EVS.

The training started on Friday's 20^th morning but unfortunately, I got sick because of an avocado (I think I won't be able to eat avocado ever again... It was so painful!) and I arrived there in the evening, so I missed all the presentation and team-building activities. But it was not so bad, all the people was so friendly that I didn't even noticed I had skipped them. And luckily, I arrived there early enough to be in the Latvian evening, where all the mentors taught us Latvian songs, dances, games and history and of course they all brought tasty food from different regions.

As every morning, Saturday started with some warming-up out-door activities. Then, we worked on voluntary work, important players in EVS, non-formal education and Youth in Action values. After a very tasty lunch (I have to say that all the meals were delicious and they gave us so many sweets! It felt like paradise) we went along with learning and the Youth Pass. This activity was one of my favorite ones because I developed my creativity very much by writing a poem with Anna, one German volunteer who has become a very close friend of mine.

But Saturday couldn't end by a better way than having an intercultural evening. In the training there were volunteers from 5 different countries: Germany, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine and Catalonia, so we had the opportunity to discover all these different cultures by our presentations. We danced traditional dances, learned songs and played traditional instruments. It was very interesting!

Sunday was the last day with our mentors since they would leave in the evening, but we still had a very intensive day in front of us. After breakfast, we took the bus to Riga, where we had to accomplish a very difficult mission: success with all the tasks that the trainers gave us. But everybody knows that it is much better to work with great colleagues than alone, so we made a group with Anna, Zura, Therese and Beqa and managed to do almost all the tasks while having good fun. At the end of the day we ended up with a conclusion that for me has become representative of the training: with the right people, everything is possible!

Then, we came back to Rāmava and each one of us made a poster with magazines' pictures about how we wanted to be after the EVS, so I took my sheet of paper and some magazines and went outside, under the porch, accompanied by the smell and the sound of the rain and started to work. For me, this was the best activity because I came up with how I wanted my future to be like and I got to know myself much better in a very creative way. After this, we got together with our mentors and started making an activity plan taking into account the poster we had just made. This was so productive and we had so many ideas that we only planned October.

It was time to say good-bye to our mentors and start cooking the dinner ourselves. We decided that we had to take advantage of our nationalities and cook something from our countries. The result was delicious: German salad, Turkish vegetables, Spanish omelet, Ukrainian sweets and fruit with chocolate as a dessert! And we kept Georgian meat for the following day.

But the last day had arrived. Monday was the day for crisis management and questions we hadn't dealt with the other days. We talked about so many situations and how to solve them all, I think it was very useful for all the volunteers. In the afternoon, we thought of projects and activities we can do together and we had some very nice ideas such as making a lip dub for the International Volunteers' Day and hugging people in Riga's streets. We are also planning to travel not only around Latvia but also to Estonia and Lithuania all together.

Finally, we left on Tuesday after breakfast. But we wanted to spend one more day together so we stayed in Riga, walked around the Old Town, had lunch in a traditional Latvian food restaurant and went in some second hand shops.

The training was over but we left with full batteries, a lot of energy, optimism, ideas, creativity, great friends and ready to make an excellent EVS!

Changes and news

The last two weeks have been full, very full and with many new things. 

If I have to think about last week it seems really far away; at that time I still was the only volunteer in Kuldīga although it wouldn’t be for long. I spent most of my time at work preparing the welcome for Zura, the Georgian volunteer who will be my colleague during this whole year, and making a presentation about Catalunya for the first cultural evening of the Youth Center.

On Friday I left to Riga with some friends, Guna and Edgars, who showed me this beautiful city and on Saturday we all went to the airport to pick up Zura. Then, we drove with their car to Kuldīga and went to Zabadaks, the place where Zura was supposed to live. But he didn’t like it at all so we decided that I would share the flat with him. And I am glad of this decision! Sometimes it is difficult to communicate with each other because he speaks very little English and I don’t speak Russian at all, but doing mimics to understand each other is very funny!

On Monday we had the first ballet lesson in Focus, the dancing group I go to. The teacher is a professional ballet dancer who comes specially from Riga to teach us! We also had rehearsal on Tuesday and Wednesday but it wasn’t ballet, it was theater, which is extremely necessary because the expression is very important in the dances.

But before I go to eat something, I want to talk about yesterday. Yesterday it was 11th of September, the Catalan National Day and I am very say I couldn’t be there in this important date. All the Catalans did a human chain, “Via Catalana”, to demonstrate for the independence. Here, in the Youth Center, we did the first cultural evening about Catalunya and I talked about our history, traditions and why the Catalans want to be independent.

VISCA CATALUNYA!

Plans and decisions

When I think about last week all the decisions and plans that we had to make come to my mind. The time of planning everything arrived: the activities I would do in the Youth Center, the timetables, the big events of the year, the international days, etc. Essential work that must be done in order to obtain good results.

The worst part for me was planning my own timetable because there are so many things I want to do. But the day only has 24 hours and the week 7 days, so I had to prioritize and decide which activities I would have to forget about, and that is something which I really hate doing.

My biggest dilemma was between theater and dancing as I love both activities. Dancing was 3 days a week and included ballet and theater lessons, theater was 3 days a week and included dancing lessons. Moreover, I had already taken part in both activities and I knew the people was great in both groups. But I had to take a decision and dancing won the battle.

Even though there are these odious moments when planning the timetables, there are also these great moments when you let your imagination flow and you start thinking about all the events you can organize for the year. Ideas, ideas and more ideas start coming to your mind and you just can't wait for realizing them all.

But planning the whole year is not so easy so we still have some work to do so let's just focus on the great moments and start thinking about Zura's welcome, he will arrive next Saturday!