Leader's Journey TC - INTERVIEW WITH GRETE VAALMA AND ANASTASSIA VOLKOVA

Name of the project: Leader’s Journey

Date: 09^th to 16^th November 2016

Country/City: Clare, Ireland

What was the main topic of the event?

Grete Vaalma: Leadership and organisational management.

Anastasia Volkova: The main aim of this training course was to develop the competences of youth workers to engage and empower them to take up leadership positions and to equip them with tools to lead a youth organisation.

What was the biggest learning moments on the event for you?

Grete Vaalma: We had a big load of information every day and a lot of big learning moments, but probably biggest and most effective were all the simulations and teamwork games we did.

Anastasia Volkova: The whole training experience was very useful and interesting, but the biggest challenge for me was being true to myself in analysing my own leadership skills and competences.

Do you have any plans to continue follow up? If yes, what?

Grete Vaalma: No particular plans but I’ll definitely use this new knowledge wisely and take it into action anywhere I can.

Anastasia Volkova: I am definitely going to use all this knowledge in my future youth work studying and youth work itself.

Would you recommend it to your friends? I yes, why? If not, why not?

Grete Vaalma: I would recommend it to that kind of friends who are seriously interested in management and wanting to develop their strategic planning and leadership skills because it really does that but to those who are just slightly involved and maybe also want to know a little from the local culture, it maybe might be a little disappointment since it is very strictly informative training course about things mentioned before and it keeps its path.

Anastasia Volkova: It would surely recommend this training course to my friends, because you not just get a lot of useful information about how to be an effective leader, but you get it from amazing youth leaders who are very passionate in their job. You will also get to know a lot of good people, who can become your friends and future partners.

More comments or anything else you would like to share? You can add here in your own language, if you want!

Grete Vaalma: Big big respect to the organising team who did that enormous amount of hard work to make this happen. And I’m also glad that I had the chance to meet all these other amazing participants. I had a great time :)

Anastasia Volkova: Just want to say a big fat THANK YOU, to the sending organisation especially Marco for being so helpful and to training course leaders – Sophie, Zita, Steve and Alan!

This Project was financed by European Commission's Erasmus + Programme 

Leadership+ TC - INTERVIEW WITH EGON ODRAS AND ALEKSANDRA MIHHALLTSEVSKAJA

Name of the project:  Leadership +

Date: 3^rd to 10^th November 2016

Country/City: Portugal - Lisbon

What was the main topic of the event?

Egon Odras: Understanding essential key features of being a leader and organizing an epic youth exchange

Aleksandra Mihhaltševskaja: Leadership. Leader’s role. Knowledge and important skills for youth leader

What was the biggest learning moments on the event for you?

Egon Odras: We are all different. We work all differently. We are all part of the puzzle to complete full picture.

Aleksandra Mihhaltševskaja: Thought from the project "most important not what you are doing, but how..."

I cannot choose one thing only. Because whole TC was full of important learning moments. Many good tasks where was needed work in team. This team of leaders, each have own understanding or comprehension about work team and leader role. It is very interesting how this team working...

Practical part showed how theoretically knowledge working when you start to use it.

Do you have any plans to continue follow up? If yes, what?

Egon Odras: Working as a couch on snow I will keep exploring the right balance between the dictatorship styles of teaching versus let them figure out themselves. Have to test different style of teaching to see different outcome in real life.

Aleksandra Mihhaltševskaja: At the moment no.

Would you recommend it to your friends? I yes, why? If not, why not?

Egon Odras: Send it to Gucci Plateau (What means in skiers slang go as far as possible as fast as possible ) why ? Never say no for opportunities to learn a trick or two.

Aleksandra Mihhaltševskaja: Yes. It totally lived up my expectations. It was intense and useful training course with positive mood. It was very interesting time with different, but open-minded leaders from many countries. Good experience and valuable opportunity to find reliable partners.

More comments or anything else you would like to share? You can add here in your own language, if you want!

Egon Odras: Life is too short to do things that you don't like.

A Key to Inclusive Europe - LIIS RANDMÄE - 12 MONTHS EVS IN PORTUGAL - Estonian and English Article

Minu Portugal

Mäletan, kuidas aastaid tagasi Tartus Tiigi tänaval sõbrannaga kõndides temalt esimest korda EVSi kohta kuulsin. Tol hetkel teadsin, et ühel päeval võtan julguse kokku ja lähen ka. Viis aastat hiljem, peale ülikooli lõpetamist ja aastast tööpraktikat, oli aeg käes. Lendasin Portugali, et ühes puuetega inimeste keskuses aasta aega vabatahtlikuna töötada.

Arvasin enne minekut, et Portugal on tüüpiline lõunamaa. Et inimesed hilinevad igale kohtumisele vähemalt pool tundi, vesteldes karjuvad üksteise võidu ja lõunaajal peavad pikki siestasid. Oma suureks üllatuseks  mõistsin peagi, et portugallaste olekus oli hoopis miskit väga tuttavat. Põhilised hilinejad olid tegelikult teistest riikidest tulnud vabatahtlikud ja oma temperamendilt olid portugallased kohati sama rahulikud kui eestlasedki... kui just mitte poliitikast, fadost, ajaloost või toidust rääkida.

Elasin esialgu  ühes Lissaboni neljatoalises korteris koos Itaalia tüdruku, Saksa ja Austria noormehe, Saksa tüdruku, Horvaatia tüdruku ja tema poisssõbra ning nende koeraga. Viimased kolisid esimese kuu lõpus välja; aasta jooksul lahkusid ka mõned teised ja asemele tulid vabatahtlikud Hispaaniast, Prantsusmaalt ja Poolast. Leppisime juba päris alguses kokku, et oleme justkui üks suur pere, seega lepime üksteise veidrustega. Tänu kodusele segasummasuvilale õppisin palju nii erinevate kultuuride kui ka iseenese kohta. Juba sajandat korda köögikapile ilmunud räpased nõud (meil oli isegi nõudepesumasin!) või kuu aega resti peal kuivanud riided ei tähenda hoolimatust. Vahel nõud lihtsalt on. Riided on. Ja inimesed on alati olulisemad kui asjad.

Iga tööpäeva hommikul sõitsin koos kolme korterikaaslasega pisikesse külla Sintra lähedal, et seal ühes erivajadusega inimeste keskuses abistada. Kuna töökohas rakendati gentle teaching metoodikat, mille kohaselt 80% sekkumisest põhines suhtlemisel, möödusid mu päevad peamiselt kallistades, põsemusisid jagades ja vesteldes; samal ajal nendega koos midagi meisterdades, tantsides, kokates,  kohvikutes käies või youtube’st Disney laule kuulates.

Esialgu meenutas ligi seitsmekümne minule arusaamatus keeles rääkiva peamiselt vaimse puudega täiskasvanu nägemine mulle hullumaja, aga aja jooksul sain ise selle osaks. Seal ei olnud Downi sündroome või autiste, vaid erinevad inimesed. Romantik Tomas tegi oma komplimentidega iga neiu päeva ilusaks („Su silmad säravad veel eredamalt kui päike lõunataevas!“), Monicale meeldis väga teisi abistada, Rita soovis saada moedisaineriks ja joonistas igapäevaselt oma uusi kollektsioone, Fernanda armastas köögis toimetada ja porgandeid koorida, naerupall Afonsole meeldis end tüdrukuks pidada ja salaja küüsi lakkida. Igaüks oli oma erilisuses sama tavaline nagu iga teine inimene.

Töökoht oli justkui miniühiskond ja sealsed inimesed pisikesed peeglid: kõik, mis endast välja andsin, tuli lõpuks ringiga tagasi. Kui Gonsalo mind esimestel kuudel nii kõvasti kallistas, et hing pea kinni jäi, sain näiteks aru, et mul oli probleem enesekehtestamisega. Seega ütlesin talle, et saan kallistades haiget ja eelistan põsemusisid. Nii igal hommikul, kuni ühel hetkel mõistsin, et uus enesekehtestamisoskus oli ka välismaailmas levima hakanud. Suurest tänutundest kallistasin teda kõvasti, mistõttu meie oma tsüklit jälle otsast alustasime.

Puhkepäevad kulutasin enamasti reisimiseks. Portugal on väga ilus maa! Olgugi, et väike (kaks korda suurem kui Eesti), on sealne loodus põhjast lõunasse ja saartel täiesti erinev. Lisaks imelistele vaadetele sain seljakotireisidel ka osa portugallaste piiritust külalislahkusest. Kui küsisime kaaslasega teed lähima linnani, viidi meid sinna autoga kohale ja soovitati häid ööbimiskohti. Ühel korral jättis baarmen isegi oma kliendi letti valvama, et ta saaks mulle isiklikult näidata, kus lähim pood asus. Portugallaste jaoks oli see iseenesestmõistetav ja abist keeldumist loeti ebaviisakaks, isegi kui põhjenduseks tuua fakt, et külakostile tulles oli suur oht lennukist maha jääda.

Portugali läksingi eelkõige ennast tundma õppima ja oma mugavustsooni laiendama ning seda sain seal teha lõputult. Võõras maa, võõras keel ja võõrad inimesed ümberringi on isiklikuks arenguks üks täiuslik kompott.  Jälgisin pidevalt oma tundeid ja sisemist kompassi, üritades aru saada, mis suunas see liigub ja kuhu mind juhatada tahab. Vahel olin eksinud, vahel justkui seisin paigal, vahel lausa lendasin, aga alati olin teel. Täpselt seal, kus olema pidin. Portugalis veedetud aasta on kahtlemata mu senise elu kõige intensiivsem. Armastasin, naersin kõhukrampideni, nutsin esimest korda elus ennastunustavalt ja veel avalikus kohas; nägin hingematvalt ilusat loodust ja Portugali elu pahupoolt, sõin maailma parimaid saiakesi, jäin kohvist sõltuvusse, õppisin suhtlustasandil ära uue keele ja leidsin omale mõned maailma parimad sõbrad.

Õnneks on Euroopa piisavalt väike. Até já, queridos!*

*Peatse jällenägemiseni, kallikesed!

My Portugal

I remember when I first heard about EVS while walking on the streets of Tartu with a friend. At that exact moment I knew I would do it one day. Five years later, after graduating from the university and a year full of work, the time was there. I flew to Portugal to make a year-long voluntary service in a centre for disabled people.

Before arriving I thought Portugal was just a typical southern country. That the people there were late for every meeting at least for an half of hour; that instead of talking they just screamed all at the same time and that during the lunch time they had really long siestas. To my surprise I understood quite soon it was not the case. The majority of latecomers were actually volunteers from other countries and the nature of portuguese people was often as calm as an estonian one... unless they talked about politics, fado, history or food.

I lived in a four-room flat of Lisbon together with an Italian girl, German and Austrian boys, a German girl and a Croatian girl with her boyfriend and their dog. The last ones moved out by the end of the first month and during the year some more people were replaced by the volunteers from Spain, France and Poland. Already in the beginning we agreed on being a family which also meant accepting the others with all of their quirks. Thanks to this mixture of people I learned a lot not only about different cultures but as well about myself. Often the dirty dishes in the sink that appear there over and over again (despite the fact we even had a dish washing machine) or the clothes that had dried on a reck for months didn’t necessarily mean ignorance. Sometimes dishes just are. Clothes are. And the people are always more important than all of the things.

Every morning from Monday to Friday we took the train together with my three flatmates to a small village near Sintra in order to volunteer in our hosting organization. According to gentle teaching method used there 80% of the work consisted of creating the relationships and only 20% of technique. Therefore my days at work were mainly spent by hugging, kissing and having conversations with the clients, meanwhile making handicrafts, dancing, cooking, going to the cafeterias and listening to Disney songs in youtube.

My first impression after seeing almost 70 disabled grown-ups talking in a language I understood nothing about was as if I had somehow ended up in a bedlam. Without even noticing it I was soon a part of it. There were no Down syndromes or autistic but people with different character. The romanticist Tomas made every girl’s day happy with beautiful compliments („Your eyes are shining even brighter than the sun in the sky!“), Monica was keen into helping others, Rita wanted to become a designer so draw her new collections every day, Fernanda loved to work in the kitchen and to peel the carrots, shiny happy Afonso liked to act as a girl and secretly paint his nails. Every one of them was as normal in their singularity as every other person in the world.

My place of work was just like a mini society and the people there were little mirrors: everything I gave out eventually came back at me. When Gonçalo hugged me so tight during the first months that I couldn't even breathe I realized I had a problem with assertiveness. So I told I him I preferred kisses on the cheeks instead. Repeated it every morning until one day I noticed that my new assertiveness-skill was also useful in the real world. So from great joy I hugged him tight which also meant we started our circle all over again.

Vacation days I spent mainly on travelling. Portugal is a beautiful country! Though small (two times larger than Estonia), the nature there varies from north to south and is even more different on the islands. Besides seeing the breath-taking views I could also witness the hospitality of locals. When we asked for the way to the nearest city we were just driven there and given a list of the best places to stay. Once a bartender even left his client to guard the bar so that he could take me personally to the nearest shop. For them it was a natural way of acting and a refusal was considered to be impolite. Even when the excuse was the fact that there was a great chance of missing the plane when eating together with them.

The main reason I went to Portugal after all was just to get to know myself better and to expand my comfort zone. This I could do there endlessly. A foreign country, a foreign language and foreign people around you is a perfect recipe for self growth. I was always trying to follow my feelings and that inner compass to figure out in which direction it wanted to lead me. There were times I was lost, times were I felt like standing in one place and times when I was just like flying but all of the time I was on the way. Exactly where I had to be. The year I spent in Portugal was by far the most intensive I have ever had. I loved, laughed until I got a stomach ache, cried once very loud in a public place with no strength to stop, I saw the breath-taking nature and the dark sides of Portuguese life, I ate the world’s best pastry and got addicted to coffee, learned a new language and met some of the most amazing people I have ever known.

Luckily the Europe is small enough. Até já, queridos!*

*See you soon, darlings!

Let's Have a Cup of Coffee YE - INTERVIEW WITH ANNIKA AND JOONAS-SIIM

Name of the Youth Exchange: Let’s have a cup of coffee

Date: 31.10 – 06.11.2016

Country/City: Ankara / Turkey

What was the main topic of the event?

Annika Rannamets – Group Leader: The project subject was coffee. At first, though, it seemed that the subject leans more toward different countries, but the more we talked about how coffee is made in various countries, which have different types of coffees and what coffees are the most popular. We learned interesting facts about coffee, for example, it was discovered Kudas. We also visited Turkey's most important person mausoleum and museum - Atatürk. We also visited the old town of Ankara. The most memorable performance was a treasure hunt Hacettepe University campus. We had to find specific places, monuments and take pictures or videos. Since the place was a stranger, came to ask for help from students.

So we were surprised when we get there and saw – it was really about coffee. We had to find information about coffee history. And all 5 groups find the same information. So some of the groups started to sort out most interesting topics because they saw that all the group works will be the same, if they don’t do anything different. 

Joonas-Siim Kadak: First of all i have to say, that i did not expect the projects theme be coffee culture. From the questions you sent us before the project in my mind did not indicate that we are going to learn about coffee. Even though for me it was really interesting. I thought that once I get back home I have forgotten most of the things you spoke about, but it turns out that I remember most of the things. I am not really sure that I remember the dates from the coffee history correctly. These methods you guys used really worked and most of the time it was not boring, I guess that, the long video you guys showed us about Turkish coffee history was tiring but I still remember most of it.

 

What was the biggest learning moments on the event for you?

Annika Rannamets: I learned about Turkish sarcasm. There was one girl who was afraid of security and was not very sure if she would like to participate if there are problems as media shows us. One night before our trip American government asks their families to leave Turkey. So it was quit risk to join this project. And I could not find courage to ask this girl to join us anyway. I talked with her family and their decision is that its ok to go to project but not to Turkey because unsafety situation. I accepted it. But leader of the project didn’t accept this and I saw the text he was texting to that girl. Those text were misunderstanding, He humiliated that girl for feeling her way.

But it came out that we have had the cheaper ticket – so we couldn’t change her name and if she wouldn’t come – she would lose all the cost of ticket and it was not small money. So finally she was in our team.

Main Activities: Pictures; Coffee history; Popular coffees; Coffee in different countries; Cultural evenings; Get to know each other; Ring Games and Energizers

Joonas-Siim Kadak: I liked the idea of being in same room with people from other countries. To be honest, at first, I was a little scared about the idea, but once other countries arrived I saw that it’s not so bad. Energizers were good and fun; kissing a bottle seemed a little weird but as my grandfather used to say, A man got to do what a man got to do. Being kissed on the cheek by another man was weird for me, but I can be sure now that I’m not into men. I would like to point out the circle we had when we had to speak with each other, when we had to say what bothers us and what makes us happy. If you have 30 people in one room speaking in the same time, it is really hard to focus on what the guy/girl in front of you is saying. But on the other hand we had plenty of time to get to know each other during the week.

I loved outside activities we had, I don’t think I can describe that beauty in words that I saw when we were at Ataturk’s museum or at Hatcettepe's university. I loved that we had a change to move around and do different activities. I can’t complain about the food because it is not in my nature. For me it’s bizarre that they eat so much soup, but I’m from a different culture.

Do you have any plans to continue follow up? If yes, what?

Annika Rannamets: No. We made our own website about that project and we put all the pictures and feedback up there to encourage next group to join similar projects. There was a large interest against EVS in my group – so probably this project made us better people and more motivated in joining other projects and EVS in future.

Would you recommend it to your friends? I yes, why? If not, why not?

Annika Rannamets: Yes. Because it the best place to try your independency and best way to integrate with other countries.

Joonas-Siim Kadak: For the conclusion I can say that, it was fun and really interesting for me. That project was greatly planned. Everyone was so helpful, and never sad. I got a lot of information about coffee and about the types of Erasmus projects. I got myself interested in EVS. I gained friends and loads of experience about life in turkey.

More comments or anything else you would like to share? You can add here in your own language, if you want!

Annika Rannamets: We are very proud to present our website in this lovely week in Ankara: http://minuankara.weebly.com/ Groupleader (15 times!)