Good month of activities

After the OAT and the Christmas holidays I looked at my EVS and realized that I was 4 months in. I had my activities for the kids and I had some connections to schools (mainly Primavara center) but I wanted to refocus on the original reason why I came here; to teach in schools that needed help. The places with the least infrastructure in Resita are mainly two: Dealul Mare and Mociur. These are the places that I decided to focus on.

Dealul Mare literally means "The big hill" and it is 10 minutes away walking from my house. The school has two classes and two teachers. The school is very small but I think the personnel makes the most out of it, keeping it relatively clean and homely. The children in the classes are not the same age, you can have kids 5-6 years old with 12-13 year olds together. This is obviously fucked up and lowers the level of education tremendously. The teachers are very cool though. The kids in the school are smart and funny, sometimes they get hyper active and annoying, but that's life as an educator. We go to Dealul Mare every Wednesday and Thursday around 11. We are 4 volunteers, usually without a translator, and we split in two groups.








This month I usually went to the first class with any volunteer that wanted to join me. Our activities were mostly centered around teamwork, drawing, dancing and music. Sometimes activities can be hard, especially if you are not prepared well enough, not able to compromise and improvise, if you don't have a translator, and in the winter especially if it's sunny outside and you want to do an inside activity. Tip: never lie to the kids and don't promise things you cannot deliver. One time I told them that after the activity we would play outside, but the activity took a bit too long and we only had 5 minutes left. I asked the teacher if we could go outside and he told me no. When I announced it to the kids they were pissed, calling me a liar, some of them punching their desks. It took them a while to forgive me.

Mociur is bit different. The school is not what it should be, and the reality is that it mirrors the situation of the neighborhood. The school is around 20 minutes walking from my house. The quality of the road mainly tells the story. You pass the supermarket complex near the University and the roads are in perfect condition, the sidewalks are clean, no trash on the ground. If you walk 500 meters you see the roads turning from asphalt to old paved roads, that are probably 50 years old or something. They are for horses basically. Taking the turn to Mociur even the paved road stops and it's just a dirt path, which naturally turns into mud when it rains. The school does not really look like a school. It looks like an unfinished big house to honest, that is surrounded by a large metal fence. No courts, no benches, not even grass. Just dirt and the entrance to the school. I'm gonna be honest when you walk in the school it smells. I don't think they have cleaning personnel, or at least they bring them once a week or something. There are two classes and 1 kindergarten. The kindergarten is normal, but the classes follow the same trend as Dealul Mare: 5 year olds in the same class as 13 year olds. It's honestly bizarre. The personnel in Mociur is not so friendly. The lady from the kindergarten is cool, but some of the teachers are not so excited about working there and often times they are unfriendly to volunteers. I am not gonna get too into it but I've seen some shit.

The volunteers go to one class 90% of the time and to the kindergarten. We are usually 4 volunteers and a translator. Mociur is a lot more challenging than Dealul Mare and to be honest any other school that Nevo is collaborating with. You cannot have enough activities in Mociur. The kids are nice, loving and excitable, but the activities can get derailed in milliseconds. If they get bored, switch activity. In two months in Mociur, only one day the activities went smoothly, without us being a bit frustrated, the kids hitting each other, crying, or a teacher intervening by screaming or worse.

I honestly love Mociur. You enter the door a bit stressed, because you know it's gonna be a bit of a war, the kids welcome you with hugs, smiles, games, toys ,etc., you wait like five minutes to start the activity, often times the activity is derailed, people are screaming, you become frustrated, kids are starting to run around, wrestle, make jokes, tease you in Romanian, then you switch activities until you find something that works, most of the time it doesnt work, then after 45 minutes - 1 hour you say bye bye, the kids chase you to the door, hug you and tell you "La revedere!!!". Also noone can pronounce my name, which is pretty funny.

When I started the month I didnt really know what to do in those schools, I didnt have the right attitude and didnt have a variety of activities. In February I got used to the kids, the personnel of the school, I acquired a lot of activities and I am honestly looking forward to every week going back to the kids.

On Arrival Training

For the holidays I went back home for 2 weeks. I returned to Romania in the beginning of January through Belgrade. The first week was pretty nice, we had parties, I met a couple new volunteers, we talked about our time back home, all that cool stuff. After the first week I and my flatmates hitchhiked to Sibiu and Sighisoara for the weekend. I am not gonna get into it but it was very nice, a bit intense, and somewhat scary at times. But we arrived alive and well, so it’s all good.

The second week was time for On Arrival Training. According to Erasmusplus.ro: “The main objective of the on-arrival training is to introduce the volunteers to the host country, preparing them for the service period and the EVS experience. On-arrival training helps the volunteers adapt to cultural and personal challenges. It allows volunteers to get to know each other and to build a network. Volunteers should also receive guidance on conflict prevention and crisis management. On-arrival training takes place upon arrival in the host country. It also introduces volunteers to their host country and their host environment, and helps them to get to know each other. Duration is on average five days.” That’s pretty accurate. Basically it’s a seminar in Bucharest where new volunteers go to learn their rights, learn each other, maybe have fun. It’s pretty chill.

So we took the train from Resita and went to Bucharest (14 hours) it was ok though because we had beds and we slept through the ride. We arrived in Bucharest Sunday morning, arrived at the hotel, and went for a coffee in the city. I like Bucharest, it has a nice vibe to it. My room was very good, warm water the shower, comfy bed, clean sheets. Ouf.

We were around 40 volunteers in total from all over Romania. Arrad, Resita, Kraiova, Maramuresh, Constanza, Iasi, Bucharest and the list goes on. Networking and getting to meet other volunteers is very interesting to be honest. You share your experience and you learn from their stories. Some volunteers are in a good situation some are not. I learnt that the NGO you volunteer for can make or break your EVS. Some people do legitimately nothing all their EVS, some do just enough and some other do a lot. From what I got, those who work the most are the most content with their experience.

My coordinators were pretty cool and we actually learnt some things during our sessions. We learnt about rights and responsibilities, the parties that are involved in the whole Erasmus volunteering program, some information about Romania, we talked about experiences and debated how to deal with certain situations. It’s not an algorithmic approach, like if this do this, but more of a feeling through situations and acting liberally while respecting the rules of EVS, the conditions of the contract and the laws of Romania.

The night life in Bucharest is pretty good we had fun.

After 5 days we got the train and went back home. 14 hours again but this time we didn’t have beds.

 

Month and a half

Let’s talk about activities.

It is customary for new volunteers in their first week to choose to go in whichever activity they want to and shadow the other volunteers. In my first week I tried to be active and visited almost all of the schools and centers that were available. The activities are mostly games with the kids, such as musical chairs, basic card games, games that involve physical activity and coordination. Some volunteers focus mainly on having fun with the kids and making their day and some other try to develop new skills for the kids, like drawing, painting, speaking English or learning planets, animals, countries etc.

Both approaches seem valuable to me. Some of the kids in the schools we work with probably come from poor, abusive backgrounds, maybe their families have history of violence, poverty, drug abuse. They go to schools that have little to no infrastructure (you would be surprise at the state some of the poorer schools are at) and some of their teachers are complete pieces of shit. For these kids, having a volunteer come at their class with energy and positivity may be the only time in their day that someone is gonna treat them with love and respect. Case in point: the students from the poorer communities are the ones that get more excited when they see us. They hug, kiss, run around excited, high fives all around, generally they seem genuinely happy. They may react like this because the teachers tell them to (highly doubt), or because it means that they don’t have to have a lesson any more (probable), but I have a strong feeling that they enjoy the company of the volunteers. And especially some of the volunteers here, who treated the children with love and respect, they were paid back by the children ten-fold.

The educational approach is also valid for me. The context in which we operate is not formal, meaning that the information that the kids receive from us does not come with a certificate in the end of the year. But that doesn’t mean that in the 45 minutes you have with them that you cannot teach them something. We have volunteers who draw with the kids, teach them how to walk in a busy street, how the traffic light works, what drugs do to your body, how smoking affects your life, the names of the planets in the solar system, how to introduce yourself in English and the list goes on. The teachers in the schools are bound by the formal curriculum and the educational practices that are dictated by the government. We, the volunteers, have a lot more freedom, and a very meaningful way to exercise this freedom is to try to cover the gaps of the mainstream educational system, even if it’s for a couple of hours a week.

The place I mainly went to this month is a center for special education called Primavara. It is in the edge of the town, a place full of trees, clear skies and clean air. What I do there mostly is that I go in the morning (10 o’clock) and interact with the kids, sort of like a teaching assistant. Even though I don’t speak the language, the best thing about Primavara is that most of the kids are non-verbal, so we are learning the language together. I feel like we are appreciated in Primavara, because the kids show love and the teachers show respect, so going there feels right to me.

72 hours

It is October 31^st 2019 and for the first time in my life I leave my city for a prolonged period of time. I get a coffee from the non-stop outside my house, say my goodbyes, go with my parents to the airport, kiss them farewell and go on my adventure. I went from SKG Thessaloniki to Athens airport and there after waiting for a couple of hours I flew to Serbia. In Belgrade, just outside the airport, a kind man was waiting for me holding a paper that had my name on it.

Naturally, after the long trip I wanted to smoke a cigarette, but we were inside the car. Being the pantomime virtuoso that I am, I manage to ask the driver if I can smoke inside the car. He waives yes. Then I ask for a lighter and ask for the Romanian word for it. For those who don’t know it is brigheta, and it’s the first Romanian word that I learnt. I’m not gonna get too deep into the discussion that I had with the driver with whom I had no common language, but some of the other words that I learnt were masina, pulla, pitzipoanca and cât costă.

At around 8 in the night I arrived at my new house. It was raining heavily at the time and I was just rushing to get inside. The first person I saw was the manager of the project, Daniel, but at the time I didn’t know who I was speaking to. He introduced me to three lovely girls, who back then were just new faces to me. It was Caroline, Gizem and Paola. They were very sweet and welcoming and they gave me space and time to get set up and relax. My roommate was back in his home country at the time.

I was cleaning my room and unpacking. I was listening to music and wasn’t really paying attention, but I started to notice people coming in the house. I didn’t really mind, and I didn’t want to object or anything, so I just played it cool and did my thing. At around 10-11 I come out of the room to smoke a cigarette. I see the colorful party lights reflecting on the hall mirror and as I enter the room the warmth and noise alerts me of a crowd of people awaiting me. I enter the living room and see around 20 pairs of eyes staring at me and immediately upon impact the amorphous blob of young adults start cheering and clapping. My reaction was probably underwhelming as I didn’t introduce myself properly, I just raised my hand, said hello, and started talking to the first person I saw. We drank a lot that night and I talked with around 5-6 people that night.

Next morning, I wanted to drink my coffee and, you know, get set. I see the girls packing bags and I was thinking like, “Nice good for them, they are going on a trip”. I ask them where they are going and they tell me

“We are going to Coronini for the weekend. It’s a village near Serbia.”

I answer “Ah, nice.”

 I make my coffee, breakfast, roll my cigarette and chill in the living room, contemplating my new life. All of a sudden Gizem tells me

“Aide Sp-sp-sp Spider get ready we need to leave!”

 I was a bit baffled. “Why are you waiting for me?”, “

“We are going on the trip I told you!”

“Me too? Shit…”

“You have 10 minutes max… Hurry!”

I hadn’t unpacked my bag the night before and I now had to get ready for a trip in 10 minutes. I chose to take the whole bag. Needless to say I made an excellent impression on everyone and my decision was applauded by all as rational and smart.

What I learnt in Coronini: My name is apparently hard to pronounce. I am not good at bluffing games. That Serbia and Romania have different time zones. The names and the faces of all the volunteers and coordinating staff of Nevo. Also met my roommate Karolina.

The only thing that wasn’t so good for me was one thing. Coronini is close to the Danube and it’s a humid windy place. It was pretty cold, around 5 degrees. In Greece before I left, it was around 25. So yeah, I got a bit sick. It took me legit 1 week to get better because my weak lungs could not take the change of temperature and the amount of social smoking that I was practicing.

So that’s mostly it about Coronini. If you think about it, it was a pretty wild 72 hours. Got home, got a welcome party, went to a village in the border of Serbia, got a bit embarrassed, got a bit sick, met my flatmates, met 25 volunteers and coordinators, ate mamaliga, got back home and got ready to start my first week.