Until September the two Volunteers Juan Manuel and Merve will work in Plungė in the “Viešoji Biblioteka“. Their Project is for 10 months and includes very different work from presentations, over organizing activities to ordinarily daily office work.
The Library is located in the oldest building of Plungė in the middle of the wonderful park. The red brick castle was renovated for two years. Almost 4 Million Litas cost the project but now it is since two and a half years it is the beautiful home of the library. Very special seems to be the clock tower, which mechanism was invented in 1741 by a French watchmaker.
About my day in Plungė
When I arrived in the morning Juan Ma was in a school for a Presentation of EVS and his country Spain. Therefore it was my challenge to find the library. I asked some Lithuanians and with my little knowledge of Lithuanian I managed to the find the library quite quickly. The mentor and tutor welcomed me so friendly and one woman was really happy that she could practice her German with me. She showed me a bit around the library, while talking about the work in the library, Plungė and Lithuania itself, Austria, and a lot of other things. Moreover I get to know the two local volunteers and talked a bit about their life in Plungė, their work and activities. When I met them, they were scanning old pictures and digitalizing slides, which is of course not their favorite work but still they want to try different work to find out whether it would be the right kind of job for them.
After some time Juan Ma came to the library and he showed me his work and we visited the exhibition with very nice paintings. We went to lunch together and then there was an event at the library. Students from Plungė Gymnasium sang some songs, played piano, and then there was a presentation about their ”tradition workshop”. They learned and told us how to bake Lithuanian bread, how to weave cloths and other issues about traditional clothing and celebrations. Everything was in Lithuanian but with the presentation and concentration I got what they were talking about.
Every Wednesday evening Juan gives lessons in Spanish, which was due to my wish to learn Spanish very interesting for me. He has two groups with different levels and his lessons are professional. This time they were focused on speaking. Actually I understood everything what he and the others spoke but to speak is still quite difficult for me. I was really surprised in what a short time he taught them already so much.
Sadly Merve was sick that day and could not work. Because of that I could not explore here project in the library. Usually she organizes every week theatre for the children which I really would have liked to see but maybe another time when she is healthy again.
Nevertheless I enjoyed my day in Plungė, the nice Spanish lessons and the event in the library a lot and I really wish to visit the town, the nice woman from the library and the volunteers once more.
