Monika‘s and Fine‘s On-Arrival-Training

From September 16th to September 19th, 2014, Monika and I were in a place near Vilnius, called „Vila Nora“ for our On-Arrival-Training. This kind of training takes place for all EVS-Volunteers shortly after they arrive in their host country and is organized by the country‘s national agency of the European Union.

In our training, 19 volunteers from 10 different European countries took part: 4 French, 3 Spanish, 3 Austrians, 3 Germans, 1 Latvian, 1 Georgian, 1 Hungarian, 1 Italian, 1 Irish, and 1 Romanian.

Of these volunteers, we had just two met before: Marie and Javier from the Youth Day Care Center for Disabled People in Panevėžys. It was great to meet so many other volunteers for the first time and to get to know where they come from, what they did before their EVS, which project they chose, and why they decided to come to Lithuania. All of them were very open-minded and nice from the very first encounter. Nevertheless, Monika and I were surprised that shortly after everybody‘s arrival, volunteers of the same country grouped up and started to talk in their mother tongue. But our worries, the group would stay split for the entire time of the seminar, soon were forgotten, since all of us grew together within just a few hours of that same day.

A great contribution to that fast mutual approach were the team-building games, literal „ice breakers“, chosen by our course instructors, Akvilė and Sandra.

The Schedule of the 4 days

Hightlights of the Training:

Throughout the seminar, we dealt a lot with our motivation for the EVS and our personal goals for the upcoming years. We also had the opportunity to discuss our own questions concerning our projects and stay in Lithuania. I think, the tasks were always well chosen and everybody could draw his or her own conclusions from the exercise. For my part, I got to know more about myself and a lot of ideas and energy for my work at the special school. At the beginning of the training, every one of us got a little book on which cover it says „What have I learned today?“. I think that is a great way to document our experiences and personal development throughout the year.

The first evening: Sauna

The place „Vila Nora“ had a Sauna in a wooden house in the area. In its lounge we spent all evening, talking, dancing, and playing card games. The cooks had prepared „Kepta Duona“: fried bread pieces which were spread with garlic afterwards. A national delicacy. The bravest ones of us jumped into the frosty lake after the Sauna.

When we went into the forest...to pick mushrooms. 
 
In the afternoon of the second day all of us went into the forest to pick mushrooms, which is very common in Lithuania. Akvilė and Sandra knew a lot about nature and told us, which mushrooms were eatable and which were poisonous. Having had a lot of practice throughout the years, they were also the only ones who discovered mushrooms beneath the leaves. Those, we gave to the cooks of Vila Nora.


The second evening: Fire night  

In the second evening we made a big fire at the fire place. It was a great atmosphere, everybody chatting about their projects, life back home, and plans for the year in Lithuania. At some point, the cooks brought in aluminium foil wrapped potatoes that were put beneath the fire to bake: another Lithuanian custom. After a few minutes we could eat them with butter and salt. 

The trip to Kernavė 

On Thursday morning, all of us drove to Kernavė, which is said to be the oldest city Lithuania‘s and used to be the Capital city before Trakai and Vilnius. In Kernavė, we visited a museum about the city‘s history and afterwards enjoyed the beautiful landscape behind the town: The hills of Kernavė and the river Neris.

Volunteers from Panevėžys

After having had a nice picnic on top of the hills, we talked to a former volunteer who came to Lithuania for her EVS three years ago and decided to stay and live here afterwards. It was very interesting to hear her story and to talk to someone who could look back on her EVS, while we were just at its start.

Thereafter, our task of the day started: We should walk around the city in pairs and ask people on the street about different subjects provided by Sandra and Akvilė or that we could think of ourselves. Those subjects included the Soviet Union, politics in Lithuania, traditions, and more. My group‘s topic was the Soviet Union. It was a great experience to do that task, because all the people stopped and took their time, when we introduced ourselves in Lithuanian, which we had already learned, and asked our questions in English. Since many of the people, primarily older ones, did not speak English, we had to try our best in Lithuanian: most of the time they understood our topic, while we just understood a few words of what they were answering. All of them were very nice and tried their best, e.g. with sign language, to make us understand.


Our cultural evening 

Our last evening was a cultural evening: Sandra taught us two traditional Lithuanian dances, which was a lot of fun for everybody. The Italian volunteer, Matteo, also taught a few of us Salsa. The rest of the evening we danced and talked. For me, it was the first time to experience that a group of people became such a great team just within a few days. Everybody knew everybody.  
  
The departure and one more day: in Vilnius 
 
Every one of us would have liked the training to last a whole week instead of just 4 days because we enjoyed a great program and met great people. To have a little more time together, most of us decided to stay one more night in Vilnius and spend the evening together. This was a good way to round off the seminar.

Fine