With Children "en la forestra"

It was Tuesday morning and we started to wake up at 7:30 a.m. and heading to a cottage in the forest, with different games, and ideas to show to a group of 16 kids between 4 and 9 years old. It was really early in the morning, at least for me, but we had to prepare everything before 10:00, that was the time when the children were going to arrive to the place.

We cleaned everything and started to practice what we were going to show them, it was getting more and more funnier every second that passes, at around 9:00 everything was ready and prepare for them, we had special dances and popular games from Spain, a typical Korean board game, face painting (it seems that they lose their senses when someone offer to paint their face), and origami as usual.

At around 10:15 the children were arriving with their parents and as a welcome gift we teached them how to dance two typical Spanish dances, they were a bit shy at the beggining but with the time they started to enjoy more and more the activities we were doing with them, they were really funny, we divided them in some groups but in the end we modified the groups according to their preferences.

As the range of ages differ a lot the youngest children wanted to play with the paints and a bit older kids were with Andrés and Hugo playing different games and dancing, some typical Spanish game called “La Bandera” where you have two teams and every member of the team has a number, so when the one with “La Bandera” say a number, those numbers have to run to pick the flag and to go back to their line before the other catch him.

There was also a different Korean game, similar to Parchis where you had to eat the pieces of the other people, the maximun number of teams in this game were four, so in order to make more people participate we make the group bigger.

As a welcome to the children we paint a flower in our faces and different flags of other countries, in the end we had a barbecue with them where we were eating “kiełbasa” Polish sausage, really tasty if you want my opinion. At 2pm the kids had to leave with their parents, so it was a bit short but a great time with them.

I hope to be able to repeat it any time soon!

Take Care

Hugo.

Language picnic

Hello Everyone

On 16th of July we decided to organize a language picnic, it took place close to the main square of Pultusk, with the main objetive of make people from different countries that were gathering in Pultusk, went there to exchange their language and to learn different ones.

The picnic was divided in 4 places, in everyone of them was an specific language with different activities that the people had to do in order to get know some things about it, there was one of Spanish Language, other of Russian Language and other of English Language, the forth one was a multi-language place.

You were able to talk about stereotypes of different countries as well as the typical dishes of every place at the time you were learning some words and sharing experiences

About this language Picnic I cant talk much as I personally wasn’t there because different business, but according to everyone it was great! There will be two more soon, so get ready for them, and enjoy the day with everyone of us!, its summer after all!

Take care.

Hugo.

Europa Zmienia Warszawę

Hello everyone!

On Friday 4th of July we were cooperating with our brother organization from Warsaw in the event “Europa Zmienia Warszawę” aka, Europe is changing Warsaw! Oranized by Europe Direct. The day went really good, as expected we all were there on time and started to prepare the different things we wanted to do with children as well as organizing the information for who wanted to know about the event. It took place in Warsaw’s Castle square, and the weather would have been great if it wasn’t for the strong wind that happens sometimes and made the things a bit harder to do.

During the event we had different traditional games for the group of children that were coming during the day, the most popular among there were “ciupy” aka stones, “podwórkowe bierki” or pick up the sticks and giant darts in the ground.

The two things that the children enjoy the most, and really wanted to participate in them were the origami, where we were making flowers, frogs, boats and planes, and the section of eco-recycling where used toilet papper rolls were being used to créate different character or even hats, this was one the most funniest part of the event and everyone were enjoying and creating different things, the good part of it is how the imagination of the kids flow and you start to learn a lot from them.

On top of everything we had face painting, while the most demanding design was the mask of spiderman also a lot of other things like butterflys, dogs or cats, as well as flags were painted in the face of the children who were brave enough to let their skin in our hands!

Last but not the least we were using used t-shirts to makeamazing and colorful bracelets for all our guests, on the sad note of the day it was that during around one hour and a half, not many people were coming to the place and we had a bit boring time, as when we are doing something with the kids the only thing that you get from them and that its enough for all the energy you use during the day its their smile and their sincerity, its hard to see any sign of malice in them, and it makes you feel really good with yourself. We also had some quiz games about the different countries of Europe.

As a personal opinion of this guy who is writting this it was a great day, and I really enjoyed it, I would do it anytime and I hope that everyone who were there, the organizators, the volunteers and the children were really enjoying the event! It was really nice to see them smiling while you were working with them and their desire to stay more time with us.

Take care.

Hugo.

My arrival

Hi everyone.

One day out of nowhere I decided that I should do something different with my life, having finished my Bachelor and my Master I was looking through internet for different options, thats when one of my friends told me about EVS, at first I was really motivated for it, but as the time was passing and I was sending tons of CVs to different organizations without any answer I started to lose hope.

It was when I decided to focus on some countries only, and they were Czech Republic and Poland, as one of my goals was to learn a Slavic Language, suddenly one organization from Poland put me in contact with COCAT ( a sending organization from Spain ) and they talked with me about a project in a small town in Poland called Pultusk. I started to read about that project and it seemed really interesting, also both organizations, the sending one and the hosting one where writting to me regulary so I was quite happy about it.

Then I told to myself, why not? It has to be a great experience, and it’s something that you have to do when you are still young, as I was telling that to myself I started to send everything needed to them, I had to fly to Barcelona for an interview and then start to book the tickets to go Warsaw, my coordinator offered to pick me up from the airport so I wouldn’t get lost on my way to Pultusk, it seems that Spanish people doesn’t look realiable! ;)

On my way to Pultusk by car, after 16 hours in the airports and planes I was talking with Sylwia about different things of the project, we even had time to pick a girl who was doing hitchikking, when I arrived to the flat there was Daria, some Russian girl, and I also meet Dawid, a guy who was going to help me on my first days, after that and after resting for a while, we were visiting the city, Daria, Dawid and me, and they were telling me the History of it, there is even a beach,  well something like, you can’t call that thing a beach after coming from the coast of Spain, but it has water!

I came back home, a really nice house by the way, and started to prepare to this new experience, in a new place, outside of my confort zone, where the only thing that you can do is to learn how to grow yourself, without any more information about it, I will keep going with this project and see where it gets me, there are some reasons to do this project, let’s see if I can accomplish them.

Take care!

Hugo.

Visit to Zatory

Hi everyone! 

Today we’ve visited Gymnazium in Zatory, which is a small village close to Pułtusk. A teacher of English who invited us and her students met us very warmly and friendly, so running 3 lessons wasn’t so tiring.

We kept our traditional structure - presentations about countries and small quiz in the end to see how attentive our students were. As usual teenagers were very shy at first but then they relaxed and even made a nice presentation about Zatory.So now we know a bit more about Pułtusk district.

Thanks to guys from third class we had a small guide tour and it was a good chance to see school’s everyday life. During this tour we got to know that the school is well-known for outstanding sport achievements – in each class there are many of cups and medals. And it's not wonderful, because they have an outstanding football field outside!

We also saw a kinder garden that is situated just in the building of the school. And on the way to it we’ve met a small educational installiation about Polish villages. Soon our tour came to the end and we left with a good feelings and memories about small and cosy school and its hospitable students and teachers! 

Have a nice day,

Daria

       

Dzien Dziecka or International Children's Day

Hey! 

My today’s post is about Children’s Day. Correctly to say that we had 2 Children’s Days – the first one was in Warsaw, the second – in Pultusk.  

Zsofi and I are familiar with Helenow, a Rehabilitation center for disabled children, from the very beginning of our EVS project – first of all, we had a preparatory meeting there and also this place became our “weekend shelter” (thanks to our kind volunteers we stayed there many-many times). We knew some of children leaving there, so we were happy to say “yes” when Sylwia suggested us to participate in a big event for children from Helenów. Why not to do something for your friends?!

International Children’s Day (or Dzien Dziecka in polish) in Helenow is a big event organized not only for inhabitants of the Center, every child who comes is welcome.  From the very beginning it was clear that there will be a lot of fun for small kids – bouncy castles, cotton candies, clowns, face-painting and workshops. At the same time teenagers and parents were watching performances. So, everyone had own entertainment! But some time after guys from famous polish pop-group came. Of course, teenagers’ attention was moved to them. Everyone wanted to have star’s autograph))

Talking about our volunteers’ role I can say that it was not difficult, but for sure important – Armenian volunteer Arpine and I were giving sets of food, other volunteers were taking care of some kids and made face-painting. For Arpine and me the task didn’t take a lot of time so we had a chance to watch a concert. And for me personally, it was also useful to see how such big events are organized and I got some ideas for the future.  

The second part of Children’s Day celebration wasn’t so wide as first one. The next day we went to Świetlica with small creative workshop. It was so great to know that our children are so creative and talented!

And also this time children got familiar with Dawid, our intern, and he got familiar with this part of our work.

Today I’ve asked myself what did I understand after these two days? And I realized that I’ve understood why I love working with children so much. I just love their smiles and I love that they are so sincere. I teach them and they teach me back how to be more patient and thoughtful, and of course how to make them smile!  

Take care,

Daria           

Working Sunday, or a day in Płococholandia

To be honest, work with children from primary school in Płocochowo is always pleasure for me. We’ve been there already 2 times with presentations about Russia and Hungary and every time their eyes were full of curiosity. They are truly thankful audience! And this Sunday after two days of raining the sun appeared and I that meant that this day will be bright and joyful, despite of the fact it was a working Sunday…

Płococholandia is a name of an annual charity event that have been running in Płocochowo already 6 years. Funds that collected from it go for school’s need, this year it’s re-equipments of classes. There were two part of the event: first one was a concert of local musical and dancing collectives, in the second one there were a fair, lottery and different workshops.

After welcoming speech of a director, the concert had started. For me the most catchy performance was from SWAG, a dancing school from Pułtusk. 

They were inflammatory and bright! And of course I will never forget a performance about a train going from a valley of fantasy to a country of fairytales because a song from it was playing in my head all the day long ;-)

In the middle of the concert Sylwia called Zsófi, Kien and me to set our own stand. After testing the idea of creative recycling with children and youth, we decided that it works pretty well and had chosen the topic as a main idea of our stand for Płococholandia. But in the very beginning making owls out of toilet paper rolls and pigs out of empty plastic bottles was not popular among kid, but…our success had started when we suggested them face painting. Yes, it’s really funny, but it had worked as a virus advertisement! Children were staying in a line waiting and had started to be curious how to make all of these funny things. 

Some time later they were coming with friends and parents (by the way, the last were wondering that we make it for free). Personally thanks for Kien who had appeared as a talented painter. British flags are seem to be his specialization, children were asking for them again and again! That’s great that co-working opens people’s skill and let you know people better. Unfortunately, because of the fact that our stand was placing on the grass, we could not run a race of origami frogs that Kien also could teach children.

In the end of the day I realized that Płococholandia had come to the end very soon. I was tired, but happy. I saw smiley faces of children going home and waving goodbye. It seems they had fun with us and if they forget how to make an owl out of toilet paper roll, they will never forget how British flag looks like. And I hope they will not forget Vietnamese, Hungarian and Russian volunteers! 

P.S. big big thanks for Sylwia, Zsófi, Kien for a great working Sunday! 

Have a nice day,

Daria