EVS in Santiago de Compostela

Since two weeks, we have one more volunteer in the flat! His name is Nico, he's from France, and he will be working with us in the Ludoteca and in the office of Don Bosco.

After long hours of hard work I'm finally finished with the flyers for the Centro Don Bosco! The first one is for the special Christmas activities we offer in the Ludoteca. The second one is for a charity run around Christmas, where they collect food in the neighbourhood of San Pedro to redistribute it to people in need.  

Last weekend, Tamara and I went to the International Congress for Youth in Riveira. We thought it could be useful, since we will have to promote the EVS program in schools and also provide informations about it to the youngsters who come to the Center. During one and a half day, we listened to the presentations and participated to the workshops of a certain number of actors from the youth field: politicians, professors, economists, members of NGO's... and of course youngsters. We heard about a lot of very interesting initiatives and researches concerning the formal and non formal education, and especially their collaboration on every level in order to build a  civic, educated and proactive generation of youngsters. Unfortunately, some workshops couldn't be performed properly due to a lack of time, and the part about the Erasmus + program (which will replace the EVS next year) was not very enlightening... But all in all it was an interesting and motivating exper...

Last weekend, Alice, a volunteer we met at de Training and who works in a Coruña, came visit us in Santiago. In fact, she came to participate with a friend to a "Drawing-Marathon", and she invited me to join her. The marathon consisted of a group of 20 artists (painters, drawers, architects, photographers or just amateurs) meeting at the Mercado de Abastos to draw, paint or take photos. It was the first time I spend some time at the market, and I realized what an interesting atmosphere it has. It reminds me of the markets in the south of France: same noise, same people, similar products... the only thing that is really different is the rain (which made outside-drawing quite difficult for me)!   After this sketch-session, we went all together to the Bar Pampin near the Plaza de San Pedro to eat lunch, show each others work and exchange experiences. I spend a lot of time comparing the cultural politics of Belgium (where I studied) and Spain with a local architect. Unfo...

¡Holà! Since the beginning of September, the team has changed! There are now four new volunteers in Santiago: Tamara from Serbia, Daria from Russia and Anne and Toni from Luxembourg. Two of them are working in Os Tilos. The two others in de ETL Don Bosco, more precisely in the ludoteca (and a few hours in the office, working on this blog). Last week, we had our on-Arrival Training (Formacion a la llegada) with the other volunteers from the north of Spain. Great people, nice atmosphere, helpful informations: a good experience! And since the training was... in Santiago(!), it rained a lot... But not all the time! We could find some sunny moments to show our beatiful city to the other volunteers. And this is it for the moment! During the next few month, we will try to continue to share with you some aspects of our experience as volunteers here in Santiago de Compostela. We hope you'll enjoy it!

During the work in ludoteca I had an Idea to make a move about Don Bosco. The idea was to have volunteers and children act together in the movie. Since the people that work in Don Bosco are so great, they went along the idea, and this is what we made.