Last days in Minnesota

Well, after almost 3 months in Minnesota it seems that we are moving. The fact is that we will change the agency we work for, the new placement will be Maine, sorrounded by the same amount of snow as we have here, but with other GEO fellows who live around the area. The reasons why we are moving are different and diverse. I just want to point that these 3 months have been very hard sometimes, but that I have also learnt profesional and personel things that I bring with me. I also feel thankful for the people whi has helped us and tried to make our stay nice and warm. But sometimes in life there are things that don't work and it is not anybody's fault.

This last 3 months we've been working a lot. I have had the chance to know different parts of the agency, different programs with different kind of clients, less restrictive environments.

The American working environment is still sometimes difficult to understand for me, and sometimes amazing. Here is normal that the Youth Counselors don't have any degree or studies related with the job they are doing, and is also very common that the people need to have 2, or even sometimes 3 jobs.

It still aplies the rule that the Americans are very nice in words but sometimes they don't really mean what they are saying. Once you get used you understand when it is real and when it is just politeness.

Unfortunatelly, two of the GEO fellows who were with us left by the end of December, that was one of the things that made these times even more hard. Lonelyness is something we can feel here, and sometimes have been hard to handle.

Looking forward to start a new episode of this adventure in Maine!

Here two nice pictures of Minnesota. The first one, the average temperature of these days in Celsius, the second one, standing on the water of Mississipi River!

One month and a half in Minnesota

It’s been already more than one month and a half, and good news, I’m sill here, bad news, some things are not like we expected… It would be a long and boring story telling everything that worries and dislikes us, so I’ll try to make it easy.

Well, in general terms, the Social American System and the educational methods used in this country are not the same as the ones we use in South Europe. I’m working in a Juvenile Center, I understand that some restrictive settings need to apply, however, there are some things that I think could be different.

The American culture is also surprising me. First of all, I’m realizing that the Americans not always mean what they say, mostly in the working environment. This is the place of the forms, the trainings, the offices and papers. Another thing is what happens on the floor, day by day, when it’s time to do what is written on the paper and said in the training. You can sometimes be pissed when you realize it but you are not prepared to understand it yet.

My European fellows who share this experience are great and we get on really well, bad news, two of them are leaving soon, they have realized this is not what they expected and other issues that can not be solved here have raised, so they need to go back home. Each one has their own trip. I will not lie though if I say that all of us think about staying longer or going back home very often.

My option has been staying for now, I decided not to take any decision until two or three months have passed… Anyway, in Spain the general financial and social situation it is not great.

The Americans tell us that it is being a very warm December so far, that we should be freezing and with more snow than there is now. The average temperature now is -7ºC, getting colder in the night, and the worst still has to come. At least, as you can see in the picture when FCBarcelona plays they keep me warm! Visca el Barça in the USA!

And when FCBarcelona is not playing we just enjoy our talent The Trumpet Man who also keeps us warm! Enjoy the video and his amazing talent!

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Welcome to the United States of America!

After several and uncountable ups and downs in the process to get the J1 Visa, after 12 weird but intense 12 months in Barcelona working hard, having lots of fun and new adventures, but also with my head and heart willing to be in the States, I made it, I finally was there. I could not believe I was at Barcelona Airport again, but this time to take a flight that would bring me far away for a little while, for a long time actually... Nerves, feelings, sadness and joy, exhausted but full of energy, I barely slept last night.

Barcelona airport was nice, as usual, I really tasted for the last time in a long time the lovely feeling of being at a known place, where you can expect what will happen, what the people will do, how they will react. I bought the newspaper, as I always do before taking a long trip or a significant day for me, check in my luggage, passed the security control and left Barcelona. Maybe I should say fortunatelly, it was bloody raining and the weather wasn't sweet at all, fact that decreased my nostalgic feeling of leaving my sunny and warm land.

The first flight brought me to Frankfurt, an enormous airport, the biggest in Europe. I had there 6 never ending hours for the next connection flight. I "Germanly" waited at the airport till I couldn't be polite anymore and I lied down on the chairs to have a nice rest. The last night party drinks and the lack of sleep started to be hard. When I woke up the gate was full of people. We were about to get in the plane. The megaphone system anounced that the plane was fully-booked so we were allowed to bring just one bag inside. I had two. Couldn't do them smaller, couldn't fit them in one. I just got in with my fingers crossed and my two bags: -"Good evening Sir", -"Good evening madame" (smiling and "good lad" face). I was in. I found my place, it was at the window, near an American man in his fifties... A pillow, headphones, book, personal notebook, and myself... Here we go America!

My friend F. was waiting for me at Boston Airport. It was one of the nicest and warm welcomes ever, not because anything amazing happened, he was just waiting there for me, but if not amazing it really was very specail for me to have someone ready to pick me up at the airport when I landed for first time in the States, and not only this, but also to host me at his lovely house for the forst three nights. That was definetelly, the best jet lack I ever had. If I landed at Boston then, Connecticut was the first State I was and when I saw the first big snow storm. There I spent Halloween with my Spanish friend, being advised, recieving some tips, and having a warm weekend.

On Monday the 31st, the official day of the Program, I took a train from New London to Boston. In Boston all the GEO Fellows met. I should mention that GEO is the organization that selected and hosted as a fellows for this Profesional Exchange. http://www.geopportunities.org/. Once we all met, we went to Worcester, where an Orientation week waited for us. The week was nice, funny and helpful. There we arranged practical stuff as paper work, forms to fill in for the Immigration offices, more forms to fill in for the taxes, some other forms to fill in for him, other forms to fill in for her, some other form to fill in for them, but most of all, we got to know each other: the fellows going to DC, the fellows going to Massachusetts, the ones going to Maine, to New York, and us, the ones going to Minnesota!

After this week, we all left Worcester and went to our destinations. The ones going to Minnesota we took a plane to Minneapolis. Once there, we stayed at a hotel while we were setting a bank account and having our cars ready to pick. Once we did that, we finally drove to Grand rapids, MN, our final destination!

I will avoid here a large explanation of facts and feelings about how we found our house, I'll just say that we spent the first 48 hours cleaning and getting rid off all the rubish! Then, we could start to think that this could be our house for some months! I long journey was ans is waiting for us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt4EhV_xw-0

Closing time...

The next lines set out to examine and evaluate how my EVS experience has reached the objectives I had at the beginning throughout a description of the key competences pointed by the "Youthpass" which describe best the experience and the learning outcomes gained during the project.

The educational benefits of the Key Competences are linked with the set learning objectives I made at the beginning and integrating them with my volunteer learning process.

Communication in mother tongue

My mother tongues, Catalan and Spanish, have been both present during my EVS experience.

First of all, during my conversations over the phone or Internet with my family and friends I have been speaking in my mother tongues, fact that has made me feel closer to my family and, in some way, still close to my traditions through using the humour, the language, the expressions, etc.

On the other hand, the several trips that friends and family made to visit me in Dublin have helped me also to communicate in my mother tongue. I have used my mother tongues to translate into them from English when friends from my country could not understand, helping them to be more integrated with the culture.

Moreover, I have taught many times different songs from my country and explaining and sharing the meaning of their lyrics.

Finally, I have used my mother tongues in several times and it has been useful for me to show to some natives and young people how rich but sometimes difficult it is the process of learning and understanding a new language.

Communication in foreign language

Since the first day when I arrived in Dublin I needed to develop and comunicate in a foreign language, in this case, in English. I had to develop my own skills and abilities to built up my learning on a daily atmosphere with native people, fact that involves other related abilities.

This learning has provided me with a global understanding of other aspects around the culture and the language. In this sense, I had to change my point of view in several points and understand the general use of the language through, for example, the use of the humour in the Irish culture, the different expressions used specially in a specific area, or the use of the slang in a youth environment.

Related to the last point, it needs to be said that working with young people in a specific area in the North of Dublin has not been easy for me sometimes in terms of understanding how they speak and the use of the language in this specific environment. That's why, since the first moment, I had to develop the capacity of a really active listening in order to understand and be aware of what was being said in every moment.

In reference to the more academic learning of the language, I took some lessons at the begining of my EVS with a native teacher and, several months later, I took a specific course to prepare myself for the Cambridge Exam in Advanced English.

Last but not least, I would like to point how rich has been the opportunities that I had to listen Irish and speak about how the Irish language has been used during the history in the country. I had some interesting conversations to understand the reality in this country, at the same time that gave me the chance to speak about my country and my nation, Catalunya, where we also have our particular language, the Catalan, and our cultural identity and expressions.

Mathematical competence and basic competence in science and technology

The EVS experience in its global understanding has been constantly a challenge and the chance to develop the logic thinking both sorting daily issues related with the youth work that requires immediate solutions and the daily organization of my life and all its aspects in general.

Organizing  and planing my monthly allowance in order to cover all my expenses with no problems but also managing the money to have enough to enjoy the experience has been something that I have been doing during my whole EVS. In this sense, I have improved my capacity of solving problems finding always the best solution and I feel I have learnt a wide range of abilities that now I am able to use in the future.

The use of the new technologies in the organization I have been working with has given me the chance to develop this skills also in this context. I have been helping the young people on how to use the computer and graphic programs to create new materials. For instance, I have been helping young people in the use of different programs to create a poster or some material for a competition entry.

Digital competence

The digital competence is something that has been greatly present in my EVS experience. The use of the Internet in various fields and different ways, and the specific initiative taken as the creation of a blog to reflect my experience are just some examples.

The email has been something needed to develop my work experience that I used to communicate and exchange informations with my mentor, youth workers, colleagues, and to recieve training opportunities. 

I have been involved in the CITY project of the organization, where we have been developing several digital projects and providing the young people with access to Internet and different technical equipment, 

such as Apple Macs, video cameras, digital cameras and some basic graphic design programmes. The collaboration in this area has meant for me the opportunity to participate in digital projects as the creation of a short movie with young people from Ballymun, short movie that was projected during the Otherworld Festival for Halloween 2009.

In addition, during my whole EVS I created and managed a personal blog where I have been uploading all the relevant information and experiences that I have had. Linking this blog to the website of the organization made this blog and my general experience not only more accessible and understandable to the young people and everybody interested in it, but it has also become a way to promote the existence and the numerous advantages of the EVS as a programme. https://manelsole.blogspot.com

Last but not least, the personal use of Internet and the computer in my personal environment has been essential to develop these skills and keeping in contact with my family and friends using tools and implements of the net in order to contact them.

Learning to learn

Before starting the EVS I already thought and formulated what my objectives for the experience were. Some of them were improving my English, contrasting and complimenting my work experience and reflecting on my working skills.

At the end of my experience I accomplished most of them. However, this is not just a fortunate end. The reason is because of the revision and evaluation process I have been doing during the whole experience thinking how the things could improve and looking for the reasons of my succees or frustrations.

It is needed to be said the fact that in a new environment and a foreign country, the expectations are significantly different than the ones that I would have in my country. In that sense, continuous reflections have had to be done in order to be aware of the reality of where I was involved and how it was affecting me, both in my daily life and routines and the work environment.

The weekly meetings with the team have been the opportunity to discuss about our job and how we were doing the work, at the same time that was the place to organize the coming week and make suggestions.

On the other hand, the meetings and revision with my mentor have had a wider significance than just the work done in the organization. That was the place where I could give and recieve feedback about my perspective, expectations and frustrations about the general expereince such as the money allowance, social life, impressions in and out of the organization, level of understanding of the language and the culture, etc.

Social and civic competence

The EVS experience has raised my awareness of the European Policies in terms of young people specifically, and my awareness of the European reality in general.

Firstly, I learnt and was involved in a youth organization, where I could observe, understand, and work with the standards of the youth work in Ireland, Dublin and, especially, Ballymun. This fact has provided me with a general view and understanding of the main issues that the youth work in this area needs to cover and deal with, and the way the youth work face its daily challenges.

At the same time, that brought me the opportunity to compare all these aspects with my own background and experience as a social worker in Catalunya, having reflections on how the whole structure and specific needs of a country influences its social policies and their work perspectives.

On the other hand, I met lots of people from other European and non-European countries with whom I could sahre experiences and develop interesting conversations and reflections about the main issues in the different European countries and Europe in general.

Finally, trainings as "Engaging Youth and the World", "Creativity Unlocked" and the "On-Arrival and Mid-way trainings" provided me with a better understanding of the different options and possibilities that the Youth in Action Programme has. In this sense, I could share this knowledge with other youth organizations in my area that could benefit from them.

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship

The youth work is developed in a team and based on group decision making. Under this perspective, I have actively participated in the group work in different ways such as making reflections, giving ideas and advice on how to manage or improve some specific situations, giving my own opinion or sharing my knowledge on how a similar issue would be solved in my country.

One specific example is how I prepared, managed and gave a presentation to a group of young people in Ballymun about the Christams festivities in my country.

Another example can be found on the way on how I have been thinking on my training needs and interests. Some of the trainings I have attended have responded to a particular interest that I have. In this sense, I have been doing all the process of researching, applying and being involved in these trainings. After these process, I could bring new ideas to be developed in some of the groups in my organization and manage some of them. 

One example of this would be the use of material I collected at 'Engaging Youth in the World' training with a group I work with, the Animation Group. I planned and implemented teamwork activities based on young people resolving a fictional conflict in their group.

Cultural awareness and espression

The cultural awareness and understanding of the Irish culture already started before my arrival in this country. Through guides, books, films, music, Internet, etc. I had already a general idea of its particular cultural expressions.

However, thanks to the attitude of knowing people and my interest about different cultures and persons, I have had repeatedly the chance to have rich conversations and reflections not only about the Irish reality, but also about different cultural realities, both in Europe and the rest of the world, at the same time that I could participate of their costumes as dancing, food, traditions, humour, etc.

On the other hand, one specific example on how I have showed my particular culture was the opportunity I had to prepare and give a presentation to a group of young people in Ballymun about how we celebrate Christams in my country and the significance of this festivity for us.

Therefore, taking part of the festivity of Halloween in my organization and the community, I could learn how and why this party is celebrated in Ireland, at the same time that I could explain and show how the same dates are differently celebrated in  my country.

Other specific skills

I also volunteered with other local groups in Ballymun, working with young people, including the Aisling Transition Project and the Holy Spirit Summer Project.

These opportunities meant I got the chance to see different approaches to how the youth work is done and developed in different organizations that are still in the same area. At the same time this gave me a sense of the community and the context of working within it. Through my participation in these projects I could see and understand how the brotherhood among youth organizations works in Ballymun and what it really means.

In Oct and Nov 2009, I also supported BRYR's involvement in 2 events to promote volunteerism among students. In Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University, I took the opportunity to get to know the college environments and other volunteering organisations in Ireland and Dublin.

At these events, I learned how the organisation promotes volunteerism. I interacted with the students, bringing my experience to those interested, explaining what EVS is, and the steps involved. I told them about the activities I was involved with in BRYR and how they could get involved too.

Training activities

• Child Protection Awareness Training - 14 Oct 09
• Leargas (Irish National Agency) On Arrival Training 16 - 19th Oct 09
• Introduction to Youth Work - 23 Feb 10
• Leargas Mid-Way Training 26 - 28th Mar 10
• BRYR In-Service Training 12 - 13th Apr 10 (including Young People & Sexuality, Youth Work Code of Practice and Youth Leadership)
• Youth Mental Health lecture 13 Apr 10
• Engaging Youth and the World  29th - 30th Apr 10
• Challenging Behaviour 11 May 10
• Creativity Unlocked, Salzburg 12 - 18th July 10

Creativity: Unlocked

CREATIVITY UNLOCKED – 12TH – 19TH JULY 2010

Before the training and the arrival…


One brochure about a training called Creativity: Unlocked arrived luckily to my hands at the beginning of May. This brochure kept my attention: it was talking about a training that would happen in Salzburg, the main topic was Creativity and the participants had to be 25 persons from 6 different European countries (Rumania, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Spain and Bulgaria) somehow involved with the youth work. In that paper I could read words like drama, art, daily life, youth work, experience, material, imagination, create… Definitely I liked it very much, so I decided to apply for it.
After a long application form that I had to fill in, I sent it and wait for an answer. The answer arrived 2 weeks later with the confirmation of my participation in the training. I was happy, the hardest part was done, now I just had to understand the indications, arrive there and get involved in that training which I didn’t know exactly how it would be, a part from a few references and words from the first paper.
After some mails sent by the trainers about practical information, the 12th of July I was in a plane destination Salzburg. Just landed, I could visit Salzburg during three hours in a really hot summer day before being picked up, with other participants, by one of the facilitators who brought us by train to Seekirchen.
The whole group was separated in two different Hostels. I was, with other 5 participants, in the one which was further from the Training building, that’s why we were provided with bicycles to get there faster and easily.
The first day, the first dinner and the first impressions of Seekirchen. Everything was new, but there we were: 25 people with different backgrounds, from different countries and cultures, ready to start building a week together with three facilitators and trainers who would guide us.

12th July


The groups met altogether after the dinner. After the firsts conversations with the people surrounded by Austrian food we went to the training room. There the trainers gave us an introduction about how the week would look like and propose us a general timetable. We did some presentation games to get to know each other. Dimitri, a small teddy bird who would join us during the whole week, was the object that we passed to each other to speak, just a little bit, of ourselves.
After this, each one prepared a homemade post box to receive messages from the rest of the members during the training.

13th July


The morning was devoted to know each other (a little bit more) and work on the personal expectations. The first part was about walking around the lake of Seekirchen (a huge beautiful lake with swimming area) doing different stops. In each stop, four or five people talked about themselves and explained to the group a funny, relevant, important or memorable creative experience that each one experienced in its life. It was funny and interesting, at the same time relaxing, listening the different perspectives that the people can have about “creative experience”. At the same time, little by little, I could feel that the group was opening themselves to the others. Painting on the street, recording a CD with young people, writing a book, knowing people, meditate, skipping the legal barriers to do something that you wish were some of the experiences exposed.

After that, and back to the training room, each one wrote a letter to themselves imaging that each of us was in the future, specifically the 18th July and the training was finished; in the letter we had to explain to ourselves what we learnt during the training and which impressions we had. Once we wrote the letter, we closed it in an envelope and keep it in a box to read it the last day of the training.
The afternoon was spent creating the First Creative Laboratory. The room was set with 6 different stations were, with a few instructions, we could interact with different materials. The six stations were: Creating with Playdo, a free mural with colours, a big mural with wet paint where the aim was to dominate what there was already drawn, choosing a postcard among hundreds and write down our name and maybe a message, write a short message in a postcard and stick it in the wall, and record a 30 seconds video giving a message about Creativity.

I would like to do a special mention to this activity because of how productive it was and how I liked, enjoyed and applicable I found it. Giving to the participants this big amount of resources, materials, places, and at the same time, give the freedom to do with them what each one want, feel or like, was for me the perfect balance between structure and “let it flow” in terms of creativity. Thinking in the context of the youth work or the schools, this workshop made me come up with one idea: The ones who are involved with the youth work should think ourselves in ways to increase the possibilities, to open the chances, to work with different materials at the same time and structure the work related with art skills in a different way, where we just facilitate, help and put the things easy to let flow whatever the idea of the participants and the young people is.
After this first great creative experience with different materials, we set up the space and made the inauguration of the exhibition, where all of us could see and enjoy the work realized by the group.

14th July

That day was also great. We started with a short explanation about how to apply the creativity in our daily life. The trainer explained it under the theory of Robert Junk about Creativity and goal orientation. In general, with a good clarification and examples, the theory talks about how to focus and arrive to a realization phase in a creative process which starts with an open view and a wide horizon. The process, in general terms, takes in account, from a macro to micro, the following states: wide horizon, open view, producing new ideas and options, diverging phase, focussed thinking and converging and, finally, the deciding phase. In the firsts phases the judgement is postponed and little by little the phases are developed in order to reach a judgement phase and choose a concrete action.
Robert Junk exposed the theory talking about three different phases to reach a realization: the critique phase, the utopia phase and the realization phase. Our workshop was focussed on the topic “What hinder us to be creative” and was organised like this:

1) Brainstorming: Everyone wrote down what each one thought that hinder us to be creative.

2) Organising the ideas: We organised the hundreds of ideas by groups and similarities.

3) Choose a topic: Each person chose the group of ideas which ones he/she wanted to work with. Each group turned this ideas in a positive message/wish that we whispered to the “ear of the universe”

The work would be carried on the next day, going again through the different phases, but starting now from the wish that each group whispered, to reach a concrete action.
We carried on the morning with some drama & games… Because the day was all about drama, theatre, improvisation, we started with some applicable games in our daily working areas. For example, we created a human washing machine where, one by one, was adding a sound and movement in a big group figure. We created several washing machines inspired by different words or references, for instance, young people.

A dramaturgic afternoon was waiting for us. We divided the group in two, the ones who wanted to work on drama and the ones who wanted to work on experimentation in arts. I was working on Drama. We work on the Theatre of the Oppressed of Augusto Boal, which is based on:

1) Choose a clear topic: By groups we chose a clear topic with a clear protagonist and antagonist. The topic or conflict had to be clear and better if related with our own experience.


2) Create 3 images or scenes (frozen image) corresponding to the idea of the three scenes: presenting the conflict, conflict, resolution.


3) Develop the scenes with dialogues, words and acting.


4) Show the play to the public. The first play is represented with non stop. After this, the actors represent the play again, this time giving the permission to the public to stop the scene and go to the stage to take the role of one of the characters in order to change and improve the situation of the oppressed.

The topics that appeared in the different plays were bullying, male-female discrimination, architectural barriers, etc.


The plays were exposed…

…and the experiments in arts were displayed.

The night was dedicated to do a Cultural Event, where, everyone did something related or no, with their own culture. Under the management of two great show man and woman the night was brilliant and plenty of cultural learning, participation, drinks, food and lots of fun. We could enjoy and learn Irish dance, Italy way of life. Deserves a special mention the Rumanian community, who showed to the group lots of particularities of its culture and costumes; we could hear Rumanian music in live sung by a beautiful voice, eat Rumanian food, drink Rumanian drinks and see how wonderful are the ancient and folkloric dress from this amazing country.

15th July

This morning was devoted to finish the workshop about Creativity in our daily life. We started the workshop with an exercise to open our mind and try to break a little bit the usual structure of our thoughts, routines and actions. The exercise was based on an improvisation. In groups of 5 people we had to find an object around us and give 5 different utilities for it, none related with the use that the object was invented for. For instance, our group chose a red rope, and we came up with this five different uses: As a firehose, as a horse’s reins, as a dog leash, as a tie, and as the measurer of a tailor. Each group represented its object and the different uses for it.

After this introduction we started the main part of the workshop, which was developed as explained in the following lines:

1) After a process putting the wishes that we created for the ear of the Universe in the first session of this workshop by groups and create different messages to resume them, each person chose the message that each one preferred.

2) By groups we had to draw, paint and stick pictures that reminded us the topic or that we related with it. That wasn’t a mental part of the process, the point was to create and produce images and work through the free association.

3) Once each group finished its poster, everybody made a round watching the different posters and leaving there short messages about its first impression, again with free association and without thinking about it too much.

4) Again with the groups, we had to agree picking two messages left by the others which were different or contradictory, and create ideas and actions inspired by them.


5) After a few minutes with this task, we carried on with it, but now trying to be more and more concrete and push ourselves to come up with concrete actions.


6) Finally, and after creating different ideas and concrete actions, each person individually chose a personal project, idea or action for themselves, something that you compromise with yourself to do in order to improve or nurture your creativity in your daily life.

The afternoon was dedicated to visit the Modern Art Museum of Salzburg and enjoy the amazing city of Salzburg.

16th July

The Open Space Technology is a new way to run workshops, chats, speaking, etc. It’s about create an atmosphere and an environment free enough and enough structured because the learning, the interaction, the links and everything that doesn’t happen during the structured training has the chance to occur. It was invented by a group of people who realised that during the coffee breaks, the informal conversations, the dinners, etc. is when the most important learning and experiences happen.
In a practical way, despite this process may has lots of shapes and structures, it use to be a day full of workshops, chats, spaces, etc. provided and run by the participants, where the person interested or expert in the topic is offered as a facilitator.
The Open Space was something that should be run by the participants and nobody knew how it would be. By the end of the day everybody was really satisfied about it and all the learning that it provided.

The principles of the Open Space Technology, by Harrisson Owen, are:


- Whoever comes are the right people.
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
- When it starts, it starts.
- When it’s over, it’s over.
- The law of the two feet.

Let’s see some interesting things that happened during the Open Space day. One of them was a workshop of Dance run by different people. We did some dance exercises to unlock our bodies and stop thinking, letting the body express with its own language. In this workshop, we learnt how a deaf person can enjoy and feel the music with a balloon in his or her body, which help the person to feel the vibrations that the music produces. It was incredibly interesting…
Before finishing the workshop, and in order to find some objects with which we could produce different sounds, we created different “natural” instruments and we did a small Orchestra that, with a balloon in their hands, everybody could enjoy and dance.
During the afternoon, some people still interested in Drama created a group where we shared different experiences and good practises.
A Goodness Space was one of the other spaces created and there we could learn and experiment about different relaxing techniques, or just let flow our body, dance, meditate, relax, or join some Yoga exercises.

One interesting project that one of the participants was running is one of the other spaces we had during the day. The project consists in two questions that each person can answer in a piece of paper. The project tries to collect as many pictures as possible of different people answering these questions:


Why do you do what you do?


What do you want to do with your wild precious life?

The results are amazing and the process really great.
Have you ever thought about these questions?

Finally, by the end of the day, the entire group together joins one of the proposals of one of the participants. The action is called Lip-Dub, and is based on the record of a video clip of a song. We did it the entire group together, separated by small groups; each group prepared one part of the song. We dressed up, made up, try the scene and we were ready for the shot! The result was lovely. The song we chose was Shinny people (REM).

17th July

The Youth in Action Program was the star for the morning of the last day. After choosing which action or area of the program each person was interested in, we divided the group in two and we did a little workshop where the trainers explained specifically one of the actions of the Program and resolved different questions that we had. I joined the group where the Youth Initiatives was the main topic. I learn about it; policies, terms, conditions, budget, duration, etc. In resume, a Youth Initiative is a local project for the community which means an exception to the normal everyday activities. It’s for the young people between 18 and 30 years old (although they use to accept projects where some of the young people involved are 15 or 16), it is needed a coach and no international partnership is needed. One important part of the Youth in Action Program and the different projects or initiatives is that they must be related with the objectives, ideas, stars of the Program, which are:


- European Citizenship
- Cultural Diversity
- Inclusion
- Participation

A Youth Initiative should have duration from 3 to 18 months, including the preparation process of the project and the evaluation. Despite no international partnership is needed it can have a transnational dimension and can might involve two or more groups. The minimum of participants required for a Youth Initiative is four young people.
In this space I also had the possibility to talk about my experience being an EVS volunteer and explain a little bit about my experience in BRYR and all the learning process where I’m involved since October 2009 in my EVS project.

Closing time…

The days of the training were finishing, and the afternoon, unfortunately, had to be dedicated to evaluate and close the training.
After a specific evaluation process where we can put our suggestions, impressions, opinions, etc. about every single part of the training, we did the closure.
The moment to remind that on the first day each of us wrote a letter with our personal expectations arrived. So we read it again… And not only the expectations had been accomplished but we could have written lots more about what we could bring with us… My impression was that we planted a seed on the first day and we picked abundant fruits.
After reading the letter we created a circle with the group to express one wish, expression, sensation, or just a few words to the group about what the training had been for each one: Gratitude, learning, openness, sense of group, connection, friendship, etc, etc, etc.

When it starts, it starts. When it’s over, it’s over…

And whoever came was the right people. Definitely, despite a bit sad to leave Seekirchen, the training, and all the colleagues with whom I shared an intensive week, I was coming back physically tired but at the same time fool of energy and good vibrations.
During the training I could learn a lot about different perspectives, cultures and lives and, at the same time, I could bring my experience through all the uncountable number of times that we spoke about my life, the EVS experience and what it means to me.
The training gave me lots of new perspectives, lots of news insights, thoughts. It built my confidence a little bit more, provided me with new resources, reminds me that I am the first responsible to do with my wild precious life something creative and something to love. Opened my eyes to the world, made me more aware about how sometimes I am who back my creativity away, made me see the value of little things that I didn’t know or already forgot, and it broke old structures and help me to realise that everything depends on the perspective where it’s seen.
And the most important, I was so lucky to meet 25 amazing persons from different countries fool of ideas, energy, positivism and love.
Last but not least, I want to thanks my EVS organisation, BRYR, to give me the opportunity to join this training, and the Leargas (Ireland’s National Agency) to provide me with the information and give me as well the chance to take part of Creativity: Unlocked.
Finally, a very special thanks to all the people who was involved in the training, I came back to my daily life with something of everyone with me. Thanks to be there and make it real. Whatever happened was the best thing that could have happened.