Seminar with Youth and Health

On the last weekend of march some young volunteers from Slobozia developed a seminar about non formal education for us. We spent two mornings together to share ideas about formal, informal and non formal education.

We did different activities and we enjoyed a very good time with the youth of Slobozia. Through presentations, working in small groups and open spaces we shared our experiences, knowledge and opinions about formal and non formal education. And we also shared impressions of Romania, Slobozia, and our lifes like EVS volunteers.

It was so nice to exchange our experiences and even our cultures! After an interesting talk about different topics of Germany, Spain and Romania, to introduce a little bit our own traditions Daniel and Miriam danced a traditional german dance, Yoana and me sang a popular song of our town and the volunteers danced Hora, a traditional romanian dance.

Thank you for organize and develop this seminar for us!

Al :)

English lessons III: color book

In the last english lessons we learned the colors with a song about the rainbow that we also used like a game.

When everybody, even the smaller kids, knew the colors, we started to paint a color book to learn more words.

The kids had to think which things we have in this world according to each color. They drew those things in a color paper, and they cut them and stuck them in a white paper. Last step was more difficult: try to learn all the new words in english!

We finished all the colors and we put them together like a book with a color string, so at the end every kid has a complete color book!

 Al :)

Invitation to our seminar: 3th and 4th of april

Next week, on Wednesday and Thursday, we will develop a seminar about non formal education, and a non formal education experience: EVS.

It targets to NGOs,  Associations and youth people from Slobozia. 

Feel invited to come!!!

Al :)

Mid-term training in Predeal

In the middle of the EVS project every volunteer of long term (more than 4 months) has a mid-term training.
40 volunteers in the middle of their projects met in Predeal during 3 days to discuss about the evolution of their EVS, their motivation and their future after EVS.

Through non formal education methods and dynamics (team-building activities, roleplays, discussions, simulations, debates, small group work, presentations, workshops, open spaces...) the trainers offer to the volunteers an opportunity and space for sharing experiences and establish a network of volunteers who are hosted in different regions of Romania.

The MTT is also focused on the learning outcomes of EVS projects and YouthPass as a tool for acknowledgement of non-formal and informal learning of volunteers. Although the big topic during the MTT was:

Predeal was snowed but it was sunny and even warm. It was so nice to met volunteers from the On Arrival training, and to met new people.

We shared our projects, our experiences, our problems, our solutions and alternatives and our learning like volunteers.

Personally, my favourite activities were: 

-Walk and talk: to talk in pairs outside about our new skills and tools

-Open spaces: to choose a topic (a problem, a question...) and to talk in small groups about it.

-To draw our motivation line and to see the difference from the beggining.

-The onion: to write in papers our problems during EVS and put them together like an onion. Pass the onion to each other to write own solutions for these problems.

-To draw in a big paper 3 objectives for the next 5 years.

I realised a lot of personal things about my project and about my, almost, 6 months here. 

I noticed how amazing the learning process of being an EVS volunteer is, and how it changes the life of every volunteer. It was so nice to share our doubts, plans and feelings about the future. From here, I wish the best to all the EVS volunteers of Romania!! :) 

I want to finish this post with some mottos we used during the training:
- When you want to do something, there is time enough to do it.
- We can sculpt our own clouds, and even change the sky.
- Be prepared for everything and for nothing.
- Just do what you dream!

Al :)

Our trip from bridge to bridge III: Bratislava

We were in our apartment in Budapest looking in the Europe map with Yoana's phone and we realised how close we were to Bratislava. So we decided to spend our lasts days of our trip in Slovakia.

 We arrived in the night to our home during the next 3 nights: Backpackers hostel. Our room was Toulouse Lautrec, close to Dalí and Warhol.

On our first morning in Bratislava we joined a group of Free Tour during 2 hours around the city. It was a great idea because our guide was amazing and it was more than a touristic tour, we learned historical, cultural and social infos about Bratislava, even some traditions and some good bars to visit.

The temperature that morning was -1 degrees, but the feeling was colder because of the wind. I wore 2 pullovers plus other 2 pullovers that Yoana and Daniel borrowed me, plus the jacket, 2 pairs of trousers and 2 pairs of socks!!! It was really cold but the snow made even more beautiful the old town, so we walked during the evening to do photos and to arrive to places which we didn't visit with the tour.

In the night we hang out in an old comunist building. Inside it is restored and now it´s an art gallery, a theater and a bar.

Next day we went to the Bratislava Castle-Fortress which is on a hill and offers a good view of the city.

In the evening we discovered a good coffee-bar: Verne and we ate soup and we drank hot chocolate. :)

After an amazing dinner in our hostel (it has a restaurant-bar with so good and original food and with really good prices!) we went to a small concert in the old town. It was good and after the concert we danced to very cool music on the stage.

We finished our night in Rock On, a bar full of tall slovakian people and cool music.

This is our last picture in Bratislava, thanks to our ukrainian friend ;)

Al :)