Children's Day in Pułtusk

Dzień dobry!

Last Saturday, we organized in cooperation with Children's University of Pułtusk an open event for all the children of Pułtusk. As main attraction, we had the piñatas we prepared some time ago. Besides piñatas, we had games, dances and music for the kids.

The event took place in the premises of the Pułtusk University Student Club. I had never been there before and didn't have high expectations, so when we first stepped in and saw the beautiful big saloon with a nice view, I was more than positively surprised.

Venue with a view

We tried to spruce the place up a bit with a self-made pennant string and loooots of balloons. The first part of the event consisted of games run by Pedro and Vassia, followed by Spanish, Greek and Finnish dances. Most of the music was played live, thanks to Pedro's friend Victor who was visiting  Pułtusk. After the active part, we had various stands for the kids: map puzzle, wheel of fortune, stamps and arm painting. The kids had the chance to win a piñata ticket (licence to kill one piñata) by rolling the wheel of fortune and giving the right answer to a couple of tough questions.

Children of all ages participated in the event

Forming a queue

Artists at work

Finally, we brought in the piñatas and the kids destroyed them before I could say ¡Ole!

Poor piñata :(

Thanks to all the participants and organizers!

Yours,

Petja





 

Children's Day at Helenów

Dear people,

Yesterday I went to Warsaw with Vassia to assist the local volunteers at their workplace's Children's Day. Once we got there, I realized that the event was way bigger than I'd expected. There were numerous attractions, a big stage with big performances and hundreds of people. The place itself is a center for rehablition, education and care for people with disabilities, so in the event there were also plenty of people with disabilities. It was good to have Vassia there with us, because she has worked with people with disabilities for quite a long time.

In our stand the main attraction was face painting. Our artists had a great variety of designs, including Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, tiger and pirates. The stand was really popular and there was a long queue of children waiting to get one of these masterpieces on their faces.

Our guest star, Sofie from Krakow, at work

Face painting is serious business

Also the can knockdown game was a success. The only problem was that people's throwing skills were much better than we expected, so we ran out of prizes rather soon. Nevertheless, everyone wanted to play the game even when there were no prizes anymore. Towards the end of the event some of the kids showed great imagination by piling the cans up in the most intriguing ways.

Xavi from Catalonia, shows how to do it

This was my favorite can formation

The atmosphere in the event was really warm and people were generally on a good mood. We also wittnessed some heart-warming performances on the stage, when people with disabilities sang songs for a big crowd, which was probably something they'll never forget. I feel truly happy for the fact that someone puts effort on organizing this kind of events, I hope to see more of these in the future!

Yours,

Petja

Every now and then the bubbles were almost the size of the kids blowing them

General atmosphere of the stand

The Great Piñata Workshop

Hola!

This week at the langauge café we made traditional Mexican piñatas. When we were planning the event, the first problem was that we didn't have a Mexican volunteer to show us how it's done. Luckily we soon found out that there is the same tradition also in Colombia, so Angélica took care of the instruction. We did the laborous part beforehand in our flat, so that the people at the language café could concentrate on the best part, which of course is decorating!

Easter egg or piñata?

Iga and Kuba working on their piniatas

People really made surprisingly beutiful and personal piñatas. I was expecting everyone to make a dull egg-shaped thingie in rainbow colors, but instead, people engendered Superman, chicken, Russian man and other a bit more abstract masterpieces.

The piñatas will face their destiny on the Children's Day in June.

Yours,

Petja

Stefan and superpiñata

Angélica, of course, made a traditional one 

Mid-term training in Toruń

Dear people,

I spent last week in the beautiful city of Toruń with 10 other foreign volunteers, including my flatmates Pedro and Vassia. The fourth flatmate, Angélica, didn't participate in this training, because she arrived two months after us.

We went to Toruń by bus, and without knowing anything we were traveling with other volunteers coming to the training. We were accomodated in a small nice hotel, and also many of the activities took place there. I loved the fact that we were a small group, because this way no cliques were formed and the group spirit was good. The first evening, we went to a boat pub to get to know each other and relax after a long trip.

Volunteers ran workshops for each other, in this one creative writing skills are being discovered through meditation

Spanish-Portugese selfie emerging

During the week we had many different activities, including getting to know the city, sharing knowledge and experiences and planning the future after EVS. The training was really useful for many reasons. some of us found good opportunities for the future, some got help for the problems they've faced in their projects, some just found a break in the middle of the project essential to go over the whole thing. For me it was a fluke that seven people out of eleven were fluent in Spanish, so I had a lot of good practice!

Toruń was an ideal place for the training: beautiful, vibrant and compact.

Planning the future in a fancy café

One more thing, the food was ex-cel-lent, thanks to the chefs of Hotelik w Centrum!

Yours,

Petja

Schuman Parade

Dear people,

One week ago three foreign volunteers from Pułtusk and one polish volunteer from Warsaw took part in Schuman Parade, a yearly event organized by the Schuman Foundation. The objective of the project is to spread the idea of European integration, to encourage active citizenship of Europeans and to promote the EU. Along with the parade, a huge pro-EU demonstration took place, with about 240 000 people protesting against the government. We were there mainly to promote workcamps at our stand on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, but we also marched for half an hour with other people.

Volunteers posing the famous wheel of fortune behind them

We had different kind of activities and attractions to allure people to come to talk with us. The most visible thing was our legendary wheel of fortune. People rolled it in order to get a question about a topic determined by the wheel. If they got the answer right, they were rewarded with a pen or a badge. We gave them also a possibility to try to answer three questions, and if they got all of them right, they won a t-shirt. Lots of people were rolling the wheel and some of them also wanted to know more about workcamps, so the wheel of fortune was somewhat successful in the end!

Besides, Angélica had prepared a flag-making stop, where people could make personal flags with workcamp-related stamps. The flags looked great and we took some of them to the parade with us!

Our Colombian artist knows no limits, when it comes to creativity

The parade itself was also nice, it's always good to see so many people marching for a good sake. Pedro attracted lots of reporters and photographers with the huge heart he was carrying. Even so, for us carrying a heart is always a good idea, because what could be more important than spreading the message of universal love?

Demonstration + heart + workcamps = recipe for a good Saturday

After the parade we visited a local activity center in Southern Praga to learn more about how to involve local people into activities and what kind of activities people like. The tour was good and our guide lovely. She even did the whole thing in English, even though she had prepared to do it in Polish, which we volunteers appreciated a lot.

Villagers learning how the things are done in a city

All in all, it was a great and successful day, more of these, please!

Yours,

Petja

Planting trees with seniors

Dear people,

Last Friday I got a chance to go to the woods of Pułtusk to plant trees with Pedro and some local seniors. In the morning, we took a coach and headed for the woods, where a group of forest-experts were waiting for us with some tree-planting equipment. After a short introduction we got to work, which was done systematically in pairs. We planted surprisingly large amounts of trees over three hours. Moreover, since the talkative seniors didn't speak any English, we were forced to speak Polish for three hours non-stop, but that was actually just excellent exercise for us! When the trees were planted, we gathered around a campfire to grill some sausages. I had also brought my guitar with, so after the lunch we started singing some traditional Polish songs, and I even sang a song in Finnish for the seniors. The party went on until it was time to go back to the town.

We thank the organizers and seniors for an unforgettable experience in the woods!

Yours,

Petja

Angélica, the new volunteer from Colombia

Hello!

We are cooperating with Angélica who is participating in the project of Stowarzyszenie Promocji Wolontariatu, title Volunteers at the Interface between formal and non-formal education. Now we'll let her tell a couple of words about her arrival in Poland!

___________________________________________


Holi everyone!

I'm Angelica from Colombia and arrived in Poland on the 1st of April. Already at the airport of Warsaw and I was feeling very different. I met with my coordinator and we went together to Pułtusk, my new home. During the ride I was trying to read each word I saw and it was very fun, although my polish is not the greatest.

Checking out Warsaw's night

Once I arrived at home it was really nice to see my roomies and my mentor waiting for me. They cooked some polish food and, for the first time, I tried a Pierogi. I must confess it reminds me of the colombian "empanadas"; they seemed so similar and different at the same time. After trying to say some words in polish with them and playing some games I went to bed. Not feeling much of a jet-lag.

Waiting for the bus

On Saturday, I went to Warsaw and met some volunteers from other programs and had a great time in the city. Everything was new, fresh and challenging. I started to get more and more excited about the experience I am going to have over the next months. The past week was very exciting because I learnt a lot every day. More words, more people and more about my EVS. This week I am in Warsaw, for my first training, and after this week the real adventure will start.

A private ride for the new volunteer!