Experiences keep accumulating and I feel I have to take a little moment today, the 4th day of the Technical Meeting of Alliance.
Last weekend I was in Munich and surroundings, visiting a good friend of mine. He is Turkish and he was visiting some family there, and so I spent some time getting to know Turkish culture.
It's strange because is quite different from Spanish culture, to the social structure I'm use to deal with. For example, before being in this context I thought Spanish people were kind, but Turkish people can behave like your own family without even knowing you. I had this feeling of warm welcoming with all the people I met, tough the language barrier was to strong as I didn't speak Turkish or German (only 'ein bischen') and they didn't know English that sometimes it was a little bit tiring.
Anyway, besides some personal fleeting issues, I had a great time and enjoyed a lot. I'm really thankful to the people there, and specially to my friend for inviting me and his effort of showing me Turkish people reality -not the media discourse construction of them.
Then now, from Monday morning (when I arrived back to Bratislava at 7 am and enter working at 8 am) I've been working with INEX in the implementation of the Technical Meeting (TM) in Piestany, Slovakia. First days I must say it was easy because we only had to arrange things in our staff room, but yesterday was a long busy day when we had to deal with the registration of almost 100 people.
Nevertheless, I won't complain. I love being in an atmosphere with so many different people. Also, they look content with the work they make promoting volunteering and mobility programs and it's something I can really see myself doing in some nearer future. This was one of my main objectives at the beginning, to give the opportunity to people to know the world, to make them aware of how much diverse and challenging it is.
So, we've been having intense days in INEX. We are getting ready to host the Technical Meeting for Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations members and partners. It might sound a little bit bizarre but it's just an encounter among many organisations that have been exchanging emails about different projects and these days will serve for having a face-to-face contact and discuss directly about their workcamps programmes.
INEX Slovakia is hosting this big event, and Matiss (my EVS co-worker) and I have been working hard in the office these days. Here's a picture of us, he drawing 'INEX-man', where people could bring their good wishes for the organization (which is having its 20th anniversary this year), and then there's me, I'm manually preparing a photocall (printing a lot of logos and sticking them with glue in two big flipcharts).
This event will comprise almost 200 people for all around the world, more than 80 organizations -so you have an idea about its size-, starting next monday with one week duration. My colleague and I will have an important part in the organization and administration of the participants, but also we'll have the fortunate chance of meeting so diverse people. I'm quite excited about it, can't wait for it to start.
Or maybe I could wait..., haha. I mean, this weekend, to chill a bit in between hard work weeks, I'll be visiting one good friend of mine in Munich. He's actually Turkish but he has some family there, and as he's staying for almost 3 weeks invited me to come over few days :). I think I'm even more excited about this, so yeah, nice days for me, yaaaay! :D
Anyway, I won't be taking my laptop to either destination, so I don't know when will I'll have some spare time and available computer to write again. But don't worry, I'll be fine -probably having lots of fun, hihihi.
Tomorrow I'll be having my 4th lesson of Slovak. I have to say first lesson I thought I wouldn't make it but last class I even made a presentation text. I'll leave it here, to prove that I'm quite keen on learning the language :P
'Dobrý den! Som Alisia Garsiová a som zo Španielska. Hovorím plynule po španielsky, po anglicky a trochu po portugalsky a po francuzsky. Pracujem ako dobrovoľníčka v Inex Slovakia v Bratislave. Mám 23 rokov. Učim sa momentálne slovenčinu pretože bývam tu.'
One of the most challenging tasks I'll be dealing with in this EVS position is writing a Youth Exchange project for the European Union programme of Youth in Action.
Somehow, in all this years in college I've learnt to enlarge essays, but in most of them the topic was already specified by the professor so I didn't have to think about what I wanted to write. This time is the other way: first step was deciding with my colleague about what we wanted to write a exchange.
Happily today we have found an interesting topic for both of us that we'll be developing soon, but before that we were given a project management talk about the structure that our project should present -as it would be reviewed by an official institution.
Anyway, this talk was really motivating for me and made me think about the people that have some idea in their mind but they don't know how to shape it or maybe they are not clear enough when explaining to the others. Here I'll go trough the suggested structured I was introduced recently.
1. For who are you writing this project? What is my target group? Ie, youngsters, gypsys, unemployed people, etc.
2. What does my target group need? Analizing the needs of the people I'm writing the project for it's important because we might have a good idea for them but they don't really need it -and they have mayor priorities. A need is described as something that can not be fully satisfied, we can only try to help it (ie, taking care of the enviroment).
3. Aim. This should be the core of the project, what is my aim? What do I want to achieve? It should reflect the needs and should be completed by the objectives. When described we have to realized that is something reachable and that concision is required (ie, cleaning a park).
4. Objectives. Different perspectives to measure the aim.
5. Activities. What to do to achieve the objectives? We should write down at least one activity per objective.
6. Funds. Theoretically, when we have already written the first 5 points we should look for a way of financing our project -but most of the times it happens the other way, we hear about some fundings and we write something to apply for them.
There's a second phase now that takes part when the project goes from theory to practice by its implementation. An evaluation (has it been succesfull? Could we make it better in the future?) and follow-up are next steps, as well as an optional celebration -if it's possible, ie, anniversary party.
By the end of the talk Tomas -part of INEX staff and experienced trainer-, told Matiss and I that we could write our project in two ways. First with consulting help, that is basically answering every doubt we may find and providing us material that could be used as an example, or coaching, that it's a harder way because we are responsible of thinking by ourselfes and he gives up a little help once we made some previous work. We agreed to do it the harder way because we think it would be quite more enriching for both of us.
Last but not least, he added a final quote I found particulary inspiring. A project should mean a change. If we can identify an urgent need that we can somehow solve and it affects the person attending our Exchange meaning a significant change in his life, then we would be succesfull. So, hard mode selected -game started :).
Hi guys, I'm sorry it took me so long to report anything but I've been so busy since I arrived last Friday I haven't even found a time to write in this kind of diary -until now. I'll make just a little scheme so neither you or I got tired reading/writing, lol.
- Friday: waking up at 6:15 a.m. in Seville and finally arrived in Vienna around 2 p.m. One suitcase (the small one) was lost and I was a little in panic (my laptop was there), but it's finally back. Bus to Bratislava and a organization colleague (kind and caring Olga) was already waiting for me at the station. She took me to my flat, showed me the surroundings and let me on my own so I could unpack and rest a little.
- Saturday: after 12 hours resting, I woke up and met my flatmate, Stephi (curly short blonde, very funny french girl). Olga took me later to Aupark, huge shopping centre only 15 minutes away. I got a proper winter coat I've been using ever since -sales price, yay!
- Sunday: 'blind date' with my menthor (Slovak friend), Dasa. She guided me into the castle part in the morning, took me for lunch into Slovak Pub where I tried typical Slovak dish (pirôžky), later to a really particular tea house (tree of bones in Slovak), and later walking trough all the city center and surroundings. Really nice sunny day, really nice girl. Olga came by my flat in the afternoon and gave me my suitcase back.
- Monday: I had a free day because my EVS colleague was only arriving after midday, so I decided to visit my friend Toni -guy from Liechtenstein who is studying in Bratislava twin city, Vienna. He guided me all around this beautiful city and took me lunch for Schnitzel (typical Austrian dish, altough for Spanish people would look like 'filete empanado'). Pity of the weather -it started raining more heavily-, I left early back home to meet Matiss -flatmate, EVS co-worker, young energetic Latvian guy.
- Tuesday. Today Matiss and I had our first Slovak course lesson. For me it's been quite strange, all the different sounds Slovak alphabet has, but I'll get use to them. Later we had an 'organization lunch' in Slovak Pub again (where I tried another typical dish with very tasty national cheese, bryndza), and we got to know INEX offices -really nice workspace for next 11 months, all colourful and creative- and staff -friendly and relax people. We also had a presentation of the organization and our tasks, but that will be in the next post -when I tell you how amazing it actually is and how happy I am of being here, haha^^.
'Introducing your new volunteer'. That was the title of the email I sent to several European organizations by the end of September, looking for an EVS (European Voluntary Service) related to communication media or/and youth leisure and policies. And finally I made it. INEX Slovakia picked me to be their volunteer in Bratislava, starting next month. But who am I?
My name is Alicia García Sánchez -we Spanish people have two surnames. I come from a little town in the top south of Spain called Conil, but I spent my last 4 years studying Advertising and PR in the University of Seville, and my very last academic course (2011/2012) in the north of Portugal, Braga, in the Erasmus exchange programme.
I've also experienced some activities related to volunteering before, but for very short time. I was part of a caravan team for one week, promoting Braga as European Youth Capital 2012 in few high-schools in Portugal. It was a really nice experience and it gave me the opportunity to get to know a little bit closer portuguese youngsters. You can see some pictures here, I'm the one with the red stockings.
Besides, I had a minor part in the promotion of an activity in University of Minho -my hosting university in Erasmus. They wanted to make a little spot for Mobility week, when there were some conferences about exchanges programmes. So I played my part and had my little sentence in Spanish here. (I know it's not really a great volunteering experience, but anyway, I had great fun making this with my friends).
Appart from that, I've participated as well in some of the activities from the Youth in Action programme of the EU. I was recently -last November- in Italy for ten days in a Youth Exchange with youngsters from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Italy, Spain and Turkey. We were the 'Youth in Radio', and we created some podcasts in different teams. Here you have a little sum-up and a sample of one radio session.
Previously, last May, I took part in a Training Course in Godollo, Hungary, named 'Volunteers have rights'. Here I learnt many things about the Youth in Action programme deeper aim, about the cultural diversity and the importance of being aware of it. I don't remember we had a memo-video, so I'll just post this 'family picture' with our trainers and coordinators. We were people from Portugal, Greece, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Lithuania, Italy, Spain and UK -quite a lot, yeah.
At this point, you may have noticed one of my many motivations to go on this experience of EVS. I'm really comfortable in international frameworks. I love learning from different people's cultures and habits, I'm quite curious about the different values that run our lifestyles and I like getting the inner essence of a culture or a region -if that's even possible to do, but at least I have to try!
In addition of this enriching atmosphere, working in a youth organization as INEX Slovakia means for me the challenge of making the youngsters aware of how many opportunities the world has nowadays for them. Since I come from a little village and I sense young people there are somehow disappointed or bored about their futures, I believe it's fundamental to open their eyes and show them they're able to do whatever they want if they're willing to go for it. I don't know what my specificall tasks will be yet, but this will be my personal one.
In any case, I'm going to Bratislava to develop myself as a person, and I expect to work hard and obtain knowledge, friends and laughs. And I'm sure in the meantime I'll be getting so many things they would be difficult to tell, but I'll use this blog as a diary and try to write them all down -hope you enjoy them with me.
