On-arrival Training

In all European Voluntary Service there are three trainings, one before you leave, that I couldn’t enjoy as a matter of time and a sending organization fairly carefree; another to get to your destination, depends on the dates and the organization, my on-arrival training was in my second month here, but not all of us arrived at the same time; and a third and last in the middle of EVS, called mid-term, in my case it´ll be in May.

Today I shall speak of the second one, the on-arrival training. The accommodation was perfect, leave for a few days the routine and meet people in the same situation like you, amazing. We installed in Rosemberk, a small village a few kilometers of Český Krumlov, the most beautiful city in Czech Republic. In Rosemberk there is a castle as you can see from the photo, with a lot of history.

I really liked the organization of the training and the attitude of the trainers. We had two common rooms, one for activities and another rest with fridge, tea and a lovely terrace for smoking. In the activities room the trainers were placed a map of Czech Republic where we noted our cities, a schedule where fixed placed the activities of the week and a mural where propose different activities directed by ourselves. We had the option to carry out our own activities and between all comprise the final timetable.


The trainers gave us smaller workshops of non-formal education, conflict resolution, inter-cultural activities, group dynamics, presentation of the projects (as you can see in the photo), visit to Český Krumlov, Erasmus +, speak Czech in 90 days, tips to carry out major changes in your life, Czech history, viewing of a Czech film, and so on.

I like the content but the best thing about it was the methodology that they used, all courses were given between all, we weren’t teachers and students, we were experts, we did practice activities to understand the content, ask and answer questions, I thought it was one of the best ways to learn, the best educational experience in my live. For our part we did activities such as sports games, a stop motion film, comic book, animated games, secret friend and so on.

One of the things that I liked the most, was at the end of the workshop on non-formal education our trainer we raised an option, try to learn something in ten minutes, I learned to say hello and answer in Irish and Irish singers, only in ten minutes! imagine all that you can learn if you want.It was a great experience, meet people from all corners of Europe, trying to understand you for a week using only english and little czech, wake up so early, staying up late, sleeping little, eating Czech food, with their schedule, so different for Spanish people. We were twenty-seven volunteers and six of us were Spanish volunteers and still remains the least level of English we are the more talkative people, the more we interact, the more desire to teach and learn we have, personally, I am proud of us.

To finish i would like to highlight the experience of a EVS, is a form of be learning each second, there is no moment in which you’ve got something new or teach something new to another person. As an educator is a unique opportunity and as a person a life experience, I recommend to all.

Divaldo in Střep

Today I would like to introduce you to Marina Larubia, this volunteer worked in Střep for a year, just with the same project that I am.
She arrived to Czech Republic the nine January 2013 and completed her European Voluntary Service on 19 December 2013. I didn't get to know her but everybody speak well about she and both children and colleagues even the Czech and English teacher recall her with joy.

One of her projects in Os Ave was to make a theater (in Czech it said divadlo) with children, from my point of view is a precious activity and perfect for this type of project.

It is good for her as a volunteer already which will take you to the Czech language and to the children's center and also has a very artistic foundation.

For the children is a good activity to work on the imagination, the theater was on the history of "Don Quijote", so the kids could learn a little spanish literature. The theater, the function, it was with puppets and the kids not only worked his imagination and his stage fright could also learn to control puppets, something which is very nice and the kids love it.
The activity not only consisted of testing the work, which was once a week, also made the decorated and painted, as you can see from the photo of Marina..
The theater was the project that Marina made for her voluntary but a year would give for many things and together with Silvia, another volunteer, my work and flatmate, gave classes in Spanish and English to children who were interested. The activity did not last long because the children go to Střep with the idea of spending their free time and they were not attracted much the study of languages. In contrast to today children who attend the center know tell you some words in English or Spanish, which is much appreciated.

Marina organized also a Spanish Day in which the children and fellow Czechs tried the Spanish potato omelet and the serrano ham. That same day made a presentation about the country and a small workshop to make flowers.
She also taught flamenco in another organization of the city, I just want to say that she is a very active girl and haven't lost time during his experience in the Czech Republic.

I leave below a video of the theater:

Velikonoce in Czech Republic

"Semana Santa" exists only in Spain, it's a catholic holiday, in the rest of Europe is celebrated
The Easter (Velikonoce in Czech), the feast strange for us to decorate eggs. In the Czech Republic are preparing sweets in the form of a sheep, is sprayed with water and perfume for women while they are beaten with a stick decorated, called "pomlázka", you can see that all tradition has strange habits.

There are many different habits in the Czech Republic during this week but the most prominent it may be EAT. They are eating at all hours without getting up from the table after the lunch, they begin with a snack, watch that the Spanish welcome always with meals but the Czechs are beyond us.

While in Spain on Thursday and Friday of this week are festive, here it is only Monday, therefore the Thursday at work we welcome in a special way Velikonoce with children. We did different workshops by where the children were playing. 

It was very nice to attend so many children and not to try to competition, only rotated by the diferents workshops, as you can see from the photos we did a craft workshop where they could prepare postcards for their families and friends with reasons of Velikonoce and sheep in the form of hub and decorated with wool. Also easter eggs were painted and they decorated the typical cookies with sugar. It was a special day, in full holiday the college where they were all pretty excited and actives, at the end of the evening all were with their crafts and gifts.

Once the work is finished I was able to enjoy the weekend with Czech traditions. I tried sweet, typical meals and alcohols from this era in Czech Republic, visit a museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and I could celebrate Easter with a lovely family, what more could you ask for!

In the Czech Republic as in many European countries the feasts are divided into catholic and pagan customs, Easter in the pagan traditions celebrate the end of winter, understood as the death and the arrival of spring. Typical performances are performed on Sunday in death, a group of girls and children sing and dance traditional Czech songs while moving a large rag doll call Morana, slavic goddess of death and that his stroll through the streets may be most similar to our Semana Santa. After the performance the doll is either burned or drowned symbolizing the end of winter and death.

These photos are taken in Rožnov, where is the museum where you can observe the life style of the Czechs a hundred years ago, has a thousand crafts stalls of food and drink, also give performances of folk dances and costumes of these times.
We could spend a wonderful day, counting with the time typical of April that in the same way that the sun is shining radiant it begins to rain suddenly, the museum was filled with families, couples and groups of friends celebrating the Easter in a traditional way: with the background music, bigs glasses with beer, and the typical sweet from Velikonoce that will be done with different ingredients according to the area of the country and that you can see from the image.

This is "kolače", a cake rather dry and decorated with typical Czech cheese and poppy seeds or jam. Another thing that offered in several stands, that was new to me, was the Czech fast food, from Hungary and called Lángos, this is a fried toast on which added cheese, tartar sauce and garlic.

Střep Face

As I promised in my first blog entry, I introduced to Silvia Lucas, from Málaga, social educator, as well as I do andvoluntary in Střep since July 2013. Before you begin this adventure Silvia has worked in the field of social services, with immigrants or with HIV-positive, in organizations that are involved in integrating minorities, marginalization and so on.

She is a girl who stands out for its great vitality, enthusiasm and a big sense of humor. Her service will end in July of this year, like mine is a long-term. She has been my great support at the beginning of my adventure since we share flat, work and adventure.


For her EVS project she began giving classes in Spanish and when she was seated and adapted to the customs czech and routine of the center she has decided to carry out an activity very interesting and educational, a newspaper. We must not forget that we do minors and short duration workshops and programs (we speak about in another article).

The project of the newspaper, which has been called "Střep Face", develops with the children during one hour weekly on Thursdays, in which hour we distributed to the children on the computers and perform articles on different areas: sports, music, current affairs, activities carried out in Střep, hobbies, etc.

Silvia account always with the help of Klara, Honza and Marketa for successful communication with the children, although she, after six months here already defends really well in Czech.

This activity not only involves this hour per week, but that is behind a job of proofreading, editing and layout with the help of Klara has resulted in some great newspapers.

On the one hand, The Silvia´s project serves not only to work with children (they learn how to use the computer, the Internet search and word processors, how compuse and some on), on the other hand serves as a method todiffuse the association, the SVE and to provide the parents information about the activities that their children done at the center. One of the things that I liked most of this activity is how the children of different ages and problematic help and learn together.

If this information has interested you, do not doubt in visit the article about the steps to perform European Voluntary Service

Below you can see the second edition of the newspaper:

 

Steps to apply for a European Voluntary Service

In this article I talk to you on the steps to follow to apply for a SVE, I leave a link below to learn more in detail what is a European Voluntary Service for Spanish volunteers, the rest of european interested can look here what is a European Voluntary Service, the first thing that one person must contemplate before taking up is because of this decision, in the most cases there are a lot of reasons and more if we think in the real situation in Europe. Various reasons can be learn languages, meet people, try differents jobs, find a profession, and so on. Usually in Europe the young people do SVE or Exchanges just after high school, it´s a good way to know better themselves and to know what they want do in the future, then, to start the university it´s easy to choose the degree. In Spain, normally the young people go first to University and after looking for a project related to their university degree.

Once the decision is made you need to get in contact with a send organization from your country, all of them have a name and reference number, like Obcanske sdruzeni AVE 2012-CZ-34.In these associations you will resolve any questions you have and you will advise from the first moment.

The next step would be to prepare your CV and a motivation letterof quality and in English. The curriculum must be creative, attractive and the motivational letter must be different for each vacancy to which opt, you must explain specifically because that country, this partnership and this project, the letter must not extend more than a page and write it personally. Bellow you can find creatives ways to do your CV: Online or Video

Then, you must find a host institution, what is most important at this time is to have patience and send a few hundred emails per day, personally I wrote a small email, attached cv and motivational letter and changes the name to whom it was directed. Here I left him as an example:

"Hi, xxxx
I´m Lara Blanco Barbeito, a spanish social and family educator and leisure instructor. I am interested in your organization to European Voluntary Service, If you have a vacancy, would be delighted to work with you, I have read the description of the organization and fits to a large extent with my professional skills.

I´m really interested in your project.
My send organization is asociación juvenil vrenza 2010-ES-119

Thanks for your time,

Lara.“

I was looking for the contact data in the data base, here you can find the link to the SVE database. It is important to read the draft that you are interested in and know if both you and the organization qualify for the realization of the project, this will give you send unnecessary emails and receive negative.

Your next move is complicated, you must wait, wait for positive responses, many won´t reply you, others will tell you no and many will give you dates in the need to submit the nomination, you have a handy calendar where you can jot down the time and don’t miss any opportunity. Once you receive a positive response you must put in contact with the two organizations.

Also at this point you need to be attentive to the different vacancies that you can find on the Internet, many of them are already of a project submitted, with a sending organization and receiving fixed, and that for any reason have been without voluntary, I served as the following (but I´m Spanish maybe in facebook or google you can find web sides with vacances from your country):

- Facebook SVE

-Web Casa Eslava

-Web de ingalicia

The last step is final, it comes to signing the agreement of activities and training to the output, don’t forget to send e-mails, request any information that you need, solve all your doubts, beam a schema with your doubts and relevant information that you need before having your interview by Skype with the host organization. I also prepare a small list of what was essential for me to accept the vacancy.

Before you leave your country you must have a „training before departure“ of which you must handle your sending organization and during your stay the National Agency will be responsible for your arrival training andmidterm meeting.

I will continue to report.

Český Těšín

After my first day, the first thing that i visit in my new city was my work center.
This is a small but charming center. Account with spaces and materials needed to make almost any activity, i mean, a kitchen, a small gym for sports, a workspace with two tables and two blackboards, an area for activities of ceramics, two offices, a zone of computers and two stores. Account with slip material (also of ice) ,of skate, hockey, pin pon, ski and snow, there are table football, billiard, books, table games, material for crafts, definitely, everything that is essential and a little more.

I had my first meeting, in which i solve all my doubts, Ivana gave me the contract, my monthly payment, program of activities and the ethical foundations. I also have a first contact with the children.

My second visit in my small town was at the supermarket, something very normal and necessary when you arrive with empty hands. Klara, the educator of Střep took us by car, is such a nice person and a colleague.
The supermarket is very complicated in the first moment because I don’t understand nothing of Czech and the help of my colleagues is a relief. I bought a typical dessert czech with honey, which is very similar to Italian tiramisú, really rich "marlenka“.

Welcome to Ave´s blog!

I am Lara Blanco, I am 24 years old and I borned in the north of Spain. I'm currently doing my European Voluntary Service (from now EVS) in Czech Republic,exactly in Český Těšín, my host organization is OS AVE and I work in their leisure center called STŘEP, this blog is one of my official projects of EVS.


I have decided to create this blog to share with you my experience, in general, the SVE and, in particular, in this partnership. In my first entry i would like to tell you how I got here, i mean, the vital process that takes you to perform a EVS and how I came to Český Těšín physically.

I studied social education in Santiago de Compostela and i am leisure instructor but at the end of my time at university in Spain I didn´t find any job in my professional field and tired of work of salesgirl I started to look for outside of my country.
It was such a long process and I consider various options, the EVS was the only one that offered me the opportunity to work in my profession, get to know other countries, customs, languages and people without assuming a very large economic cost, so I started to search for vacancies (in another entry i talk to you on them) and send resumes and motivational letters to all organizations that interested me (helping me of the official website of the European Commission, and it´s database).


After many interviews by teleconference, a few months and a few disappointments, I was leaning on my family and friends to not desist, I received an e-mail from OS AVE that gave me a long-term project, I don't hesitate, I accept, and now I am here, I´m enjoying and learning my work and new things every second.

With regard to the adventure in a practical sense, I conte with a great support from my host organization.
They sent me the tickets, the contacts with other volunteers and with my mentor. It was a long and really interesting day, i decided to make this trip myself to feel able to move around the world i single, or at least in Europe and the truth it was very easy and rewarding. Where more time I lost it was in Santiago de Compostela, where I spent the security of the airport, from that moment everything was travel and wait.

The company was of low cost, this is true, but I'm young and not very big so I had no problems in terms of space, in the flight from Barcelona to Prague I met a girl from Granada who was studying in Prague with an Erasmus scholarship, She gave me some tips about the city, taxis and where I could expect the airport bus to the train station. At the train station I was allowed to eat and read a few pages of the book I was carrying, the best company for the long trips.
The train was the best part of the trip, free coffee and water, a leather seat very comfortable, connectors, and Wifi, a excellent care and a letter really cheap. To get to my destination a representative of the association and my mentor were waiting for me, were very close and lovely. They took me by car to my new flat, where I met my new flatmate, Silvia, She is from Málaga (I will do an entry about her and her project in STŘEP).
The flat is small and comfortable for us, my room so big and the heating a wonder, in the Czech Republic it is usual to have the bathroom separate from the shower and the sink, something that strikes the principle but it is quite convenient and hygienic. It was time to rest the trip without being able to contain the illusion by my first day of work.