EVS Story from Romania

Recently Georgian youngster Mariam Nairashvili doing her EVS in Romania. She would like to share her Life changing experience with you.

“Firstly, Erasmus + volunteering service is the opportunity of development and self-enhancement. The reason, why I decided to enroll in EVS and start volunteering journey three months ago, is that I knew something different and original was expecting. Expectations were high and all of them came true. Craiova, Romania, my current “EVS home” became the place of diversity and brand new challenges. My SO (Sending Organization) is Georgian Youths for Europe and I’m doing my EVS in Anter. My volunteering contains being a friendly teacher of healthy lifestyle. Thus, it’s a healthy lifestyle promotion at high school from 9^th to 11^th grade students. The project’s name is “Be fit” and we are doing encouragements of being healthy and benefits by conducting vast kind of events, conferences and competitions through Odobleja High school students in Craiova, Dolj, Romania. Duties and responsibilities are simple- you have to do your best, at least try to make something valuable for community. Additionally, we have a Romanian classes provided that helped me for an adaptation in society, even more. We are stimulating our project by online E-magazine and promotion videos that make project popular, also write articles about urgent topics that are nowadays problems.

Secondly, the point of being volunteer is precious. People are getting involved for better future. I start learning how to express myself with other nationalities and represent my cultural background at the same time. It’s also very important to mention that I’m living with other nine people in the same house and we are all gathered like a family. EVS is a family. It gives you an opportunity to get to know other people’s cultures, explore old or new traditions, plus tricks. People care about each other here and we all know our personal values and respect them. It is one big tolerant and diverse environment which is open for every motivated individual. You can learn individualism here. Although, during the free time, I had an excellent opportunity of traveling around. Romania has a pretty much convenient location in Europe so that’s why I visited Hungary and Italy. Consequently, you can also travel around and use free time for chasing random places.

Overall, EVS was incredibly amazing and priceless opportunity that should be tried by each of us. Unfortunately, I’m already at the end of the project and it’s so painful to leave the place that gave me a lot of friends, memories and wonderful experience.

Halloween 2018

The end of October traditionally is the time of the year when everybody is crazy about Halloween. The same was in GYE.  Volunteers decided to organize small party for youngsters dedicated to this holiday. But before it happened, it was necessary to turn GYE office more into Halloween mood by making some decorations. Volunteers prepared some garlands with pumpkins, spiders’ nets and toilet paper with artificial blood. We also decorated the doors to the office and prepared some food – small bruschetta, crackers’ sandwiches, pumpkin cake and drinks: sangria, mojito and some soda. We prepared some games to make that night more active – chasing the balloons, guessing items, eating apples. Later youngsters organized some dance activities for themselves everyone had fun and event was a great success!

First of all, I really like the idea to organize a Halloween party in G.Y.E where volunteers and youngsters were together to prepare and celebrate this event (video). Youngsters had a lot of funny costumes during this night, some games were organized. It was a great moment so thank you to Nana for this event in G.Y.E. - Matthieu

“We start prepare Halloween two weeks before. We have meeting and talk about what we want to do. It was obvious that we want have a lot of decorations and good food. For first, we prepare some spider’s web on the wall, small pumpkins and light. Two days before our preparations was more intensive. We did garlands with spider webs, pumpkins, and we decorated doors. In Halloween day we made food. We went on market and start preparation in early afternoon. For party, we prepare a lot small sandwiches. Fruits, drinks and of course pumpkin pie.” - Marta

31^st of October – everyone knows this date. Of course it’s Halloween. Almost all over the world people are cutting out pumpkins, dressing up funny or scary costumes and children are walking around the neighbourhood with famous trick or treat. GYE also was celebrating this day. Couple days before, we decorated the office with topical arts and crafts. The Halloween party had place, of course, on Wednesday evening. Wearing amazing costumes, we lighted up the curved pumpkins and began the party. - Karola

EVS life activities: On-arrival and mid term training

Karola Polish long Term EVS about on arrival training "On-Arrival Training was to provide the new EVS volunteers on our right and responsibilities. The aim was also to give a chance to reflect the idea of the project and introduce the hosting country. The Training took place in Kobuleti, small town by the sea. Firstly, we had an introduction session, so we could get to know each other. In the evening, Shota, one of the organizers threw up a welcoming party. For the next 3 days we were learning about cultural and social similarities and difference, non-violent communication, solving problems, challenges that will occur during our stay and ways to achieve our goals. The participants had many questions regarding Caucasian lifestyle, culture, right and duties or every-day life with flatmates and the trainers gave us valuable information or suggestions. Nurana (Azerbaijan) and Hranush (Armenia) were very experienced in this field as they also did their EVS in the past. At the end of the On-Arrival Training we were invited to supra – traditional Georgian feast. We got familiar with custom of toasts and the role of tamada – a Georgian toastmaster. During this supra we’re dancing and tasting delicious Georgian dishes and wine.”

Matthieu French long Term EVS:  “What a nice experience in a nice place! During these four days, we had a lot of activities. At the end of these activities we made a moral which is the reminded for all volunteers to trust to each other, be cooperative....etc. We also had a conversation about what we had to know about Armenia and Georgia. We had a lot of party during the training. One day we played a city game in Batumi to know better the important place of this city. We also had a supra which was awesome with good food and good drinks"

Abdou  French long Term EVS: “Kobuleti was truly a great experience, I had the opportunity to meet great people and it's rewarding to hear other people who are in the same boat (evs) about their experiences and problems in their hosting organizations. This allowed me to pause and think about my role and experience here in Georgia as a volunteer. It's like a breath of fresh air to get away from it all and to have the best of human adventures. Bravo and thanks to all the people who made this possible, now I have a clearer look at what I want to do with this experience and I have developed new goals for my evs: developed a real solid project using my IT club that I’ve just thought of as a moment of discussion and we learn something but I see that we can really build something that will remain forever." 

Marta Polish long term EVS: "Each new long term EVS volunteer from GYE have arrival training. This time it was in Kobuleti for 5 days. We had workshops for all day from 10 to 7 p.m. We learn more about culture in Caucasus, about EVS and how is to be a volunteer, how to resolve problem etc.  I met other volunteer and theirs project. I am very impress theirs project and ideas. I am very thankful for each experience which they share. For me the most important was to understand that my EVS could be very productive time and It will be great time to develop myself.”

Mariusz Polish Long term EVS “At the beginning of November together with Aga we had great opportunity to participate in our midterm meeting. It was organized in Kobuleti, in the hotel at the seaside. Our conference room had amazing view on sea, so our sessions were extremely pleasant. The meeting was a great opportunity to meet other volunteers working right now in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. With some of them we had on arrival training, some of them were completely new for us. We spent together 4 days on exchanging our experiences, solving problems, talking about our future, as well as spending time together, playing games, having fun, enjoying weather and atmosphere. We also visited Batumi – part of the group went to the city, part (including me) visited botanical garden, where we could see huge amount of plants from all over the world and enjoy beautiful views on the city, coastline and sea. In the last evening we went to restaurant for traditional supra with huge amount of food and wine. That time was amazing and gave new power for the rest of our stay here.”

                            

                              

                                                            

check it out video which made our EVS volunteer during On-arrival Training

                                                            

Keti about her EVS in Romania

Becoming a volunteer will change your life, it will change you into a better person, and it will give you life experiences of all kinds, colours and shapes. It will give you the chance to grow and help others grow. You will have the opportunity to give yourself to those you will work with and learn so much from them.

Life in EVS comunity is a new adventure. we learn to share all things with people from different countries and thoughts. for me it is a very heartwarming experience , because I learning a lot of things, new languages and to appreciate the little moments.
Now that my project is about to finish I realize all that I have learned during 9 months: giving classes and workshops, speaking in public, making new friends, catching new opportunities, travelling to new places and in a different way… I have built a life that will be difficult to be left behind. 

As redundant as it sounds, I learnt how to truly be a volunteer; I learnt what it means. I understand, now, the importance of team work and above all, initiative and patience. I got to know so much about Romanian culture, life and traditions. I came to see their world with new eyes. I discovered myself, the good things and the bad things, thus gaining the tools to be a better person for myself and for others. I had the chance to me immersed in many different languages and cultures, and compare them. I have obtained the realistic experience of independent life and semi-professional world, with all its better moments and harder moments.
Project "Unlock the world" was definitely the best thing I’ve ever done with my life. I never realized how hard life can be for people. I loved volunteering there because you could be silly and ridiculous by singing badly or dancing even worse and no one would judge you. In the end, all that mattered was putting a smile on the children’s faces.
People with autism seem to be living in their own world. No one completely understands what they are going through. It’s also more difficult to make friends. I started working in A.N.C.A.A.R center. 

These kids taught me more than I could have ever taught them. Most of kids were nonverbal and of course that posed challenges, but it was honestly the most rewarding experience I have ever had. Prior to this, I had some, but limited, experience working with children with disabilities. In this project, I was right in there. I'm not gonna say that this job was easy and fun all of the time because that's just not true. The truth is, it was extremely challenging and at times I asked myself why I decided to do that. But every time I had those doubts, I came back with the same conclusion: I LOVE THIS. 
Because the children were mostly nonverbal, they biheviour is different but that never frustrated me. Instead, it taught me a kind of patience and compassion I had never experienced before. I realized that these kids had no other way to communicate and it was our job to try to help them and redirect them in different areas.

I truly believe that they are probably the happiest people when they could be the most miserable. 
There is not some rules how to communicate with children. Every child is different. so you should to try find your own way how to communicate with them. 

It is everything, when you saw children happy faces. You realized that your job is done.
And very important people in my life my fantastic team.
I love you all guys!

Keti's EVS hosting org:  Asociatia EXPLORATOR

Sending organisation: Association "Georgian Youth for Europe"

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Maka about her short term EVS in Jelgava, Latvia

Activities

On the 1st of July we (3 Georgian EVS volunteers - me, Luka and Sopio) arrived in BJMK, in Jelgava city, Latvia, which became our home for the next 1 month. The participants in the project would come one by one, so we had to wait for others to join us for the first 2 days. On July 3, we all the 12 members from 4 different countries were here at the music school and ready to start working to renovate the lovely old building and make it colorful and alive again!

We were distributed into 4 teams and each one had to take responsibility for one room to repair and decorate it with own imagination. I really loved the fact that we were totally free in choice and could do anything we would love to do in the rooms that we were given. So it was the time to let our creativity flourish and we tried to do so!

In the beginning, the site looked like that it really needed to be renovated because all you could find there were some old, almost antique objects and dusty shelves, covered with spider webs. We used to work every day except weekends for about one month and in the end, we managed to make the rooms look cleaner and nicer, maybe even artistic! Finally, I was kind of satisfied with our work but still had the sense that we could do better maybe because I was expecting more from myself but overall, I liked the result that our enthusiasm and collaboration gave!

Besides working, we would spend our time preparing the cultural evenings and presenting our countries to each other. On those special days, the country representatives would make a presentation and let others taste their delicious traditional food along with listening to the native music and songs. On those days we learned more about Spain, France, and Italy from the locals.

Regarding Georgia, not a lot of people knew much about it. So, we the Georgian participants tried our best to introduce our country to others as comprehensively as possible and get them acquainted with our history. We even attempted to cook Georgian food which took us around one day because not any of the 3 of us has ever had any experience in cooking. But still, I think the dishes were not so bad, at least that's what our friends said!

Adventures

On weekends as usually, we would set out together to so many beautiful Latvian places to visit and explore them(containing Jurmala, Liepaja, Sigulda, Riga, Jelgava, and Bauska).

 Once 9 of us went to Estonia by bus and the others including me stayed at home to take the adventure to hitchhike to the same destination instead of traveling by a comfortable and safe transport. We the 3 adventure seekers (Camilla from Italy, Luka from Georgia and I) found a host on Couchsurfing, bought two tents and after work on Friday, at 3 PM we were off to the road to Estonia. Although it took us around two days to reach Tallinn, we loved the experience and did not really regret that we preferred hitchhiking over going by bus, because while sharing the ride with the drivers we would talk with them and by doing so we learned and heard more about the places were passing by from the natives.

 

Feelings

I loved being here, it changed me a little maybe, since I learned many things by observing and communicating/living/sharing with others. I made friends and am quite sure that we will meet each other again at some time in life. Now I am a better team player and individual worker which are going to be really helpful and useful gained qualities in life!

Maka Buchunteli

GYE note: Makas, Sopos and un Lukas hosting organisation in the Latvia was Biedrība “Bērnu un jauniešu mūzikas klubs” , PIC 940071136. The project was about creating interior for Youth Leisure Centre.  Project activities included some repair work, drawing patterns, painting walls, building furniture from creative materials, like wooden boxes, cardboard etc., also some simple renovating.