EVS in Santiago de Compostela

5th of December is International day of Volunteers and it was a perfect opportunity to show to the others how the life of volunteers looks like and to make visible our contributions like a volunteers. This day Nicolas and me went to Os Tilos -  place where Ann and Daria are working. They invite us to represent ourselves and to explain to the children what we are exactly doing here in Spain, so far away from our homes. The idea was to answer on the children’s questions in the form of the TV show. Therefore, we came to the classroom costumed, and sat at the table like in some TV show.  Children were playing the role of the journalists from numerous TV and Radio stations with questions written on the papers. They have microphone and they were well prepared with various questions.  They were so interested to find out things about volunteering and also about ourselves, so next to questions like what is exactly volunteering job and what are we doing, they also asked questi...

The Queimada is a traditional Galician beverage usually prepared with Orujo (a Galician spirit), sugar, coffee beans, lemon peel and cinnamon. Although it is often considered to be an old Celtic heritage, Queimada was in fact initally prepared in the 50's by Galician immigrants in Madrid to assert there culture and identity. Usually, during the preparation a spell is said in a dramatic atmosphere, invoking all sorts of spirits, demons, ghosts and witches to protect the ones drinking it against the evil eye. 

To begin I'd like to thanks all the people present in this formation. It was a wonderful moment in my EVS. We were in San Servando Castle in the old part of Toledo city  during 5 days.We were 27 persons from all the europeans parts Bulgary, Germany, Portugal, France, Russia, Lituania, Ukraine, ... . We had a good place to do our activities and to learn each one each others. In this session we learn all the details about the different projects in Spain for the EVS. Then we talk about the cultures how to understand, how to accept the others, it means tolerance. Furthermore we have some pratical informations in order to realize the best EVS, We have seen how to cook Spanish food, how to be protected by AXA insurance. We did lots of games to learn in a pedagogic way the serious subjects. For example quizz, sillas musicales,... . Also we have visited Toledo's monuments like churchs, synagogues and protection walls of the city. After you can learn more about this ...

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...