Last post - Reflections on what I (re)learnt while being a volunteer

As I promised, here's the last post to share with you what I've learnt from my volunteering year.
To be honest I still find it difficult to sum it up (despite the fact that it finished 2 months ago), nevertheless I will try. :)

In the beginning I didn't have very clear goals for the project, I just wanted to change my environment and see how is life at an NGO and after quite some years in the cold world of big soulless companies, I sort of wanted to regain faith in humanity. (I know this sounds a bit weird, but if you get stuck in a job you don't really like for years, you get burnt out... at least I did.)
Truth to be told I felt sort of stuck personally too: always the same activities, the same circle of people (don't get me wrong I love my friends and family, but I also like meet new people and I felt I just didn't know where and how to do it anymore), the constant itching to go abroad again and all the what if-s and "big questions" of life. 
So yes, I wanted to get out and see what happens. :)

Well, I'm happy so say, that my aim of regaining faith in people was 100% achieved: I've met more great people during this time than I thought I would. They all are special and each have a lot to learn from. Being with them every day (or on a regular basis in case of my "students" and the ones who came to our events) made me see many things differently, sometimes even myself. I'm very grateful for this, because thanks to them I re-discovered some parts of my "old-self" that I needed to see again.
I made some very good friends and I think it's safe to say that my colleagues here became my local family too. However I also realized (again) that nobody can ever replace my family back at home and my closest friends, who all followed and supported me during this experience. Even if virtually, their presence means a lot to me.

Professionally speaking I also learnt a lot, but I don't want to write a list of the things, that's what the CV is for. Working at a small NGO like Ecocompartimos can be very challenging: obviously not the same way as at a big company, but it does have its own difficulties. Money though is also a central item here: not as a main goal, but more as a constant need to survive and keep being able to provide the services to people. This gets frustrating sometimes, because I think an NGO should not be so focused on money... However, in the current world we live in, I understand that this is the only way of surviving. But still, I find it unfair.
Besides the financials, I found working at a small shop very diverse: as we were a small team, I got to do and see a lot of things and Helena involved us in pretty much everything. And she also gave us a lot of space to come up with ideas and make them happen. Though what really struck me was how hard it is there to find collaborators. I'm not sure why, but it seems that in Illescas if you are not an "insider" you can't find anyone to collaborate with. One time we went to a school to offer them free English activities and such things, and after waiting for an answer for a very long time, they just said that they are not interested as they have enough international activities. This was quite sad, since we didn't even ask for anything in return. However there are thankfully a few places that are open to organize things together (like the radio).
One more thing I also liked at Ecocompartimos was that because it is so local, it was easier to see what problems people really face each day and also the positive impact we had on their lives.

And last but not least I've learnt Spanish, this was on my list for quite a while now. :) And not only the language, but a huuuuge amount of things about the culture as well. Not to mention expressions that I most probably wouldn't have learnt otherwise. :)

So all in all I'd say this project gave me more personally than professionally (strictly speaking), but it was actually perfect this way. I don't quite know yet where the future brings me, but I hope I'll have more experiences like this later as well.

Farewell

Today my project is officially ending and tomorrow I'm heading home. I leave Illescas with mixed feelings: I'm sad that my EVS went so fast and is already over, but on the other hand I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends back home and start my new adventures.

This is definitely not a goodbye forever, as I plan to come back to Spain. But of course it will be not the same without going each morning to Ecocompartimos and see those familiar faces there. Since we were such a small team, this place and these people really became my home and family for these 10 months and I hope to keep these relationships even longer. :) I feel very grateful and lucky that I found such a great project, it gave me a lot both professionally and personally.

Also obviously I can't wait to be with my family and friends back in Hungary, there is no place like home. :)

I'll write another post a bit later about what I learnt from being a volunteer (it still needs to sink in) and that will be my official goodbye-post of this blog as well (however I will keep the page open even after the last post). 

SEE YOU SOON! :)

Radio Illescas again

Today we got invited to the radio again! :) This time not only to give an interview, but also to help with interpreting an interview with 2 Dutch musicians. Since they couldn't find anyone available who speaks English, Raquel the interviewer asked us to help out and we thought why not. :) It was a lot of fun, though I had some difficulties translating the specific musical vocabulary, but I think it went fine in the end.

With the musicians

Of course after the interview we also had our own, about how our experience was here in Illescas, what are we going to do next and so on... I liked it, I felt much better than the first time, more relaxed and I'm pretty sure my Spanish was also much better hehe. :)

Here are the links to the interviews:

The one with the musicians

Our interview

Oh and speaking of Spanish... Yesterday we found out that we both passed the Spanish exam of UNED! :)

June activities part 1 - Ecocompartimos

It's hard to believe, but my volunteering experience is coming to an end... as such, June was a very active month (and full of goodbye events), so I decided I'll dedicate 2 posts to it: one about my last month at Ecocompartimos and one about my free time activities.

The month started with the Toledo excursion I already wrote about, which was a very good start.
Not as much the English playground with the kids that week... I think that was the toughest time we had with them ever. There were many of them and for some reason most of them were noisy and kept fighting with each other. We couldn't get them to focus and play normally, in the end we had to shout at one point to get their attention... it was quite bad, because this way even the ones who wanted to play couldn't. But then the next time most of them didn't show up anymore, so the last 2 sessions we had were calm. At the last one we had a small farewell party kind of thing with food and drinks, and we did some handicrafts with Félix, Amelia, Paula and Daniela, it was very nice. :)

Félix and Amelia gave me the cards they made as a present :)

The second week we had our Spanish exam at UNED... The organization was quite strange, we had to go the assigned center based on our family names and they signed us in by reading off the barcode of our student cards and printed the exam right there... I wonder why we needed to go to specific centers for this. Anyhow the exam was quite easy, I think both the written and oral part went well, but of course nobody could tell us when we'll have the results... so we'll eventually find out if we passed. Or not. :)

That week Helena organized a little surprise party for us too. Sandra invited us out for Friday night for a drink, then all of a sudden Helena, Mabel, Olga and Mari Cruz (from our English class) showed up and we had a very nice evening together. I had some suspicions earlier that something's going on, but I wasn't sure... I really appreciated the gesture. :)

Smily faces :)

We also had our usual English classes in June, though the fact that summer is here is very visible: from the once 10-12 people group we had, now we usually have maximum 4-5 people showing up (and they arrive late too)... Well, last week we actually had only 1 person. :P So I guess everyone is already in vacation mode, nobody wants to be tortured with English anymore hehe. Anyways we have a farewell party in the next class, I hope at least for that I'll get to see them again. :)

There were the usual 2 intercultural chats as well, one about the future and the last one to say goodbye to that group too. We were not many, but the "hard core" was there, so we got to enjoy their company for these last times and we could say goodbye to them.

The last intercultural chat

I'm also about to finish my mosaic classes, but of course not my latest work... I guess it'll take another few months, but now that I know the technique I can finish it by myself. :)

And last but not least, this week was our last week with Helena and Mabel, since they will not be here next week when we leave... so on Friday we had our goodbyes with them (or better say "see you soon" as we'll see each other again very soon), it was very intense and emotional. We got a surprise: a textile bag with our names and a book made personally for us, with everyone writing/drawing something personal in it. It is a great gift, I honestly don't think we could have received anything nicer than this.

The cool bag and some pages of the book :)

A collage of photos I made as the cover of a small photo book I prepared for Dilya, Helena and Mabel as a little gift. :)

Activities in May

It's very hard to believe that May already passed by and I'm almost at the end of my project already... anyhow, let's see what happened! :)

At Ecocompartimos I'd say things go "business as usual": we had English and the kids (this time I finally have a pic with them thanks to Dilya :)) and had the 2 monthly intercultural chats as well: the first one about life after death which was not a very intercultural topic, yet it was really interesting. A lot of people came, so we had a lot of controversial opinions and points of view. The second one was about movies: it went like the one with the books, everyone recommended a movie (or two) from his/her country. I'm looking forward to watching them. :)

Our group of kids

Talking about life after death

Besides these, we had a fashion photo shoot: Dilya, Mabel and I dressed up in some of the clothes we have at the shop to promote a bit our "spring collection". It was a lot of fun and the photos look like they are from some kind of magazine. ;) Also now I know how painful models must feel in those shoes that don't quite fit but look nice on the photos.... :P

Here are some of the final pics:

And some from behind the scenes:

I also helped Charo (our Spanish teacher) in taking over the Banco del Tiempo tasks. She already started to coordinate some things and I'm happy to see that she likes it (and the task suits her too). 

I was asked to continue with the quilling/creative classes for May within the Banco del Tiempo, so I had 3 more sessions. At the last one the girl was so nice, she gave me some of the pictures we made together as a present. And we also agreed with her and her mom that we'll get together some time in June before I finish my project to have lunch together. :)

From personal perspective May was again an active month: the weather felt like summer already, so everyone got active. :) 

At the second weekend we went to a Soul Food picnic in Retiro with Dilya and Amber: there were around 50 people mostly from the USA, bringing typical food from the Southern region: banana pudding, fried chicken, mac and cheese, stuffed eggs and many more.

The day after I went again to eat: this time to a street food festival called MadrEAT. It was very nice: there were trucks all over the place with all kinds of food and drinks. The only bad thing was that we had to queue for everything, as there were many people. However the location was perfect, because it was shady and there was a lot of space to sit down in the grass. :)

Cool food trucks

After the festival enjoying some pancakes with milkshakes :)

The third weekend of May was a huge celebration in Madrid: it was a holiday of San Isidro, so there were all kinds of festivities all over the city. We went with Michaela and Filiz to walk around a bit and ended up in a concert at Plaza Mayor. A famous singer called Ainhoa Arteta was singing first some opera songs and then zarzuela (which is similar style to opera), it was very nice.

Plaza Mayor packed with people

And finally at the last weekend of May we had 2 farewell parties: first for Amber on Friday, as she left to enjoy the summer in Italy in a summer camp. And then on Saturday for Filiz, who'll go home to Germany in a few days, because she finished her project. I'm sad that we already had to start this "farewell process", but on the other hand most probably in a few months I'll see the girls again.

April activities

I think the highlights of April were my Easter trip and my workshop that I already wrote about, but of course there were other events as well last month that worth mentioning. :)

We had the usual two intercultural chats (this month we actually managed to have them without the incredible amount food we always have :D): the first about sports and the second about literature, which was I think the best one so far. :) We didn't just talk about literature in general, but as the 23rd of April was the day of books, everyone had to think of a book of his/her country and tell us a few things about it. 
As a 'bonus' the volunteers in Numancia - Filiz and Emmi - joined us and also another Romanian volunteer - Mihaela - who just started her EVS in Esquivias, so we were a more international group this time. :)

Our very international charla

Girl power: Emmi, Amber, Mihaela, me, Dilya and Filiz

Apart from this we had the usual English conversations and games with the kids from what I still have no photos from, since being with them usually consumes all my energy, so I never remember to take photos. :)

One Wednesday after the games we were making some jokes about spying on Paula's (on the right) dance show, so we got "disguised" :)

Also this month I got a bit more active within Banco del Tiempo: I delivered a powerpoint-excel training and a quilling session, so I now I have a lot of hours that I don't really what to use for... yet. :) Also as Sandra got a job and is now very busy it seems that I'll get more involved with Banco del Tiempo things... it's a new challenge. :)

And last but not least another highlight of the month: at the end of April I got to spend 10 lovely days at home with my family and friends. It was great: we celebrated my father's birthday, mother's day, I got to see my best friends and we even went to Romania for a couple of days to visit some friends, so I had a wonderful time.

My workshop in the library

I'm proud to announce that 2 weeks ago I had my very first and very own workshop of quilling in the library of Illescas. :) 

The idea came up a couple of months ago: when we were organizing one of our English events together with the library we thought that maybe Dilya and I can also have our own workshops there on a Saturday morning. We started arranging mine first since I already had more or less in mind what I wanted to do. The idea got so interesting that I even got a short phone interview in the radio of Illescas to talk a little bit about quilling (you can listen to it here - available only in Spanish).

The workshop was a big success, all the places got filled up, mostly with kids and some mothers. They all enjoyed it a lot and didn't want to leave in the end, so I was very happy. :)

Here are some pictures of the event:

Smily faces with their masterpieces :)

March activities

Finally spring has arrived! :) And our activities continue as usual. :) 

We had an English event again together with the reading club in the library on Friday 13th which was not as successful as the previous one, yet we had a lot of fun. We talked about superstitions from all over the world and then went to the teahouse together for a drink. :)

Our small but enthusiastic group :)

We also keep doing the English games for kids, though it is also getting challenging - in the first week we had again a nice big group, so we played a "human-sized board game" about favorites and a memory game, but then when we prepared a quiz only 3 kids came... so it's a bit unpredictable. Though last time we had again the whole group so we could play the quiz in the end. :)

Of course we had the usual 2 intercultural chats, the first about famous people (that somehow went into the direction of politics as well at one point :P) and the second about Easter - as it is a big celebration here and quite different from other countries. As usual we had some food too, for the first chat Dilya brought some nice Russian goodies and for the second we prepared some Easter-food from our countries. :)

I made some kaszinótojás ("casino-eggs") and potato salad (and I couldn't miss out piros arany - it's pepper cream, very Hungarian :))

Super delicious sweet potato soufflé by Amber :)

As for non-work activities I had a quite active month too: the first weekend of March was almost like summer, so I spent most of it outside. That Sunday I got invited to a brunch and got to know some new people, it was a lot of fun. :)

11 people from 10 different countries :)

The 11th was a local holiday here in Illescas - as I was sick that week I didn't really participate at any activities, but I went to a concert where a violinist with Armenian origin played together with  Spanish guitarist. Everybody was excited about them so I was curious too - and yes, they were amazing, I'm glad I had the chance to go and see them.

The weekend after I went to a free workshop of natural cosmetics here in Illescas, which was interesting and useful. We made a soap, a body lotion, a hand cream and a lip balm. They were all surprisingly easy to make and we got the recipes too, so from now on I can make my own things. :)

The week after we arranged a trip from Ecocompartimos to Carranque to finally see the Archeological Park and have a guided tour about the Roman ruins and mosaics there. It was very nice, the group we "recruited" and the sights as well. :)

Ruins of a temple

Ruins of a room where we could observe the heating system they had back then

Amazing mosaics made of very small pieces

Speaking of mosaics: I'm done with my second "masterpiece" and now I'm working on a Picasso picture... I think this one will take a lifetime to finish haha, it's quite big and with challenging shapes... but let's see. ;)

My newest piece of art :)

EVS mid-term training and Málaga

Last week we had our mid-term EVS training. This time we went to the South, we were in a village called Mollina about an hour away from Málaga, close to the mountains. To be honest I expected nice spring weather down there, but of course as we were in the mountains it was quite cold most of the time. :P However it was very sunny and the few days we spent in Málaga afterwards were the warmest winter holidays I've ever had (not counting Peru, but strictly speaking I didn't go there in winter :)).

A glimpse of the "complex" where we were staying in Mollina, it was full of palm, lemon and orange trees :)

This training was quite different from the on-arrival one: first of all there were 120 volunteers in total, which was a looot compared to the nice family-like group of 23 in Santiago. :) However there were some people from the previous training, so I was very happy too see familiar faces. :) Secondly, the content was also different: the first training was mostly about getting information and this was more about reflecting on our experiences, evaluating our projects and think about the future (both of our projects and our own a bit).

Group picture of all the volunteers

Most of the time we were divided into smaller (~15-20 people) groups and my group was just awesome!! :) It was very diverse both in terms of ages and nationalities (not to mention personalities) and I think we were a good mix. We had good atmosphere and team dynamics even during the "serious and boring sessions". Our trainer Patri was very energetic and she managed us very well, I also think she was a good fit for our group. :) We even did a quite emotional goodbye: we formed a circle and each of us had to go a round with eyes closed and the others had to guide him/her or dance or hug or whatever they wanted to do, it was very nice. :)

The sessions were also interesting, of course we had a lot of games to get to know each other and not to fall asleep in between sessions. And then we were analyzing our projects, thinking of things we could do differently or better, figuring out some next steps, giving ideas to each other and so on, it was quite intense.

My group collecting what we learnt so far in our projects

On the last day we collected what EVS means to us and made a "hot-air balloon" 

For some parts of the training we were divided into different groups: on the second night we had a "CulturCreative" night where we had to present the communities where we are staying in Spain along with the other volunteers from that region. In my case it was Castilla La Mancha and we had quite a hard time figuring out what to tell, because this region has no sea or famous food... and we were not allowed to use a computer or a presentation, so we had to be creative. :) In the end we managed, we found a legend of El Greco and played a scene from Don Quijote (where he is trying to fight the windmills :)). The others were very creative too, some prepared with costumes, some with funny Spanish expressions or some things in Catalan and Gallego, it was a lot of fun. :)

Community of Valencia dressed up as paella and beach :)

Galicia - with rain and some expressions in Gallego

"Sightseeing" in Madrid

On Thursday we also had an activity in Málaga (with again different grouping :)), we had to make pictures and a video to make some publicity for EVS, here are what we made with my group:

And on the last night we made something like a flashmob: we were divided into 4 groups and each group had to learn a small choreography in a certain style for the same song. The categories were ballet, flamenco, robot and zumba. (You can guess which one I chose... ;))

After the training we decided to stay in Málaga for the weekend with Dilya and Theresa (a German girl we know from Santiago). On Saturday 2 other girls - also our friends from the previous training - Anna (from Austria) and Leonie (from Northern Ireland) joined us too. We also met up with some other volunteers randomly as we walked in the city. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend, the city is beautiful, the weather was quite good too (especially for February :)), I had a wonderful time.

As usual here are some photos:

My fake "summer" beach photo - though the kids in the background really went into the water :)

Amazing view on the sea and the city from each side of the castle

Roman Theatre

Inside the Alcazaba

In the Interactive Museum of Musical Instruments - we could try all kind of classical and "tropcial" instruments here :)

The obligatory group-selfie with Theresa and Dilya :)