In these months long and short volunteers are working together in CAT Fundation and are involved in many activities.
Each of them is improving his skills, knowledge and living totally this experience.
We asked them to choose an activity that they particularly liked…
let’s discover their answers!
LUIZA ZAMBIASI NACHTIGALL
My EVS is: Arrival Training
UWAGA UWAGA WAKA WAKA !
After almost 3 months of volunteer service in Leszno, one of the most expected moments finally came: on arrival training. And it could not have been in a better city: Warsaw. And it could not have been in a better time: polish independence week.
I arrived in Warsaw in a rainy day and it stays like that during all the week. No problem. The hostel was really confortable and it has Łazenki Park as a garden. The food was great. I can say that we had moments of training in the breaks of the meals. The reception was the most popular and competitive place inside the hostel because it was the only place with wifi connection. At the end it was a good thing, because we had nothing to do but talk with each other.
The group was also amazing. Lots of noisy Spanish people (what a surprise!), but also ones from Georgia, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Ukraine and even Venezuela were there. And of course PORTUGUESE TEAM!!! Now, I am looking to meet this people again and maybe discover other parts of Poland together.
The training itself was a surprise for me because I was expecting a lot of team building games but it turns out that the training was more about talking and sharing than anything else. We also had nice chats about polish history, culture, politic, habits, taboos…. It was so nice to talk about this with polish people, especially because they were very critical and open mind about their own country. Sometimes it is difficult to find this; people tend to try to sell their countries as good as possible.
On November 11, we went to Warsaw streets to see the independence parade and also to interview people. We were divided in groups and my group had the topic “Things to do in Poland before our evs is finished”. People were very open and talkative in the streets, I thing they were happy with the independence celebration or it was just the holiday.
At the same time this day I could witness one of the weirdest (stupidest) thing I have ever seen: a nationalist manifestation: Poland for Poles. In one hand, is good that people have the freedom to talk and manifested about anything in Poland, this is liberty, but on the other hand, why do people spend their times with something so pointless? Why do people go to streets to show their hate towards other people just because they were not born in the same country? I was experiencing something so incredible back in the hotel with people from all over the world and it was a shock going out and seeing so much angry.
Warsaw is beautiful, full of life, art and good looking people. We had a guided visit through the old town, Jewish ghetto and Praga. Pubs of Warsaw and this terrible habit of smoking inside them are also known now. It was the best example of cultural shock: What the hell polish people?? Stop smoking inside!!!! My lungs will be forever thankful. And we discovered that the best bar in Warsaw (at least in my opinion), was 5 minutes away from Agrycola hotel. It could not be better!
The last day was more difficult than I was expecting. Even though it was just one week together it was not easy saying goodbye to those people… and to the food. No cooking, no cleaning, nice talks, good beer, tourism, pyjama parties… I am still missing this, but at same time, I am happy to come back to my evs family in Leszno, sure that I have now some sofas to visit all around Poland.
SARA HERRERO
My EVS is: Presentation in High school
I have chosen this kind of activity, a presentation, because is the activity I was most afraid at the beginning. Now I have done a lot of them! And every day I like it more and more!! Thanks to that, I feel more self-confident and more prepared for the future and I’m learning a lot about speaking in public and in English.
Exactly, this presentation is about Spanish stereotypes in three different classes. I enjoyed a lot because I tried to do an interactive presentation with the students and they participated much and paid a lot of attention 🙂
LAURA EDGARDA LOMBARDI
My EVS is: Daily Room
Witamy, jestem Laura i jestem w wlochy! My favourite activity as volunteer is to go in daily room.
Usually we play at bowling or colouring some pictures or doing handcraft work. Last week we did also handcraft laboratory with paper to make Halloween puppets. Sometimes kids can use also laptops and internet so they can teach me about Wioletta and her friends, show me new videogames in polish or english and listen music togheter!!!
GIULIA ALBORE
My EVS is: Presentation in Music School
When you have a passion, one of the most beautyful situation is to be surround with people that share it! This happened to me when I went to the Music School in Leszno to present the history of music in my country, Italy. For me it was something different respect the normal presentation and I had the opportunity to play my instrument, the flute, playing my national hymn. I really enjoy that time, share the differences is always fascinating and, at the end, your cultural backpack is more and more rich of knowledges and experiences!
GULSEMIN TOPAL
My EVS is: Daily Room in primary School nr 3
We went to Ps3 with Luciana. It was good day for me. We got enjoy a lot. We danced with Spanish, Italian and Polish songs. We painted something about Turkey. Children looked happy when they played games with us. Children don’t know English and I don’t know Polish. We had good experience without no common language, because children smile, the same language all over the world. Because children need only good smiling eyes and I have 😉
YAVOR HADGIEV:
My EVS is: Class with University students!
On the 28th of October, Steven Otieno and Yavor Hadzhiev visited a group of students at Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa im. Jana Amosa Komeńskiego, in Leszno. We were very welcomed by everyone, including a very nice teaching staff. The topics we covered in the classroom were centered on cultural diversity and tolerance. We discussed the question of ‘internal diversity’ in societies, as well as the similarities and differences between different countries, including Poland, Kenya and Portugal. The students raised good questions and they treated us very warmly. Special thanks to all!
AINARA FEBLES BOLAÑOS:
My EVS is: Daily Room in Lasocice!
Everyday in Lasocice from 13:00 to 15:00 is time to waiting Bus to come back home. In this moments sometimes the Kids are tired, sometimes are excited and sometimes are learning with EVS new things. This is the reason for I’m glad to go every week to Lasocice.
We spend our time playing board games, learning Spanish with the Klanza and making handcrafts, sometimes I can learn Polish word and they can improve their English. Making Dolls with balloons, Making Halloween dolls also or just play board games.
CLAUDIA PEREIRA:
My EVS is: Portugal Presentation in High School!
On 20 October the Portuguese team, me, Yavor and Luiza went to Ekonomic School, turism class, to make a cultural presentation about Portugal.
We decided to make an attractive presentation using PowerPoint with many photos for them to get to know our country. We started pointing on the map where we are and made simple questions like what is our capital, what is our traditional music, fado and showed one video of Ana Moura, one famous Portuguese singer. Then we divided our presentation in two parts: Continental Portugal and Portuguese islands because most of people don´t know anything about ours archipelagos in middle of Atlantic ocean. We divided Continental Portugal in 3 areas: Center ( to speak about Lisbon city and its beautiful monuments like Saint George´s Castle, Belém Tower, Jerónimos Monastery, etc..), North ( to speak about Coimbra city and Porto city and its porto wine and food like “francesinha” ) and South (to speak about Algarve). In the end we talked about Portuguese islands, mainly Azores archipelago and its São Miguel island, a true paradise for nature lovers.
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