Halfway :)))

Time is running and we are already half of our EVS project!

Last week, we were in Budapest for a mid-term evaluation. At the begining we played a lot of games to get to know each other and to know more about the youthpass (How to write a youthpass, for exemple)

It's always interesting to talk with other volunteers, because you can realize that you are not the only one to have some kind of problems with your project.

We had a lot of activities during those three days but we said that the best one was the living library!!

A living library is when different people, who don’t know each other, are coming together in an open and safe environment.

Volunteer 'books' are real people who are able to communicate their personal reality (ex: ex-volunteers; young entrepreneurs; ...) and are available to meet with an interested 'reader' for 20 minute. It was really interesting to listen to some experiences from other volunteers. We were free to ask a lot of questions and also share our experiences.

And sometimes some opportunity were offered ;)

We had also a city rally in Budapest. The goal was to do all the tasks in 3hours. Four teams, one map, 1 ticket for metro and LET'S GO!!

After Mid-term training we had an opportunity to participate in seminar, organized by Phiren Amenca. We were talking about Roma people, about stereotypes, discrimination. It was nice to discuss about those topics with people who really care about it. We were sharing opinions, visited Gallery 8, where we could see the photos of “important” Roma people, who were dressed according to stereotypes. The exhibition was so popular that we had to wait outside for 30min or so! But the most interesting part was Forum theatre. What is it? Well according to Wikipedia it is a type of theatre created by the innovative and influential practinioner Augusto Boal as part of what he calls his "Theatre of the Oppressed". Boal created Forum theatre as a forum for teaching people how to change their world. In this process the actors or audience members could stop a performance, often a short scene in which a character was being oppressed in some way. The audience would suggest different actions for the actors to carry out on-stage in an attempt to change the outcome of what they were seeing. In our case we had to act situations where we experienced or witnessed an act of discrimination. It was a powerful time of seminar. 

This week was so busy, we did so many stuffs. After intensive last week in Budapest it was nice to be busy again J The most important days were Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we went to Ötletfa and started to change its appearance from the outside. It was nice to be outside, to do some gardening and to see the change, to see how much people can do when they work together. Our volunteer Imre was a big help in this process! And finally I can say that we can understand each other by talking half English/ half Hungarian J But I can see the changes and this feeling is really good J After working hard we decided to take a rest and play some games ( játékok - a new word I learned from Imre). It was a really good day!

Thursday – full of stress for Benita and Daniele, because we had a training for mentors, who are working with Erasmus students here in Szeged. We prepared a day full of team-building activities. It was visible that they enjoyed it J It was nice to feel that u can organize stuffs like this. I can see that in organizing we are getting better and better with every day. What is more, Benita had the first English language club session for small mentees, and she succeeded!! It was better than expected. Waiting for another time already!! :P

So that is how our two weeks looked like. Trying to enjoy our time we still have here.

after a while...

It’s been a while since we posted something in our blog. So we thought it is time. Time to remind about ourselves and about our work we are doing here in Szeged, the sunny city of Hungary.

To start with, in last few months we started a couple new projects, as it was mentioned earlier. The  English Language Club. We have already had 8 sessions! It is a nice accomplishment. Usually there are 5+ students from 15 to 32 years old. These sessions are planned by Daniele and Anita. We are making sessions in non-formal way (games and fun activities) because our aim is to make them to speak in English more freely, not to learn grammar, to reach the point when they are not afraid to speak in front of other people, to make mistakes by speaking. In this case mistakes are “the best friends”. We EVS volunteers understand that, because we are learning local languages, which we cannot speak at all. And it is hard, really hard, but possible.

Other project we are always busy with is Schools. We are going to public schools and talking about intercultural communication with kids and teenagers ( from 1^st to 10^th grade). Sessions are planned by all of us. We are trying to make it more interactive and interesting. Sometimes we even have to try their patience, etc. in session 2 we brought rice in two colors. Students had to divide the rice, to make two groups of rice. After that they had to make a shape from them. Some of them made hearts, horses or simply wrote their names. And the funny part comes – without saying nothing we just came and destroyed everything what they did. They were mad and nervous, one girl even said “Now I really hate you”. After the exercise we tried to reflect about that. Not all classes were willing to do that, but we tried. During the sessions we could see how different the classes are. How different bonds they have, and these things were really influencing the sessions, etc. the class where students had a stronger relationship could play games, express their opinions more freely.

What is more, we planned a session for migrant kids too. It was called “Maszkok”, because of the carnival which take place every year in order to say goodbye to winter, and greet then spring. Agathe prepared a short presentation about that kind of festivals around the globe, than we started to do the main thing – masks – and kids really enjoyed that!

So that is what happened during these two months. Bla bla is over :DD