Jak było luty?

As all of the months lately, February has also been active in the life of our organisation. Let’s see what happened with us in the past month.

 

Spoktanie z Węgier, 20 February

There are some activities that are becoming regular, like ‘Spotkanie z Węgier’ every second Thursday. At these meetings people have the chance to get to know the culture of Hungary through its cinematography. The films are provided for us by the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw. We start the meeting with a bit of introduction to the film, a couple of minutes dedicated to get to know the background and characters of the story. Then, after watching a film, there is discussion about the film and usually the conversation continues for hours.

The other two Thursdays of the month is always dedicated to something fun and interesting. The most popular is ‘Czwartek z planszówkami’, a meeting where we play board games together while practicing languages. In our game collection we have: Settlers of Catan, Dixit, Jungle Speed, Wieża (Polish Jenga)

Patience and stady hands are the key
to be a Jenga master

and a Hungarian version of Monopoly with bankcards (with translated instructions, of course) just to mention some. Participants are also welcome to bring their own games for these events. This is how we had the chance to get to know ‘Ryzyko’. My personal favourite is of course, Jenga. It is always funny to play this game while solving impossible situations.

The last two weeks of the month, we were spending with children at Świetlica during winter holidays. We supported the teachers there with their activities and we got some time every day to carry out our own ideas. Just like during the workcamp in July, we created a two-week-competition for them and each day we gave them different tasks where they had the chance to  get points. For a couple of days, two of our fellow volunteers joined us to help with activities and bringing their own ideas. Pia and Tom both spent a really nice time with the kids, while introducing them Germany. Pia gave them some general information about the country and Tom taught them some songs with the help of his trumpet.

The kids really enjoyed trying to play the trumpet
after learning German songs

Russian and Hungarian day also did not miss from the programme. After a general presentation, the kids were given flags and traditional symbols to colour. This was followed by a little quiz to test their memory. We also tried to organize a sport day for them but we never managed to find a perfect time for it. Once the weather was not so nice, then the other day it was impossible to discipline and organize the children into their groups so it only had a shorter version. As we are teaching the children English, a quiz about their knowledge and memory about words was also part of the activities. As Zimowiska took place during carnival season, it was obvious that we are going to finish it with a little party. The days before we were creating masks for ourselves and on the last day, we celebrated with balloons and dancing. We also had a closing and award ceremony to end the competiton. All participants were given cute certificates and the first three got bronze, silver and gold medals just like at the Olympics.

On the 27th of February, we organized a tandem meeting. As this day was Tłusty Czwartek, we were welcoming our guests with delicious pączki. Those who came had the chance to practice their Russian, German and English knowledge. We prepared different topics but in some places, the conversation was not dedicated to a specific topic.

That’s all folks for now. Thank you for everybody’s help and participating during this month, it really has been a pleasure to spend it with you.

If you want to know more about our activities, follow our blog and facebook page, more information and updates are coming soon!

Na razie,

Zsófi

"Czwartek z planszówkami" or "Thursday with board games"

“Czwartek z planszówkami” or “Thursday with board games” is our new activity. The idea of it is easy as a name of the event: we invite people from Pułtusk to play famous board games, practice English and just have fun!

Preparation didn’t take a lot of time – so at 5 p.m. we had 4 tables with different games and were refreshing rules when guys come. Almost all of our guests were from Ruszkowski – we have been visited this school during this week. Erasmus students from Pułtusk also participated – this time my new mentor Maria joined us!

Some of guys started to play “Wieża” with Zsófi, but Maria, Tomek and I joined Sylwia to play “Settlers from Catan”. It’s a game with many-many rules which are difficult to remember from first time…especially if you are a foreigner! But what can I say? It was challenging I was practicing polish and moreover I know some new polish words! Playing “Settlers” we didn’t notice how time had gone but meanwhile other guys managed to play a lot of games! For example, besides “Wieża” they played “Jangle Speed” and “Monopoly”. The story of last one is really interesting! Our coordinator Sylwia borrowed it from one Cultural Center. And originally this game is in Hungarian and probably, no one would play it if we didn’t have Zsófi who carefully translated it into English! Thank you Zsófi, you gave second life for the game and a lot of fun for us!

Unfortunately time has gone so fast but for sure it’s not the last meeting. “Czwertek z planszówkami” is in Pułtusk and will stay here for a long time, I think. Board games are a super nice alternative to sitting in front of computer in cold winter! It’s a chance to meet new people and practice English or even learn some Hungarian or Russian! And as usual - everybody is welcome!

Follow our web-site and Facebook for detailed info about our events.

English lessons in Świetlica

EVS in Pułtusk is becoming more and more lively every month! As a proof, last week we started going to Świetlica to have English lessons for the kids. Let’s see how it went so far. : )

The first lesson started out being a bit chaotic, we weren’t so prepared and kids preferred to play but soon they realized that it’s better to listen and learn as it might be useful for them. We taught them the alphabet and some basic greetings which was followed by games to make them remember.

Yesterday, we started our second lesson with a little revision. The children didn’t really feel like answering our questions about last week’s lesson so we switched to the new lesson’s material. I’m sure they remembered everything though. They just thought that it’s too easy for them and were more interested in learning new things. Right?

This time, things went so much better! Last Thursday we had a meeting with Maria, an English teacher who gave us tips on how to teach English to children. She even offered to visit us at one of our lesson to help us even more. Is she awesome,  or what? But now let’s go back to yesterday’s lesson. After introducing them to the numbers we sang a number song together with some movements. Thank you YouTube for always providing us what we need! Then, we stood in a circle and practiced counting with different games. We finished with bingo and another game that they already knew from the workcamps. 

The idea is simple: the first person to choose the said number from the little cards gets a point. After a few rounds, they really got the feeling of it. Unfortunately, our ‘1’ card got injured while there were many kids reaching for it. We are working on its recovery but it doesn’t look good. Let’s hope for the best! 

November is mostly the month of visiting schools, so now we are preparing for new presentations. On Thursday, we are going to Dzierżenin where after a presentation for the school, we will have two lessons with different classes. We will keep you updated with how it went there. And ‘til then, keep visiting our Facebook page and don’t hesitate to write us if you have a question!

Do zobaczenia,

Zsófi

Mikroworkcamp

We started this week in a very active and useful way. Our little team of  ten volunteers had a mikroworkcamp in the course of which we planted more than 1,400 trees. But before going into details let’s see how this activity was made possible.

 The idea of cooperation with Nadleśnictwo Pułtusk is not new. One of the last steps towards preparation was a trip to the forest with the kids from the Social Care Centre at the end of September where we were also invited. While we, volunteers were playing with the kids, important decisions were made in the background. They heard about our activities and proposed cooperation.

With the head of Nadleśnictwo, Pani Ania, the
head of the Social Care Centre and the kids
in September

Another important element was the training organized by Centrum Zrównoważonego Rozwoju „Horyzonty”as participants joined us for our mikroworkcamp. It was also a good way for them to practice English, as the day after they went to Italy for a study visit. Two volunteers from SPW, Pia and Tom also joined us.

So now, let’s go back to what happened yesterday. The day started with a meeting in the office, where Sylwia presented the participants the activities of our organization and the idea of workcamps. It was followed by ‘getting to know each other’. After a quick introduction, we played our favourite name-game but soon we had to leave. Those trees can’t plant themselves!

After arriving to the venue, we split into teams of two. Hayk was our leader, he translated us the instructions that we got from the forester (the man who works in the forest). He showed us different methods of planting and kept an eye on us to do everything well. While working, we had the chance to get to know each other and this way, working was more enjoyable. In our coffee break, the head of Nadleśnictwo came to visit us and he thanked us our work here and every participant got a package with a book,  keychains and some flyers to remember this day. When we were done with planting a trees, a bonfire was waiting for us with bygos and kiełbasa.


What have I learnt?

We were lucky enough to learn different methods of planting trees. While working the Polish participants challenged us to say some Polish tongue twisters and we also learnt some new, useful phrases in connection with working outside.

Impact on the local community

The effect of our work won’t be felt soon as trees need time to grow but we still felt that we did something useful. The ironical part of the day was that as we were leaving the forest, we saw a big truck full of trees. Also, as a continuation of this project, there are going to be more workcamps at Nadleśnictwo.



Do zobaczenia,

Zsófi

EVS weekend

Pułtusk is usually a quiet little town but for some time it turned into a lively place with many programmes and a lot of people hanging around. During St Matthew Days the market square turns into a place of a festival with a huge stage, many trampolines and other facilities for kids to play.

Our part in this celebration started a couple of weeks before, when we started to plan what kind of activities we could carry out. Then, we decided to invite the new volunteers from SPW in Warsaw. We did not expect such a big enthusiasm but finally all of them decided to participate. We did a lot of brainstorming and planning, everyone worked really hard to make the best out of this weekend. We collected, invented and tested a lot of games. New sleeping mats, sleeping bags and pillows had to be bought to be able to host the volunteers. We also got T-shirts with the logo of Centrum Międzinarodowej Wymiany Młodzieży i Wolontariatu. 

Testing games was the funniest part of the preparation

We had a final preparation meeting At SPW office on Friday where we looked through the whole plan once again and also collected some more international games. After having awesome pierogi prepared by Gosia we joined the EVS Hotspot. It was an event organized by ex-EVS volunteers and the National Agency. We took part in a debate about the needs of young people and after a little break, we had an international evening concentrated on dances and songs. Unfortunately, we had to leave early as we did not want to miss our bus to Pułtusk.

On Saturday, after finalizing everything, we decided to surprise Sylwia for her birthday. Our version of ‘Sto, lat, sto lat’ was not the best one but seeing our finally 18 years old coordinator happy was worth it. Afterwards, it was time to go to the market square as the parade was about to start.

Our team of international volunteers at the parade

All schools, institutions and organizations of Pułtusk represented themselves and we took a walk around the square. We prepared with T-shirts, flags and some face painting. Some of us only had a little flag on the face, while some turned into cats and tigers. We reached our goal: we catched the attention of people. We also spent our free time actively. Cooking and playing fun games together were initial parts of our days.

The next day, the market square became a huge fair with schools, institutions and organizations presenting themselves at their own stands. Our stand was common with the Social Care Centre (MOPS).

When the person standing in the front turns around
the others have to freeze, The winner the one who
touches the wall first.

The tent was divided into zones. There was one for information about the two organizations, one for toys, books and home decoration exchange and at last but not least the unplugged zone. There the idea was to show young people ways of spending their free time without computers and TV. We had a lot of games inside and outside the tent and some music, as well. Face painting was also very popular.

Bubble-making was also one of the favourite activities, besides zośka and badminton. At the tables kids could play cards, board games and Korean game called gonggi. The volunteers were divided into two shifts and we also had two Polish helpers, Gosia and Adrian. We were happy to see that many children came to play with us and some of them stayed there almost the whole day. I was lucky enough to meet some of my little friends from the time of the workcamps in July.

Zośka is flying high. 

Now it is time to say a bigbigbig THANK YOU for everybody who somehow helped in making this happen, it was a really great weekend! J

What have I learned?

New games, how to survive an active Sunday with a little sleep the night before, how to motivate young people to spend their time in a more playful way, how to fight with the wind that is trying to destroy the tent and also ways of effective communication and exchanging ideas to cooperate with others.

Impact on local community

Thanks to these events more and more people got to know that this organization exists and I hope to see people being interested in our activities. It was a really good way to spread information and to get attention.

Zsófi

Volunteers in Pułtusk, where are you?

Cześć!

This Monday Centrum Miedzynarodowej Wymiany Młodziezy i Wolontariatu ran an announced meeting about Voluntary Service in Pułtusk. As you might know the aim of the meeting was promotion of voluntary service and involving young people from Pułtusk to active voluntary work. Firstly I’d like to admit family atmosphere of this meeting – we had 50% of 2 signed people this time. Of course, it changed our initial plan a little bit (we had to postpone a workshop about PR in Voluntary Service with Dorota Braziewicz from SPW), but it didn’t stop us from discussing important questions! So our project coordinator Sylwia prepared a program consisting of 2 parts. We skipped quickly theoretical issues about voluntary work and a role of volunteers and start with presenting the idea of Pułtusk Voluntary Center. According to the idea it is a place where any organization searching for volunteers could find people and for volunteers searching for work. The second topic was about so called “Bieg Mateuszowy” (annual running race – obligatory part of upcoming Pułtusk Days Celebration) and specifically about role of volunteers in assisting in that event and recruiting of volunteers.

What else? During a coffee-break we degustate delicious Hungarian sweets called “kókuszgolyó” made by Zsófi and meanwhile speak about culture and traditions of our countries. By the way we discovered that this “kókuszgolyó” has Polish analogue called “ziemniakie” and Russian one called “kartoshka”.  

             

What have I learnt and how did people react?

I decided to put these two questions together because this time they connected to each other more than ever. Of course I knew that most of young people are not that eager to participate in social life of their towns actively, but anyway it was a surprise for me that just 1 person came which basically means nothing because Olga has already participated in some of our activities! And it’s really strange because in my opinion all the informational cannels were involved. Anyway now we have a food for thought how to attract youth for activitiesJ! And that’s why I’m really looking forward to have this meeting with Dorota and learn something new about promoting and PR, because I feel lack of knowledge in this sphere.

P.S. by the way, do you have some ideas how to involve young people in our small Pułtusk to participate in voluntary service? If yes, please, share them in our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fiyepolska?hc_location=stream

  

 Daria