K-Internationellt

EVS-dagbok 43 2011

2011-12-15T15:31:00.002+01:00

Hej igen,

Well, since my last words was such an eventful period, what I have to write about.

I can say, I could get to next step from the absolutely observing period to life-like working level with all the benefits and difficulties of it, and also start fulfill my ideas. Sure, I am still learning by all the new tasks and situations, but all the surroundings and people getting familiar and secure what improves willing to act.

As I suggested in my last blog, I was opening to art activities paralelly with music, which is my main voluntary profile. My first endeavors had proven to be too big. I thougt to establish youngster art activities in Kållered and Lindome by a thematic art week (Kållereds KonstVeckan) in the autumn break of the schools. That program would be a five days art based week with museum visit, workshops with different art technics and closed by an exhibition of the weekly made art pieces. The KonstVeckan idea was to catch some art-interested kids to deepen their interest and knowledge as technically as theoritically and get some „newcomers” to understand to find delight in meeting and making art through a weekly theme what decided together with youngsters to feel more theirs the idea. To advertise it me and my mentor taken so much efforts. For advertising I made a poster and appeal, what we promoted to the visitors of the fritidsgård, sent and went to different schools, libraries and fritidsgårds and also different organizations and cultural workers in Mölndal, for those who getting contact with youngsters through art and leisure activities. Unfornutately only one student was applied to this project, what was finally cancelled in this way (or more specify adjourned). I had to recover my ideas to don’t waste all the energy what I put in it: I understood that a project like this needs more bases on the participants, the kids intrests. So first I have to built up a group. I have taken engaged with my music project efforts to make art and music groups separately. This work is also needs so much preparation and forces, but I can say there were some nice experiences which getting open the kids to accept me, getting interested to working together with me. I marked the Tuesdays to art and music activities in Kållered and Wendesdays in Lindome. So far there was a clay workshop with Halloween theme in the first week of November, since then our meetings was more about music.

In the front of music I was worked in the first bigger concert in Kållered what is the conventional home gig for the bands who rehearsing in Kållereds fritidsgård. In the previous week Jörgen and me was prepared a brand new venue near Tonkällan (rehealsal room complex just in front of the fritidsgård). This experience was really useful, about the backline of an event: building stage, setting up lights and sound, do safety monitoring and so on – and complete a brand new venue from a totally empty and dead space. I can say it was quite moody finally.:) This evening I could also meet with many of bands who are connected with Kållereds fritidsgård and learning some basics about how to set the sound in live gigs.

The other bigger affair was the Kållered-Lindome Talangen, what was a talent contest serial between four schools of Kållered and Lindome with the final in Lindomegården in the turning of November-December. This was altogether three shows: one in Hallenskolan (Kållered), one in Sinntorpskolan (Lindome) and the Final in Lindomegården. The Talangen organizing was also quite fluent: this program had traditions as well, and the cooperation between us was very good. I had the responsibility of graphic work (poster), I have taken part in the logistics (building up venues, stage, lights and so on) and I was the head of the jury. These shows gives good possibilities to meet with music interested youngsters and attract them to join my music project and also music teachers with who I can contact in the future as well. Most of the participants had such a good talent, I had really great time and get impressed during the shows.

Just yesterday all of the volunteers were guest for a night to Grevedämmet in Mölndal. There was the opening the brand new Eurodesk office, where together with local youth band Kasim and me also played some songs. I was very delighted (and actually still I am) after this event, what was more social life here, but in the same time a very good time to make music together on stage. So I have to say thanks for it to amazing Kasım Dogan and wonderful Peter Nyrén.;) (…to be continued.)

Additionally it isn’t negligible to noticed, that me and the other volunteers had got places in Swedish courses. I could join to SFI course, what provides me weekly fifteen hours to learn Swedish, what is a really great possibility. Although I had some previous knowledge in swedish, but I was not that aware to speak in the beginning, but the language course, and its intensity encourage me now to speak with kids and colleagues in the fritidsgård (and also understand more and more), what opens new dimensions for sure.

So this is it for this year – so far. I could wish you all successful new year includes many great improvements and benefits for our voluntary work.

God jul och trevlig nytt år till alla!:)
Kram,
Dániel

Info från Ungdomsstyrelsen

2011-12-14T08:51:00.001+01:00

Mer pengar att söka för svenska internationella ungdomsprojekt
Under 2012 föreslås Ungdomsstyrelsen att få ytterligare 5 miljoner SEK att fördela. Vi kommer då fördela totalt 32 miljoner. Omkring 2 miljoner SEK av de nya pengarna kommer att fördelas till projekt i Armenien, Azerbajdzjan, Georgien, Moldavien, Ukraina och Vitryssland. Resterande 3 miljoner är projektmedel som kan sökas av alla. 2012 kan du lämna in ansökningar 1 februari, 1 maj och 1 oktober.

Träffa Ungdomsstyrelsen och få tips!
Under våren kan du träffa Ungdomsstyrelsens handläggare för att få värdefulla tips innan du lämnar in din projektansökan. Träffarna kommer att hållas: 18 eller 19 januari (inför 1 feb), 18 eller 19 april (inför 1 maj). Kontakta Andreas Bergendal på telefon 08-566 219 31 eller på e-post för att boka in en tid. Du är även välkommen att ringa oss för konsultation.

Lyckas med ditt Ungdomsinitiativ
Ungdomsinitiativ vänder sig till grupper av unga som vill driva egna lokala projekt och testa egna idéer. Kom på utbildning i Stockholm den 17 januari och inspireras av tidigare projekt, lär dig hur man skriver en ansökan och förstå vad som krävs för ett godkänt projekt. Läs mer och anmäl dig senast 15 december. Skrivarstuga för ungdomsinitiativ.

Planera för ungdomsutbyte
Var med på Work in Progress - en kontakt-skapande utbildning om anställningsbarhet och entreprenörskap inom framtida ungdomsutbyten. Kursen hålls i Danmark 29 februari - 4 mars 2012. Läs mer och ansök till work in progress senast 15 januari 2012.

Lästips! Volontärtjänst kan göra skillnad på CV:t
Engelska Tom Payne var i Sverige som volontär - läs intervjun i engelska The Guardian här: 'I'm hoping to boost my employability by working abroad'.

EVS-dagbok 42, 2011

2011-12-09T16:05:00.002+01:00

Hej,
Tiden går så fort!.. Jag är redan tre månader i Sverige. Och jag vill stoppa tiden!..
Under dessa tre månader har mycket förändrats i mitt liv. Jag fick ett svenskt personnummer, började gå på kurser i svenska, som är mycket användbara (jag är mycket tacksam mot min mentor Susanne, att jag har fått en chans att lära mig Svenska). Jag träffar nya människor nästan varje dag, hittar nya vänner. Det hjälper mig att känna mig lycklig och att tillbringa min fritid roligt: konserter, danser, möten med vänner...
Jag var mycket upptagen den här veckan. Jag var tvungen att förbereda för onsdagkväll – en konversation med tjejerna om naturlig (ekologisk) kosmetika på Ungdomskooperativet Fjället. Det var intressant att förbereda detta ämne eftersom jag är intresserad av naturliga produkter. Jag tror att tjejer gillar detta tema eftersom visste de receptet, till exempel, hur man kan göra en rengörande ansiktsmask av havre, kroppspeeling, hur man kan återuppliva trött hud. Vi vill prova dessa recept nästa vecka.
Denna vecka var det nödvändigt att förbereda sig för Litauiska julen som kommer att vara den 7 december. Jul i Litauen är helt annorlunda. Den 24 december firar vi julafton. På bordet ska det vara 12 rätter (eftersom året har 12 månader, dessutom hade Jesus 12 apostlar), men den dagen kan man inte äta kött, fet mat. Julafton är en lugn familjefest. Juldagens morgon börjar med nöje. Vi ger presenter, äter julmiddag. Den andra dagen av julen besöker vi vänner. Jag ska berätta om dessa traditioner, lära barnen den traditionella litauiska julaftons magi (hur man ser sin framtid, hur man kan veta vem som älskar dig etc.).
Volontär från Vitryssland Yauheni bjöd in oss till Vitrysslands kväll den 2 december. Det var trevligt att bekanta sig med Vitrysslands historia, smaka på traditionella rätter som är lika som i Litauen, träffa Yauhenis vänner. Jag hoppas att detta inte var vårt sista möte.
Den 4 december hade vi en julmarknad på Fjället. Barn och föräldrar kunde köpa hantverk, producera julpynt, smaka glögg och pepparkakor, barn fick presenter från tomten. Jag var mycket intressant av att se Sveriges jultraditioner. Jag ser fram emot julen!.. Och jag är väldigt glad för att jag har jul i mitt hem – jag fick juldekorationer att dekorera min lägenhet. Min lägenhet är väldigt mysig nu.
Tyvärr, hade jag den här veckan ett glädjelöst äventyr. Jag fick ögoninfektion under tisdagen men Susanne och Sven skickade mig till läkare så jag kände mig lite bättre på kvällen. Jag älskar mitt liv i Sverige ändå!!!
Hälsningar,
Eglė

Hitta partners för EVS

2011-12-07T14:38:00.002+01:00

Ta chansen att åka till Rumänien under 4 dagar i februari och skapa kontakter för Europeisk volontärtjänst!!

Projektets titel: Building up!
Plats: Onesti, Rumänien
Aktivitetsperiod - 4 dagar + resa i februari 2012

Building up”-projektet är ett Partnership building Activity inom programmet Ung och Aktiv I Europa, delprogram 4,3, som skall äga rum i Onesti, Rumänien. Det är tänkt att skapa starkare relationer mellan organisationer och ungdomsarbetare från flera länder för att kick-starta samarbete för framtida projekt inom programmet med en högre kvalitet. “Building up” är baserat på teman Antidiskriminering och information till ungdomar, har följande mål:

- Att hitta kompatibla partners för framtida EVS och tema antidiskriminering inom Ung och Aktiv
- Att utbyta erfarenheter och idéer i syfte att förbättra ungdomsarbetet och ungdomsprojekt
- Att skapa och utveckla projektidéer för att utveckla framtida EVS projekt eller projekt i andra delprogram som syftar till att utbilda ungdomar och bekämpa diskriminering

Under de fyra dagarna av verksamheten, ska 8 deltagare från 9 länder (Slovenien, Rumänien, Danmark, Tjeckien, Italien, Sverige, Portugal och Polen), utforska och utveckla begreppet volontärarbete och innovativa angreppssätt av Ung och Aktiv för att bekämpa diskriminering, utbyta kunskap och skapa projekt inom programmet, alla på grundval av att använda icke-formella utbildningsverktyg.
Verksamheten består av groupbuilding sessioner, workshops och presentationer, tankesmedjor för att skapa projektskisser och utbyte av god praxis i ungdomsprojekt och relationer I partnerskap i syfte att förbättra och ge en hög grad av professionalism framtida ungdomsarbete och projekt inom programmet.

deltagare: 2 pers/organisation

Kostnad: 30 % av reskostnaden bekostas av organisationen/kommunen (beräknad kostnad ca 1500 kr). Allt annat ingår; mat, boende, lokala transporter.

Intresseanmälan senast 22 december till; andreea.maris@molndal.se
Frågor och mer information maila!

Hälsningar/Best regards
Sara Lesch
________________________
International Coordinator
City of Mölndal/KEKS Sweden

email: sara.lesch@molndal.se
phone: +46 (0)31 87 65 14
gsm: +46 (0)704- 67 78 14
Facebook: KEKS Inter Nationellt

www.k-internationellt.blogspot.com
www.keks.nu, www.molndal.se

EVS-dagbok 41, 2011

2011-12-04T15:38:00.002+01:00

Hej Alla
It has been two months since I last wrote my observations as a volunteer here and I have seen, done, learnt, thought about many different things since then. People from my sending organization (TOG- Community Volunteers) have been curious as well. So here I have some more reflections on life as a volunteer here in Sweden.
For the past two weeks I have been playing some theatre games with some of the youngsters in Lindhaga. They seem to enjoy the games and this encourages me to go on trying. Because it is really hard to attract them when they do not want to do anything. It is a big disappointment when you prepare something for them and they don`t show up. One of the biggest recent events was the Kick Off party for the new youth card that two girls from Lindhaga (Bella and Mikaela) worked so hard to create. They went to different places in Mölndal (gyms,restaurants,pizzerias, etc) to get discounts and membership deals for the youngsters who have the card and at the end they got ten places on their card. At the party in Café Möllan next to the City Hall of Mölndal I played some songs, some of our girls danced and sang.
As for the daily life, days are shorter, darker and rainy most of the time, which makes it hard to do anything outside and really hits you after a while. You just have to adjust your body so it understands that there are still things that you can do after it gets dark and feels like the day is over. This is exactly why friendships are more important than anything else here. Because the climate is already a hard nut to crack and if you are not a social person, depression is inevitable. I am glad it is not the case for me. I keep meeting new people every day and learning different stories, seeing life through other peoples eyes and thinking about things that I haven’t thought before.
I have been going to the language course for the past 2 weeks now and I must say that it is a lot of fun. Learning the language is something but learning it with in an international class is definitely something else. There are people from China, India, Iran, England, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Brasil, Scotland, Romania, Spain, Georgia. So it is really an interesting experience.
I have also been writing new songs and articles lately, after all the thoughts caused by things like daily routines, human rights, music, relationships, cultural stereotypes, priorities in life, differences in youth behavior,etc. Therefore I think EVS really is a unique opportunity for people to learn more about life and everything that it embraces. Because it enables you to gain a different perspective in a totally different way of life than your own in a different culture and environment and thus makes the cultural dialogue and understanding more possible and real.
Kasim Dogan

EVS-dagbok 40 2011

2011-11-27T17:56:00.002+01:00

Hej alla!!!

Last week was very very nice and fully booked with meetings, deadlines and events. I loved it! This weeks started in the same way and it finishes with a cherry on the top – the Georgian night!

Last week we had a study visit to the International Relations Department of Mölndal Municipality where we met Cecilia Rignell (Picture). She is the International projects coordinator for Mölndal Municipality and in charge of developing and stimulating Molndal’s international contacts, informing and educating on international issues and encouraging and giving support for EU projects. The meeting with her was very fruitful and it gave us an excellent insight of the projects in which Mölndal is involved, the topics and budgets of the projects and even about the town twins Mölndal has.

As well last week me and Ako attended the Anna Lindh Foundation network meeting here in Göteborg. The meeting went well and we had the chance to get to know other members of the network, some from outside the area of Göteborg, exchange contacts and information and find out more about Anna Lindh Foundation and their plans for the future. During the meeting we have presented the KEKS network and the projects made in cooperation with organisations from Euro-med countries. Some of the Anna Lindh Foundation Sweden plans for the future is to organize training courses on project writing for ALF grants. If by then we will still work as volunteers in KEKS network it would be really great to attend such an education.

This week was all about making payment orders, preparing the opening of the Eurodesk youth centre and finishing the EVS manual for the EVS Inspiration Tour. The EVS Inspiration Tour seeks to raise the interest about the Youth in Action programme among the KEKS members, and youngsters. The manual is almost finished and very soon we will send it for printing. Beside the manual we will also develop a flyer that will target mainly young people, making them curious for more information.

On 13th of December the Eurodesk youth centre will be opened so there is a lot of preparation work going. We will have a lot of guests, music, presentations, fika and much fun so if you want to join us you are welcome to do so! See you there!

Beside going to the SFI language course and working, these days will be very full as this week it is the Global Week at Göteborg University and I want to attend at least one lecture called ”The Swedish model in a global context”. So if I want to be there in time, I had better be going now. Hej då and don’t forget about the Eurodesk youth centre grand opening! Will have fika!

Andreea

EVS-dagbok 39 2011

2011-11-20T21:16:00.001+01:00

Hello everybody!
My name is Cristina, I’m 21 years old, and I was born is Burgos, Spain.
I came to Sweden two weeks ago, so I’m still knowing new people and new places everyday. That’s something exciting!
My arrival was very good, because my mentor picked me up in the airport and drive me to the youth center to know some colleagues, some teenagers, and the place. I liked it very much! Then we went to my “new home” and there I met the woman who I live with. She’s 73 years old, but her soul is younger! She’s very nice!
The day after I met my “new little family” here in Sweden: the other volunteers. I’m very glad, they’re amazing, and I think that this time together could be one of the best in our lives!
About me and my project, I’m something like an “amateur photographer” (Maybe one day I could be professional! I dream about it!) I love photography , and everything about films and design. So I would like to have some activities about it, and teaching to the youth people how they can express their feelings (even their problems) across artistic activities. In my case across the photography and graphic design.
I think that the EVS is a very good experience which teaches you a lot of things about life, other cultures, and other places. You can learn something of every experience, as much if it is a good experience, or if it is a bad one.
Now it’s my opportunity, so I’m going to enjoy it as much as possible!
Until now, all have gone very well, so I hope that it will keep in the same way, or even better!
¡Hasta pronto!
Cristina

EVS-dagbok 38 2011

2011-11-15T20:48:00.001+01:00

Hej, hej
I am Ako from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. I am EVS volunteer in “Meet in Youth Reality IV”. I am doing my EVS in KEKS/Eurodesk Youth Center in Grevedammet. My project is “international youth work”. I am working on this project with Andreea, EVS volunteer from Romania.
From the very beginning my EVS started actively and interestingly. In the first week I wrote my action plan, what I should do during my stay here in Sweden. I have already done some tasks from my action plan, I helped youngsters from “Skateboarding group” from Grevedammet to apply for a Youth Initiative project. We applied for 1st of November deadline and hope that it will be financed. Now I am working at our project “EVS inspiration Tour”. The idea of this project is to disseminate and promote generally the Youth in Action program and particularly EVS among the KEKS members who would like to start working in this field. We already had a first meeting in Kungsbacka youth centre on 1st of November and according to the feedback and evaluations I can say that we started this project quite successfully. Now we are preparing for the next meeting. We are creating an EVS manual for youth workers and youth leaders and flyers for promoting EVS among young people.
During this one month I already gained some competences, so I started to write my Youth pass.
From 18 to 21 of October I attended EVS on arrival training which was held in a very nice place Kasogarden in Ekero island, Stockholm. The training was very interesting and useful for me albeit almost all information about EVS and generally YiA was not new. Most important thing for me on the training was that we made our own time line. One day we visited Ungdomsstyrelsen which was very interesting. After on arrival I stayed for the weekend in Stockholm. Stockholm is an amazing city and I enjoyed very much my time there.
Just only one month passed since I am here and I can say that my EVS is going well. It started very positively from the very beginning, when I arrived in Goteborg my mentor Sara picked me up from the airport, then we went to the city to meet other volunteers Andreea and Ane with whom we had lunch together. In the restaurant a radio journalist interviewed us about the most special food we ever tried. The interview was small but very nice moment for me and from that moment I realized that I can easily integrate in the new society. I easily got comfortable with the place and I am spending my free time very good with other volunteers and social mentors. I want to say thank you to my mentor Sara which is always ready to help me as well as the other staff members in Grevedammet and especially Andreea and Ane volunteers who are also working in Grevedämmet.
Last week I was asking myself how I feel in the new social environment and I was trying to be very objective with the answer to this question. The answer was that I am feeling very good and my comfort zone is increasing here, my adaptation process in the new social environment goes very well and hope I will keep this.

EVS-dagbok 37 2011

2011-11-03T08:27:00.002+01:00

Hej!
I am Mihaela and I come from Romania. I work in Lindhaga Fritidsgard, in Molndal, and my project is based on dance. So I plan to teach kids to dance and make a dance group (actually I already have one, but they are not to consequent so far), eventually even a dance show.

It has already passed 2 months since we are volunteers in Sweden so there are some things to talk about. We have already seen the capital (if you can ever say that you have seen it) or at least a big part of it. We have breath a lot of northern woods air, some of us have already felt the temperature of the sea and beach in Gothenburg, the swing of the waves of Gota alv, and of course the sound of the Friday nights and the movement of the Saturday nights.

I came to Sweden hopping that I can give something here, but one of the Swedes just blow my theory away one day asking me “why would Sweden need volunteers?”, so now I just try to reconfigure my route. I definitely have something to get from here and I plan to have as much as possible. If it turns that I have something to offer also at the end I will be the happiest volunteer.

Fortunately I have one of the best mentors, who help me taking every step, optimizing and applying every new idea. I am still amazed about this because the other volunteers, that I had contact with, from all around the Europe and more, are not so satisfied about their mentors or supervisors, some of them don’t even communicate to each other. Even the social mentors are truly involved in their work with the volunteers and try to find appropriate activities for all of us (Which is not that easy!) and to help us integrate in the new culture and geographical space. So KEKS has got an A+ for the way they prepared their mentors :D .

Living in a new house it was great, because it offers everything necessarily for a very good accommodation. We still have a bloom rose in the back garden ;). Cohabitation was very nice at the beginning, due to the curiosity of living with different people, it become shortly a challenge that I like to think we all have set well, because now we behave like a family with different personality types.
Working in Lindhaga Fritidsgard is sometimes a challenge but always a real pleasure. Starting it was weird because of the difference of culture and working strategy, probably my formal teaching experience had also significant importance in the process. So I can say that I already learned a lot here from the people working in Lindhaga. I understand that working it doesn’t necessarily mean to go home totally sweaty after a full day and the quality doesn’t consist from making plans. Sometimes the hard work comes from letting things go, observe and interfere just when necessary. Working non-formal with the kids it means letting them free to create and to develop them selves. Trying to plan to much is like you would try to put the sea in a concrete box: no matter how huge it is the space the sea will loose it’s own beauty . So let’s keep the sea in her natural perfect space and just make sure we don’t throw garbage in it J

My job is working slowly, it looks like not too many youngsters wants to learn couple dances, at least not for free. My group of dancers is increasing and decreasing it’s number weekly. Also the dancing evening we planned and tried to do this month had no success. But I keep in my mind the words of a gold digger, telling to himself – in Jack London’s story - “Slowly and surely Bill, slowly and surely!”. So I am not worried anymore because I know it will happen not in the way I am expecting to but definitely in the right way.

I am a little sad because I cannot take part in all the meetings and I know being there it would help me understand more what I have to do here and especially how to do it! Last week it was almost empty of events for me because the fritidsgard was close several times, due to meetings and some school activities. Is also frustrating that sometimes I am not counted as responsible person (because of the rules), but more like a kid. But still I think this is because of the great barrier of the language that keeps me away from understanding and the most important: it keeps me away from the kids.

Last week my laptop got back to life thanks to Cissy and her great father! It was dead in last two weeks so I am terribly happy now. And it was a week with full house. We had one visitor from Turkey and four people from France which was very nice: we managed to share the space and everything we have, so that it can be good for everyone. We also had some intercultural exchange and I think we made some new friends.

Also last week we tried to start a dancing course for volunteers, I even baked an apple cake to say welcome, but it didn’t work.
But… Last week it was a happy one for most of the KEKS volunteers in Gothenburg and Molndal because we just received the approval for personal numbers, so we become somehow statistically important in Sweden and we have now more possibilities than before. Now we all look forward to start Swedish classes in order to understand better the culture and lifestyle of Swedes.

And some of us ended the last week in a very relaxing way in Kultur Museet, enjoying the exhibition of migration and travel, but most of all the place for kids inspired by kids. We also meet there our own destiny in a roulette, so I just discovered that my next destination is digging for gold in a place we never heard of.
So I wish for all the volunteers to get “The time of your life” here! For all KEKS personnel: I hope we are what you were looking for! And for all of us I wish to get all the best from this unique experience!
Kram
Mihaela

EVS-dagbok 36 2011

2011-11-03T08:24:00.002+01:00

Hi!!!
My name is Silvia and I am an Italian volunteer.
I work in the youth centre Broslättsgården and my project is about Human Rights and Gender Equality, the main idea is to create a discussion group with the kids who attend the centre.

The centre is very well organized and always full of children who can enjoy in a safe environment and they have every day the possibility to speak about their problems with the youth leaders. This is a good opportunity for me to learn more about human rights and to see how these topics are discussed in Sweden, indeed I consider the EVS a way to improve my knowledge about gender studies.

A lot of people suffer of discrimination because of gender or sex and, even if European countries consider all citizens equal, the prejudice is well rooted everywhere. For this reason to create awareness among youth and try to break stereotypes and prejudices is important: children will be the citizens of the future!
I appreciate the attention that KEKS pay to topics related to gender. Indeed it is important to create an environment where everyone, boys and girls, can feel comfortable. Unfortunately youth centres are attended for the most part by boys but we will try to attract more girls!

I received support from my mentor and from the colleagues who work in the centre, especially at the beginning and now we are trying together to attract kids to the group. To create a group is not easy, especially since we do not speak the same language. So to create a link with the kids in the centre I planned a cooking group every Thursday with the aim to discover a different recipe every week. Obviously we started cooking pasta! A cooking activity is a funny way to overcome barriers (language barriers as well) and to get in touch with the children.

During my spare time I visit Gothenburg that offers a lot of things to do (concerts, exhibitions, museums, cinema...) and a lot of cafés where to spend time is nice with friends. Moreover it is very easy to spend time in the nature: lakes, forests and see are very close to town.
What else... this is my first time in Sweden.... and I impatience to discover this new country deeper!
Silvia

EVS-dagbok 35 2011

2011-11-03T08:22:00.002+01:00

My name is Yauheni and I come from Minsk, which is the capitol of Belarus. Now I am a volunteer and I work at Balltorp’s youth center. My main projects right now are to work with children in a music studio and also to organize sport activities.

I recently had two very interesting events. Last Friday 21st of October I organized and carried out my first football tournament with the help of my wonderful colleagues – Andrea, Gonzalo, Hebbe, Nina and Maggie. It was a match between the teenagers from Balltorp and Broslätt. After the game we awarded medals for all the participants because there were no losers that evening. We just had a fun evening together and the kids loved it! And yes, of course, after the game we had a delicious dinner – a barbecue! These events were recorded by some kids of my youth centre and will soon be released. This will be the first one of a series of monthly broadcasts of “Balltorps TV” that I want to introduce to the teenagers.

I also want to mention what happened on the 19th of October. All volunteers and their mentors participated in a whole day of Adventure Education at “Animal lake”. The day was organized by my mentor Andrea. It was very fun experience and useful because we could get to know one another much better. We passed all challenges as a team with lots of laughter as clearly seen in the photo!

EVS-dagbok 34, 13 - 19 okt

2011-10-17T20:30:00.001+02:00

Hej,

I am Dániel Oszkár Rákos from Hungary. I do my voluntary work in Kållered Fritidsgård and sometimes together with Lindomegården. My project is basically to care about and develope the music activity of the youngsters in both youth centers, but my purpose is to widen my work with art and some other links to cultural aspects as well.

So far, I can say, it was just a dawn of my EVS life with all part of it: changing lifestyle, living in a new city (in between new citiesJ), collecting new experiences in a different work ambience with different facilities and also some difficultues with language and cultural issues during to start working with swedish kids.

I’ve got so much helps from my mentor and from the organization too, I really have not expected that it could be possible. Good colleagues and also nice people what supports the quickest process to fit in my new work and life situation. Fine thing to perceive that our ideas are accepted and get help for achieve.

The fritidsgård as a general institute is a huge playground to me to discover new situations and develope creativity – it is true for both sides like myself and hopefully for the people too who I work with. It is important for me according to my previous pedagogical work experiences, that to have real opportunities.

In the same time the adaptation had some non-expected (or to specify not conceived) difficulties for instance to get connection with kids with different culture and language. I have both nice and hard experiences with it, especially as this first month was about to fraternize with the youngsters and the millieu together with to come out with goals and real plans.

As it is probably perceptible from my words it gave me already so much usable observations and the EVS on-arrival training last week in Stockholm just improves all these feelings. I can say this training course had provided me more comfort and assurance to continue well and hopefully to step up a level as well.

And the next level is to organize programs, workshops what are meaningful and also fun. Yesterday was my first social activity what I organized in my youth center. It was a Hungarian night with a short presentation about Hungary and its culture, I’ve cooked and served food and dessert while we listened to a self-made compillation of hungarian music. It was a pretty fine evening, there was many kids who were grateful with my efforts and some other volunteers too who are made it more fun.

Well, this was it first, I’m sure that my next turn will be full of with great experiences and beneficial outcomes.

Vi ses,
Dániel

EVS-dagbok 33, 6 - 12 okt

2011-10-15T10:56:00.003+02:00

Hej.
My name is Ane and I’m a Spanish volunteer. I’m working in Grevedämmet Fritidsgård, Mölndal, in a music project. My main goal is to create a girl band and this first days I have just been working to make contact with girls in the school, in Grevedämmet, in the other youth centres… I also work with kids with special needs, with whom I have musical meetings every Monday. Now I’m trying to get to know their musical interests and to prepare a concert on 21st of March, the Down syndrome day.
We have already been here for a month. Before coming here every ex-volunteers told me that the first month used to be very hard but I have to say that my first month here has been very good because of the other volunteers, the social mentors and the most important person, my mentor Peter.
I enjoyed a lot this week. I went to play beach volley on my free day, I lost almost all the matches but it was funny anyway. After that I went to eat some nachos with Gonzalo, one of the social mentors (who was volunteer last year), and then we went to Central Station because a friend of Andreea, another volunteer, was coming from Romania. We went home and we had a very good dinner.
On Friday I came to Grevedämmet and I worked preparing my next session with the special kids. When I finished my work I went to the city centre to buy a guitar and finally I bought it, so I went home to play with my new toy.
On Saturday I woke up early and I went biking in Floda. In the afternoon I met Gonzalo and Claudio at their place and we went to Hebbe’s party. No comments ÿ
On Monday I worked with the special kids, we watched the videos of the songs that they want to sing in the concert and we had a good time. I’m sure that we will do a good work together!
On Tuesday I didn’t come to Grevedäammet because Ako, the volunteer from Georgia, arrived. So I went to the city centre with Andreea and we met Sara and Ako. We went to Saluhallen to have lunch and while we were eating a girl from a Swedish radio came to ask us some questions about food. In the evening we went to the Hungarian night and we learned a lot of things about Daniel’s hometown. I tasted the typical food from Hungary and it was really good. We spent the afternoon watching some pictures, playing pool, listening to Hungarian music… and then we decided to go to the rehearsal room to play music. I enjoyed very much this time and I hope we will repeat it again.
Now is Wednesday and I work during the morning, so I guess we are going to the school to remind that there will be a music workshop on Friday. Pointless to say you are more than welcome to attend it!!!

EVS-dagbok 32, 20 - 27 sept

2011-09-28T20:03:00.003+02:00

Hej,

I am Eglė, a volunteer from Lithuania. I am working at a youth center “Fjället” in Rannebergen, Gothenburg. That’s been my week:

On Tuesday, 20 September we (me and the other volunteers Ane, Andreea and Silvia) arrive in Stockholm for EVS On-arrival training.

Wednesday, 21 September
The second day in Stockholm started at 6:00. I was very tired after the journey; I slept little so for me it was a big challenge (I hate to get up early). The breakfast was from 7:30 to 8:30 and after breakfast we had a seminar “Sweden & Swedes” with Auburn Daniels. Lecturer was really good and very entertaining. He drew our attention when he entered the class. The seminar wasn’t very important for me personally but it was very interesting to Auburn. After lunch we went to the Office of the National Board for Youth affairs to meet Anna Lind. She told about the Youthpass, AXA insurance, our budget etc. All this information I received during EVS pre-departure training in Lithuania. After meeting we had free time in Stockholm so me, Ane and Andreea walked around the city. In the evening we met with other volunteers and walked into a bar.

Thursday, 22 September
Morning started very early again. We all were very tired but after breakfast we had a very interesting and useful seminar “Sweden & Swedes” with Auburn Daniels. We discussed Swedish mentality, lifestyle, relationships with family members and others, the rules and traditions. This seminar was very important to me because it helped to prepare presentation “Lithuania day”. It was also interesting to discuss the types of temperament Auburn said that I am melancholic and phlegmatic but this is certainly not true. I am a typical choleric but sometimes I have phlegmatic features. After lunch we had Rope Challenge. But I felt bad, I had a headache and also I had a lot of work on my presentation so I didn’t participate in this challenge. All evening I prepared my presentation but I tried to be with the other volunteers as well.

Friday, 23 September
The early morning, breakfast, seminar (very boring) about “To be a volunteer”. And finally we left the hotel. Ane, Silvia and me went to the Youth Centers Community in Kista. We were greeted by friendly guy Armand. He gave us the keys, showed the center and hour later we went to Gamla Stan.

Saturday, 24 September
Our morning started merrily. The sun shone on our faces, it was warm so we visited the nation museum and the exhibition “Gods and Goddesses”. It was very funny to reincarnate into a Greek/Roman Gods. Later we were in Djurgården and then we took the boat to the city center. Andreea liked most this boat trip. In the evening we had karaoke in the bar, rock bar later and at 1:00 we were “at home” (in the youth center).

Sunday, 25 September
In the morning we arrived at the Central station. We didn’t find free space for luggage so Ane and me were left waiting at the station but Andreea and Silvia walked around the city. At 16:10 we went to Gothenburg. I was very happy to come back home.

Monday, 26 September
I’m very happy because I’m at a youth center again. I am glad to see my colleagues and children. That day I really liked it because I had a lot of work. I prepared my project “Lithuania day” all day long. This project will be on Thursday, September 29. I want to introduce children, colleagues and other volunteers to Lithuania, Lithuanian music and traditional dishes. This project is very important to me personally because this is my first big project at a youth center.

Tuesday, 27 September
Today I have a long working day. I hope this day will be filled with good feelings, children’s smiles, new ideas/projects…

Vi ses!
Eglė

EVS-dagbok 31, 12 - 18 sept

2011-09-21T18:38:00.002+02:00

Hej alla,
I am Kasim from Turkey. One of the new KEKS-volunteers, working at Lindhaga youth center. I have to say the last 3 weeks I have spent here have already been a life changing experience.

Here I have some observations on the first part of my EVS. Our mentors have been taking good care of us and I think everyone else in our group would agree on this. Since the day we arrived (I can comfortably say) we have received hospitality and understanding. I also have to thank our social mentors. This would be a really depressing beginning without them. Because the weather doesn’t really leave any room for fun outdoors and it takes a while before you can make any new friends. Being from İstanbul, I think this is the hardest part for me so far. It is a different frequency, I guess. People respect personal space so much that it forms an invisible social wall when it comes to outsiders. But I have also seen that you are more than welcome once you are inside that wall. People here are really friendly when they get the first good vibe from you and it usually happens with a random smile. This, I should remember=)

Up till now (like everyone else) I have been trying to bond with the youth at my youth centre. It is not an easy task but I think we have made a lot of progress. Kids are not afraid to say hi or speak anymore and I think it will be a lot better after the Turkish Night we will have on September 30th. Then I hope I will finally be able to start a Forum Theatre Group since it is my project here. I have a really good feeling about all this. Hopefully in a few days we will have a PS Football Tournament at the youth centre.

Another thing I should mention is the language barrier. Although all of the kids can speak English, most of the time they don’t want to. It is not a problem with grown-ups . You can ask anyone for help and they are happy to help you. Of course I can’t wait to start Swedish lessons. Because it will change everything for us here. It starts by knowing what Fika (break with coffee&cookies) is here=)

To sum up, I am looking forward to having a lot more experience with my project to share here or back home. The more I have to think about, write and share, the better. I am full of hope when it comes to starting a group and organize open days and workshops. So let’s see how everything will turn out next time I write here.

Hej då!

EVS-dagbok 30, 27 juni - 3 juli

2011-07-07T08:25:00.002+02:00

Hello!!!!!

This time is different. This time could be sad or maybe could be better, actually i´m not sure. Now that my EVS has finished I can only remember wonderful days, amazing people, funny travels, good moments and, in general, I can only remember my EVS as one of the greatest experience in my life.
The last month it was one of the best. Finally the sun came up, the gardens were incredibly green and everybody went out to play, walk or, simply, enjoy the fresh ( not as fresh as usual) air. Sweden looked different and I loved this kind of life so much.
The project was going to the end, because the Spanish lessons had finished. But the last day in the school we celebrate a graduation party and we filmed that. It was a very important day for all the pupils, they left the school and they had a dinner and a funny show all together. It was really nice for me to share that night with them. It was the last night I saw them. It was so sad for me because in this point of the EVS I had enough confidence to spend with them really good moments.
Three days later we celebrated in Öckerö Rundgångsfestivalen. The kids did a very good job, they worked so hard to prepare this event. They took care about food, music, sound, tickets…It was a really good evening. We also filmed all the bands and we took pictures.
And on this way, unconsciously, my working days in the beautiful island finished.
I had a great moment, very exciting, with my staff. They made me a farewell party with a funny dinner with Spanish speech and lot of presents. They were really nice, but not only that night. I would like to say that Öckerö´s staff were a very important part in my time in Sweden. They tried to cheer me up and give me all the support that I needed. They are very good people, I will never forget them.
Those days, I felt a mix of feelings. Every minute they changed. Sometimes I felt the happiest person in the world, cycling with my bike beside the sea, but other moments were very sad. I had to say goodbye to my friends, a very difficult farewell.

But life is going on and now EVS will be one of the memories of my life. I big experience that I recommend to everybody who wants to discover a different culture and meet people from everywhere, everybody who would like to get to know themselves, everybody who wants to enjoy living abroad.

I want to say thanks to all the people who I met during the last 10 months. All of you were a piece of my live in Sweden and some of you are in my present and will be in my future.

TACK TACK
Vi ses!!!

Miriam

EVS-dagbok 29, 20 - 26 juni

2011-07-01T09:22:00.001+02:00

Hello everybody!! =DD

It’s with pleasure that I write you my last experiences in my EVS Project that unfortunately came to an end! It was a fantastic and awesome time!
During this time here (that seemed as it was yesterday that I arrived!) I meet up with wonderful people and totally fall in love with this county!! “You never know in Sweden!”

So, I will try and make a resume of all my activities, or in this case, the conclusion of my projects for the volunteer project.

Mainly I will start with the “SK8 to the Music” that happened on the 22 of May and apart of the rain that day (that limited the realization of the skate contest and the workshop) it all worked just great! The kids involved on the festival were quite active on it, didn’t want to cancel the show, so we decided to do an inside concert instead of an outdoors festival! They helped with the setting up the stage, connections and learning a bit of how to make a concert/festival. There were 9 bands playing, and the level of “live act” was really good!! It’s good to know that the “new” bands off Sweden can give a lot to talk! =DD Unfortunately, the weather was the only one that didn’t want’t to participate on the festival!! Hehehe

Then was the “Högtrycksfestivalen” in the “backyard” of Mölndal city hall!! Luckily it was a sunny day and it only start to rain at the end of packing and storing everything! This festival was an idea that I had for my project and it consisted in involving all or almost all the volunteer projects on this festival, by making workshops of what they were doing so they could show to the kids and parents and all the people what is to be a volunteer and show to the audience what were we doing during this 10 mouths. It was really fun because everybody was participating, on all that they could!
About the music, we had almost 20 bands playing (in this case “youth” bands mainly from Mölndal) and as headliners SWINGFLY and FRONDA and it was a really cool day, a lot of people watching the concerts and participating on the activities (about 300 people).

So after these events, I started to realize that the EVS was coming to an end and my time with the youth centers and the kids will sadly end! After these 10 mouths, I had a lot of fun with the youths, since doing paintball, talking to them, having a snow trip, making events with them or just hang out in the youth center. Now it’s the time for the lake sessions and that is really cool because you can see that the kids have real fun by doing canoeing, fishing, swimming in the lake or just have a time to relax!!

At the end, I have to say thank you for all the great time that I had in Sweden, but, I will continue living here for some more time because I managed myself a work in what I like (and that is doing concerts and production of events), sooooo......I think I will see you around here!!

A big hug to all of you and if you want to ask something or comment anything you can e-mail me to dizzfuntion@hotmail.com .

Claudio Ernesto

EVS-dagbok 28, 13 - 19 juni

2011-06-21T10:13:00.001+02:00

Hi everybody!

The countdown has started…
My EVS period is slowly coming to an end. Less than one month left. The last meetings and the farewell party are over and we have to finish our youth pass and final report very soon. On the other hand, we still have a lot of tasks and the life of the youth centres is very vivid and active.

First of all I am going to write about my third group. In April I started a new group. I recruited the youngsters from the international class. They are immigrants from different countries like Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Nepal, Russia, and unfortunately some of them live in Sweden without their parents and relatives. Therefore they need a really nice and helpful company they can belong to. My plan was to start a training with them consisting of playful games, serious exercises and interesting discussions about topics like friendship, school life, integration into the Swedish society etc. I was very glad because they looked interested from the beginning and have joined to my group with pleasure. We have had six meetings, one per week. I can say that this group was the most successful one I have ever leaded in Sweden. They were nice and motivated and they accepted me as a leader from the very first minute. I could easily gain their belief maybe because I am from abroad too, and they have found me similar to themselves. I can bring with me nice memories home from our group activities.

Of course, my girlfriend’s visit will be a wonderful memory, too. She visited me at the beginning of June and we could spend five great days together. This was her only visit in Sweden and both of us were waiting for it with excitement. We had a lot of programs and have seen many interesting things and beautiful sceneries. We took long walks in the downtown of Gothenburg and on the seaside and we have visited the most famous points of the city like different museums, the Liseberg amusement park or the botanical garden (see the picture). In addition, we were lucky with the weather: almost all the five days were sunny and warm.

Last week a youth exchange started in Lindhaga youth centre called Love & Respect. The participants are from four countries: Sweden, Jordan, Syria and Spain. All the volunteers are involved in this exchange program and it is a great opportunity for us to get to know other cultures and customs. For example, in Friday evening the Syrian guests presented their own culture by speaking about their country, showing some dances and making traditional Syrian food. It is really interesting to meet people with different cultural background and to share our experiences with each other.

And I would like to share my experiences also with my compatriots in my native country. I want to write an article about the Swedish school system for a Hungarian magazine published in Serbia. I have made questionnaires for the teachers, youth leaders and pupils and have had an appointment with the principal of the school. I have collected a lot of information about this issue and I am ready to write the article.

So… as I have mentioned the countdown has already started but I do not feel that I could get to know Scandinavia as thoroughly as I wanted to. Thus before going home I would like to visit Denmark and Norway. I think these trips are going be a great closure of my EVS.

Adolf Bakos, Lindhaga youth centre

EVS-dagbok 27, 6 - 12 juni

2011-06-16T13:25:00.002+02:00

Hej!

Well, where should I start? Lot of things happened in the past weeks and we are getting closer to the end of our project.
So first of all I am very happy because the project to host volunteers next year got approved. I am very excited about that and also it gives some more work in the office to prepare everything before they arrive in September. Keep in touch with them, get the needed information, talk with the sending organizations. To see how an empty and a signed Activity Agreement looks like, to correct my mistakes and learn, learn, learn... This is a huge challenge and development for me, which I enjoy in every moment!
On Monday there was the big festival of Mölndal, Högtryckfestivalen. It was part of Claudios project, and he was working on stage whole day, he also gave a concert with his band... Gonzalo with the circus group were also invited, they did workshops under the big tent... Sara also held a creative workshop with decoration and pins... Sofija and Deo were painting faces which is one of the most popular activity in all events, I think. I took some nice photos which we can use in the report of the project.
On Tuesday I had a visit in Lindhaga to see how things are going there. Unfortunately I chose the day of the bal and the beginning of the summer break... so not a lot of kids were there, but we had a nice calm evening.
SFI is going fine, I wrote a test on Thursday and on Friday. I hope they are good and I can say I cleared kurs D. I will have the oral test on 20th June. Please cross your fingers for me!
Soon the youth exchange of Love and Respect will start in Lindhaga with participants from Sweden, Syria, Jordan and Spain. All volunteers will be involved and this is going to be a great experience. I was already youth leader in exchanges two times but it was in a different situation and now I will see how it works in Sweden. I will have very busy days between 16th and 22nd June hopefully.
If we finish with the exchange we will have to prepare for the departures. Sara and Miriam leave us in the end of the month, Deo and Sofija in the beginning of the next month. And we also have only a month left. For me that is going to be divided into two parts if everything goes well office and exchange until 30th of June and the last two weeks beside the lake in Djursjön in the summer camp. I am looking forward to it to see the adventure pedagogic and learn new things again.
I am not going to say bye bye or this is my last blog or any other farewell words, because the first thing I have learned is you never know and anything can happen! I like this country, my project, being a volunteer in KEKS and I do not want to think about the end yet... We will see, how it goes in the final. I will give you a last report next time!

Kram,

Mariann

EVS-dagbok 26, 30 maj - 5 juni

2011-06-09T11:46:00.002+02:00

Ciao a tutti!

My EVS is close to the end... but there's no time to be sad!! Yes because as usual I like overworking (not always, of course!) and I love the feeling of happiness when the aims are achieved, as in the last period thanks to the main events cirkus and Högtrycksfestivalen. In this way I was involved more in the backstage-work for the teenagers and not working always with them. I think it was good for me because it's closer to my future situation in my homecountry, so I think I'll be less shocked.

Then, what I've done in my week? Of course, BBQ party in our house with other friends, nice time in the city centre, but mostly concentrated on develop workshops for the main festival on monday evening the 6th... so I planned lots of things to suggest teenagers who could getting gadget 'do it yourself' about the event. I drew the graphics and collect materials to make pins and mirrors keychains (thanks Angela!), tapes and markers for the project 'message on a tape', paper for 'mustache on the straws' and the classic pon-pons. It was funny try to develop new stuffs again and I was so happy about that opportunity! (And the festival was great!)

And one more thing...I'm glad to say that I can sew! A bit, of course, but it was my small dream and my mentor, Angela, gave me all the necessary to work, helped me to get the textils and trust in my skills... after that, Mag help me a lot to fix the Angela's sewing machine :D (It was so funny when we called her saying 'caput!') Anyway thanks to Broslätt staffs, they help me a lot and gave me a comfortable place where I could work... And thanks to Gonzalo, Andrea and all 'Do you wanna play' group that gave me special opportunities to work together, like decorations and the costumes for the Cirkus.

Now I'm ready to relax myself in the summer camps... have a nice summertime!

Sara Bergando

EVS-dagbok 25, 23 - 29 maj

2011-06-01T15:59:00.002+02:00

Hi everybody!
Again call from Kungalv, Theo and Kullen’s youth.
I m glad to say that this is amazing period for me, with a lot of activities, performances, open stage, singing, dancing, Circus, Face painting, recording movie and a lot of fun, enjoy, happiness, smiles…
The best part is collaboration with the rest of the organizations that is not just our partners and not just for Kungalv, but also from Gothenburg. Was amazing weekend and I want to say THANKS for Goznalo the volunteers from Molndal and Gonzalo’s mentor Andrea, who invited me for face painting and together with my friend Sofija (who is also volunteer in Gothenburg) we did this make up stuff not just for actors that they will perform but also for really big group of kids and youth who want same face painting after this festival.
This manifestation was really nice for me because I met new friends and I fill my CV with new experience. This is resume for what happed in near past, and now is time for our near future…
This weekend is with so much preparation for our “Kullen’s Summer 2011 camps”.
From 20-23th June we will have camp in Mukegarde “FILMDAGAR I MUNKEGARDE” that will be for recording the movie. In the other place but separate of this camp is also other daily camp “DAGLAGER” that will be with sport and other free activities.
From 27-29th June is also cam for movie recording with the youth of our partner organization from Marstrand “FILMLAGER PA MARSTRAND”. The next camp is 27-29th “SOMMARLAGER PA MARSTRAND” that will be with fishing and swimming.
From 4-6th July for me will be the last one because my project will finish and will be “SOMMARLAGER I SUNDHAMMAR” again with a lot of fun and swimming. For the rest of the camps I don’t have so much info because my project will finish after 7july. The last thing that I will say here is that I don’t want to think about the end of my project. Was short time but nice and full with new opportunity new experience and new friends, remind me for my period when I was student.
The best thing that happened to me is that I meet my best friend Sofija Angelova, my landlady Gun Berit Friberg, my mentor Jonas Larsson, my boss Dag and all youth, mentors and volunteers from the other centres.
Warm greetings
Theo

EVS-dagbok 24, 16 - 22 maj

2011-05-26T15:17:00.002+02:00

IT LOOKS THAT IT WAS YESTERDAY…

…when Miriam and me landed in Landvetter and I lost my bag, when we had our personalnumber and we had our first social dinner, when we had our first EVS meeting, whenI went in Balltorp for first time, when Cissi and Yazan showed us the city and took us to take some drink in PC, when I played badminton or beachvolley for first time, when we went to the sea, when we went to pick up mushrooms, when I was in my first UF, when we were on our way to Arrival Trainning or on our back way from Middle Trainning,...

… when I wrote and presented my actionplan, when I meet Olivia and Melissa, when I was in Öckerö, when I cooked my first potatoes tortilla, when I was in Rio Rio andTranquilo for first time, when Mariann had littles smiles, when I was watching Ice Hockey, when we were in Liseberg , when I meet Magnus, when Sofija and Deo arrived, when I danced “la Macarena” in Olivia´s school, when I finished my youthpass (that was yesterday), my meetings with the parents about the exchangein Spain and in Sweden,...

IT LOOKS THAT IT WAS YESTERDAY…

…my firs tcircus meeting, my fisrt “special breaks”, football barbecue, the Tuesdays football, my Swedish lessons, Miriam’s birthday, the gaffasaus, my first Thai mod, my first disco, taco´s night, in International afternoon, the Spanish evening, Miriam’s salads, the dogsleeding, the Seriban Lunch, the Italian Lasagna dinner, my first Poker, the northern lights, the capoeira, my first lovelymeeting, Djursjön, our fisrt fish, pasta with meat balls and pytti panna, the massages, second place in football tournament, the Ave Fusil Magnifica, my birthdayparty, suspirais princesa, el torito guapo, the Laughter Therapy, the IceHotel,...

IT LOOKSTHAT IT WAS YESTERDAY…

…when I traveled first time to Linköping, and I already have been in Malmö, Norköping, Kalmar, Marbylonga, Stockholm, Kiruna, Abisko,Copenhaguen, Oslo, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Salzburg, Berlin,… and hopefully I willgo to Kaunas, Riga and Tallin!

…when Dani and Pablo visited me and after that Mikel, Patxi, Pollo, Cristian, Yure, Silvia, Julen, Guruguru, Ricard, Arrate, Owen, Annita, Damla, Oscar, Isa,Tamara, Chris, Falco, Antonio, Julia, Steffano, Vasco, Cosimo, Oliver, Viky, Balaz, Cartagena people, Eliana, Rosa and Enrique, Alessandra, Dario, Adrienn, Jaquelinne, Kristin, Mareike,Svetlanna, etc…

These are my feelings from last week, when I had my Circus show in Balltorps and I could see that everything is getting over… but it looks that it was yesterday!!

Gonzalo (who is going back to Spain in a couple of weeks...)

EVS-dagbok 23, 9 - 15 maj

2011-05-16T15:52:00.002+02:00

Hello everybody!
It’s me again! Being in the middle of my voluntary project, I am glad to say that I enjoy Sweden and Scandinavia altogether, with all the natural, cultural and social beauties it can offer!
The last week has been full of joy and excitement, as every other preceding, dynamic, even hardly to keep pass with! On Monday, we got back from our lovely boat trip to Helsinki and in-between stay in Stockholm, and I had a great time! Great people, great places, great party! And yet, so many more places to travel to, and so little time!
The working week in Fjället started very good – in my Youth Center, every day it’s a different story… we had a walk with the little ones around the lake, that finished of course, with a “fika”! If you bother enough to know what is fika, see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fika_(coffee_break) J.
Tuesday, as always, is reserved for the guys in the kitchen – this time we supposed to make coco balls, but too lazy to roll them, they decided to put the whole mix in a pan and make a coco cake! J At the end, it all rolls in the stomach anyway! However I feel very nice having all taken care of, because it looks like they always know what they’re doing out there on the kitchen floor – they won’t let me move a finger, the hardest part it’s just to drag them up of the sofa...
On Wednesday, we put the shift to the girls, and this time, we prepared a Taco buffet – delicious – it’s seems like it’s all about food, huh? No! Thursday, we all had ”friskvård”, social activity that we do all together with the youth leaders from other centers and this time it was beach volleyball tournament – it was very exciting, with a lot of competitive spirit, but also team spirit, fair play, all in the name of fun!
And finally, on Friday, I had to beat-up the cloudy day with some funny games – we played the “secret identity”, we played some basketball, watched a funny movie... it’s amazing how much I also learn from the kids, especially new Swedish word, everyday!
But it doesn’t end here. This weekend there are also lot of activities: there is a youth fair, circus, and an EVS word to be spread around! We are one whole community, we are the EVS nation!
Sofija Angelova

EVS-dagbok 22, 11 - 17 april

2011-04-27T16:47:00.003+02:00

Hejsan!

Sorry for the delay of the blog, but lately lots of things happened. You will see if you keep on reading.
First of all I have to mention my workplace has changed in March. I was working in Lindhaga youth centre with my mentor, but according to the reorganization she moved to Grevedämmet, where I live, and I moved with her. At first I had some fears and doubts about working and living at the same place, but now I enjoy the advantages of it. It is enough to get up 20 minutes before I start to work, or if I am not finished with something I can go back anytime during the evening and do it. Also some Thursdays I still go back to Lindhaga, to meet with the youngsters and staff members.
About the project:
We finished with the selection of the volunteers for next term. It was really interesting to see other young peoples motivation letters and CV’s. Talking with them on the phone and see how the youth centres and future mentors choose from them. We are still looking for one volunteer for a Gender project in Broslättsgården.
I am writing an evs manual for the coming volunteers to prepare them for the life in Sweden and the work in the youth centres. I got a lot of help from the other volunteers and also from the former volunteers. It is very much fun to think about how is the life going in Sweden and what differences I noticed at the beginning.
These things are making me happy and sad at the same time. I am happy because I have a chance to talk with the next group of volunteers, and help them to have a more realistic picture about Sweden and the work in the youth centres or eurodesk office. Through the interview with them, and the writing I also learned lot of things, and it brought back the good/bad memories that I have. And it made me sad because I realized we only have two month left of our evs period… Right now I have to focus on the final phase of it and do as much as I can to make it a valuable and worthy period.
I got some new tasks about economy. It is very challenging at the beginning, like everything that we never done before, but I hope it will work out soon.
On Monday we had CPR training. It was very nice and useful. After the other volunteers and the staff members had health care, where the volunteers showed traditions about their countries and some food, dance, singing.
I must tell you a wonderful thing that happened lately: I started SFI J. I am very happy about it. I like the group I am studying with… on the picture you can see a talk practice. I have Swedish lessons 4 times a week and 3 hours each time. Unbelievable! I have never thought that studying in a school can make me so happy, but I am really satisfied with this system. I hope I can write the last blog in Swedish for you.
Until then take care!

Hälsningar,

Mariann Mészáros

EVS-dagbok 21, 4 - 10 april

2011-04-13T08:08:00.002+02:00

Hi everybody!
Spring time is here (it´s supposed) and with the good weather comes also a lot of plans. People go out and the young start to be restless. It´s very good because they want to do more things and this is perfect for us, the volunteers.
Since last time I wrote, I had recorded several videos about differet things. In February we were playing a football tournament with lots of teams and it was a good chance to film the best Öckerö football players. Now, the plays with controversy don´t have discussion because we can check everything in the images. Also now, we have in our files the best singers and musicians on the island. The UKM festival was amazing. I am very proud of the kids. They did an incredible show with different music. Playing, dancing and singing, more than one hour full of ilussions and hard work. This time I had the great help of two teenager who were filming all the show. Now, we have to watch all the movie and start editing the video....
On Wednsdays, I have a small group in the school. We usually talk about filming and try to film some funny video during one our. We see together all the videos and talk about them. I feel very glad to have this class because they are very interested and they improve every lesson. Their imagination surprises me every day.
There are another couple of girls who are interested in singing and also in video. After recording the music and fix it, we have some meetings to talk about how could be the video. We share our ideas and try to think in a story for the song. In the middle of this, as you can image, we have lot of fun. Although sometimes the communicaction betwen us is very hard, finally we always manage it.
I miss Spain so much, but I can find a little piece of my country every morning in the school when I go to help the kids in the spanish lesson. Thery are so clever and learn very quickly. They ask me about new words and I try to help as much as possible with their homeworks. For me is very easy and I fell very useful in this lessons. Besides, the teacher is from Colombia and I can share my spanish spirit with her.
Next project I am thinking about is to help, as far as possibe, my dear friend Gonzalo with one of his task, because he would like to film "his kids" when they travel to Spain for a football exchange. We already started to film some interviewers with the kids and it was really good. They were talkative and we could have good images for the future.
Baking, playing, talking and be on charge of the cafe are also other activities that I do almost everyday in the youth center. A mix of possibilities which are changing every day.
About the social life, everything I can say is very good. We try to travel as much as possible and meet with another volunteers from other countries in their places. We have been in the most impostant cities in Sweden and we have seen beautiful landscapes in the north of the country. Now, we have two volunteers more and this is a very good news because we have a good relation with them even thought we can meet as much as we like.
And tomorrow, I will travel to Spain to recharge my sun batteries and in May I will be back to enjoy the real spring ;)

Miriam López Fernández

EVS-dagbok 20, 28 mar - 3 apr

2011-04-05T10:24:00.004+02:00

Hej hej! After few months we meet again...
Well, lots of things have happened and changed, but the main is maybe the workers movement among youth centres. This situation was strange for some of us (volunteers), but personally it will be stimulating for me and my job here... an example?? Last week I had the opportunity to work in Lindome (as usual) and Balltorp and Broslätt too! It was absolutely positive for me, help Maggan fixing hobby room and storage room in Broslätt (yes, I followed her also there!). The work was hard, but relaxing too.
On Wednesday I've met Gonzalo and Andrea for the Circus activities, making some videos in the gym during the training and after, in Balltorp, we planed the request for the materials about costumes and decorations that I will have made by their main event (21st of May-Balltorp + 28th of May-Lindome). At the beginning of the week I also helped Angela and Andrea to fix the picture in Mölndal stad's hall, making a photos exhibition about Armenia youth exchange, so nice!
I've also been planning the workshops for the Högtrycksfestivalen... I guess that I will be able to manage 3 workshops for teens, a kind of Do-It-Yourself gadgets about the event. On Friday I worked in the evening with Angela and Delli in Lindome... we made together a special-gel candle to involve the few kids and give more spice in the evening.
What else? Ah! In February I've learnt how to work with the ceramic and in Lindome, last week some teenagers asked me to use the tools. I was so happy to be able to teach them! The only problem is waiting for the oven... We need to cook the dry ceramic and I hope that someone can help me to fix this important tool! If we can't use it, no ceramic! :(
However I have got always the opportunity to improve my skills in handicrafts and after teach them to the kids... I'm so happy that I snapped out of my winter-lethargy and began work harder again! Bye and have a nice week!
Sara Bergando

EVS-dagbok 19, 21 - 27 mars

2011-03-28T18:35:00.002+02:00

Hello to everyone!
My name is Sofija, I come from Macedonia, and I am a volunteer at Fjallet, a small youth center in Angered. We are working with two groups of kids, the first one at the age of 10-12 years old, and the other from 12-18. Having in mind the unpredictable nature of the younger ones, I decided to do small workshops with them occasionally, concentrating more on the teenagers and their activities.
I projected two types of weekly activities – one for the girls, and one for the boys. I noticed that they don’t hang around together that much, and do not want to get involved that much with one another. And the guys, they love to play ping-pong or some board games, so I thought – it is time for something different!
This week we made the plan:
Nutrition session for girls: Lots of the girls had troubles with their weight, so I noticed a lot of them were surfing on the Internet for healthy and dietary products, and lots of that food was made around in the youth center…
Having the same problem myself for years, I was thinking… why not sharing a little knowledge and experience on that matter? We could learn a lot from each other, and we could use those cozy session for girls only…
Cooking workshops for guys: I made a lovely dinner with a delicious desert (a chocolate volcano cake) and served it to all the guys that were accidently in the youth centre at that time, and they loved it!
So I though! Why not to shake the boundaries between guys and the girls a little bit? Guys can figure out their own way in the kitchen, being able to make their favorite food: burgers, pizza, pasta, etc.
No girls messing around – maybe if they want to grab a bite!
However, it is not going to be just about eating – we are going to have some exercising as well… Wednesday nights is reserved for Aerobics, with their favorite music – we are just moving the ping-pong table, and… we have a nice roomy gym hall!
That is all, regarding the working nights! As for the days, when I am around the little ones… you never know – we invent our own games, we make our own “fika”, we watch movies, we exchange words in English and Swedish – we never get bored! Thursdays are most of the time reserved for watching movie, and Fridays – we are being creative: we paint pillowcases, or cups, we are going to make jewelry, or collages, etc…
I love the nights in Fjallet, when it’s only just me, Sven and Susanne, my two mentors, and some of the young ones stopping by, and we watch TV, listen to some music – those are the nights when I take the kitchen in my own hand – I make some dinner, I love to experiment, I learned some Swedish dish with potatoes and onions… mums!
When it comes to my social life so far, I love Gothenburg - it is very easy to travel around, to find everything that you need, to meet people. I love my Swedish lessons, it is so much fun to learn and to discover totally new language, and afterwards – to try to pick up every word from the conversation people are having around you! I met all the other volunteers – they have me customized and accommodated more easily that I expected – they are like my manuals for everything! I can’t wait to travel around, maybe go to Denmark, or Belgium, whatever is near and does not require a visa for non-EU citizens!
And tonight is Gonzalo’s birthday party in Tynnered – I can’t wait to meet all the other volunteers again!
Greetings,
Sofija

EVS-dagbok 17, 7 - 13 mars

2011-03-28T18:29:00.001+02:00

Volunteers note

My dear and wonderful friends, volunteers, workers, mentors, bosses, children, etc
I m volunteer in Sweden in one nice place called Kungälv which is around 20 km from Gothenburg. I will work in centre for YOUTH and my project is from 1 March till 7July.
My project is connected with Art and culture activities and I will work with teenagers. Till now I have nice days in the centre, because this is a period when I made my friendship connect with the children and we are spending our time for sport activities, Sony play station, billiard, some time also for music activities in a music room with a lot of instruments, in the library for there homework, sometime just for talking and give to them advice for some things.
In the centre is a lot of fun. We made cake – competition, also we have something like Maskandbal, and also “Våffla” day where we made a lot of “våfflor” with cream and jam.
We provide one more activities that was with the Cement, some interesting forms and other stuffs.
With the rest of the volunteers we had diner together and was really nice welcome party when we arrived. Because all of us work in different youth centres, some of the volunteers are going to teach children for circus, other for music, third for art, social resource, cocking food and so on, the ideas when was the first meeting in coordination organization was that we can mix our quality and possibilities and in some manifestation every one of us will be able to show what we can do and in same time to made full pictures all together. By the way… the rest of the volunteers are really nice, all of them was so useful when we need help, also the mentors are amazing because they accept us very nice and provide for us a lot of things.
The most often question that I have till now is; how do you like Sweden?
Yes I like so much because of a lot of things. Because of the mentality, traditions, the events, the culture, the job, my colleague, volunteers, nature, just I wait that the weather will be more spring and warm and then I can say that everything is perfect.
The volunteer from Macedonia
Theo Angelov

EVS-dagbok 18, 14 - 20 mars

2011-03-27T11:16:00.005+02:00

Hi again!

A long time has passed since my last report. A lot of things and events happened in this period. I am trying to sum them up now and write in short about everything.

There were some big changes at the youth centres. We have got a new boss and some new colleagues and some youth leaders have gone to work at other „fritidsgårdar”. At the beginning of this year I got a new mentor – it was the biggest change for me. Her name is Cecilia and we have worked together since January. She is a really good mentor and always ready to give support to me.

About my project: my leadership course is coming to an end. All members of my group have an own practical experience in leadership by now. Only one meeting left when we will discuss about our achievements, evaluate the results and close the training. This summing up meeting will be an opportunity for me to get some feedback from the boys which ones can be useful in my future work. At the end of the meeting I will give certificates to the boys about a completed leadership course. I am working on these diplomas recently.

As an important part of EVS we have been on mid-term training in Stockholm last month. All of us had to prepare a presentation of our project and to present it to the other volunteers. It was really interesting to get to know the others´ project and listen to their experiences. Besides, we had some group building exercises too, so I got to learn new games and I want to use them in my future work.

And I will have opportunities to use these exercises because I have been involved in the work with „Adventure Pedagogy” group. 10-12 youngsters belong to this group, girls as well as boys. Our main goal is to improve their leadership skills and make them able to be leaders for younger teenagers and children. We had a two-day camp and I did some team building exercises with the kids. These games are active with a lot of movements thus they need a big space. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy so first day we could not do these activities outside. The second day was cloudy too but we could go out, so this day was a little bit more successful. In that evening I went to Cissi´s birthday party. She is our social mentor and she was 20. It was a really great multicultural party with a lot of young people from all part of the world. I could relax after the camp.

UKM is a great opportunity for talented teenagers to show their artistic abilities to the others. The participants prepare with songs, dances and short films to this performance. The last UKM had been held in Lindome Youth Centre on Saturday and I took part in it as a member of staff and audience.

Since I need some physical training and exercises I walk a lot in my free time and go to play beach volleyball with my colleagues and friends on Tuesdays.

All of us are waiting for the spring impatiently. Unfortunately, the winter is very long in Sweden. But I hope that the weather will be sunny and warm by the time we will „meet” again.

Adolf Bakos, Lindhaga youth center

EVS-dagbok 16, 28 feb - 6 mar

2011-03-09T12:56:00.005+01:00

Hello again my friends…This week it is time for my blogg again!!
The last weeks here have been really important to me, because all my ideas for my different projects became reality. I keep developing my projects and I think that it will be nice if I explain to you some more details.

Tuesdays Football Matches: Everyone in my youth centre love to play football and what better way to play it than with a guy from the country that is actually the world champions. So every Tuesday, a lot of kids are coming to the gym of Balltorpsskolan. We always play a lot of matches of 3vs3 between 7 and 9 o’clock. It is really nice because you can see boys and girls of different ages having fun together, making sport, and learning important values that the king of sports has associated like respect, equality, co-operation and self-improvement. I have to say thank you to Claudio (Portuguese volunteer) because when he has time he always comes and helps me, which I think is really important too. I started that activity in the end of October and more than 50 different kids could already enjoy it, I am really happy about that.

Special Breaks: Every Thursday Andrea and I go to Balltorpsskolan. There we play different games with students of the 6th grade. These games are from Germany and Spain and they usually teach us their own variant from Sweden. Thus everybody is learning from each other. Also we are thinking about saving all these games, creating a book, which the kids can use in the future when they want to play. When it will be ready I will tell you where you can find it.

Circus: After Christmas the circus meetings started to take place every Wednesday. In the beginning of this year it was hard, and I was a bit disappointed about how everything was going. The teenagers of my circus group belong to an exchange group of which Andrea and Angela is responsible. Therefore they had a meeting with the kids talking about responsibility and all of us promised to change our behavior. Since that meeting everything is going really good and I am motivated as well. I can see how all of them are getting better in everything they do. Some of them already can juggle with balls and rings, others can play with the sticks or dance with the cariocas, and soon they will try the diabolo. I can also say that all of them can jump in long rope, double rope and triple rope, and they can share one individual rope and jump together (see video below). They are overcoming challenges through co-operation. I feel that they are improving every time we meet and they like learning circus skills. I am very happy with them because they are a really nice group and I am sure that we are going to spend beautiful and funny moments together. About circus I also have to say that during “sportlovet” we participated in the “Community day” of Broslättgården and it was really nice because a lot of kids from there joined us and tried to learn circus acts.

Spanish Exchange: This is the most difficult project that I have ever been involved in. As a consequence from the “Tuesday football” I tried to create a football team from Balltorpsgården with some of the kids that usually are coming to our youth centre and especially to my activities. As I was a football coach last year in my home city in Spain, and both kids (from here and from there) are more or less in the same age, I thought that it would be nice to make an exchange between them. First I created a work group with the kids from Balltorpsgården. Then I started to manage everything with the Spanish football team who promised to help me. During Christmas holidays I was in Spain and we had a meeting with the parents of the Spanish kids about my ideas regarding the exchange. They were really interested and they were in agreement with me. So as I came back we had some meetings with the Swedish kids again and finally with their parents. The final group is composed of 8 kids – 6 boys and 2 girls. Right now we are trying to get some funds in two difference ways. First, we applied at Folke Bernadotte’s minnesfond and we are now waiting for their response. Second, we are preparing activities with the kids where they can “earn” more money. The next activity that I am going to explain was one of them. Football tournament à During sportlovet we organized a football tournament. There were 10 teams from different youth centers like Balltorp, Lindome, Lindhaga and Broslätt. About 90 youths decided to spend the day with us playing football or supporting their favorite teams. The Spanish exchange group earned money organizing that tournament. Each team had to pay 100 SEK to participate. The kids also sold beverage and self made cakes and sausages.

Every second weekend I am traveling around Sweden and other countries with the others volunteers. We always try to spend the weekend in some others volunteers’ homes. We already went to Linköping, Malmö, Kalmar, Copenaghen, Oslo and Edinburgh, where Miriam, Claudio and I were last weekend. And in the future I will go to Kiruna, Abisko, Salzburg or Munich…, I cannot wait for that!! Also during the weeks I usually go to play Beachvolleyball with my staff mates and with Andrea, her husband and their friends. This is important to me because I love sports, and I like to “kick their asses” every week. I also want to say WELCOME to the two new volunteers in Göteborg: Sofija and Dejan, who come from Macedonia and arrived to Göteborg last Tuesday. We had our first dinner on Thursday and it was an amazing evening. We all started to meet each other. They are nice people and I am sure that we soon will be good friends.

Before saying goodbye I have to say that I am very happy living here and I want to say thank you to everyone who is making this incredible and unforgettable experience possible (Andrea, Hebbe,the EVS volunteers in Sweden, the youth leaders, the kids, my family and friends,…and every one that is making me feel happy ever moment). To all of you THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I will tell you more about my news experience, travels and a lot of other things in eight weeks. Until then, enjoy, be happy and take care.
ALEJANDRO GONZALO BALLTORPSGÅRDEN, MÖLNDAL!!

EVS-dagbok 15, 24 - 30 jan

2011-02-09T08:10:00.003+01:00

Hej hej!!

Since it´s my first blog news that I write this year of 2011.... GOTT NYTT ÅR KILLAR!! =DD

Well....this beginning of the year has been with a lot of thinking on my projects and trying to make the kids part of it!! Probably some of you filled in the questionnaire about HögTrycksFestivalen, so now you know that I'm also making part of the arrangement of it...it was one of my ideas for my volunteer project and I'm happy that there is some kind of festival that I can put my ideas on!! That's very good!! =DD
HögTrycksFestivalen is a festival that will occur in the end of the school year (in this case on the 6 of June) and we are thinking on arranging different activities and not only music!! There will be a stage, were a Swedish band that is chosen by the kids from different schools and a lot of bands from Mölndal! Apart of that, there will be, as it seems, workshops in different areas (decor, circus, psychology and more).

The sessions with the "special kids" is going great!! Hopefully, we will get the Teaterhuset (it's a local theater house in Mölndal), so they can perform the show that we are preparing there on 23 March (to celebrate the World Day of Down Syndrome)!! I think they are very happy with it because they are assigning and comprehending the rehearsals very good!! =DD

In this week, we had a meeting in Lindome, where all the staffs of the youth centers met so they couldn discuss different aspects of the youth centers, what can be done better and improve what is already good!!

Other meeting occurred, but this time in Kållered with the kids, to prepare the K-Red Rock!! =DD It's a one evening festival, that promotes bands from Mölndal, so they can have the opportunity to feel the "live act scene". Probably there will be bands giving their first concert ever!! :PP
Actually, the youths are setting everything for it, as well as the preparations of the stage and everything that is involved in it!!
Another good night of concerts is expected again....

I was also going to have a meeting with some youths in Grevedämmet on thursday to discuss about Skate to the Music, but there was a movie night for the seventh grades, so it was a little bit difficult to have it because there was a lot of kids on the youth center and the staff couldn't be in a meeting with some of them and leave the others like that, just hanging around!!hehe =DD
So we arranged another meeting for the following week!! I think it's going to work great!!
Skate to the Music is a project that I will continue helping on, because it already was up last year, so, I will continue the work that was already started because it's a good iniciative for the Grevedämmet Fritidsgård!! We can promote the skate park that we have here as well as the rehearsal room!!

And the week finished with a disco party for kids between the fourth and sixth grade, that was arranged by the traveling group!! Once again it was a blast, 130 kids appeared on the disco, a lot of fun and a lot of partying for them on that night!!

As you can see, the beginning of the year is being with a lot of work (in my projects!!) and trying to set it all up for it!!

Apart from that, this year I already went to visit Kalmar and to Lindköping, so I know a little bit more of Sweden!!

See you in a couple of weeks.

Claudio Ernesto

EVS-dagbok 14, 17 - 23 jan

2011-01-26T08:40:00.002+01:00

Tja!

It was a long-long time ago, when I wrote the last time… Lot of things happened since. The other volunteers went home to celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve, only Claudio and me stayed here to have Swedish holy days. One of my colleagues, Thomas, invited us to his home on 24th December to celebrate with his family. It was really good, or I can say jättebra! Then it was New Years Eve and 1st January, we had a party in the streets of Göteborg, with all kind of people. And after these great and gifted days we got back to work…
We spent the weekend in Kalmar to have a birthday party for a volunteer Rosa who we met on the onarrival training in Stockholm, and arrived home Sunday evening. So I started the week pretty tired already.
I can say things with the project are going well. I have more and more interested young Swedish people on the evs newsletter list. If you are also interested please contact me, mariann.meszaros@molndal.se, and I will add you too.

On Monday I had the mentor meeting the first one in the new year, so we had a lot to talk about, some things you will also know if you keep on reading ;)

On Tuesday we had a meeting with the Jordan group who are going to host a youth exchange in the summer. The meeting went really well I have met with two new group members. The group wrote a short description of the project and they will talk with Mölndalsposten, to create greater visibility of their project. The application must be sent in by 1st February so busy days continues during next week as well.

I had some fears of Wednesdays UF meeting, which is usually in Swedish and unfortunately my language skill is still not developed enough to understand the presentations completely. But I should have not worried at all… the Lindhaga staff members sat in one group, we got translation and they were very kind. We got the result of the last year questioner, how our visitors feel themselves in the youth centre during the evenings, and what they think about the staff working there. We got pretty good results, so I think things are going well in Lindhaga.

On Thursday we had the midterm evaluation evs meeting I am very satisfied with this past five month, and with my mentor. If you are a regular visitor of the blog you can skip this part, but if you are here at first time I inform you in few sentences.
My arrival was on 7th September and I really did not know much about my project. I only knew that I will work with international projects and that Sara Lesch was going to be my mentor. There were several changes at first. I am writing it for you to know never give up - things are always changing and you never know what will happen. Finally I think everything goes in the right way, I am happy with the Jordan group, also with the group who may travel to Ancona in August, hopefully I will travel with my own group from Hungary. I am involved into the next EVS volunteer selection, and also into the volunteer sending activity. I had the chance to suggest candidates from Macedonia to Sweden, they will arrive on 1st March and we will be 8 all together.

Well, well this blog became a little long so I think it is time to finish it. On Friday we met with Mikaela and Rebecca, who are going to Romania and France to do a voluntary service. I was sooo happy that I could meet with some young Swedish people who are travelling abroad. And on the weekend I took a step to make one of my dreams come true - I visited a dance school and did a try out, which I really liked so from next month I will learn to dance… I am soooo excited. You will know about the progress next time…

Warm greetings and hugs! Mariann

EVS-dagbok 13, 10 - 16 dec

2010-12-20T13:07:00.002+01:00

Hello!!!
First of all: GOD JUL!!!!! Yes, we are in Christmas and it means that the year is almost over and the first part of our time in Sweden is finishing too. In a few days four of us will go home to spend a couple of weeks with our people and have a good time at home. I’m looking forward to this moment but we will see if we can fly with the snow.

In the last month I didn’t have any important change in my project because it’s going really slow. I don’t feel so much interest in the youth centre for the cameras. A big part of them are scared when I put the camera on the table and our possibilities of communication are limited.

But, on the other hand, I was talking with some teachers in the school and they are trying to promote some video activities for the classes, so I’m happy with this idea. They try to help me and they are very nice with me.

Two weeks ago I decided to film all the activities that the students do, and this week they were working during all the week in different places in the island so I decided to visit them and film how they worked. I was in a restaurant, in a school, in a kinder garden, in the petrol station, the supermarket…. For me, it was really good because finally I was doing something in relation with video and the kids were really nice with me and with the camera. I think it would be a good beginning.

The last week I was filming in the youth centre because there was a competition about the environment where the kids won lot of cinema tickets. I’m thinking about filming all the special moments and in the final of the year we could have some kind of resume about all the activities.

The last Friday I made the Spanish night in the centre. I was working on it two weeks and I was very enthusiastic with the idea. Finally, all was very, very good. I prepared a cool decoration for the walls with cardboard. I made a beach, the T-shirts of the Spanish football team, and a lot of flags. Besides, I put on the walls some information about the typical food or places about my country to play with the kids and give them some cinema tickets if the win the points. In the end, all was very good because they wanted to play and they were very interested in the game, also in the Bingo. Chocolates are always a good reason to play. They liked the Spanish food, so, in resume, it was a success for me and I was very satisfied because lots of kids were involved.

The rest of my life here had been travels and special visits. My parents were here and with their visit the snow came too. Liseberg, Lucia, Christmas markets, learn to cook kanelbullar, meet new people…A bit of everything.

And now it’s the moment to plan the next year, the next time here. Now the kids know me and it supposes that all will be easier. There are new plans in the air but nothing is confirmed yet. I feel that January and February are going to be important moths in my volunteering because in this time I hope to know if there are some more video projects for me and I’m looking forward to learn more about this subject.

But now my mind is in Spain, only a few days more and hopefully we will be in our country charging batteries for a new time, new cold time in Sweden.
See you after Christmas. Enjoy this time!!!

GOD JUL!!!!!
Miriam López Fernández

Dagbok från ett ungdomsutbyte i Turkiet

2010-12-17T11:32:00.003+01:00

Vårt ungdomsutbyte hette Caretta Caretta och ägde rum i oktober i Turkiet. Här följer en berättelse om hur jag hade det dag för dag.

22 Oktober: Resan till Dalyan och första intrycket.
Fick inte mycket till sömn men var ändå förvånansvärt pigg då jag mötte Thomas och Rasmus på Landvetters flygplats. Hade legat större delen av natten och funderat över hur resan skulle bli. Alla nya människor, Turkiet och framför allt, havssköldpaddor! Oändliga möjligheter av löften om minnen för livet.
Flygresan var som de brukar vara, aldrig tillräckligt med utrymme för benen och halvdan mat. Väl i Istanbul verkade vi bli lite "vilsna" och Thomas visste inte riktigt vart vi skulle gå, men vad är en flygresa utan lite förvirring?

På flyget till Dalyan mötte vi även en av turkarna, som tydligen skulle ingå i Tysklands grupp, Seckin Güngürdü. Väl i Dalyan visade det sig att vårt bagage hamnat lite fel så vi fick oss en fin tur igenom flygplatsen. Då allt var fixat och klart gick vi ut och mötte delar av den Turkiska och Tyska gruppen för en lätt presentation.

En sak jag lärde mig redan första dagen i Turkiet var: De har en helt annan syn på trafiksäkerhet än vad vi svenskar har. Förvisso var det roligt och spännande att åka med på en sådan galen biltur samtidigt som man fick se en hel del av Turkiet som land.

När vi anlände till Hotellet var det dags för incheckning, fick dela rum med Rasmus. Sen bar det av till baren vid hotellet för att möta italienarna och några mackor. Efter ett tag satte sig vi alla oss ner middagsbordet, förutom spanjorerna som kom först den 23, för att äta kvällsmat och lära känna varandra lite lätt.

Allt som allt en toppendag! Fick inget annat än bra intryck av allihopa och jag kände redan då att denna resan skulle bli helt underbar.

23 Oktober: Första "dagen" och lära känna varandra.
Vaknade upp 05.00 av att moskéen började med att spela ut morgonkallet för bön. Jag var för en sekund säker på att flyglarmet hade satts igång och att vi var på väg att bli invaderade, då ropet väl dött ut var det dags för alla höns som bodde i området runt om hotellet att sätta igång. Dagen började tidigare än jag hade önskat mig.

Efter frukosten blev vi bekanta med spanjorerna och två tjejer som skulle ingå i Tysklands grupp. Sen var det dags för lekar som skulle hjälpa oss att lära varandras namn, exempelvis stod vi i en ring och skulle upprepa varandras namn. Såhär fortsatte dagen i det stora hela, lekar och mat.

Senare gick vi in till centrum för tydligen har de en stor marknad varje lördag i Dalyan. Och stor var den, kläder, smycken, frukt, saffran i mängder, vattenpipor osv. Marknaden hade i princip allt och lite till. På vägen tillbaka till hotellet stannade vi upp vid en stor fontän som var skapt som sköldpaddor för några gruppbilder och efter det fick vi en ledig tid att göra vad vi ville. Sightseeing var först på listan. Tyvärr gick vi svenskar för långt ut i staden och upptäckte inom kort att vi hade gått vilse. Efteråt, mot kvällen, var det återigen dags för lite mat och lekar samt prat oss emellan tills vi slutligen gick och la oss.

24 Oktober: Arbeten, lekar och tysk kulturkväll.
Dagen började med att vi skulle göra ett litet arbete om vår ungdomsorganisation. Då jag inte är med i någon så kunde jag tyvärr inte bidra lika väl som de andra och kände mig mest i vägen, men uppgiften gick bra och smidigt. Då alla avslutat sina presentationer var det dags för en till namnlek för att se hur pass väl vi kom ihåg varandras namn. Minns dock inte vilken grupp som vann... Förmodligen min! Haha. Senare var det fritid och poolen som gällde tills nästa måltid.

Efteråt så skulle vi skriva ner fraser på våra respektive språk, såsom "hej", "godmorgon" osv. Vi svenskar la även till en del fraser såsom "jag älskar dig". Då alla var klara tog vi oss en titt på alla och försökte (så gott vi kunde åtminstone) att lära oss så många fraser som möjligt.

Då dagen började närma sig sitt slut var det dags för tyskarna att hålla sin kulturkväll. Stackarna hade dessvärre ingen "fast" grupp då tre av dem inte ens hade något med fritidsgårdar och liknande att göra, plus att en var turk och den andra irländska. Själv tycker jag att de gjorde en bra presentation av sitt land och naturligtvis valde de att "fira" Oktoberfest, vilket var precis som jag hade hoppats på!

25 Oktober: Besök hos borgmästaren, spansk kulturkväll.
Denna dag var lite annorlunda för mig jämfört med mina svenska kamrater, för medan de fick göra ett arbete om hur deras "dröm värld" eller något sådant såg ut fick jag och tre till besöka Dalyans borgmästare med Musa.

Det var jag, Elisabeth, Maria och Guido som fick följa med, lyckligtvis promenerade vi hela vägen. Kom ihåg att jag reagerade på att alla som hade hus verkade ha höns. Vi såg även barn utanför en skola som förberedde sig inför den 29 oktober, Turkiets nationaldag. Väl hos borgmästaren som var en väldigt trevlig man bjöds vi på thé medan Musa förklarade för han vart var och en av oss kom ifrån samt vad vi gjorde i Dalyan. Trots att jag inte kan turkiska var det rätt uppenbart att borgmästaren blev intresserad och positivt överraskad att en grupp ungdomar samlats i hans stad för att titta på och förhoppningsvis göra någon form av skillnad för sköldpaddorna. Naturligtvis togs det ett gruppfoto med borgmästaren!

Väl tillbaka vid hotellet gick vi som hade varit frånvarande runt i de olika grupperna för att titta på hur pass långt de kommit på sina uppgifter, jag minns inte säkert men jag tror att denna uppgift var förberedd av den turkiska gruppen. Grupperna hade även blandats och var inte "nationalistiska". Efter deras redovisnings var det återigen dags för mat och sedan lite fritid.

Då kvällen kom var det dags för spanjorerna att berätta om deras land och staden de kom ifrån, Cuénca. Mycket kan man säga om spanjorer, men jösses de vet hur man släpper loss. Utmanande lekar, bra musik och dans, men framförallt utsökt mat. Det var ren ambrosia om man kan uttrycka sig så.

Allt som allt en helt underbar dag.

26 Oktober: Båt utflykt, sköldpaddor, en varm källa & italiensk kulturkväll.
Som sagt, denna dag var ämnad åt att se sköldpaddorna och Dalyans natur first hand. Vi började med att åka ut mot havet där sköldpaddorna höll till. Under vår resa dit åkte vi förbi ett par ruiner, gravplatser för att vara exakt från en civilisation vars namn jag inte kan minnas. Lycia tror jag det var men är som sagt inte säker. Dock var de enormt mäktiga och man fascinerades över att de stått där i närmare 4000 år, om man nu skulle tro på guiden.
Efter ett tag kom vi till ett staket i vattnet som fungerade som skydd mot sköldpaddornas områden, så att inte vem som helst skulle kunna ta sig in dit och förstöra eller skada dem. Båten stannade vid en "station", där en man stod och i princip fiskade sköldpaddor med en enorm krabba och efter ett tag fick han napp. Sköldpaddan var enorm och en av männen på stationen tog tag i den för att visa den bättre för oss. Vacker och enorm är nog det bästa jag kan beskriva den som.

Vi åkte vidare och kom snart fram till två andra turistbåtar som hade lyckats hitta en mycket piggare och förmodligen yngre sköldpadda. Nu fick vi en bättre titt på den och gode gud de är snabbare än man kan tro! Då sköldpaddan fått nog och drog vidare, och vi sa hej då till de andra turisterna fick vi höra att vi skulle till en strand där sköldpaddorna samlas varje år (?) för att lägga sina ägg.

Väl framme vid stranden fanns det ingen tvekan om att jag skulle ta mig ett dopp, vattnet var helt.. Underbart! Thomas och Musa började jäklas lite lätt med mig med haha. Senare intervjuades några av oss ungdomar för ett nyhets inslag som skulle visas över hela Turkiet. Jag valde att inte intervjuas.

Vi drog ifrån stranden tillbaka in till Dalyan för att äta middag vid en restaurang som låg precis vid foten av dem ovannämnda ruinerna där vi bjöds på lite av det mesta, från grönsaker till yoghurt till fisk. Återigen la jag märke till alla katter och höns som fanns överallt.
Då vi drog därifrån fick vi veta att vi skulle inåt mot träskmarkerna och en varm källa.

Träskmarken påminde mig mer om en labyrint än om något annat, murar av vass överallt och förvånansvärt lite djurliv. En del hoppande fiskar och en Rördrom var allt vi såg. Men det går inte att säga annat än att det var vackert, väldigt vackert!
Den varma källan var, oavsett hur granna sköldpaddorna var, höjdpunkten på dagen.
Det var så skönt att sjunka ner i vattnet och bara njuta av värmen… Guiden visade mig till en stor "lerhög" där jag grävde fram blå lera som vi kletade in oss i, lät det torka och sedan ner i vattnet igen.. Himmelskt.

Som sagt så var det italiensk kultur kväll. De visade upp en väldigt fin och imponerande video om Palermo och sedan var det italiensk mat. De hade främst gjort massa pizzor, en massa utsökta pizzor. Alla umgicks, dansade osv. Sedan var det läggdags.

27 Oktober: Rehab hem för sköldpaddor, svensk kulturkväll.
Denna dag var nog den med sämst väder.
Vi drog iväg till ett rehabhem för skadade sköldpaddor som hade grundats av en brittisk (?) kvinna som hade förälskat sig i sköldpaddorna.
Nu fick vi se sköldpaddorna lite närmare och bättre, samt en annan sorts sköldpadda vars namn jag inte kan komma ihåg. Tror det var Grön havssköldpadda. Något sådant i alla fall. Jag kände att tankarna som dem simmade i var ovanligt små för deras storlek, borde inte det göra dem rätt "dåliga" det också? Att simma runt i en tank med alldeles för lite utrymme..?

Sedan på kvällen var det svensk kulturkväll. Vi hade valt att fira Midsommar, och naturligtvis fick vi en riktig svensk midsommar, för det regnade. Kan ju inte bli mer klockrent. Vi skapade en rätt så fin midsommar stång, lekte massa lekar och bjöd dem på sill, knäckebröd, kaviar och ägg. Till min stora chock verkade de flesta faktiskt tycka om det. Då ingen av oss svenskar rörde maten för fem öre.
Då kvällen började närma sig sitt slut fick de även en present från oss svenskar, en osthyvel! Vilket, ifall ni inte vet, är exklusivt för Sverige/Norge.

Allt som allt, en lyckad dag.

28 Oktober - Turkisk kulturkväll
Nu i retrospekt minns jag inte så mycket av arbetena vi gjorde denna dag, ett handlade om kärnkraftverk och andra former av energiframkallande val vi hade.

Men turkarnas kulturkväll var enastående och jag väljer då att endast ta upp denna för denna dag.
Det hela började med en video om Turkiet som var väldigt imponerande. Den innehöll allt från städer till natur och lyckligtvis, Dervisher. Vi fick även sällskap av turkiska elever som vi minglade lite med tills huvudattraktionen började: Folk dansare.
De var enastående och bjöd verkligen på en upplevelse, speciellt en dans där två personer hade klätt ut sig och gjorde vad som verkade vara en "kärleksdans", där den ena uppvaktade den andra som verkade helt ointresserad. Dansarna drog även upp oss efteråt för att göra dem sällskap på dansgolvet, då jag inte har någon rytm känsla utelämnar jag detta, inget stolt ögonblick för mig.

Sedan var det mat och mingel som gällde. Några av oss gick även ut senare, för att umgås mer privat utan några uppgifter att göra osv.

29 Oktober – Turkiets nationaldag och hej då.
Denna dag var väldigt nedstämd tycker jag. Vi visste alla att det var den sista dagen, i alla fall för oss svenskar som skulle dra på natten mellan fredag och lördag.

Vi gick i samlad trupp ner till torget för att titta på deras firande av nationaldagen, de hade körer, flaggor och folkdansarna från gårdagen. Reprisen av deras danser var väldigt välkommet, i alla fall för mig. Borgmästaren och några andra personer höll även tal till folket.

Senare pratade vi igenom vad vi tyckte om utbytet, vilka förväntningar som hade uppfyllts, om vi hade några besvikelser och liknande. Sen var det mest mingel tills vi svenskar drog till flygplatsen för resan hem.

Efter alla farväl och kramar satte vi oss i bilen. Nu var det dags att dra hem till kylan igen.

Jimmy Panasco

Bilder från Turkiet

2010-12-17T11:30:00.003+01:00

EVS-dagbok 12, 3 - 9 dec

2010-12-17T11:27:00.001+01:00

Hello everybody!

This week was an important one in my EVS-project. Thus I am really glad that it is my turn in blog writing and I can report about it to you.

As you already know I have a group and I do a leadership course with it on every Monday. But from this week I have two groups until Christmas. The another one consists of younger kids: the Coffee Group of Lindhaga Youth Centre. It is not a new group but we noticed that the connections between the members are quite loose and it would be very useful to improve unity in the group. Thus I have made a plan for a team building training. We will have three meetings full of games and playful exercises. We had the first meeting on Monday and I was really satisfied with the results. I had chosen five interesting games and the kids enjoyed them very much. They spoke and laughed a lot and the atmosphere of the meeting was fantastic. I think it was a very good beginning and hope that they look forward to continuation.

On the same day I had a meeting with my old group, too. It was the fifth one and I was not totally satisfied because only three youngsters came to the meeting. Unfortunately, it is an usual problem from the beginning. Sometimes I can´t realize every planned exercises because I don´t have enough people for them. Luckily, I have 3-4 motivated young men who attend the course regularly. Since the most important aim is improving the leadership skills of the boys I involved them also into the planning-preparation process. Every guy will have an own week when he comes onto an appointment of preparation with me and we will plan and lead the next group meeting together. It will be a good opportunity for them to try their competences in the practice and acquire some practical skills in the leadership. In addition, I am open to their ideas and thoughts and willing to realize them on our meetings. Well, I fixed an appointment with one boy by Thursday afternoon. It was a really successful meeting because he had great ideas and looked very motivated. I look forward to next group activities which we will lead together. I´m sure that our cooperation will be very effective.

Friday was also a nice day: in the evening I organized a chess tournament in Lindhaga. At the beginning it seemed to be quite hard to find interested kids and the competition was uncertain till the last moment. Fortunately, at the end I managed to find eight young players and we could held our championship successfully. Alexander won the tournament and he got a prize: some chocolate and candies.

This week was eventful but the next one will be much more busy. Meetings every day! It will be undoubtedly exhausting but after that I´m travelling home for my winter holiday. I´m looking forward to seeing my family, my girlfriend and acquaintances again. I admit I´m a little tired and really hope that two weeks at home will fill me with fresh energy.

Adolf

EVS-dagbok 11, 29 nov - 5 dec

2010-12-07T15:16:00.002+01:00

Hej!
6 weeks ago I wrote about my Swedish lessons, and now I'm sorry but I can't hold my promise about my writing - Swedish language is really hard for me. Maybe next year... So, I can start to tell you about my week... and you are lucky because it was most interesting and full of events.

I was busy and time past very fast: 5 meeting-workshops in November and the 5th last Tuesday with the teenagers group which is called 'Do you wanna play?' (DYWP). Now we are at the end of the 'production process'... the workshops-development took me lots of my free-time, but I knew that it would be hard from the beginning! And like I promised I can show you some pictures about their work!

But now their job will be harder, they have to 'sell' their items among online shop and a real market place... a formative experience for them! Anyway if you are interested to support the 'DYWP' go to: www.sarabergando.etsy.com

This project is coming to the end, but another one is starting... 3 torsdagar före Jul att förbereda era presenter! The first workshop was good, new teenagers came to Lindomegården to participate, they were 7, small group but so creative! I was also with Maggan (my teacher and the boss about handicraft!) and she showed us lots of new techniques... you can see in my pictures below the objects that the kids created! Pins, magnets, cards, candies decorations,...

Next workshop will be about contemporary decorations reusing tins and cans and paper dots. These projects were born to help them in create presents and gifts for their friends and parents and to learn handmade works and spend good time together!

The other important event of the week was the Italian evening on Friday... I worked a lot of time to prepare the event, but at the end I wasn't completely satisfied. I was too much busy about cooking and after the dinner also the projector to show my presentations didn't work... :( Luckily I produced many posters that they enjoy!

After this intense week I relaxed during the weekend... Good place Liseberg Christmas market! And on Sunday I saw the snow fall down through the window of my room, total relax! And In a good Christmas spirit I wish you 'God Jul' and see you next year for another blog-week.
Sara

Saras bilder

2010-12-07T15:05:00.012+01:00

EVS-dagbok 9, 8 - 14 nov

2010-11-23T08:19:00.003+01:00

Tja!
It is nice to write about a week again. Last time I talked about the social life of a volunteer, and this time I show you the work life of a volunteer. Basicly I came to Sweden to learn more about (international) youth work and to help in this kind of projects. For example to support the groups who participated in a youth exchange and now are willing to host one. Also part of my job is to send EVS news letters to all swedish people who are interested in being a volunteer.
If you would like to recieve an email with the upcoming opportunities just write me an email (mariann.meszaros@molndal.se) and I will add you to my email list. ;)

And now some news about the week: Originally I was supposed to write about the next week, but I changed with Claudio because for me this week had a very interesting event and for him the week after had an interesting end…
Lets see… on Monday we had an international unite meeting, where I got a very important role, I was the secretary of the meeting so I wrote down all the topics we talked about. After the meeting I went to Linghaga Fritidsgard to play banka beaver with the visitors, I enjoy this game a lot. In the evening I had the last swedish lesson, where I learned how to order a coffe and what are the names of my favourite cakes.

On Tuesday we had the UF, a big meeting for all youth workers and volunteers in KEKS. All six of us had to make a presentation about him/herself and introduce ourselves. Jack White a swedish volunteer just arrived back from Romania, where he worked with romanian and roma youngsters. He talked about his project and group discussions began. I really enjoyed Jacks story about his project and I hope soon I will be able to meet personally with more swedish people who did or willing to do evs in other countries.

On Wednesday I was preparing for the next two days and also I was socializing more with the teenagers in the youth centre. I learned knitting from my mentor so during the evenings I work I have a possibility to teach or knit together with teenagers who are interested in it. We are planning to have a handcraft evening.

Now comes the interesting end, that I mentioned before… Thank to KEKS and the Anna Lindh Foundation I was able to go to Skövde to an Anna Lindh Foundation conference on Thursday and Friday. The theme was „Two days for creative diversity”. This was a great opportunity for me to learn more about a theme I am really engaged to, and I learned new technics and tools through non formal education about how to awaken and improve creativity. I listened to several interesting ideas and presentations. The one I remember the most was a triangle where the two sides were the culture of a countries majority and the minority and the third side was the third room where the two groups (can) meet and influence each other forming a hybrid culture. I really appreciate that I could be a participant in this conference and meet such nice people and learn more about intercultural dialogues.

About next week. I am looking forward to the Hungarian night in the youth centre on Tuesday, We will do it together with Adolf. I will bake a cake that I learned from my greatgrandmother and I bring a famous cartoon „Vuk” some music and a map of my country. Next time I tell you how it went. Look forward to hear about Claudios week…

Tack för idag! Vi ses snart! kram, Mariann

Rapport från två svenska volontärer i Rumänien

2010-11-22T08:21:00.003+01:00

Hej där hemma!
När vi landade i Bucharest i mitten av september var det fortfarande sommarvärme, svetten rann. Efter fyra timmars bilfärd norrut kom vi mitt i natten fram till Onesti, den stad där vi nu bott i snart två månader. Det enda vi visste om staden var det vi läst på Wikipedia; ca 40 000 invånare och stadens stolthet var OS medaljören Nadia Comăneci, som kommer härifrån.

De första dagarna var intensiva, många nyfikna ungdomar som undrade vilka vi var. Vi trodde att vi utan svårighet skulle smälta in i mängden här, men än i dag tittar människor på oss när vi går ner för Boulevard Republicii.Några av de första intrycken var att kaffet var svagt, och alltid med massa socker. Tidsuppfattningen mer medelhavslik, och osaltat smör. Det positiva skillnaderna var också många, en marknad fylld med färska ekologiska grönsaker till billigt pris, flera second-hand affärer där man kan fynda och vackra berg att vandra i.

Efter tre dagar åkte vi iväg till Predal där vi skulle ha arrival-training med alla nyanlända volontärer i Rumänien. En fullspäckad vecka med massa mat, kött, potatis och inlagda grönsaker. Vi hade teambuilding-övningar fick information om vad det innebar att vara EVS volontär och mycket annat nyttigt. Men bäst var nog att lära känna andra volontärer runt om i Rumänien. Vi har nu endast en månad kvar och ska hinna med att samla in material till vår dokumentär.

Projektet Eurobridges handlar om att få ungdomarna i Onesti mer aktiva och motiverade att aktivt delta i den lokala samhällsdebatten. Vi har besökt många gymnasieskolor for att prata om volontärarbete och framtidsplaner. Ungdomarna vi träffat går på gymnasiet och ska snart välja sin framtid. Vi har diskuterat olika alternativ som finns att välja mellan. De flesta ungdomarna i Rumänien vill studera vidare på universitet, gärna i England. Då många har en negativ uppfattning om sitt land, mycket pga av den ekonomiska krisen som slagit hårt i Rumänien, samt kvarlevorna av kommunismen. Skoleleverna blir förvånade över att vi som svenskar är arbetslösa, då uppfattningen om Sverige att det är ett modernt och rikt land med mycket möjligheter. Att vi delar med oss av våra erfarenheter och våra orosmoment för framtiden, bevisar att alla länder har både negativa och positiva sidor, det perfekta landet finns inte.

Onestin heter värdorganisationen och de har kvällsaktiviteter där vi spelat gitarr, haft pyssel och interkulturella kvällar. Den senaste veckan har vi besökt ungdomar som sitter på ungdomsanstalt och lekt lekar och haft workshops. Ungdomarna på anstalten är väldigt positiva att vi är där och gör aktiviteter med dem. Vi tycker att det ar kul att vi får ett positivt bemötande, då vi inte alltid får det i de andra aktiviteter vi gör. För dem betyder det mycket att människor utifrån ger dem uppmärksamhet. Många utanför stämplar ungdomarna på anstalten som kriminella tjuvar och ger dem inte chans att bevisa motsatsen. När vi träffar dem är dem som vilka tonåringar som helst som behöver trygghet som vilken tonåring som helst. Skillnaden är bara att de har haft sämre förutsättningar i livet.

Vad har EVS gett oss som personer? Att arbeta tillsammans med människor från olika kulturer är inte så lätt som man kan tro. Arbetet går långsamt speciellt när man har svårighet med språk, vi har personer i gruppen som inte kan diskutera på engelska. Kommunikationsproblemet gör det svårt att utbyta åsikter och föra en intressant dialog. Vara samtal handlar mest om enkla vardagliga händelser och det är frustrerande att man på grund av språket inte kan diskutera och analysera. Vi, som är de två svenskarna i gruppen, känner ett behov av att alla ska vara med och bestämma. Vi försöker fråga de andra vad de tycker och tänker men får inte alltid något svar. Kanske är det typiskt svenskt? Något vi lärt oss i skolan, att alla ska få saga sitt. Här tas många beslut utan diskussion, t.ex. när vi planerar skolaktiviteter.

Vi har fått större kulturell förståelse och nya sätt att se på saker och ting. Vi har reflekterat över var "svenska" syn på saker och ting, tex. tidsperspektiv, ansvar. En gång i veckan har vi språklektion i rumänska. Vi lär oss hälsningsfraser och allmänna uttryck på rumänska. Vi övar vår rumänska när vi går och handlar på den lokala marknaden och när vi är ute och reser.
I övrigt lever vi ett ganska stillsamt liv. Vi delar lägenhet med Zeynep, som är 26 år från Turkiet och bor för första gången utan sina föräldrar. De två killarna från Portugal och Turkiet i gruppen bor i en annan lägenhet inte långt ifrån oss.For tillfället ar vi utan vatten i lägenheten, de lagar vattenrören. Vi inser hur beroende vi är av rinnande vatten och hur vi tar det för givet. När vi nämnde detta för vår projektansvariga svarade han med repliken, - Welcome to Romania!

mvh, Elin Otterman och Anna Niiranen

EVS-dagbok 10, 15 - 21 nov

2010-11-22T08:06:00.006+01:00

Hallå alla!! =D

This week it is my, Claudios, turn again to tell you something of the work of a volunteer!!
On Mondays, I have a session of music with the "special kids" (they are kids with Down Syndrome), from 16h to 17h, and the sessions consist of making drawings from their favourite instruments and then reproduce their sounds, or dancing, or expressing their feelings through music or simply singing at Sing Stars game!! It`s good for the "special kids" because they love to express their selves through music or something related to it! So I am making sessions to see what is the best way to make a live act presentation on 21 March (global day of Down Syndrome).After that, it is time to be with the bands that rehearse in Grevedämmet, help them with the composition of music, the best way to rehearse, and some useful tips of how to do music!!

On Tuesday, we have a huge meeting in Kållered, were we discuss our roles (youth and staff), how important it is to have volunteers working in youth centres and which is the best situation to have with the youths (as a coach or a Guide)! It is important to the kids to have it on mind because we only want the best for them!

On Wednesdays I am usually with the bands in Kållered, but this week is the week of K-Red Rock (19th November) so we had to prepare the space for the concert (inside Kållered), setting up the stage (connect all the cables and do a line check) and preparing everything else so the concert on Friday would work awesome!! =DD Some of them already know how to make the connections, and how to set a stage so that is very good!!

Thursday was a Health Day, so I went to Lindome to have a "Skrattharmoni"!! Despite of being in swedish I could understand some things like: improves learning ability, gymnastics for the viscera, relieves stress or improves well-being!! It is amazing how you can laugh and if you like to do it, you should continue do it because it is good and healthy!!! hehe =DD It was really great and have a lot of fun and laugh a lot! =DD

19th November.... first concert I am participating in and I was really anxious for it, and in the end....everything was perfect!! (See pictures below.) No problems with nothing, around 70 people saw the concerts, the kids have fun, good music and good vibrations!! There was one band that gave their first concert (and a good one!!), so you can see that in Sweden it is possible to do good music, even when you are young!! hehe =DD I really liked doing it because of the experience that could be passed to the kids, the opportunities that is possible to give them and all the work that is necessary to mount everything so that is possible to make a good show!!

The weekend was also with very fun, because we (me and my house mates!! hehe) received visitors, all from Hungary, and it was good to show them the town and the fun places that we can go!!!

Se dig i sex veckor!
Hej då!!

K-Red Roch by Claudio

2010-11-22T08:04:00.005+01:00

EVS-dagbok 9, 1 - 7 nov

2010-11-10T14:02:00.003+01:00

Hej!

Miriam is here again!!! Lot of things had happen in the last month. The number of relationships have been increasing every day. Now I know much more people in the youth center and in the city too. We had one week in Stockholm where we met another volunteers, live bands in the youth center, a Halloween party, Abi’s (the previous volunteer) visit …
Specially, this last week we had had a lot of activities because it was the autumn break and kids didn’t have classes.
On Wednesday we had a trip to Ullared, a very big and cheap mall. The atmosphere in the bus was really good and the kids were very excited with the travel. We brought back with us a lot of candy and clothes for the winter.
On Thursday we were in the bowling with a youth group. We ate and played. It was very funny because we could talk and have fun in a different place. Two hours really that was interesting for me, because I want them to see me as a friend out of the youth center.
Friday night, I was helping Gonzalo in his Spanish Evening in Balltorp. He cooked a lot of Spanish food, but the kids preferred chips!
The weekend was different, this is the word. Because, finally, we did a travel to discover Sweden. I was looking forward to this kind of travel, and finally Mariann and me did it. We were in Lidköping.

About my film project, I thing it’s going slowly, but now I know that, in the beginning is not easy to work with kids, and more so when your possibilities of communication are very limited. So, in this moment, we had our first meeting, but only five kids came. Really I don’t know if it is because the area afraid about the film stuff or they don’t have any interest or they are shy to talk with me because we can’t understand each other very good.
Tomorrow we’ll have another meeting. We’ll see the film they made the last year in another youth center and we talk about that. I hope it could be good for my project, because they could see how others kids in their age were be able to make a film and have fun in the same time. So, we will see if, now that they know me better, are more animated.
Usually, on Tuesdays, I have cook day with the small kids. Last time we were filming how we did the cake. I did it because I think it could be good if they feel the camera like something normal and perhaps they start to be interested about record.

Sometimes it’s not easy to be happy every day. This week I started to feel different feelings and not all had been good. I thing, now is starting the hard part of being in a different country. It’s curious, because sometimes I feel alone when I am with a lot of people around me, because there are sometimes when I feel that nobody takes me into account. They talk, play, laught, eat… and you are there and don’t understand anything. It seems like life goes on but you're not within that time. I thing, it’s normal, it is the risk that we took when we decided to come here so I’m learning about this feelings and I’m sure I will be stronger to control them. I don’t think it is a problem, it’s only another experience that we have to live. Perhaps it’s only because, now, darkness is in my life longer than I’m used.
Miriam

EVS-dagbok 8, 25 - 31 okt

2010-11-09T08:26:00.005+01:00

Hi again!

Six weeks have passed since my last report about my life and voluntary work in Sweden. A lot of things and events have happened during this period. I have got to know many people and got a lot of new knowledge and experiences about Swedish culture and society. I have made friends with some of the young visitors of Lindhaga Youth Centre and communication is much easier with them now than at the beginning.
The most important happening of the passed period is that on Monday I started to do my community building training with my first group. These kind of courses are what my project focuses on and I´m very glad that my first impressions are really good about it. My group is a young foodball team consisting of 16-18 years old boys with different ethnical background. The most important aims of this course are:

1. improving of unity in the group and form a really good foodball team from it; and
2. improving boys´ skills as youth leaders.

The training consists of 12 meetings (one per week) and it will take about 3 months. As I mentioned, we had our first meeting on Monday and did some warming-up exercises. The atmosphere of the meeting was really good. Guys were motivated and it was easy to work with them. On the other hand, I was a little disappointed because I expected at least 8 boys and we were just six of us. I really hope that the number of group members will increase in future.

At the end of the training I want to grant certificate for those boys who regularly attend and carry through the course. For these diplomas we would like to use the logos of KEKS and Mölndals Stad. On Friday I went to Mölndal City Hall to discuss about this stuff with Jonas the chairman of KEKS. He liked the idea and I hope after meeting some requirements we will get his approval for using these symbols on the certificates.
Friday evening there was a great event in the Lindhaga Youth Centre - a Halloween disco! There were music, flashing lights, decorations on the walls. Some kids wore disguise or mask and all of them enjoyed the party very much. It was a very successful evening also in the respect of the number of visitors: about 80 kids took part on this event!
Saturday afternoon I went to Mariann the another volunteer at Lindhaga. We are planning to organize a Hungarian day in the youth centre. We would like to present our culture and customs to the kids by showing characteristically Hungarian films and songs and cooking typical Hungarian meals for them. I hope that the kids will enjoy it and they will like our culture.
It was a really busy week of mine but I liked it very much because it was also effective and successful.

Adolf Bakos

EVS-dagbok 7, 18 - 24 okt

2010-10-28T13:11:00.004+02:00

I'm writing my second blog after 1,5 month of EVS experience... now I am able to write a bit more about my job at Lindomegården, that has involved me last week and is going to involve in the next months... Because last weeks were planning-meeting- training time; starting with discussing my 'Action plan' on the 30th of September, continuing with EVS training in Stockholm, to learn more about volunteer's life, ending with a meeting on last monday, when we checked our situation in our EVS projects... hard homework to do, because at the end I worked only 1 week! Anyway it was good, I understood the meaning of the meeting and I was satisfied about my beginning job! (Also my mentor was happy, and this is good ;) I am going to develop interesting activities for teenagers about handicrafts and be able to interact with them about design process...

On tuesday I took part in 'youth centre's workers meeting', a chance to meet all staff in Mölndal and know more about other youth centre activities. In the evening I also met a group of teenagers at Lindomegården to talk about crafts and markets... I suggested to develop crafts about 'reuse concept' to sell for save money for their trip. I think that it could be a great opportunity for everyone, also because I'd like to share more about design (that I am interested in)... This meeting was a confirmation of Swedish creativity too: now I know why Ikea was born in Sweden :)

Anyway I'd like to show them communication and marketing, I have some knowledge about: I know that it is hard to explain these concepts in English, also if I studied and applied for a long time, but I made a short presentation which was useful tool to involve them. At the end I am proud about this team because they are good and motivate, they can give me an important goal to strive for. In my next writing-week I hope that I will show you pictures about our work!

The day after I had meeting again... this time with cinemagruppen, but only preliminary because we need more participants: I'm going to develop some interesting suggestions about their idea of make and see film-parody. I'd like to show them what we can make with graphic software, maybe in the lounge area, where everyone can be involve to grow the group...

Other activities of this week were about collaboration: I helped kaffegruppen to cook cake, I watched film inside cinema trying to manage silence (hard work!), and help teenagers during their work in 'special disco', on Friday night. I also draw a poster for Lindometalangen and planned an Italian Night... I hope that next time I can talk about this special event... maybe in
Swedish, because twice a week we attend lessons in the city centre...
Hej då!

EVS-dagbok 6, 11 - 17 okt

2010-10-21T08:12:00.004+02:00

Hello my friends!!

After the five “support bands” opened this blogg, it is time for the “rockstar”!!
Jag heter Gonzalo och jag kommer från Spanien!! (houhouhou…my Swedish is very good)
First of all I want to explain briefly why I´m in Göteborg and what I am doing.

I am an adventures person and since a long time ago I wanted to make a radical change in my life and I wanted to make new exciting experiences. Off course, I wanted to be involved in one social program helping and sharing my knowledge with others people. I wanted to go out of Spain because for me it was very important to learn different languages too, and I really wanted to come to Sweden because when I was 12 years old I played the Gothia Cup in Göteborg and I saved a lot of goods memories about this city and this country.

Now I am here, and I am working in Balltorp Youth Centre and I am very happy because everyone is very nice to me and they are always helping me. My principal project is to lead one group of teenagers between 14 and 17 years old and to help them to create a Circus as a Community Festival. Which will be in April. Apart from this, I am working every week in the Youth centre and I am trying to develop other small projects that I think will be very interesting, too.

Now, I will talk about week 41 but I am very generous (in Spain we always are so…) and I am going to talk about week 40 as well. I want to do this because I think it is a pity that nobody talked about our Arrival Training in Stockholm. In week 40 Adolf, Sara and me were on our Arrival Training but it was Mariann who wrote the blogg about that week and now Claudio, Mariann and Miriam are on their Arrival but it is Sara’s turn to write the blogg.
For this reason I’m going to write about both weeks.

WEEK 40 - On Tuesday Adolf, Sara and I went to Stockholm to participate at our Arrival Training. The train left at about 6.30 a.m. and we arrived in Stockholm 3 hours later (about 9.30) and soon we got to find the tram and the bus that took us to our hotel.
As soon as we went to the hotel we started to get to know a lot of new people, all of them volunteers from different countries all around Europe… from Italy, Lithuania, England, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Portugal, France, Russian, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Kyrgyzstan, and, of course, Spain. All these people do their EVS in towns like Göteborg, Linköping, Kalmar, Stockholm and Malmö.

We were together and shared this experience for 4 days and in this time we did team-building and cooperative games, we got to know more things about Sweden and Swedish people, we climbed and walked trough trees and ropes, and we could reflect about ourselves, our experience, our project, our EVS… and of course we had time to do some sightseeing in Stockholm and to party.

The Arrival Training finished on Friday but I didn’t come back home until Sunday. During the weekend I stayed in the house of some other volunteers that I got to know through facebook. They were very nice and let me sleep in their home. They were from France, Netherlands and Spain. Sunday in the afternoon I came back to Göteborg and this unforgettable experience finished.

WEEK 41 - This week it was maybe the most important since I arrived. It is much about my principal project “The Circus” and about other small projects that I want to develop here in the ten months and a half. I think that because in this week I had my first contact with the participating teenagers.

The week started normal, on Monday we went to Swedish Lessons, because we are learning Swedish language every Monday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was my first meeting with the circus´ teenagers and we started to talk about our circus. In this meeting we decided, among other things that I prefer don´t reveal, that the community festival will be in April of 2011.

Another important day in this week was last Thursday because we went to International English School in Göteborg. We thought about developing an activity every Thursdays called “FUNNY DANCES”. We went to this school to get to know the teenagers and to put up posters with all information. This Thursday we will dance for first time with them.

The rest of the week I helped the staff to organize a football match between Balltorp Youth Centre and Lindhaga Youth Centre taking part on friday 22nd of October. After the match we will have a barbeque. Apart from that I helped to organize a football tournament that will be on 1st of November, and I made my own material for my circus.

During the weekend we went to party with different Erasmus people in Göteborg. You see that we continue to meet new people every week. I really like this!! I don´t know what more to tell you so I think it is a good moment to say goodbye. I hope that you liked my week and I will be there again in 6 weeks. TACK TACK!

Bilddagbok från Ungdomsutbyte i Jordanien

2010-10-17T11:31:00.002+02:00

Som vi tidigare skrivit om hade vi för några veckor sedan en grupp ungdomar från Mölndal, Partille och Tynnered (Göteborg) nere i Jordanien på ett ungdomsutbyte. Utbytet ingick som fjärde delen i projektet "Tolerans och skillnader" som är ett löpande utbytesprojekt. Bland aktiviteterna märks bl a flera workshops på temat mänskliga rättigheter, besök i klippstaden Petra, "ökendisco" samt deltagande i det mycket uppmärksammade arrangemanget "Cycling for peace".

Visst vore det kul att göra något liknande...!?

och här kommer bilderna...

2010-10-17T11:20:00.011+02:00

EVS-dagbok 5, 4 - 10 okt

2010-10-14T13:21:00.001+02:00

Tja! My name is Mariann and I came from Hungary to complete a 10,5 month EVS service in Sweden. I work in Lindhaga Fritidsgård and live in Grevedämmet. Now it is my turn to write something for the blog about the week.

So, first of all I have had such a nice time since I arrived here, and already one month has passed. Three volunteers (Adolf, Sara and Gonzalo) spent the week in the arrival training in Stockholm. For me this week was a socialization week. I started to get along with the students and visitors of Lindhaga better. We played games, and I learned the card game „Banka bäver”, which is really popular and stressful.

On Monday: I had a meeting at Broslättsgården and I got lost on the way there. I still have problems with the similar streets and the difficult and long names of them. But getting lost is fun, this is how I meet a lot of nice people. Since I am in Sweden I got lost at least once a week.
On Wednesday: We had a swedish lesson and we learned how to ask träffas, and we tried it in reality and went out for a drink in a bar at the corner. As I said at the begining this was a socialization week so we asked two of our classmates to join us; Anna from Austria and Jonathan from the US.

On Friday: There was a disco at Lindhaga for the 5-8 grade students. The party was quite good alltogether about 50 visitors came, and they enjoyed themselves very much. After the disco the youth center was open as usual until 23:30 and our older youth could come and play pingis and „Banka bäver”.

On Saturday: We went to expolre the other side of Göteborg, where we never were before. It looked like a church tour, because there are so many in the city. In the night we went to a pub that was recommended by Adolfs mentor Stina near to Järntorget.
On Sunday: We went to welcome Gonzalo, who spent the weekend in Stockholm after the arrival training.

Next week you will learn more about him, it is his turn to write something for the blog. Take care! hugs, Mariann

EVS-dagbok 4, 27 sept - 3 okt

2010-10-08T16:10:00.003+02:00

Hell O everybody!! =D

My name is Claudio, I am from Portugal and I am doing my EVS in Grevedämmet and Kållered and this is the week that I have to write on the blog so...here we go!! ;))

This was a week of meetings...a lot!! I think a typical Sweden thing.....
On Monday I made a speech at a KEKS-training on international youth work. It took place at "Världskulturmuseet" and I went there with my mentor Kim, to say what is the meaning of being a volunteer, the purpose of it, why did I choose Sweden for my EVS Project...and I can say that it was very good, because I think that the people in the training enjoyed and in the end I had to talk to a lot of them and also exchange contacts for future meetings and programs...I can say it was really positive!! 2 members of 2 different bands also invited me to make castings to see if we can make something interesting!! ;))
And in the end of the day I started with the Swedish lessons....a new experience!! At first it seems strange, but I think, with the passing of time it would be easier and hopefully start to speak Swedish.

On Tuesday, all mentors and staff of Mölndals youth centers had a meeting in Grevedämmet so that we can discuss how things are going, what are we going to do in the future and what can be improved.

On Wednesday, I participated in a KEKS-meeting with a lot of youth centre staff, and basically we discussed ideas on what we can do to improve the day-to-day work in the youth centres and sharing it with the others! And as Mirian birth day was in this day (30 October), we made a little party in our house for her...we bought a typical Sweden cake (Princess Cake), made a typical Spanish dish and had a fun day!!

But it is not always hard work, because on Friday, it was my first experience of a Disco Night at Grevedämmet, and it was very good!! It was a disco for kids between 10 and 13 and it was a blast!! More than 100 kids appeared and by their faces and joy, I can say that they loved it!!

On Saturday, there was a ERASMUS Party on Göteborg, about 1000 people went to the party...it was very funny because the party theme was; Hollywood actors, cartoons, super-heroes and everything you have in mind!! So you can imagine how funny it was....

This was my week, planning things, making it happen!! All days I try to inspire youths to make music and to participate on it...it is not easy but I will keep trying!!

Claudio Ernesto

EVS-dagbok 3 20 - 26 sept

2010-09-28T08:36:00.003+02:00

Hello everybody, I am Miriam from Spain doing my EVS at Öckerö youth center!

I was waiting this week very exciting because we had the trip to Stockholm. Another new experience, and it was really nice! I travelled by train across the green Sweden with my friends, so I could speak a lot with them and I´m very happy because we have started to know each other and they are very kind with me. We stayed visiting a kultural center and a youth center. Both meeting were in Swedish so I was a little bored because I couldn´t understand nothing while they explained. After, my particular translator, Christian (my mentor) translated all they said.

At night, we had a delicious dinner in a smart restaurant where we had a very funny time because I tried to explain to my friends what is a neuron, and they coudn´t find a Swedish word to name this kind of cells. I like this kind of small things because it means that we can talk about many things and have fun times.

On Wednesday we were visiting the town centre. We were walking and discovering the old Stockholm, the Royal Palace and the government building. Beautiful city! The return trip was nice too, talking with my partners. And I tasted for the first time one “ kanelbulle”, the typical Swedish cake.

On Friday was time for starting as Spanish teacher in my school. I will help to the real Spanish teacher in her classes. I was reading and studying the colours with the kids. It´s difficult for them but I hope that my help could be useful in their learning.

And… the works days finished and Friday afternoon, Gonzalo (another volunteer) and I returned to Liseberg!! One of Gonzalo´s friends gave us free tickets so we went again. It was a very fun afternoon because we won a lot of prizes in the raffles. I´ve never had as many gifts in an amusement park as this day (see picture above). Really amazing!

Saturday we wanted to travel to another city, but it was raining so we decided discover another Swedish famous place, IKEA. So, we took the 43 bus and there we were eating the cheapest hot dogs in the city. It´s similar to Spanish Ikea but, at least, we spent the afternoon dry. At night, after a healthy dinner and a short time of Spanish karaoke, we went to a pub where we had a drink and we saw the magnificent Gonzalos´s magic tricks.

In conclusion, my third week in this country was quite good, because I was very happy with the travel, and in weekends we always have a nice time together. This new week we are going to start the Swedish classes and we area a little afraid because in this time in Sweden we have heard a lot of Swedish but we don´t understand nothing. I only know how I have to say hello, bye, thank you, welcome and milk, but if I would have to write this it will be impossible for me. Anyway, I´m sure we are going to learn other words and perhaps Swedish is not as difficult as it seems. I talk about that the next time I write the blog.

Besides, on Thursday is my birthday, 24 years!!! Ohhh time goes by so fast. I would like to cook a cake or something to celebrate this day but we have a meeting and work, so the celebration would be another free day. I´m sure that I will not forget this new year. Here, every day is a new adventure, and the most important thing, I´m happy to be in Sweden and in Öckerö.

For some pictures of what I have seen this week, look below.

Miriam

Bilddagbok Mariam

2010-09-28T08:32:00.004+02:00

Rapport direkt från Jordanien

2010-09-24T18:36:00.004+02:00

K-internationellt fick sent i går kväll följande rapport via mail direkt från en grupp svenska ungdomar på utbyte i Jordanien!

UNGDOMAR FRÅN MÖLNDAL OCH TYNNERED PÅ UTBYTE I JORDANIEN!

Bakgrund:

Det multilaterala ungdomsutbytet ”Tolerans & skillnader del 4” äger just nu rum i Amman, Jordanien (20 – 27 september). Temat för utbytet är tolerans mot andra kulturer och religioner, integration, främlingsvänlighet och anti-rasism. Utbytet fokuserar också på ungdomsliv och mänskliga rättigheter i arabiska och nordiska länder. Under utbytets olika delar har vi jämfört likheter och skillnader i ungdomars vardag och fritid. Vi har gjort detta genom att använda till exempel kreativa workshops i keramik och fotografi, uteaktiviteter, studiebesök vid bland annat Golanhöjderna, drama/rollspel och sång och dans och interkulturella kvällar. Deltagande länder har genom projektet varit Sverige, Syrien, Finland och Jordanien. Ifrån varje land deltar ca 10 ungdomar och två ledare och den mottagande gruppen i Jordanien är Arab World Center for Development & Human Rights.

Projektet har tidigare fått stöd av Salto Euromed resource center via Ungdomsstyrelsen (för utbytena i Sverige/Finland) samt Olof Palmes Minnesfond och Svenska institutet för svenska gruppens kostnader för utbytet i Syrien. För det aktuella utbytet har projektet fått stöd av FOLKE BERNADOTTES- och OLOF PALMES MINNESFOND.

De svenska ungdomarna kommer från Lindhagaskolan i Mölndal och Tynnered i Göteborg och är ett samarbetsprojekt inom nätverket KEKS.

Rapport direkt från Amman:

Ungdomsutbytet startade i måndags då 10 svenska ungdomar och 2 ledare flög från Göteborg via Istanbul till Amman /Jordanien. Väl framme i Amman väntade det Jordanska teamet. De körde oss med bil till hotellet där vi blev indelade i grupper for att sova med blandade nationaliteter, men flickor och pojkar sover separat. Efter ankomsten kunde vi sitta och prata med varandra och lära kanna varandra lite, därefter var det gemensam välkomstmiddag.

Andra dagen började med frukost och transport till Hotel Toledo där vi skulle ha samtliga workshops, lära-känna-varandra-övningar, ice breaking games mm. Ungdomarna i den svenska gruppen körde namnlekar och övningar för att bryta isen mellan deltagarna. För att skapa gemensamma regler och en gemensam grund för ungdomsutbytet hade vi en session om Do’s and Dont´s. Ungdomarna delades in grupper där varje grupp fick komma fram till gemensamma regler och gemensamma värderingar för ungdomsutbytet. Efter lunch delades ungdomarna in i två team varav det ena hade en workshop och det andra hade sightseeing på stan samt fick prova på lokala fritidsaktiviteter för ungdomar.

Workshopen som hölls av Ms Aminee handlade om passioner eller intressen i livet/ungdomsutbytet och hur de kan kopplas till samhället och de behov som finns i där och hur det kan utvecklas i förhållande till mänskliga rättigheter.

Efter middagen hölls den svenska ”cultural evening” där temat var Astrid Lindgrens figurer såsom Emil, Madicken, Pippi Långstrump, Ronja & Birk m fl. Ungdomarna var utklädda som sina karaktärer och samtidigt presenterades en powerpoint med text och bild. Vi bjöd på knäckebröd med kaviar och/eller renost, lingonsaft och Marabou-polka-choklad. Den svenska kvällen avslutades med bugg & dansbandsmusik. Presenter till Jordanska ledarna var osthyvlar, en bok om Sverige samt Kronprinsess-choklad.

Dag tre startade med en utflykt till den kulturhistoriska staden Madaba känd för sin mosaik och en av de första kristna städerna i Jordanien. Vi besökte Madaba Cultural centre och en grekisk ortodox kyrka från 1884 som hette St George Church. I denna kyrka, som ursprungligen byggts som en byzantisk kyrka, fanns en vacker karta gjord i mosaik från 560 f kr. På kartan kunde man tydligt se Jordan river, Jerusalem och Döda havet. På bilden vände fiskarna tillbaka till Jordan river från Döda havet eftersom det redan på denna tid var så salt att inga fiskar kunde leva där. I Madaba besökte vi också en mosaikverkstad och såg hur kvinnorna arbetade och gjorde vackra mosaiker helt för hand. På väg från Madaba besökte vi Döda havet, vilket skall vara den lägsta platsen i världen för lerbad och där fanns även en vattenpark med rutschkanor och simhall som var väldigt fin.

Dagen därpå startade med den svenska workshopen om mänskliga rattigheter som hölls av de svenska ledarna. Innehållet var bl a en översikt över de mänskliga rattigheters historia, från slavtiden på 1700-talet, via Declaration of Independence och Franska revolutionen till 1948 då de mänskliga rättigheterna föddes samt deras innebord och betydelse i världen. Vi gjorde även värderingsövningar och gruppövningar på temat. Efter lunch fick vi även tid att planera ett framträdande på Cycling for Peace på lördag där media kommer att finnas på plats. Vi kommer att genomföra en cyklingsaktion tillsammans med andra ungdomar och vuxna vilket kommer att avslutas Down town Amman. Kvällen avslutades med middag i den jordanska ledarens hem med traditionell jordansk mat och arabiskt kaffe och te. Fantastiskt trevligt!

Nu ser vi fram emot morgondagen som startar redan i ottan för att åka via ett av Unescos världsarv Petra (den glömda staden) och vidare till Wadi Rum där vi kommer att övernatta i öken i beduintalt!!

Salamat från Amman!

Sara Lesch & den svenska gruppen

International Coordinator/
Youth Leader
Culture & Leisure Dep.
City of Molndal/KEKS
Sweden

På äventyr i England

2010-09-24T18:30:00.002+02:00

Reseberättelse från Eurocamp 2010 i Kent, London

Det är söndagen den 1:e augusti, klockan är 9.00 och platsen Heathrow airport i London, England. I avgångshallen sitter sju ungdomar tillsammans med två ledare. Trötta men nöjda efter en veckas vistelse på Swattenden camp i Kent, strax söder om London och lägret ”Eurocamp 2010”.

Det hela startade med en förfrågan på ett KEKS-möte som personal från Broslättsgården i Mölndal nappade på. Man sökte en grupp med 8 ungdomar och 2 ledare från Sverige som tillsammans med 240 ungdomar + ledare från hela Europa skulle spendera en vecka i södra England med massor av aktiviteter såsom kamratbanor, kanoting, klättring och utflykter till bl.a. Canterbury och London.

Arbetat startade omgående med att få ihop en intresserad ungdomsgrupp vilket gick fort då intresset var stort. Då kostnaden för deltagarna var resan (arrangören, Kent county council, hade själv sökt och säkrat övriga kostnader) diskuterade gruppen hur man skulle få ihop pengarna. Det blev disco, fotografering till broschyr, café och mat vid arrangemang, filmning av arrangemang, affischering och en deltagaravgift på 500kr/person.

Den 24 juli kl. 04.00 stod då 7 förväntansfulla ungdomar (en hoppade av i sista stund) på pendeltågsstationen i Mölndal redo för det stora äventyret. Gruppen bestod av 3 tjejer och 4 killar i åk. 9 och 1:a året på gymnasiet. Via Göteborgs central och Landvetter kom vi till Kastrup där gruppen spenderade tre timmar i väntan på nästa flyg som skulle avgå till London. På Heathrow möttes gruppen av två Engelska ledare och det blev en ny väntan på någon timma då den Finländska gruppen som skulle med samma buss inte landat. Efter ytterligare ett stopp på Gatwick kom vi fram till Swattenden vid 7-tiden på kvällen.

Gruppindelningen var klar då vi kom och den svenska gruppen skulle vara tillsammans med den Slovenska och några engelska ungdomar under dagverksamheterna. Detta gjorde att det var 40 ungdomar i varje grupp som i sin tur var uppdelade på fyra mindre grupper. Inackorderingen var reglerad så att de första fyra nätterna låg gruppen i hus och andra halvan på sängar i tält i medhavda sovsäckar, tjejer och killar var för sig.

Schemat för dagarna var späckat med frukost kl. 08.00 och aktiviteter fram till kl. 23.30 då det skulle vara släckt och tyst. Tiden mellan kl. 09.00 – 17.30 var med gruppen och för ”vår” grupp såg veckan ut enl. följande:

Måndag: Kanoting och klättring

Tisdag: Team building (kamratbanor)

Onsdag: Utflykt till London

Torsdag: Konst

Fredag: Utflykt till Dover och Canterbury

Lördag: Tävlingar mellan grupperna på uppblåsbara attraktioner

Kvällarna var uppdelade på ”early evenings” 19.15-21.15 med ex. T-shirt tryck, danskurs, digital musik, spela i band, basket, internetcafé och ”late evenings” 21.30-23.00 med ex. karaoke, folkdans, disco och konserter.

Vad tyckte vi då?

Personalen: Förarbetet avlöpte väl och ungdomarna engagerade sig verkligen för att få ihop till resan och vi hörde aldrig några klagomål utan hade bra diskussioner kring arbetet.

På plats i England slogs vi av att det var så väl organiserat. Exempelvis kom personal och mötte upp oss vid flyget, på campen fick samtliga ett häfte med information, regler, scheman, beskrivning av verksamheterna och vilka kläder/utrustning man skall ha, luncher var paketerade och klara till var och en och vid resan till London fick gruppen pengar för att luncha ”i city”. Det blev en bra och kul vecka. Vi fick mycket nya kontakter med ungdomar och ledare från andra länder och i våra tankar finns framtida ungdomsutbyten.

Ungdomarna: Vi får höra kommentarer som Tvärbra! Jättekul! En upplevelse för livet! Bra! Kul! Samt att det var för tidiga mornar!

För bilder se vår bilddagbok nedan!

Berättat av Jörgen Hjerpe och Nina Eriksson (ledare)

Bilddagbok från Eurocamp 2010

2010-09-24T18:19:00.012+02:00

En volontärs bilddagbok. Av Adolf Bakos

2010-09-24T17:24:00.005+02:00

EVS-dagbok 2 13-19 september

2010-09-23T10:20:00.005+02:00

Hello everybody!

First of all let me to introduce myself in brief (I am the third person from the right hand side, on my left hand is my volunteer colleaugue Mariann. The others are youth leaders at Lindhaga)!
My name is Adolf. I am a 30 years old young man from North Serbia. As a Hungarian by nationality I belong to a Hungarian ethnic minority group in my native country. By professional I’m a psychologist and I really like to work with people, mainly with children and young people. I prefer group activities like different trainings. These activities consist of easy and interesting games and exercises that children enjoy very much. Besides of psychology my other areas of interest are travelling and tourism. I’m open-minded and interested in foreign countries and cultures.

Since Sweden has attracted me for a very long time I was really glad when I got an opportunity to work at Lindhaga Youth Centre in Mölndal. My project focuses on different group activities like group building trainings and leadership courses. I arrived to Sweden on 6th of September. Mölndal is very close to Gothenburg which is the second largest city in Sweden. So here there are everything together: crowded city center with a lot of people from all parts of the world as well as peaceful nature like forests, seaside etc. One always can find the most ideal area for him/her. All the people who I have met (Stina, my mentor, Cissi and Yazan, our social mentors, my colleagues and neighbours) are very friendly and help me a lot in the adaptation to the new surroundings. My fellow volunteers (Sara from Italy, Mariann from Hungary, Claudio from Portugal, Miriam and Gonzalo from Spain) are also very nice and friendly young people. We spend a lot of time together, make friends and try to get to know each other’s culture and customs.

Lindhaga Youth Centre is quite close to the Mölndal city centre and attended by 13-19 years old teenagers during and after school time. The atmosphere of the youth centre is pleasant and friendly. The kids are really kind but reserved a bit because a lot of them are shy to talk in English to me. Besides my English skills are not perfect at all so the communication is quite hard. The beginning is a bit difficult but I hope youngsters will get used to my presence soon and I will gain their belief. They teach me Swedish with pleasure and I think these “lessons” could be a very good link between us and a great opportunity for me to learn the language.

Our second week was really rich in activities and experiences. On Thursday some of volunteers and workers from youth centres went into a forest to pick mushrooms. This activity was a great opportunity to us to get some knowledge about mushrooms.

Saturday was a really important day for me because I cooked filled paprika – at the very first time in my life! Unfortunately, it was very spicy but eatable. (See picture above.)

Since we survived my meal we were able to go to a night bar called Nefertiti in the evening. It’s a jazz club and has a really great atmosphere. On Sunday we visited the famous Liseberg amusement park with our social mentors. It is a beautiful green place with a lot of trees, flowers, statues and fountains. We could try everything and enjoyed it very much. This activity was a really good closing of our second week in Sweden.

Adolf

1200 kvadrat goes Sicily

2010-09-14T16:54:00.006+02:00

Reseberättelse från ungdomsutbyte på Sicilien, juni 2010.

Nadja, Nathalie, Caroline, Faton, Vera och Andrea (ledare) från ungdomens hus 1200 Kvadrat i Frölunda, Göteborg satte sig på flyget mot södra Europa tidigt på morgonen den 19 juni - efter att ha tillbringat natten i vaket tillstånd på 1200 Kvadrat.

Vi hade en lång resa framför oss och det uppstod en del problem längs vägen. Motorhaveri och förseningar gjorde att vi fick springa som små blå till gaten i Köpenhamn, och det var med andan i halsen vi hann med flyget mot Milano.

Efter vidare färd till Palermo kom vi till staden Capaci där utbytet skedde. Länderna som deltog var Sverige, Portugal, Lettland, Cypern och Italien. Tanken med utbytet var att diskutera skillnader och likheter mellan ungdomar i Europa - och komma fram till vad det är som förenar.

Det var ganska mycket strul med organisationen under veckan, och stora svårigheter i kommunikationen då inte någon av organisatörerna kunde engelska. Det blev nästan så att vi svenskar var tvungna att börja förstå Italienska, och efter att vi insett det så funkade det faktiskt bättre. Haha :) Det fanns till och med stunder då vi fick sitta med en dator mellan oss och använda oss av Google translate för att kunna föra ett samtal :D

Men, trots allt strul med flyg, tider, väntan, oklarheter om var vi skulle träffas så blev det en helt fantastisk vecka på Sicilien! En vecka som vi alla kommer att minnas med stor glädje, och med värme i hjärtat. Tänk vilka människor vi mött, både deltagare i utbytet och de boende i staden.

Capaci är en fantastisk liten stad på den norra delen av Sicilien, och dit kommer inga turister. Detta betydde att vi blev huvudattraktionen. Vi fick en fantastisk kontakt med stadens barn, som hängde oss i hasorna hela veckan, skrek "waaasss yo neeejm??" till oss dagarna i ända, flätade håret på oss, kramade oss, spelade boll med oss…

Och så Benedetta då, våran granne. Hon hade lärt sig engelska genom att titta på engelsk film och läsa ordböcker och hennes högsta önskan var att åka till New York.
Varje dag stod hon i sitt fönster, och när hon såg oss kom hon ut på gatan och pratade en stund. Hon bjöd på äkta italienskt kaffe och kakor, och var ytterst tacksam den dagen vi försökte hjälpa henne med kastrullocket som fastnat när hon stekte zuccini i olivolja.

Två av deltagarna i den svenska gruppen var muslimer. Att vara muslim på Sicilien var en historia för sig. Vi insåg snabbt att vi här i Sverige är väldigt medvetna och har mycket kunskap om andras kulturer och religioner. Varenda dag försökte vi förklara ”No pig, no pork, no nöffnöff!” när maten serverades. Trots det så var det fläsk i allt som fanns att äta, haha. Det var inte lätt. Det räckte inte att förklara att ”vi är muslimer”, för ingen visste vad det innebar ändå.

De andra deltagarna var helt underbara, och det är verkligen stora skillnader mellan våra olika länder i Europa. En sak som vi svenskar kom fram till var att vi har det väldigt bra här. Vi har stor trygghet framför allt när det gäller våran skola. I Italien måste varje familj betala över 30.000:- om året per barn, bara i materialkostnader (böcker, pennor, papper, skolresor osv) i skolan. Tänk då om man har fyra barn. Då har man kanske bara råd att låta ett barn gå i skolan...
När vi fick veta detta så förstod vi snabbt varför det var så många barn som drev runt på gatorna i staden på dagarna.

Så, summa summarum... Det har varit en helt underbar vecka som vi alla kommer att minnas med värme. Titta gärna längre ner på sidan på några av de bilder vi tog.

Andrea

Bilder från 1200 kvadrats ungdomsutbyte på Sicilien

2010-09-14T16:47:00.007+02:00

En volontärs bilddagbok. Av Sara Bergando, Italien

2010-09-14T14:12:00.010+02:00

Vill du läsa också? Se artikel nedan!

EVS-dagbok 1 Lost in Sweden 6 - 12 sept

2010-09-14T13:54:00.010+02:00

Välkommen till första inlägget vår volontärdagbok, skrivet av Sara Bergando från Italien som gör sin volontärtjänst, EVS, på Lindomegården i Mölndal.

The first week of my EVS... it is a little bit difficult to describe... I was totally confused and it was hard to understand where I was and who where the people around me. I remember my arrival at the airport: Angela, my mentor, was waiting me, but I saw only a signboard with my name...! I was also the first volunteer that arrived in the house in Önnered, Gothenburg where we are to live and the other volunteers arrived during the night: Gonzalo-Adolf-Claudio. The day after we went together to Gothenburg centre with Andrea (another mentor) for bureaucracy... and while we were speaking, we discovered a lot of things about each other (specially what are our favourites football teams).

The same day we had a dinner together with our mentors. Really nice! We also met the other volunteers Mariann and Miriam, and Cecilia and Yazan, our 'special' social mentors.

On Wednesday we had a meeting in the city hall (I was feeling like a business man...but just a little bit...!). After that I discovered Lindome Youth centre where I will do my EVS... I was so tired...but when I arrived in Önnered I lost the way and came back home half an hour late :(

On Tuesday I, Gonzalo and Mariann explored Djursjön summer camp and the secrets of professional canoeing (!) and how the kids stay together in our activities. Friday I had a free day... the first rainy day...I know that it will be common, anyway I went to Gothenburg centre by myself to see some 'Ikea style shop' (great!).

On Saturday I cooperated in Lindome cafe during Lindomedagen (where I also became a dancer... :); after that I came back home to my new friends who were waiting me. We went out in the night, in city centre; I had to show my ID card to enter in the pub! Really strange for an Italian girl, but we spent nice and funny time inside! The last day of my week was the most adventures.... Miriam had to go back in Öckerö Island where she lives (She spent the Saturday night with us in Önnered) and me, Gonzalo and Claudio went with her... but when we were going back we were lost on Öckerö! Anyway, we survived and got on the ferry at 21.50... the surprise was when we arrived at the central station and met Adolf at the bus stop... He went out to take a break and our meeting was only a coincidence!

I had chance to enjoy the week like holiday time. So I took a lot of pictures and now I'm trying to show you my feelings (It could be better then my English!). I know that next week will be completely different... it will became a really working week! But then it will be Adolfs turn to tell you about his week.

Sara Bergando

Ansökningar till Ung och Aktiv i Europa

2010-03-01T12:27:00.008+01:00

Snart är det en ny deadline för ansökningar till Ung och Aktiv i Europa. Det är m a o dags att börja konkretisera projektidéer och samarbeten för att genomföra t ex europeiska ungdomsutbyten, ungdomsintitiativ, demokrati-, volontär eller nätverksprojekt.

Kort om vad du kan göra (ett urval):

Ungdomsutbyte
Vill du som ingår i en ungdomsgrupp eller jobbar med en möta unga från andra länder i Europa? Då är ungdomsutbyte en bra metod för att utöka ert nätverk.

Ungdomsinitiativ
Ungdomsinitiativ vänder sig till dig eller er som vill driva eller starta ett lokalt projekt med europeiskt perspektiv. Ni kan även genomföra ett internationellt ungdomsinitiativ tillsammans med en partnergrupp i ett av Europas länder. Det viktiga är att projektet utgår från er kreativitet och bygger på era egna idéer och förutsättningar.

Demokratiprojekt
Vem bestämmer där du bor? Är demokrati alltid bra? Hur funkar det med demokratin i Europa? Starta ett demokratiprojekt och sök stöd från oss. Ett demokratiprojekt ska bidra till att göra ungdomar mer aktiva i samhällslivet på lokal, regional, nationell eller internationell nivå. Genom projektet ska ungdomar få chansen att utbyta idéer, metoder och erfarenheter med andra unga i Europa.

Europeisk volontärtjänst
Gör en insats utomlands. Skaffa dig internationell erfarenhet och jobba som volontär i ett annat land. Europeisk volontärtjänst (EVS) vänder sig till dig som är mellan 18-30 år. Ett volontärprojekt pågår mellan 2 och 12 månader. I vissa fall kan du som fyllt 16 år delta.

Utbildning och nätverksbyggande
Vill ni söka stöd för att anordna seminarier? Vill ni arbeta med utvecklingen av europeisk ungdomspolitik? Vill ni utveckla nätverk eller samarbeta med internationella organisationer? Detta delprogram stöder utbildning av de som arbetar med ungdomar och i ungdomsorganisationer på detta område, särskilt projektledare, ungdomsrådgivare och projektövervakare. Det stöder också utbyte av erfarenheter, sakkunskap och goda exempel mellan personer som arbetar med ungdomar och i ungdomsorganisationer. Stöd ges också till aktiviteter som kan leda till varaktiga projekt, partnerskap och nätverk av god kvalitet.

Möten mellan ungdomar och personer med ansvar för ungdomspolitiken
Vill du föra samman ungdomar och lokala politiker för att diskutera viktiga ungdomsfrågor? Nu kan kommuner, regioner och föreningar söka stöd för att organisera ungdomsseminarier. Det finns möjlighet att arrangera seminarier på nationell och internationell nivå. Seminarierna ska ge ungdomar och personer som arbetar med unga chansen att utbyta idéer och erfarenheter.

Mer info och handledning
Mer info och handledning hittar du på Ungdomsstyrelsens hemsida www.ungdomsstyrelsen.se under fliken "internationellt samarbete" men om du funderar över något eller behöver stöttning för att komma vidare går självklart bra att kontakta oss på k-internationellt.

Kiriaka! Kiriaka! Kiriaka!

2009-11-02T11:50:00.003+01:00

Läs Mithra Sjöstrands reportage om Kiriakas resa till Bosnien i inlägget nedan!

Kiriaka, POP & Ex-Yu Rocks

2009-11-02T11:40:00.010+01:00

Under sommaren 2009 reste 18 slagverkare från kulturföreningen Kiriaka till balkan för att hålla workshops i samba-reggae och inspirera ungdomar till eget kreativt skapande. Resans färd gick via ett autonomt kulturcenter i Slovenien, en historisk havsstad och svalkande floder för att så småningom nå slutdestinationen Banja Luka i Bosnien.

Att åka genom bergen mellan Kroatien och Bosnien är en strapats i sig då vägen är snirklig och inte tillåter några höga hastigheter. Med detta i åtanke valde vi i en av tre minibussar att åka på natten för att slippa den otroliga hettan och trafiken under dagen. Det blev en lång natts färd och som tur var jag en av dem utan körkort så jag kunde sova gott där bak. På morgonen var vi framme i Banja Luka och möttes upp av organisationen POP´s koordinator Ljiljana Predragovic. Hon visade vägen till vårt boende som var ett övergivet pensionärskomplex med dammiga rum som stått orörda i åratal.

Det hade hunnit bli kväll och de andra två busslassen av trummor och trötta Kiriakas var på plats. Under tiden som vi väntade in dem andra hade vi hunnit fixa en spelning i anknytning till en lokal festival och Asian Dub Foundations konsert. Det blev en lyckad spelning och klockan hade hunnit bli fyra på morgonen, folk var trötta och vissa var sjuka. Det som började med en förkylning hos en av deltagarna hade nu spridit sig som pesten från den ena personen till den andra och än så länge hade jag klarat mig. Trodde jag.

Det var första dagen på projektet och jag vaknade med feber och ont i hela kroppen. Så typiskt att detta skulle hända just nu! Men jag hade tur och fick bo hos en av deltagarnas mormor. Den snälla mormorn delade med sig av sin hemmagjorda dundermedicin gjord på olika medicinalörter. Jag höll på att kräkas när jag skulle gurgla denna häxdryck men efter två dagar var jag på benen igen! Dagarna fylldes av möten och lekar, presskonferenser, workshops och uppträdanden på gator och torg. Några dagar innan passade jag på att få ett samtal med Katarina Hansson som är en av alla slagverkare på resan och engagerad i Kiriaka sedan 2005. Med öronbedövande cikador i bakgrunden och en vacker havsvik som utsikt ställer jag ett par frågor kring projektet.
Vilka är Kiriaka?
Kiriaka är en grupp galna slagverkare som spelar och har kul i Kulturhuset Underjorden i Gamlestaden. En grupp runt trettio slagverkare som ses en gång i veckan och repar. Vi spelar samba-reggae som är de fattigas musik i Brasilien men vi kör även andra rytmer som afrikanskt, arabiskt eller östeuropeiskt. Vi brukar uppträda lite här och där, på klubbar, festivaler och andra evenemang. Vi jobbar mycket med att främja demokratiska synsätt och arbetsmetoder och det är vi musiker som sköter allt ifrån hemsidan, turnéer, spelningar och annat som behöver göras. Varje år drar vi ut på turné och i år blir det Bosnien. Man kan säga att Kiriaka är mer en folkrörelse än en vanlig förening och med en mångfald som jag aldrig tidigare stött på.

Hur etablerade ni kontakten med Bosnien?
Av en ren slump stötte vi på organisationen POP när jag och Mila Ostojic besökte Bosnien 2008. Vi visste inte så mycket om organisationen då, men vi besökte deras festival och överraskades av hur mycket de lyckats åstadkomma med en så liten budget. I april 2009 åkte vi tillbaka till Bosnien för att göra en förstudie och bokade in ett par möten med olika organisationer. POP var den organisation som vi hade mest gemensamt med eftersom Kiriakas verksamhet passade bra ihop med deras arbete och mål för ungdomar.

Vad var syftet med resan?
Syftet var att stödja POP och deras re-integrationsprogram för ungdomar i samband med deras musikfestival Ex-Yu Rocks, hålla i workshops och spela samba-reggae med ungdomarna.

Hur finansierade ni projektet?
Det finansierades genom spelningar som vi haft under årets gång och med bidrag från Kultur Ungdoms K-fond. Boende och uppehälle fick vi stå för själva.

Ingår ni i andra internationella nätverk?
Två år i rad har vi träffat en grupp som heter Houba. En asgrym samba-rock orkester från södra Frankrike. Vi hoppas att de ska komma till Sverige och delta i våra framtida planer att driva igenom en turnerande stadskarneval. Genom projektet Esperanza Brasil samarbetade Kiriaka med ungdomscentret Baguncaco och MST, de jordlösas rörelse i Brasilien. Kiriaka har varit delaktiga i WSF (World Social Forum) i Porto Allegre Brasilien 2002, ESF (European Social Forum) i Malmö 2008 och vi siktar på att åka till ESF i Istanbul 2010.

Hur bygger man upp internationella kontakter på bästa sätt?
Istället för att bara kommunicera via det skrivna ordet underlättar det om man får möjligheten att ses. Det personliga mötet kan vara helt avgörande i uppbyggnaden av en internationell kontakt. Även om det finns tydliga organisationsbeskrivningar och fina formuleringar kan det se helt annorlunda ut i verkligheten. Om vi som exempel inte hade träffat POP innan vi genomförde projektet hade vi kanske inte varit tillräckligt medvetna om deras brist på resurser som på många sätt bidrog till att vi inte kunde bli erbjuden tillräckligt med stöd utan fick driva projektet för egen motor. Sen är det en fördel om man har något gemensamt med den andre parten, att det finns något att samarbeta kring. Det kan handla om en viktig fråga, en festival eller ja, vad som helst!

Ex-Yu Rocks var den första musikfestivalen som efter kriget samlade artister och musiker från forna Jugoslavien med syfte att re-integrera unga människor i Bosnien. I år genomfördes den 14:e omgången av Ex-Yu Rocks i den lilla byn Krupa Na Vrbasu, omgiven av vackra berg och dalar. Ex-Yu Rocks drivs av ungdomsorganisationen
Partnerski Omladinski Pokret, även kallad POP, som består av ett informellt nätverk av 41 organisationer och grupper med målet att utveckla ungdomsaktivism, interkulturellt samarbete och ungdomskultur i Bosnien. POP har varit med och stöttat över 80 ungdomsinitiativ i allt från festivaler och evenemang till uppstartandet av ungdomscentran och internationella utbyten. Varje år når dem ut till ca 20.000 unga människor i Bosnien och fungerar numera som en central knutpunkt för ungdomskultur i alla dess former.

Under festivalens sista kväll fick jag äntligen tag i Arno van der Pas, grundaren till organisationen POP. Vi satt i ett högljutt backstage, man kunde höra skratten och skämten i tältet bredvid samt en och annan historia. Arno verkade lugn men det märktes att han haft mycket att göra under de två festivaldagarna. Bland annat en våldsam incident där någon i publiken kastat en sten i huvudet på en bandmedlem som fick köras till sjukhus. Det hela handlade om nationalistiska motsättningar mellan olika etniska grupper som enligt honom är ett vanligt inslag bland unga i dagens Bosnien. Man höll tal på den stora scenen, skrev pressmeddelanden och delade ut klistermärken till festivalbesökarna med texten `Ex-Yu NO Rocks´. Arno är pratglad och nyfiken på mina frågor kring hur man arrangerar en internationell festival, han svarar stressat men väldigt ingående på mina frågor.

Vilka är det som medverkar på festivalen?
Festivalen drivs av en projektkoordinator tillsammans med volontärer från Bosnien och EU´s volontärprogram EVS (European Voluntary Service). Projektkoordinatorn är en tidigare volontär som har jobbat med oss i många år. Vi har både lokala och internationella artister som medverkar på festivalen samt representanter från olika grupper som jobbar med ungdomskultur i Bosnien.

Hur kommer man i kontakt med dessa grupper?
Generellt är det lite svårt att hitta eftersom många av dem inte är registrerade. Om man söker efter en specifik grupp eller organisation får man gärna höra av sig till POP eftersom vi oftast har koll på varje liten
organisation som sysslar med ungdomar och kultur i Bosnien. Det är kontakter som vi har byggt upp under åren i samband med olika ungdomsprojekt som vi har varit med och initierat.

Vad är POP´s fokusområde?
Från att ha haft en bred målgrupp att jobba mot insåg vi med åren att de som verkligen behöver vår hjälp och stöd att utvecklas är riskungdomar, dvs de som hamnat snett i samhället eller är på god väg att göra det. Det är en grupp som är mycket underprioriterade här. Det finns inte ens ett erkänt arbetsområde inom socialt arbete som heter `ungdomsarbete´ i Bosnien. Eftersom ingen vill ha med problemungdomar att göra så har vi tagit oss an den här målgruppen. Ungdomar i 16-18 års ålder är fortfarande rätt så formbara och det är viktigt att man fångar upp deras energi genom att erbjuda positiva aktiviteter och hjälpa dem in på rätt bana. Det kan till exempel vara att inkludera dem i vårt arbete med festivalen. Vi har ofta tagit oss an ungdomar med nationalistiska åsikter, eftersom ingen annan vill jobba med dem, kanske för att de inte alltid är så trevliga, säger Arno och skrattar. Dessa ungdomar har oftast ingen familj och lever redan på gatan utan utbildning och har aldrig jobbat i hela sitt liv. Att inkludera problemungdomar i vårt arbete kan vara riskfyllt men om inte vi gör det vem ska då göra det? Kriget har satt djupa sår och bidragit till att unga människor ofta har en bristande framtidstro, allra minst de ungdomar som hamnat utanför samhället. Festivalen är en åtgärd att få unga människor från olika etniska grupper att mötas över gränserna och ha kul tillsammans.

På vilket sätt föredrar ni att jobba med internationella samarbeten?
Tidigare har vi genomfört en hel del internationella utbyten med andra länder i Europa men vi insåg att det gynnade unga från väst mer än vad det gynnade våra egna ungdomar. Våra ungdomar blev snarare omotiverade av att se hur bra det fungerar i ett annat land och med insikten om att det skulle ta alldeles för lång tid att upprätta liknande system i Bosnien. Dessa ungdomar har inte tid att vänta så länge.
Internationella utbyten är bra för väst att se hur det ser ut här. Den typ av internationellt samarbete som vi har behov av är till exempel ungdomsarbetare från andra länder med kunskaper som de kan dela med sig av till våra ungdomsarbetare. Kunskapsutbyten i allt från musik, ungdomsrelaterade problem till hur man organiserar ett kulturhus eller startar upp egna verksamheter. Vad gäller det interkulturella arbetet är vårt viktigaste mål att sammanföra ungdomar och skapa möten mellan olika etniska grupper i det forna Jugoslavien.

Vilka viktiga nätverk är knutna till festivalen?
Först och främst vårt egna nätverk av organisationer och grupper som hjälper till som volontärer. Vi brukar genomföra utbyten med musikband i samband med festivalen och på så vis får vi ett bra utbud av musik från
hela forna Jugoslavien.

Hur får man ekonomin att gå ihop för en internationell festival?
Det är rätt så hårt! Eftersom vi sällan går runt brukar vi arrangera mindre evenemang efter festivalen för att täcka eventuella förluster. Tidigare år har vi fått finansiering från den Holländska Ambassaden men det här året blev det bidraget tyvärr indraget. Årets festival hade en budget på 120.000 kr som bland annat finansierats av kommunen, Amerikanska Ambassaden i Banja Luka samt internationella fonder och lokala företag.

Efter en lång pratstund med Arno var han tvungen att återgå till sitt nattskift och jag tackade så mycket för intervjun. Klockan var fyra på natten och de flesta hade redan gått och lagt sig. Jag gick tillbaka till campingen och hittade ett gäng från Kiriaka som fortfarande var vakna. Jag berättade om mitt samtal inför nyfikna öron som medan jag fortsatte prata slumrade till i sina sovsäckar. Det hade nu gått tre veckor och det var snart dags att åka hem. Det förvånade mig hur bra vi lyckades hålla ihop under alla dessa veckor. Trots oenigheter och sura miner höll vi ihop som aldrig förr och det var nog ett resultat av de ständiga lekar och gruppdynamiska övningar som följt oss under resans gång. Att åka på turné, spela längs gator och torg, bo i tält och laga mat kan verka jättemysigt men det kan också vara fruktansvärt tärande. Efter tre veckor var det ingen som undgått den hemska förkylningen och vi återvände hemåt, trötta och brunbrända men fulla av lärdom och roliga minnen.

Av Mithra Sjöstrand

POP driver även festivalerna Alter Nacija, Silvertown Shine och Pop Youth Art Fair. För er som skulle vilja komma i kontakt med POP kan besöka deras hemsida på www.pop.ba eller ta kontakt via e-mail pop@pop.ba. Vill ni veta mer om Kiriaka? besök deras hemsida på www.kiriaka.se

Denna artikel är den andra i en serie artiklar som skrivs av internationellt verksamma och nätverkande medlemmar i KulturUngdom. Serien utgör en del av insatsen för samordning av internationella ungdomsfrågor, som förutom att sprida information om internationella stöd och strukturer även handlar om behovsanpassat stöd för internationellt nätverkande och etablering av internationella plattformar för utbyten, projekt, föreningsarbete och annan verksamhet av och med unga.

Om du är intresserad av att dels skriva om egna erfarenheter av internationella sammanhang - festivaler, konferenser, nätverksträffar, utbyten, projekt, utbildningar m m - eller om du är intresserad av att verka på internationell nivå så får du gärna höra av dig till Staffan Lund på KulturUngdom (staffan[at]kulturungdom.se)

Vilka tillhör den kreativa generationen?

2009-11-02T09:33:00.009+01:00

Den 29-30e juli hölls en stor EU-konferens i Göteborg på temat ”Supporting the creative generation”. Över trehundra gäster och deltagare samlades på Svenska mässan för att diskutera hur man ska förhålla sig till unga och kultur i det nya medielandskapet.

Vid Korsvägen ringlar sig lisebergskön långt ut på gatan, barnfamiljer med stora gröna kaniner och oversizeade chokladvinster på väg till bussen. Det är en solig morgon i slutet av juli och staden brusar av liv.

Inne på Svenska mässan möts jag av kostymklädda konferensvärdar som ler tillgjort och delar ut plastlappar att ha runt halsen och goodie-bags. Välkommen, välkommen. Kvinnan bakom mig i kön skakar på huvudet och nickar åt de påkostade kassarna som delas ut. ”Det blir bara mer och mer av de där på konferenserna nuförtiden”. Jag ler tillbaka ”Ja, jag är ingen frekvent besökare av sådana här tillställningar precis.” Det blir tyst. Jag öppnar min kasse som visar sig innehålla en dvd med Fanny och Alexander, en skiva med svensk pop och en broschyr om Sverige i vilken det står att svenskar är trevliga, varma och pratar mycket god engelska. Minsann.

Inne i loungen dignar fikaborden av kakor och färsk frukt. Jag ser mig omkring och får genast en känsla av att alla känner sig lika vilsna som jag där de står för sig själva och flackar med blicken. Vilka är alla de här människorna?
Katti Hoflin öppnar konferensen med en personlig berättelse om kulturupplevelsers betydelse i hennes egen barndom. Anekdoten är rörande, den sätter fingret på vikten av att tillgängliggöra av konst och kultur för unga människor som inte matas med det hemifrån. Kattis tal är enkelt och konkret men sammanfattar ändå mer än vad som kommer att sägas under många timmar.

Efter henne intar kulturminister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth scenen, och hon använder i sitt tal så många stora, allmänna och tomma ord att det efteråt är omöjligt att greppa vad hon försökt säga. Det känns genant att höra en makthavare som suttit i tre år förklara demokrati som om det var hon själv som uppfunnit den, och dessutom hylla det rådande svenska systemet som fullt fungerande. En nöjd kulturminister känns som den sämsta förutsättningen för denna förväntat kritiska samtalskonferens.

Efter lunchen strömmar folk till seminariesalarna. Livliga diskussioner pågår och ljudvolymen är hög när sittplatserna fylls. Ett ungt jazzband börjar spela i ena hörnet och min uppmärksamhet dras genast dit, men det verkar jag vara ensam om. Sångerskan som både improviserar och sjunger utan mikrofon överröstas fullkomligt av kulturminister Adehlson som sitter några stolar bort och pratar. Först när ljuset tänds och en kvinna kliver upp på scenen tystnar publiken. De representanter för ”den kreativa generationen” som spelat för oss i en kvart, får en lam applåd.

Under de två följande dagarna följer seminarier och samtal som alla berör mycket, på ytan. Flera frågor reses och lämnas obesvarade, vilka enligt mig är av fundamental vikt för den här typen av samtal.

Under ett bitvis inspirerande seminarium, som utgår från exempel på hur unga kan integreras eller ledas in i kulturinstitutioner för att bli mer delaktiga, reser sig en man upp i slutet. Han ifrågasätter om det verkligen är relevant att ständigt livrädda de mossiga institutionerna, eller om man istället borde lägga krut på de arenor och projekt som unga redan är deltaktiga i att bygga upp. Det blir tyst i lokalen. Någon svarar undvikande. Sedan är det dags för kaffepaus igen. En övertro på institutionernas och bevarandets betydelse i kombination med kunskapsbrist och skepsis inför nya arenor har jag upplevt som genomgående under min tid som kulturutövare.

Det är en direkt omöjlighet att ”stödja den kreativa generationen” om man inte litar på den, om man inte välkomnar även det som man själv inte förstår. Diskussionen om ungas kulturupplevelser blir ständigt en fråga om bildning, ett fokus på kultur som pedagogik. Som om unga var oförmögna att känna, uppfatta och omsätta konst på det vis som kanske inte alltid går att sätta ord på.

Flera av talarna understryker även den ekonomiska vinningen man har av att fostra en upplyst, kultiverad och kreativ generation. Och även om jag inte kan annat än hålla med så måste jag ifrågasätta om det verkligen är det de vill. Vill våra svenska topp-politiker verkligen ha kritiskt tänkande, unga medborgare? Är de medvetna om att kreativitet inte sällan handlar om att bryta mot lagen? Att spontant uttrycka sin åsikt eller den bild man har på näthinnan, genom att måla den på en vägg. Eller att vilja se en film så gärna att man plockar ner den från nätet utan att betala. Kreativa lösningar och yttringar, men inte desamma som kulturministern räknar med.

Jag önskar nästan att de pratade mer om ekonomi. Inte i siffror men i prioriteringar. Hur gärna vill vi egentligen stödja en kreativ generation? Hur gärna vill vi att de ska ta del av kultur och konst? För som det ser ut nu så kan det kämpas för att alla tioåringar ska få gå gratis på bio en gång om året. Men det faktum att de själva vill ladda hem och se flera filmer i veckan gratis kriminaliseras. Bland dessa återfinns dessutom filmer från hela världen, gamla filmer, bortglömda, lågbudget, kultfilmer som dessa unga aldrig får se på sin skolbiodag.

Tillgängligheten inom kulturen är idag större än någonsin, men staten och institutionerna kämpar ändå för att fostra och styra enligt sina ramar och normer. De vill hellre ha lydiga ungar som kollar på tavlor, målar raka streck och söker konstskola, än de som sprayar gator och torg utan tillåtelse.

Först på den sista uppsummeringen av konferensen vågar sig någon på att definiera kreativitet. Men hans långa svamlande på franska, direktöversatt, gör ingen klokare. De så kallade unga som är inbjudna att delta i konferensen kan jag i princip räkna på min ena hand.

Plötsligt ber en sextonåring om mikrofonen i slutdiskussionen. Hon reser sig inför trehundra människor och poängterar att det enda vettiga hon hört under dessa dagar var när någon sa ”man måste prata med barnen, inte om dem.” Vi är ett tiotal som applåderar henne. Sedan blir vi guidade de tvåhundra meterna till Världskulturmuseet för en överdådig lunchbuffé. Stämningen är på topp.

Det dignar av mat och vin på världskulturmuseet, även där med liveband och happenings av unga. Som inbiten arrangör av olika evenemang, alltid med knaper budget, lägger jag här märke till detaljer. Som att antalet upphällda vinglas är konstant, även när nästan alla gäster har gått. De kommer att hällas ut senare. Men det är representativt. Det ser bra ut.

Det är sådant man inte bör bry sig om, men jag tycker att det är av största vikt att jämföra just det enkla för att förstå hur långt borta många makthavares förståelsevärld befinner sig. Det är inte en slump att det är operan som visas upp för våra internationella gäster, en plats där de flesta jag känner aldrig satt sin fot.

Det duggregnar ute. Folk börjar ge sig av i taxibilar mot Landvetter. Lena Adelson Liljeroth får ett gratisparaply och vandrar i sin oklanderligt vita dräkt bort från en lyckad konferens med ett leende på läpparna. Hon hinner aldrig höra när Hellsongs spelar sin version av ”We’re not gonna take it”. Jag tänker att det kanske är lika bra, hon skulle ändå aldrig förstå allvaret i det.

Av Jessika Jankert

Regeringskansliets egen slutrapport från konferensen finns att hämta hem här om man är nyfiken på vad de själva såg som relevant och givande. Förhoppningsvis så länkar de tillbaka till Jessikas artikel.

Denna artikel är den första i en serie artiklar som skrivs av internationellt verksamma och nätverkande medlemmar i KulturUngdom. Serien utgör en del av insatsen för samordning av internationella ungdomsfrågor, som förutom att sprida information om internationella stöd och strukturer även handlar om behovsanpassat stöd för internationellt nätverkande och etablering av internationella plattformar för utbyten, projekt, föreningsarbete och annan verksamhet av och med unga.

Om du är intresserad av att dels skriva om egna erfarenheter av internationella sammanhang - festivaler, konferenser, nätverksträffar, utbyten, projekt, utbildningar m m - eller om du är intresserad av att verka på internationell nivå så får du gärna höra av dig till Staffan Lund på KulturUngdom (staffan(at)kulturungdom.se