EVS in Santiago de Compostela

Fontiñas The socio-cultural centre, where our German volunteer Annika works, is located next to the shopping centre Area Central in the district Fontiñas. (According to Annika, the location is quite useful if you realize during work that the fridge is, once again, empty.) The centre Fontiñas covers in total an area of 2,7000 square meters and consists of various different institutions.

November. Here come the rain and the cold in the streets of Santiago…But, there is a reason to be happy : « Magosto ! Magosto … » we can hear everywhere in the city, and in all Galicia. All the villages, neighbourhoods, centres have their own Magosto. But, the question is : Where did this traditional « fiesta de castañas » come from ? Like for all traditions, there are a lot of theory about the roots…and they are all mixed to make the Magosto of nowadays.

What is the ludoteca Don Bosco?  If you look in a dictionary to translate this word in English, the best traduction you will find is “nursery’”, but the ludoteca in Don Bosco is more than that. Like a nursery, it’s a place welcoming children after school (in Don Bosco we have children from 4 to 16 years old) and where they can play and have fun. But a ludoteca has also an educational purpose. I mean that children are not just left by themselves to play, the team is there to help them with their homework and to organise activities through which they learn and understand such values as team working, cooperation or participation

How the adventure begins... Six girls, two guys, seven countries, six languages and eight very different personalities: Here is the new team of volunteers freshly arrived in Santiago de Compostela !  We will work, sleep, eat, sing, dance, laugh, cry, learn, discover, in short : live, together in this city during almost one year. During this year we will share with you everything interesting about our experiences as new volunteers in Spain ! If you want to know who's who, just click on our faces and discover our profiles :

Here in Spain (or, at least, here in Galicia) there always is some kind of activity for the kids.  During the scholastic year there are the ludotecas in the evenings.  In summer there are the ‘morning activities’ in July and then the summer camps (i.e. mornings and evenings) in August.  I recall a comment passed by another volunteer a few months ago: “Here in Spain the parents would do better to buy a pet rather than have kids.  They never have time for their kids:  The kids are at school in the morning and then there’re the socio-cultural centres in the afternoons.  And in summer they send them to summer camps and activities.  It seems to me that they never have enough time to dedicate to their children.” Well, that’s one way of looking at it.  However it is also true that this presence of many activities is very good for the kids.  From them they learn more how to behave with other children and learn how to discipline themselves and sha...

Less than two weeks ago we bid Marine farewell.  She was the second to leave our “family” of volunteers.  We were a group of 12 in total and now we’re 10 left.  Marine was an integral part of our life here in Santiago.  She was always egging people on to go out, do stuff together and have fun.  In just her first weeks here we had a running joke that she´d tell you “Come on - you never come out with us!” when someone had spent a few evenings at home. Well, and with this ‘bye bye our friend’ a realisation slid in place:  I realised that now the farewell season has started.  David’s going home this Friday and we’ll bid Fritzi aloha in less than two weeks.  Then Eva’s leaving at the end of July -less than a month from now!  And us who finish last ... our projects terminate in exactly two months, that is we’ve only got 8 weeks left.  How little time! And with all this?  I had to decide for real what to do when my project ends at the ...

I just returned from a holiday trip to England.  Seems like us volunteers travel quite a bit, no?  Well, in my ’umble opinion it’s important to travel as much as possible - take every opportunity that comes in your stride and go! To tell the complete truth my initial travel motive was centred upon an exam I had to sit in Birmingham.  Of course, once I had to book a flight to England I wasn’t gonna stay there for just one day to sit for the exam!  The fact that one of my best of friends and a favourite cousin live in that country was an added motive to stay for a few days. I found both Birmingham and London, the two cities I visited, very enjoyable.  Up till a week ago I had a very bad impression of England and now I’m glad to say that this did a one-eight-oh degree turn and I like England!  Well, well.  During my stay in the capital there was a tube strike hehe.  At first one would think: ‘Lucky, ain’t you?’  But, in all truth and fairnes...