One day in another EVS project!

On Monday the 26.January I got the chance to explore the work of 4 EVS volunteers in Panevėžys.

Emily, Fine, Laia and Monika work together as volunteers for ten months in the „Panevėžio „Šviesos“ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras“. 

About the school and the project

The girls workplace is called „Panevėžio „Šviesos“ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras“, a special school for mentally and physically disabled children and teenagers. Depending on the age and kind of disability they are divided in different classes with a size between 5 and 10 students. All in all there are about 140 pupils, from 1 to 11 grades.

The school has a huge variety of curses. In some classes they are taught to count, to read and such abilities, whereas others are focused on art and motor skills. So especially in the “special classes”, every child gets very individual care, wherefore there should be an assistant for the teacher. Later, in some older classes students are prepared for a more independent living after the school.

At the beginning of the project the volunteers could visit all different classes and after the first month they should decide, in which group they would like to work. This decision was of course not really easy for the girls but it seemed that everyone really found their place. The children not just except them as a part of their daily life, they really love them and enjoy their attendance. When we walked through the school during the break they greet them with the name even from the end of the corridor and all students came immediately and hugged them. 

The girls have about 6-7 hours per day where they join the lessons and each girl prepares a project with the students and some special activities. In the case of this year the volunteers make very different projects. Monika trains them in boccia, so that they can improve their skills. Laia dance with them, create some performances and boost their flexibility. Fine tries to raise their awareness for different ecological topics. For example she shows them playfully how to separate rubbish. The fourth project of Emily -“origami, calligraphy and taekwondo”- takes the students to a little journey to Asia. 

My day in the school

If I would have to describe this day in a word I would have to say that it is impossible. There were so many impressions, which I first have to assimilate. Everywhere we have been the room was full of energy and vitality. 

First of all the volunteers showed me the whole institution. This took a lot of time because they have some different sports and therapy rooms, computer rooms, with some special keyboards and even a dormitory for around 50 students.
In this dormitory the children from outside the city live together in so called “families”. They have their own room or live together with one other student. It is their home during the week and so there are also a lot of activities. 

After the tour I had the chance to join Laia’s art lesson with five students in the age of 15 years. We mostly worked with Thomas, one out of two autistic students and the only one who speaks. Thomas loves to listen to the radio and to repeat afterwards, even when it is English or Italian. For me it was amazing and so interesting to observe his behavior and how he paints some stones with Laia. 

The other children were working on their beautiful “Snowbook”, which is one of several handicrafts they made as a part of their lovely paper project. I have so much respect for the teacher, the assistant and Laia and how they try to improve the motor skills of these children and support them. They know everything about the children and what they want even just from their mimic and gesturing. They can say after some minutes whether they have a good or bad day. It was such a lovely atmosphere and you could feel that it is not just work for them. 

Furthermore, I went with Fine’s group to the computer room, where they spent the “world lesson”. In this group, there are 6 children in the age of 12 (6 grades) with down-syndrome and autism. They learn some basic knowledge, like counting to nine, using their calculator, some words and so on.
During this lesson I had some time to interview Fine about the project, her motivation, her experience but also future plans. 

The beginning was of course not really easy but soon she found her place and her tasks in the lessons. She learned to work and behave with these children and I could see how much she enjoys it. After the EVS, Fine would like to study but, as she said, she can imagine to work in a place like this in here free time. 

Also the other girls learned a lot about them sells and have some ideas what they would like to do later. 

 

In the afternoon I had a meeting with Kristina, their project coordinator and deputy director of the school and Rasa, their mentor. We talked about the organization, their projects and activities (they have sooo many), and EVS in general. They told me about their activities and excursions with the students and volunteers. For example they have been to “Miegantys Drambliai” climbing hall, a Basketball game, took part in the Lithuanian Bocce Championship, organized a sports day and so on. 

Kristina and Rasa are such wonderful women and it felt like they were best friends with the volunteers. Moreover the project team consists of Dovilė, the school's psychologist and our language teacher, and Artūras, the sports teacher of the school, which supports the girls where they can. 

The whole day we talked a lot about our experiences in Lithuania and all the girls had so many stories to tell; 

from the children, the workplace, their daily life and all the experiences. 

To answer the question “What was your best experience?” they didn’t know where to start. 

• To start a new life in another country with different people, 
• to become more independent and learn more about yourself, 
• to work in such an amazing place where you feel needed and 
• to get so much love back from the kids,… 

...where just some of their answers!

If you would like to know more about the work and activities of the four girls and their project and school, they have a really nice and informative blog: volunteerspanevezys.blogspot.com
or also on the school facebook page you find a lot of pictures and news:

Šviesos“ specialiojo ugdymo centras

The only thing, which made me sad this day, was that the students do not have future prospects, no place to work or help in their daily life. Nevertheless, this day was really special for me. Not just to explore another job and voluntary work but also to feel this atmosphere with these disabled peoples and spirit of volunteering.

Thank you girls, Kristina and Rasa, and Sonata and Rasa that I could make this experience. :)

Do you know how to make cepelinai?

For us this always sound like a life changing question. That a woman knows how to cook it is even one important criterion for Liudvikas dream woman.
Whereas Anne Sophie and I were just curious about this traditional food and so we always asked everyone how it works.

To our disappointment everybody told us that it takes hours to prepare and just mothers can cook really good ones. 

YES WE DID IT! (as the first volunteers in Didždvario gimnazija!!! )
Finally after nearly 5 months we gather all our courage and tried the "mission impossible"!
Our resume? - definitely manageable :)

To be honest, we did not make the very traditional form, instead it was a quick version. But who thinks now that the taste was not that good than usually is totally wrong! For me it was even better, Maybe just because it is self made but we were really proud about our delicious cepelinais. 

The best part of this experience was definitely to tell it and see the faces of the people. Amazing this kind of "is it a joke?" expression. 

And for all who never tried it before or also would like to know this quick and good way to prepare here is the recipe:

about 12 big potatoes (the half already cooked)
500 g mince

1 onion

some spoons potato starch
some salt, pepper and maybe nutmeg

Milk and ham to prepare the sauce or just sour cream.

First we started to grate the raw potatoes - but not the very, very fine side of the grater, we made it in the lazy way.
Then we also smashed the cold, cooked potatoes and another person started with cutting the onion, put about the half to the meat and flavour it.
Next step was to put all the potatoes together and also some starch and mix and knead everything until you have a homogenous mass. 

So and now we could start to form our first cepelinai!! :)

Then we boiled the cepelinai in salty water and prepared at the same time the bacon and set the table. Don't forget the sour cream and salt.
Labai Skanaus!
 

Learning to Learn

One of the main topics in the EVS trainings is learning.
Learning a language, learning how to behave with different mentalities, to show respect, learning from different persons you work with, from the daily life in another country...
We talked about many different situations and what we could learn out of it. EVS can be a very challenging experience within Non Formal Education, not just in the project. This means to make clear that you can learn something new every day. Very often we just do not recognize that we learned something really important.

The principles of Non formal education include creativity, active participation, self-directed learning and initiative. So as you can see everything is up to ourselves whether we take the chances to learn something or not.

One of our advantages is that we work on a computer and so the whole knowledge of the World Wide Web is open for us. We could learn so unbelievable many things in different topics and from different people. Nowadays E-learning is already very popular and there are many websites where you can take some courses. I have informed myself and wrote something together.

Through this work I did not just only motivate myself more to learn from such websites I also used the first time the Microsoft Publisher, which is by the way a nice program for a lot of stuff and for me a good alternative to Adobe InDesign.

If you want to know exactly what EVS, Learning to Learn and especially Non formal education means, here you can find a lot more information. https://www.youthpass.eu/downloads/13-62-57/Publication_YP_EVS.pdf

Christmas & New Year in Lithuania

Christmas - What an experience!

To be honest, first I was a bit afraid of celebrating Christmas with completely different traditions, with kind of strangers which cannot speak English and without a good vocabulary in Lithuanian. But I don‘t regret anything. We had the great chance to try the traditional twelve dishes, self-made Gira and kind of liqueur, to learn more about the history of Lithuania and most of all get to know two of the friendliest people I ever met. 

To start from the early beginning on 24^th of December we packed all our presents and started our journey to Vilnius. After arriving there we decided to first eat something for early lunch, so that our stomach is a bit prepared for a lot of food in the evening but not too much, so that we are hungry again. Later we recognized that this was one of the biggest mistakes we could make.

The flat of Liudvikas Aunt and Uncle, Grazina and Tolis, is near the TV tower and they are about 80 years old but still very active.  You know, I was really sceptical but they welcomed us so friendly so that it was reassuring for all of us. In this moment I realized that language is not that important. When people really have to and want to understand each other they can. Annesophie, Liudvikas and I just know some Lithuanian words, Grazina knows some French and Tolis learned German in school but the language we spoke the most was with hands and feet.

Immediately after arriving in the flat they indulge us with nice soup, pasta and cookies. Of course nobody was hungry but it was too good and impossible to say no to such lovely people.

Over a cup of coffee we get to know each other by talking in every language we know. It was very funny and a homely feeling inside. 

Despite the bad weather outside we decided to go for a walk and to the center because we were very full and wanted to see the city center with Christmas lights. At the Cathedral there was this big very nice manger and also in another church the “Visų Šventųjų bažnyčia” we got a kind of Christmas feeling. Nevertheless we all missed our family a lot, it was raining and cold and so we were soooo happy when we reached the flat again.

 
There the big meal was already prepared and this very special evening with its unique traditions started. First of all we shared Kalėdaitis, the Christmas wafer, with each other and Grazina told us some old traditions and explained the different dishes. Everything smelled so wonderful and we enjoyed it a lot. There was not really a dish which we didn’t like and to my surprise I truly like Silkė (herring). There were so many different delicious forms of it and different vegetables on the table and I didn’t miss the meat or the alcohol, which you are not allowed to consume that evening.  
The only thing which was a bit wired for me was the red juice\pudding but all the others liked it a lot. Instead I liked the Kūčiukai (even with the poppy milk) which had a too strange consistence for Anne-Sophie. 

After the dinner we talked, watched old pictures, tried self-made Gira and of course unwrapped our presents.
On this evening we didn‘t just celebrate, we learned so much about culture, language, ourselves, we get closer and we got two new, very special friends. For us it was so wonderful how Grazina and Tolis treated and welcomed us in their flat. I am sure that we will never forget this special Christmas and I think all of us are very glad that we stayed in Lithuania. 

25th of December

We woke up late and then started the big lunch with a vodka. I think we really had to drink all the alcohol and eat all the meat we were not allowed to absorb the day before too. It was excellent and we all were still very replete so that we went together for a long walk to the TV tower. Tolis gave us a short but thrilling history lesson about this place. Before I did not know that the TV tower is such a important symbol of the struggle for freedom and independence for the whole Lithuanian nation. Tolis was also witness of this tragic events in the night of 13 January 1991, when 12 people were killed at the foot of the Vilnius TV Tower. I still cannot find a word to explain the way he told us about this. Especially about this girl Loreta he told a lot and her story is still in my mind.

Then it was time to say goodbye because I left the flat early in the morning on the 26th of December to go to Riga Airport to pick up my boyfriend. So yes, I had kind of second Christmas. We stayed one day there before we came back to Siauliai. I showed him the City and then we spend 2 days in Kaunas before we went to Vilnius for New Year. 

New Year

Vilnius is definitely a great place to celebrate New Year. Together with a lot of other volunteers from Lithuania we enjoyed the last evening of the year. As always it was wonderful to see all of them again. If I don‘t see them for a long time I already miss something. It is very important to know that there are other volunteers who experience nearly the same and have similar problems and feelings, especially when you feel homesick. But of course this evening nobody of us was really homesick.

Boyfriend and very special friends – what could I want more? For me it was a perfect start in a New Year.