Bonjour! Cześć! Hallo! Hi! Hola! Merhaba! 

There are so many ways to start an article. I must say that this one is a hard one. Last week we visited the school Zespołu Szkól nr 4 w Pułtusku where I am working during my latest 8 months. I invited my flat mates, friends and family Julia, Marie (From France) and Tuğçe (Turkey) from FIYE Pułtusk to be part of what I think was the way of say thanks to School number four and also goodbye, this is one of the latest articles I am writing for the blog, has been a pleasure to be part of this, ok let’s continue with the story. 

We agreed with the English teachers from the school to meet three different groups and spend the morning there. Was so emotional and so sentimental to be with some of my students and some students that I met before travelling with the school. I have not words to express all my gratefulness for this place and this people. 

The language café was a really good excuse to celebrate my voluntary service there and was a shock to heard questions form the students and after made the quiz know how much this kids know about culture and even political situation. They are really enthusiastic, open minded and with a lot of energy for learn new facts. The language café was not always the same, each time and each group had a different energy so we were changing some activities and of course something we had in common was the fun.

After playing, quiz, languages and learning facts about Colombia, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey and UK, we went into a concert! Was just marvelous, we came into the Sport room and all students received us with applauses. We will never forget this day at School number four: Zespołu Szkól nr 4 w Pułtusku. 

Special thanks to all languages teachers and of course the students. Without them there are no chance of having this activity.

Yours,

Angélica Camargo Flórez

EVS - Pułtusk 2016

Viva Brazil! Viva Colombia!

Hello from Pułtusk!

Here we are! Luciana Feijo from Brazil and I. We are from South America and we are so happy of sharing with you our meeting in the Children’s University last weekend. After the first meeting for this year, the kids were waiting for our mysterious presentation about our countries. Luciana is a volunteer from ICYE and SPW, as I am. She is working in hipoterapy with disable people in Warsaw.

OI! HOLA!

Friday night Luciana arrive in Pułtusk and later we discuss about our presentation and  also about our experience in Poland. Was really excited because she spoked in Portuguese and I did in Spanish! Was a nice way of sharing our lives in Poland.

Luciana and Tugce

As I told you, Saturday morning we went into the Children’s University and with help of my flatmate Tugce from Turkey and of course all help and great invitation from Joanna Popielska teacher from the University, we start the presentation. 

Me and he having a spanish conversation.

At the beginning we talk about some fact of Colombia and some from Brazil as well. About food, flora and fauna. We had a moment for make some artwork with them and of course we had time for dancing. The kids were interested and show us their skills in drawing, handcraft, learning languages and wow dancing! 

Dancing the CARRAPICHO. 

This was our meeting on Saturday with wonderful kids from Pułtusk. We are so happy to share this and more adventures with you!

Keep in touch! 

Cheers from the Venice of Mazovia! 

Angélica Camargo Flórez

EVS - Pułtusk 2016

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