Social Educator Abroad

Last days in Minnesota

2012-01-23T18:14:00.004-06:00

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

2011-12-15T21:44:00.003-06:00

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!

Welcome to the United States of America!

2011-10-31T21:36:00.027-05:00

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...

2010-10-10T13:13:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-20T18:48:00.163-05:00

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.

Seminar Engaging Youth and the World

2010-05-04T11:31:00.002-05:00

The Development Education seminar ‘Engaging with Youth and the World’ took place on the 29th and 30th April in the Emmaus Centre, in Swords.

The event looked at the new European Youth Strategy, from the perspectives of the actual policy and the practical implementation of it.

With regard to the policy, you might find it useful to take a look at the European Youth Strategy which you can find at: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-policies/doc1716_en.htm

During the seminar, regarding to the European Youth Strategy, we focussed our work in the 1 of the 8 aspects or ‘fields of action’ of the European Youth Strategy called ‘Youth and the World’. To know more about this, you can visit: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-policies/doc1701_en.htm

The different Roundtables we did about this topic were:

Ø Roundtable 1: How is the European Youth Strategy relevant to my youth work?

Ø Roundtable 2: Exploring ‘Youth and the World’ field of action and its implication for youth work

Ø Roundtable 3: Identify concrete recommendations for implementing the ‘Youth and the World’ field of action and indicators for measuring impact

The Seminar also addressed how the Youth in Action funding programme can be used to support development education activity.

Information on the Youth in Action funding programme is available from Leargas: http://www.leargas.ie/programme_main.php?prog_code=7777&Submit=GO who manage a number of the Youth in Action programmes in Ireland.

An Executive Agency of Youth in Action manages some of the Youth in Action programmes centrally from Brussels, including Action 3.2 ‘Youth in the World’. For your information, a call for applications is currently open under Action 3.2 with a deadline of 17th May. More information on this Call is available at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/funding/2010/call_action_3_2_en.php

This presentation on ‘Youth in the World’ was delivered by a member of the Executive Agency for Youth in Action.

Finally, we worked also in different Panel Discussion and speakers at the event.

Irish Aid http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/ and in particular, the Irish Aid Development Education Strategy for 2007 – 2011 at: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/Uploads/Dev_Ed_final.pdf

Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (and in particular the Youth Affairs unit) http://www.omc.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=%2Fdocuments%2Fyouthaffairs%2FYAwhatsnew.htm&mn=youd&nID=1

European Parliament http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/default_en.htm including it’s Committee on Culture and Education http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/homeCom.do?language=EN&body=CULT

Other useful links provided during the seminare are:

· Dochas http://www.dochas.ie/

IDEA (Irish Development Education Association) http://www.ideaonline.ie/

· European Youth Forum http://www.youthforum.org/en

Definetelly, we had a very enjoyable and informative seminar.

LIFT Youth Art Festival

2010-04-01T18:58:00.000-05:00

The LIFT is a Youth Art Festival celebrated in Ballymun. This year we celebrate it for a week, from Wednesday 24th March til Tuesday 30th March.

The LIFT is abouts a youth art creation. The Festival is about exhibitions, performances, concerts, workshops, etc. It is a dynamic Festival where the young people are the main actors and the whole community can join it. All the Festival was developed in The Axis.

Examples of the arts creations that we could find in the LIFT were original hats, boxes with a significant scene, molly dolls.

Although the daily activity in The Reco carried on during that week, we took part of the LIFT and we went with some groups to vsit, participate and join the Festival.

In my case, I could go with the Animation Group, during one afternoon, to the innauguration of The LIFT. There, we enjoyed a nice and emotive innauguration speech, a really nice parade with models who wore the hats, and we visited the art boxes.

Tha Boxes were small wood boxes were the young people created inside a significant image or scene for them. It was intersting to see what they created.

The Festival run during the whole week and lots of young people could enjoy and take part of it.

Mid-Way EVS Training

2010-03-29T08:07:00.033-05:00

From the 26th to 28th March 2010 I did the Mid Way EVS Training. As the name of the Training says, it represents a reflection, a meeting point, a place to share our experiences in the middle of the trip... And how it was said was done.

The Mid Way EVS Training was a way to meet againg with all the EVS volunteers who all of us already met at the beginning of our adventure. Some of them were now already friends. The Training was more relaxed than the other one, more chherful, more fun. The main aim of the Training was to meet again with our collegues and partners and become a helpful hand sharing our success and frustrations. And it was.

It became also a space to share good practice in our different projects, the things we were doing than went well and could be useful tools for other EVS volunteers.

It was also a reflexion about our future, we put an eye at the future when the EVS will finish. We shared again our plans, our doubts, our future dreams. We created a big amount of resources where to find other projects to collaborate with, studies to do, trainings to take, etc.

Again I finished the Training with full batteries.

FETAC Certificates celebration

2010-03-25T08:53:00.049-05:00

On Wednesday 24th of March 2010 I was invited to join the celebration of the delivery of the FETAC Certificates. FETAC is a one-year course of Youth Work and give to the participants the main knowledge, skills and abilities to work as a youthworker. Some of the workers in The Reco and Aisling Project where there to recieve the Certificate. The event was exciting. In the first moment, I didn't know too much about the FETAC, who did the course, how important it was for the participants, etc.

However, the event make me aware about what the FETAC is and how important it is. I think it's important to mention that the lordmeyer of Dublin cames to present the event and delivery the Certificates to the students.

Laurence, the training worker in BRYR, who organised the structure and all the stuff because the FETAC was developed in The Reco, was the first to give us a speech. She was glad and happy because that day had finally arrived and she was also thankful to the students for their participation.

Prunchase and Denise, two of the participants were the next ones to speak. For me was the most interesting words of the night. They emphasised the skills, abilities and changes that the training had given to themselves. They were exciting to have been in that moment and as well very thankful to BRYR, the trainers, and everyone who made that posible.

Finally, the Lordmeyer gave us some words talking about the importance of the youthwork and the youthworkers in the community.

St. Patrick's day

2010-03-20T09:06:00.041-05:00

17th of March is St. patrick's day!! We could say: The Irish day!

The whole country strats to prepare that day some time ago. In Dublin lots of activities are running around the city during that day: concerts, performaces, street art, etc...

In the Reco we wanted to celebrate that day as well. Although the centre was closed on Wednesday 17th of March, we did some celebrations before that day. First of all, we decorated the building and the furniture properly for the St. Patrick celebrations.

On Monday, from 2:30 till 4:30, we did a kind of St. Patrick's day party. It consisted in several performances of Irish dancing and singing groups. A dancing group did their exhibitions of Irish dance. Some Irish young musicians show us some Irish songs and, at the end, we could enjoy all together with some funny Irish dance.

In the evening, during the Open Monday, two Irish musicians came to sing Irish songs for the young people. They started their show, and after a few songs the young people, full of energy, wanted to join them, so they started to sing their own songs and we made a really nice and funny show where everybody could participate singing and dancing!

Let's go the theater with the "Ex - Animation Group"

2010-03-11T11:30:00.044-06:00

The Animation Group is the old name of this group, a new group with some of the same faces of the last months, but as well with lots of new people. Nowadays, the "Ex - Animation Group" consists of around twenty young people, all the new people arrived during January and February. Now, we are trying to see what we want to do as a group, what interests they have and what we could do to develop it. After some weeks, the young people emphasized a special interest in drama, in develop drama skills as an actor and as well as a spectator, I mean, to join a theater play.

And this is what we did the last Wednesday 10 of March. We went to a previous of a theater play called .... The Group was spectant to see the play theater. We went there and we suprised when we realised that the play would be represented in an old church that didn't work as a church anymore, but all the structure and the church stuff were still there. It was a church prepared to be used as a theater.

The play was about an old famous story. Actually that theater story was written lots of years ago.

We could enjoy the play, because the actors were really good, they acted very well and the play was dynamic.

The story made think to the spectator about topics as the human fear, the personal intersts, love, discrimination of the women, specially in the 17th century, how far can the hysteria goes in the humans, etc.

Now, all of us know what a good actor is. Next step: Bring the theater in the group: workshops, dynamics, short stories...

Training Introduction to Youthwork

2010-02-23T09:24:00.049-06:00

On Tuesday, 23rd of February, I took part in a training for a voulnteers and workers. The training was: Introduction to Youth Work.

Before starting the training, to be honest, I thought that, although that training would help me to remind things that I already knew, I couldn't learn any really new topic. Often the humans don't give enough value to the things that has it, or just use to think that we already know more than we really know. That was waht happened to me because, at the end of the training, I could say that I learn new things, for sure.

The first dynamic of the Training was to write on a baloon all that we are related to the youth work. I wrote, for example: EVS, Europe, Education, Support, etc. After that, and comparing what the people had written I realized how your background, age, experience, culture, etc. put you in a concrete position as a youth worker.

After that, we did dome dynamics to know what the theory of the youth work say and what happen dayli in the youthclubs.

The most interesting topic that I learn was about the community dimension of the youth work. We realised with some dynamics and some discussions with the group that the youth work is, in a big part, a communty work, where the youth work must know the needs of the community, the needs of the young people, the history and customs of the people to work properly with them. Moreover, the youth work generate an impact to the communtiy. Impacts that we can see in a short or long term.

Art workshop for the youthworkers and volunteers

2010-02-11T12:16:00.000-06:00

Increase your skills is not bad. If moreover, you have the chance to increase the ones which you are not very good with, it's a big chance.

That's what happened on Thursday 11th February.

The Art worker in The Reco organized a worshop for the workers and volunteers.

Although I arrived not too convinced about my success in that workshop, at the end I was suprised...

The story was about making hats. First of all, we had to draw a draft of which kind of hats each one wanted to create and choose one of them. Once the hat was choosen, we had to create the first shape, the structure of the hat, and after that, start creating the shape of your own designed hat. The technic was with straw sticks that everyone had to cut properly for the shape of the hat.

In terms of skills, I realised that I'm not as bad as I thought before starting. It was funny, realxed, and interesting.

Although, for me, the most interesting things of the workshop weren't about skills, good and bad hats, or technics. The interesting things were about how you feel when you are creating an own creation, abot being concentrate in what you are doing, about practice the patience and about trusting in your own skills.

I mean, while I was doing my hat, I was just attentive in what I was doing, my awareness was in the hat, in the shape, in the picture, in the tape, in the straw... The interesting part of it, for me, is that it was an inconscious way to be. I mean, I didn't have to do any effort to put all my atention on it, it was just some process like: If I'm doing that, my awareness is just on that.

Otherwise, I felt relaxed, I discovered that patienly and trusting in me I could have an idea of my favourite hat, draw some hats, choose one, and develop a hat, an art creation.

I thought how many benefits the art and the art workshops can give to the young people, although they sometimes aren't aware about the benefits of that kind of workshops or just think that they are not good with it.

How we could do that the young people see the benefits of the art workshops for themselves and they use it?

Junior Cadets

2010-02-05T11:24:00.022-06:00

Junior Cadets is the youth club which with I have been involved for a longer time. Since my first weeks here I have been part of the youth leaders team as a volunteer working and collaborating with them.
This is a youth club for people aged 10 to 12 years ols. It runs evryday from 2:30 till 4 :30 and, under the principles of The Reco, the final aim of these club is to provide the young people with a quality non-formal education service and facilities. A normal day in the Junior Cadets starts at 2:30 when the young people arrive from school and spend some time doing their homework (if they have and want it), or doing some leisure activities with their friends in the pool room, the computers room, Art Room, etc. Every Friday a significant amount of young people with some leaders go to the football pitches near The Reco, where we organize different sport and leisure activities for them. During the year we have been developing different activities such as the creation of Molly Dolls for the Halloween party that takes part every year in The Plaza in Ballymun. A garden project, pool competitions, art workshops and lots more activities are just example of what are we doing in that Youth Club.

On July, in order to finish the year with the Junior Cadets we did an overnioght trip in Wicklow mountains. It was a great opportunity for the young people to finish the year and have lots of fun.

Aisling Project

2010-02-02T14:30:00.003-06:00

Every Tuesday since the begining of My EVS experience I have been working and collaborating with one of the groups of Aisling Project. These organisation is not officially part of BRYR but we could say they are "friends organizations" in Ballymun. Aisling use some of the facilities of BRYR as The Youth Facility (The Reco), fact that ilustrate of how the brotherhood among youth organizations works in these neighbourhood. My role in the group is helping them taking part of the activities and the youth club. However, Aisiling has also its own space, provided with different rooms and a kitchen.

The usual programme of this youth club is helping the young people with their homework, cooking the dinner, eating all together in the living room. The second part of the afternoon is dedicated to do some activities related with the interest of the young people who is involved in the club. One of these examples is a short movie we have been workink in. Trying to create a plot related with some of the young people interests and experiences we are now going through all the different steps that this process requires.

Youth work students in The Reco

2010-01-29T11:52:00.061-06:00

On Wednesday 27th January, some students of youth work from the university came to visit our facility. They made a tour around the building while the Reco, the organisation and the work we do there was explained to them.

After the tour, we went up to the meeting room, where one worker of each area explained them which kind of work they use to do. One worker explained them about the youthworkers, another one about the Outreach team, and finally, we explained them a little bit about the volunteers and the European Volunteer Service. It was late and I was the last to speak, so I couldn't speak too much time because the time. However, I just tried to give them an idea about what the European Volunteer Service is and remind them that it's a great oportunitty they can take. I tried to emphasize that that experience is being for me a way to learn about lots of topics, for example: the particularities of the youth work in Ireland, the main issues they have to live with in here, the strategies they use to use, etc. It was great because while they spoke with the students I could understend a little bit more about BRYR, the teams, and little things that I didn't know. I liked listen the workers talking about their work and the reasons why it is how it is.

Before the meeting, when I thought what I could explain them to resume my work and my experience here I realised one of the things why I'm here and I try to make understand being here:

Remind that there are lots of cultures, countries and as ways to think as persons in the planet, that the opportunities doesn't finish in your area, city or country, and that the young people have the chance to take this opportunities (the EVS is just one example of these oportunities).

Horse riding

2010-01-20T08:30:00.000-06:00

One of the activities that I use to get involved in is the Horse riding. In the genearl week timetable of The Reco there are lots of activities to do, one of them the Horseriding. It use to runs one or two days per week, from 4:30 to 6:30. The young people who wants to participate in it just have to fill in the form some days before and pay a symbolic price. The van of The Reco pick the young people up from The Reco and bring them to the Equestrian Centre. One or two youth workers and a volunteer go with them.

Once in there, there is a horse coach who lead the sesion and try to train the young people to make the activity properly. The young people who do this activity love it. They learn how to treat with the horse, which movements they need to do with no pain for the horse, etc... One of the most important things they learn in there is how important is the concentration when you are on a horse. There is also an important aspect about the intuition sense you need to develope to feel that you and the horse are togheter and you are like a team!

The Irish President Mc Alisee visit the Reco

2010-01-15T11:45:00.076-06:00

The 14th of January the President of Irelend, McAleese and the Lordmeyer of Dublin visited us and The Reco to open the facility up, it was the Official Reco Opening. It was a great experience. I had the chance to see the President and the Lordmeyer. However, I think I lived that experience different than the Irish workers. I mean, as I didn't know even never seen the President I didn't know what it would be like. However, I was looking forward to see her.

Before her arriving I learnt some things about the government structure in Ireland. I learnt, for example, that the President here is only a diplomatic figure who is elected by the party who win the elections. She or he isn't part of any political party. The Lordmeyer is elected every year and she or he isn't neither part of any party. They are important figures as they represent the country or the city but the Prime Minister is who has more power in the government and the political decisions.

The visit was prepared in detail. First of all, when the President arrived, she made a tour around the different rooms and spaces of the Reco visiting some youthworkers and leaders and also some young people who show her what they use to do in The Reco. After the tour, she arrived in the hall, a big space, where some people, workers, young people, volunteers, etc. were waitng for her. She gave us a speech and talked about the importance of this young facility and, mainly, she told about the main actors and the main reason of this space: The young people. Finally she made the Official Opening.

I was really surprised about the President. She was a kind person, she told with some young people, spoke like a normal person and I felt her like not a very distant person. The Lordmeyer didn't say anything.

Finally we could enjoy a really good dishes prepared by the chefs of the Reco Restaurant.

I finished that event thinking how important is The Reco, how much value the work we are doing have, that we had the recognition of the President. Always it's pleasant that a city, a personality, appreciate what are you doing for the community.

Christmas in Ireland

2009-12-20T08:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I didn’t spend the Christmas time in Ireland because I came back to my country with my family…

However, before the Christmas holidays, when we still had activities and groups in the Reco, we celebrated the Christmas!

It was nice. The main activity about Christmas was the Christmas dinners. Every group, from the youngest ones to the oldest, had the chance to celebrate the Christmas with a really good and tasty dinner in the Reco Restaurant!

During the week of 7th of December, I enjoyed with different groups this celebration. I discovered which kind of food they’re eating during the Christmas, and it is, mainly, turkey. They also had a really good ice creams and desserts.

One of the most enjoyable experience I had during this days was the exchange Christams traditions with the kids and workers from one of the grups of the Aisling Project. They asked me if I could explain them the typical Spanish Christmas to compare it with their celebration and to know something more about another country. So me, as a good catalan, explained them the Spanish Christmas traditions, and the catalan particular traditions.

It was very pleasant to have the opportunity to explain them about my traditions, it was a way to talk about me. They were really surprised with the Catalan “Caga Tió”, our crib with “El caganer” and, of course, with the fancy three magic kings and their three camels!

SOME PICTURES

Begining of December: We put "El caganer" in the Crib

24th December: After gave him lots of food to make him fat, we hit him with a stick and all sing a song. After it, he shit lots of presents for us

31 st. December: We eat 12 grapes for the last 12 seconds of the year.

6th of january: We wake up and we have the house plenty of presents. The three magic kings go in all all the houses puttig presents for everybody. If you have been a good boy or girl during the year, you have more presents!

Open Day, we are already open!

2009-12-12T11:43:00.103-06:00

Wednesday 9th of December 2009. Everything were prepared for The oficial Open Day in the Reco... Everyboby arrived soon in the morning to finish the small things for the opening day and to clean the rooms.

1pm. Everything allright, everybody knew where to stay, the atmosphere was joyful. The firsts young people arrived in the Reco looking forward to seeing the new building and enjoy it... And finally...

WE OPENED THE DOORS FOR THE OPEN DAY!

The young people got in the building with a curious smile in their faces. They already knew the building, but now it was reformed, with new furniture, more prepared. Little by little more young people arrived and made a tour around the building. The youthworkers, the managers, the volunteers, and the rest of the workers were glad to open the doors again.

That day all the young people could enjoy The Reco again. The youthclub with a new pool table and more space, the music room, the art rooms, the music room, the hall, the City (the computers rooms), the Green room, the Restaurant. The young people could enjoy the restaurant as an open day and they could have a meal in that new space.

In that day I was mainly in the Youth Club, playing pool and other games, and talking with the young people about the new building and what they thought about it.

After the Open Day that finished at 5pm, the usual activity of The Reco with the groups restarted again.

I finished this day tired but happy to see the reason of all the previous work we did preparing the building. The young people are the reason and they were joyful with the new space. It was pleasant to be there.

The only think I continued thinking once the day finished, was how to transmit to the young people the need to be respectful and take care of The Reco. They already know that need but sometimes it's necessary to remind it because The Reco is like a big house inhabited for a lots of people. It's something like:

If you take care of your space, you are caring of yourself.

Moving to the "new - old" Reco

2009-12-08T18:10:00.002-06:00

Since I arrived, at the beginings of October, The Reco had been doing its activities in another building. I didn't know how was the new building but everybody was talking about it and looking forward to going back there. Let me explain... Before I arrived and for many years, The Reco was in a big building that recently had to be reformed for a safety reasons. So I arrived when that building was being reformed.

At the ends of November the works were almost finished and we started preparing the moving days. It meant to make some meetings to arrange the dates and all the steps we had to follow to move back. Since the last week of November until the 8th of December we did all that work. The hardest week was the last before the Opening Day. In those week I painted radiators and walls, prepared some furniture, helped organising all the stuff, cleaned, etc.

This moving was an opportunity to make of it a chance to give to the building a new atmosphere and to change some things for the benfit of the young people who are using it.

Everybody worked hard to have the new building prepared as soon as possible. It was also a good experience to work with the workmates that I don't use to, to know them a little bit more, and for me, to know the building, apreciate and respect it and feel it as an important part of my work. I think that helped me to understand the need to encourage the young people because they respect the building as it's essential to carry the activities on.

The temporary Reco

The Reco

Volunteer Fair

2009-11-20T10:42:00.001-06:00

In two occasions I had the opportunity to participate in a volunteer event in the Universities. These events were meetings in the universities, where a lot of organisations that are working with volunteers had their own tent to present themselves to the students. There was all kind of organisations. The aim of these events was to show which kind of work these organisations are doing and to give a chance to the students who are interested in volunteering. Actually, there were lots of organisations who are giving the chance of volunteering with them.

My experience was interesting. In one hand, I had the chance to know the university and to speak with the students about BRYR, The Reco, volunteering, and in the other hand, I could show them what the European Volunteer Service is and talk a little bit about my experience, even though my experience was short! I realized that lots of young people don’t know about the EVS, and some of them were really surprised when they found out this opportunity…

One of these events was in the DCU (Dublin City University), and the other one was in Trinity College.

I finished these events thinking how the EVS could be more accessible to the young people… It’s a big and a fantastic opportunity, but it’s still not widely known…

Zombies from the Block

2009-11-15T13:37:00.001-06:00

One of the groups that I'm involved with is the Animation Group. A group of young people with two leaders that aims to create and have fun with their imagination and the digital tools they have around. It means that they try to think about they would like to do, and after this first ideas they start the project. Let me explain, for example, what we were doing during the October...

The group was interested in creating a short movie. As we were near the Halloween dates, they decided to create a movie about Zombies... However this story had to have something about Ballymun. So the Movie would be about "Zombies from the Block" and it would be filmed in Ballymun, in The Reco and in the blocks. We started thinking about the screenplay. We decided the characters and we spent a week writing the screenplay.

After that, the funniest but the hardest work: Filming. We spent some weeks filming, trying to get the best version of the film. The young people maked up, dressed up and acted as a real zombies... They were a busy sessions finishing late but everybody were really implicated and all of us wanted to get the film for the Otherworld Festival, in the October 31st, to show it to everybody in the big screen.

I really enjoyed those days taking part of the activty of this group. Even I could participate as an actor in the movie!!

It was really joyful all the process and the end at the big square fool of people, and the big screen showing them the movie "Zombies from the block".

Ireland, first month...

2009-11-10T13:01:00.008-06:00

After the first month, obviously… lots of things have happened!

Summary:

After a month… heavy rainy and windy weather, they’re still driving for the left side, I’m still having long conversations with the bus drivers, I’ve met European people, I live in a house and I’ve a room, I got a broadband mobile, so I’ve Internet when/where I want, I realized that sometimes in Ballymun there are horses and hens around the sreets, I have an English teacher, I’m thinking of buying a bicycle, I eat more potatoes every day, I’ve known the house parties, I’ve known the police (luckily no for any bad reason!) and I celebrated my Birthday, yeah!

My house and the room

Yes, I have a room, in Collinswood. The one that I told you about the guys that are looking the Champions League matches, the cheap one, so that’s my house. The room is pretty small, but cheap, cossy and nice. It has a bed, a table and a cupboard to put my clothes and stuff in.

The house is inhabited by 4 Irish people (3 men and a woman) and me. At the beginning they seemed to be shy and not so sociable, but day by day they are nicer with me. The last Friday we played Poker… and I won!

They are Irish people, a bit older than me, who works in a usual timetable (from 9 to 7, aprox.) and during the weekdays I don’t see them so much… They arrive in the afternoon, and I work in the afternoon.

I hope it’ll change but, you know… when you are in a new country, where everything is new, where you have to speak, listen and think (just a little bit) in an other language, you realize that it tires more that it seems so I need to sleep long hours at the moment!! But it’s gorgeous! The truth is that I sleep very well, during the morning I can’t hear anything, just sometimes the soft noise of the rain making “tic tac tic tac” when it beats the window, then I open one eye, look outside and say to myself: half an hour more…

Halloween and a perfect Birthday

Halloween… The Irish people are really looking forward enjoying Halloween. They dress the houses, dress up themselves and make lots of things. In the Reco we were developing a dolls called molly dolls, they were dolls made by clothes. The technique was cut a DL clothes giving them a body shape, then, sewing the clothes putting them together. They had to let a hole in the head of the molly doll to put the scum of a pillow in. After it, they finish sewing until the end. Then, the funniest work: decorate the doll putting smiles, shining eyes, hair, a nice dress and all that your imagination let you do!

During these weeks previous to Halloween, there was also a circus near The Reco where the kids could go and enjoy a circus experience by themselves.
One week before Halloween everybody was throwing fireworks all over the street, they really like it and in Halloween there are lots of Fireworks. Sometimes is dangerous and you have to be careful!

We celebrate Halloween on the 31st October. The party was called Otherworld Festival. It was a Festival in the big square in Ballymun, where there were lots of organizations, people, cultural associations, etc… who are involved in Ballymun. As BRYR we had our own tend where were all the molly dolls exhibited. During the Festival a there were places to eat, a non stop circus performance, short gigs from the Ballymun young music bands, dance exhibitions from a Ballymun dance groups, dress up and make up workshops and lots of things. After enjoying all the afternoon and evening there, we finished the party with great fireworks.

That was Ballymun Halloween event and my Birthday afternoon celebration. After it, the Dublin night was craig great. All the pubs and nightclubs were fool of dressed up people and the atmosphere was really nice and funny. A perfect Birthday.

Ballymun, the neighborhood

This neighborhood is really interesting… I realized after two weeks here, that sometimes there are hens and horses around the streets of Ballymun. The first I thought was that some animals escaped from a farm. However, after asking a workmate about it, she said me that it was normal because some people from Ballymun has animals.
A part from these curiosities, Ballymun is a dynamic suburb in the North of Dublin. The blocks built in the 60's give to Ballymun a particular structure. I hope I can see more about this area. Getting involved in BRYR and the Reco give me the chance to see the issues that the people from this are have to live with, and to see the potencialities of this area, of its inhabitants, and all the youth, health, social, educational, community organizations that are working in it.

Other things…

I bought a photo camera. I bought as well a shaver that only works when is plugged… and the bathrooms of the Irish houses don’t have sockets… Bet what I do!

That’s all after a month… Well… that’s all I can say just with words!

Cheers!

2009-10-21T09:03:00.002-05:00

On Arrival Training

From the 16th to the 19th October I went to the On arrival Training organized by the Nacional Agency of Ireland (Leargas). There were all the European volunteers who are working around Ireland doing a European Volunteer Service.

We did lots of activities to get to know each other, meet the other EVS projects. We shared fears and dreams, expectations and frustrations, and the most important, we created a net of Volunteers in Ireland.

It was a great experience because I could meet lots of people around Europe and I could know the people who are in Dublin like me. We arranged some visits and meetings with other volunteers in Cork, Galway, etc.

Child Protection Awareness Programme

2009-10-20T09:14:00.009-05:00

On the 14th oct 2009 I did the Child Protection Awareness Programme. It was an interesting and necessary training for those who are involved in the youth work. A part from the laws, rules and regulations that every volunteer and worker must know and apply when working with young people, for me it was also a way to get into the standards, policies and guidelines that are applicable in Ireland & Youth Work. It was interesting as well to know some rates and dates about child abuse, violence or law abuse that has been happening not just in Ireland but at European level. We were well trained about the consciousness of this problems, the way to deal with young people and under 18's in our centres.

Ireland, first week

2009-10-12T13:21:00.009-05:00

Ireland Ireland Ireland…

Buah!

Friday, 10th October, I've spent 5 days in Ireland, and after the first two days, it seems that it'll be a great experience!

Let's see.... I arrived at the airport and Michelle was waiting for me with a poster in her hands with my name and my mother's name, Manel Prades (!). I realized that in Ireland they only have the name and a family name from the father, so probably they thought that my name was Manel Solé, a compoud name, and my surname Prades.

Michelle gave me a lift by car, so for the first time after 30 minutes in Ireland I wanted to get in the car through the driver's door. We went to dinner and she explained me lots of things about the organisation, how it would be in my first days in Dublin and we had a kind dialague, sometimes broken because I couldn't understand all she told me because of my low level of English.

She gave me a lift to the hotel in Ballymun, the area where I'll be working (this week has been quiet for me). Once in the hotel, she showed me my room and she left. I started organising all my stuff...

Ballymun is a suburb in the North of Dublin. The beginings of BRYR (Ballymun Regional Youth Resource) was in 1998, after a consultation process for the youth Ballymun Development plan, which is part of the National Anti-Drugs Strategy.

The main part of my work will be in The Reco, a big and confortable space, a youth facility. However, it's being reformed and we are in another building. I am looking forward to seeing The Reco, for me, for first time.

Ballymun is known for the blocks and big buildings with lots of flats built in the 60's. It's a very dynamic area and I'm looking forward to know more and understand it.

These days I started looking for a room in a shared house... It has been hard because I've visited 7 or 8 rooms in just two days, another one tomorrow and another on Sunday.

I've visited a house that I liked. It's in a quiet area, not so far from Ballymun. The room is small. In the house there are living 3 boys and a girl, all of them Irish. It seems clean and they said me that they are watching the Champions League evrytime that there is a match, that's good for me!
The problem is that they don't have Internet at home, they have an individual Broadband mobile, so I shuold buy one if I move there...

Here in Dublin the rooms are very expensive, between €350 and €450 is the normal price. I saw a really good one but I think it´s too expensive...
So yesterday I spent the whole afternoon visitng rooms. I left one and I had to run to the other one because I arranged two meetings too much close in time to each other... However it was funny. A Polish girl, who saw me stressed and checking a map trying to find out which direction I had to follow, helped me and gave me a lift to the next house I had to go. At the end of the day I came back to the hotel, I bought a Burger and Chips and I fell asleep in 5 minutes while watching an episode of the Young Ones.

In the Reco, the place where I work I feel good. They are looking after me and whhen I don't know what to do or where to go I ask 15 times until I understand what I have to do.

One of the most amazing things for me is the Restaurant they have in the centre. The Restaurant is for the young people and the youth workers. The young people can go to the Restaurant and eat healthy food for really economic prices. However, when the young people are with their group, they always spend 30 minutes in the Restaurant to have their dinner for free. It's a really good idea thinking about the whole needs of the young people, something that I've still never seen nor in Spain neither in Catalunya.

Curiosities:

All the bus drivers help me to find the places and the adresses I look for. Yesterday I was looking for 214 Collins Avenue and I said to the bus driver that I was looking for the two thousand and fourteen, this question surprised the driver, who put his glasses on, stopped the bus in the next bus stop and started looking at my map and saying: "I think Collins Avenue doesn't have 2000 numbers..." And I said: "Yes yes, sure, I'm looking for the two thousand and fourteen!". At the end he asked me if he could see the adress I had written and he saw 214 in my notebook, and he just said: "Two thousand?!! It's two hundred!!" So, both started laughing without stopping, while he was driving and going everytime far and far away of my destiny.

Next weekend I will meet a friend of mine who is living in Belfast, she will come to Dublin. I'm really looking forward to seeing her. At the moment I don't have anyone to go out with at the weekend and I need someone to explain this amazing first week!

They are driving in the left lane... It's crazy. When I want to cross the street I've to look both directions.
I always want to enter the cars for the driver door...
The weather is strange, but not so bad, we will see. For the moment I've had 3 sunny days and two rainy days... Now is raining...

Cheers!