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!

When it rained cakes...

So happy after the results of the crash course in theatre! The performance was a great success and everyone acted very well! Here there is the hat I wore and the flowers I received after the show.

Finally I managed to say my difficult sentence, which actually meant "When it rained cakes…", a delicious way for saying "Once upon a time…”

Good feelings!

Two days ago finished the youth exchange in Kūrava, the house that was being restored by Italians, Estonians and Latvians. Saying good-bye to all the volunteers was a very sad moment because I had had a great time spending almost the hole week with their company! Now I will miss them so much!

We were very glad because the results of the project were incredibly good. We managed to bring water into the house and build the toilet and also to restore the window of what will be the bathroom. And the secret of these results is that everybody worked very hard and that we all got on very well.

But, of course, we didn't spend the whole day working. Everyday, after dinner time, we had some activities prepared: a night-walk in Kuldīga, a concert, a story evening, a photo session in traditional clothes, a wine tasting and some people even watched a movie. Finally, on Saturday, after Friday's cleaning party, we had a huge birth celebration for Kurts, Undīne's and Raivo's son. We were so lucky to see a completely traditional baptism, with all the ceremonies, costumes, food, songs and dances. It was so nice and I think all of us enjoyed it very much.

But last week I also did some other things apart from Kūrava. On Monday I started a crash course in theater in the Youth Center and tomorrow we will put on the play we have been rehearsing. And yes, I have a role in the play and I say one (extremely complicated) sentence in Latvian: “Kad vēl klinģerlietiņs lija”. Every time I have to say it I get so nervous because I always forget it! But I have a lot of fun there because there are from little kids to adults and when we play games it is hilarious.

Luckily, I also started Latvian lessons and now I can read, greet and address people, count to 20, say the colors and name some objects. But Latvian is a bit difficult and I will have to study a lot!

This week we will know something about Zura's arrival, the Georgian volunteer who will work with me in the project. I really hope he can come soon!

Projects everywhere!

Last week was very busy! I was taking part in two projects at the same time, one in the Youth Centre and the other one in Kūrava.

In the Youth Centre we organized a week called 'Young and Active', in which we carried out different kind of activities for all the youngsters of Kuldīga. Any day was the same: on Moday we had sports day, on Tuesday we painted a beautiful drawing on a wall, on Wednesday we had a meeting with various organizations, on Thursday we had an orientation race and on Friday we had games day. It was a very complete week and we enjoyed it very much.

At the same time I was in the other project: the restoration of Kūrava, an old and big house near the river Venta. This project lasts two weeks and its final aim is to make a bathroom in the house with the help of 5 volunteers from Italy, 4 from Estonia and 5 from Latvia. The project also gives a lot of importance to culture and the participants are taking part in many Latvian traditions. Although I didn't have much time for this project, I have to say that it is very interesting, with great people and till now it has had very good results!

I'm having a very good time in Latvia and I am really looking forward next September, when I will start all the activities in the Youth Centre!

First week

It's been one whole week living in Kuldīga, getting to know the streets, the people, the language... a week full of new things.

Everything started on Monday 5^th of August, with my first day at work. The advantages of working in the Youth Center is that I can meet many young people, the disadvantage of arriving on August is that there isn't many people. Nevertheless, I think I've found great people here with whom I did really enjoyable activities last week. Now I'll just talk about some of them.

These past days have been extremely hot in Latvia, even reaching 34ºC in Kuldīga, which is not normal at all. But in this city we are very lucky because we have one fantastic river: Venta. Last Thursday was one of the hottest days in the past three years so we went with some friends to swim in the river. The water temperature was perfect and we had so much fun jumping from the waterfalls.

But this awesome weather couldn't last for long and the following day the rain started and the temperatures decreased. Even though we couldn't go swimming, there were many other things to do. Some of the youngsters who come to the Youth Center also dance theater jazz in the Culture Center and on Friday they had a performance in city called Ventspils, which means Castle on the Venta. I was invited to go with them and see the show and I have to say that I had a really good time with them and I enjoyed their dances very much!

Finally, last Saturday there was a marathon in Kuldīga. I went to see it because some of my friends were working there but I ended up working too! We had to fill glasses of water and hold them next to the path were the athletes were running, so that if they were thirsty they could take them without stopping. Suddenly, from the loud-speakers it started to sound some swing and we spent all the morning dancing while giving the water to the runners, it was hilarious!

Today started the week 'Youth and Active' in Kuldīga. Let's hope we'll be able to tell great things about it!