Trakai and Vilnius

On the second weekend after Laia‘s and Emily‘s arrival we went on a trip to Lithuania‘s capital Vilnius. For Fine and me it was the second time to go there since we had already been there for a night after our On Arrival Training. With us volunteers from the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras” came another three volunteers from Panevėžys: Nadja and Vanessa from Germany and Lana from Georgia. All three of them had started their volunteering in October, just like Laia and Emily.

Before diving into the capital we went to Trakai, which is about half an hour away from Vilnius by bus. Trakai is probably one of the most beautiful places you can visit in Lithuania, especially when you’re into castles. Surrounded by the lake there is a small island you can only reach on foot by crossing a wooden bridge and there you’ll find the castle of Trakai. It’s a really picturesque place and we were also very lucky concerning the weather which made the stay probably even more beautiful. We spent some really lovely hours enjoying the view and the sun right next to the water. Of course we weren’t the only ones there, but it’s still a quite calm place for a spot with so many tourists around.

In the evening we went to the BEEpositive Light Festival in Vilnius, organized by Pilaitė (http://beepart.lt), the project of Laima, the Latvian volunteer Fine and me got to know at our On Arrival Training. At two places in the city, one in the centre and one a bit more outside, there were light installations to look at, set up by different artists. And of course there also was a small market, there’s always some market here. At the festival we met some of the volunteers from our On Arrival Training – it was very nice to see them again – as well as even more volunteers that had started their projects in the meantime. So we were a really really big group. Together we spent a fun night in the capital enjoying all the action going on there compared to our calm Panevėžys ;) 
 

The next day we also did some sightseeing in Vilnius. We’ve been to the cathedral in the centre just at the right time to witness part of a mass. Also we climbed the “hill” (as an Austrian I have different measurements for that term) in the city’s centre to visit Gediminas’ Tower, the remaining part of a former castle. From up there you have a nice view over the city around you so I can definitely recommend to go up once. 

 

When we arrived back at Panevėžys we were all completely done from an exhausting but very funny and exciting weekend. This definitely wasn’t the last time we’ve been to the capital. :)

Viso gero,

Monika

Basketball Game

The day after Laia‘s and Emily‘s arrival we all got invited to a Basketball game by the school’s psychologist Ramūnas. You know, Basketball is a huge thing here in Lithuania. At home, like I guess in most of other countries, Football is THE sport to play and watch (though we Austrians are pretty bad at it). You can find a football field at every sports place and each child owns a football and is already way better at playing with it than I’ll ever be. Here it’s the same thing with Basketball. And again, I keep losing against the children and youths.

So of course watching a game is also a fun thing to do. The children and youths of the dormitory do so about once a month and this time we could come along. I didn’t really have a clue about the rules or the structure of a professional Basketball match but it was nevertheless nice to be there. I’m not really much into any kind of sport but I like the mood when you’re watching some sports event with other people who are into it. I like the cheering and all the positive energy, it’s kind of exciting even if you don’t really care about the result. And also this time I enjoyed to see how excited the children and youths were about this special activity.

Well, the competing teams were of course the one from Panevėžys and the other one was from Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-biggest city (and somebody told me that they were the best team in the league at that moment – but I learned whether that’s true depends on who you ask about it). Before the professional game there was a game between each team’s veterans which was a really funny thing to witness, all those elderly men playing Basketball against each other. I think that game was won by Panevėžys. Afterwards the professional game finally started. As I said, I don’t really have a clue about that game, but I could still tell that Kaunas – whether they were the best or not – is definitely better than Panevėžys. Nevertheless it was exciting to watch the game and cheer with the children and youths for “our team”. 

 

In the end, after two consecutive games, it had gotten pretty late and you could tell that not only we were tired. It was an interesting thing to experience and definitely and exciting evening. But maybe the next time one game is enough to watch for all of us ;)

Viso gero,

Monika

Move Day

The week from 29^th September to 5^th of October was the European Move Week. The EMW is a project that invites organizations and people all over Europe to get active in some sportive way during this week. Together with all the children and youths of the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras” we took part in this project on the 1^st of October. 

According to the task chosen by sports teacher Artūras the whole school met in one lesson down at the lake which is next to the school area. There, all children and youths had to run once around the lake, class by class (for the slower ones or the ones that weren’t that good at running it was just half a lap). Fine also ran with her class, I decided to stay at the finishing line as mental support. :)

What I really liked about this Move Day was that the whole school came together to take part in it. It was something exceptional, something that made this day different from any other one. I think such special activities are very important for the children and youths and I guess that they enjoyed it a lot. I’m looking forward to many more special occasions. :)

Viso gero,

Monika

Sports Day

On September 24th, 2014, all students of our school went to a park nearby to participate in the Sports Day, organized by the sports teacher Artūras. He had made up 5 different stations at which the students had to do different enjoyable exercises. Those included e.g. throwing rings around poles, running a course as a pair trying to hold a ball between two paddles, and throwing a short rope with two light weights on both sides onto two horizontal bars 2 or 3 meters away. Monika and I each supervised one station and demonstrated (and tried to explain with the few words we knew) the task to the students who came in groups of 25 to our stations.

I was thrilled by the idea and implementation of such an event for all the students and amazed, how we could modify our tasks so that every student could carry out the exercise according to his or her own abilities, for everybody should have a sense of achievement at the end of the sports day. I think that the different stations were a lot of fun for everyone. At the end, every class was rewarded with a certificate for having successfully participated in the sports day.

Fine

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

City Festival

Fine and I caught a very good time to arrive here in Panevėžys. Right on the first weekend of our stay in Lithuania there was the city’s anniversary festival. To be exact: It was the 511^th birthday of Panevėžys and the festival for it was a really big deal. For three days there have been loads of people around in the city (later we found out that’s not the usual state) and we had the chance to experience this event during a lovely weather. In fact, the first time it had been warmer here in Lithuania than it was of the summer at home in Austria. 

 

One of the best things about the festival for us probably was the market that’s been set up all around the lake in the centre. It was an amazing view to have all of those small huts next to each other and lots of people strolling around there no matter what time it was. We’ve been there every day and every day we found something new to take a closer look at between all the hand crafted things the people sold there. There also was a lot of food to be sold – meat, cheese, sweets, bread and all – and I really liked how everyone would let you taste their goods to be able to make a decision about buying something of it or not. In general, the people at the market were very friendly.

Another highlight of the festival was the parade taking place on Saturday afternoon. It’s been quite a while since I’ve last seen a parade so I was pretty impressed by it. There’ve been so many groups taking part in it, starting with quite a few people on motorcycles, sports clubs, schools, some people in old timer cars and some history club driving by in an old tank. Also the Youth Day Care Centre that’s located in the same building as our school’s dormitory took part in the parade – along with two of their EVS volunteers, Marie from Austria and Olivia from Germany. All in all the parade was very exciting to watch and although it’s been a pretty long one time flew by very quickly. 

 

Then of course there’d also been the evenings. The main attraction in the evenings were the concerts on the big stage in the city centre. Although none of the acts hit my taste in music it was still interesting to be there. I got a good impression of how big this festival actually is because there had really been a lot of people at the concerts who also enjoyed the music a lot. One evening there was this pop singer guy on stage that people really went crazy about – later we were told he’s one of Lithuania’s most famous music artists, so I guess it was quite a big deal that he was there. A personal highlight for me was the show by Fool’s Garden one evening. Maybe you know “Lemon Tree” – okay, everybody knows “Lemon Tree”, it’s THE song to sing since everybody knows the lyrics. Well, Fool’s Garden is the band that’s responsible for that song and I really found it funny to hear it live. Before I hadn’t even known that the band still exists, or that they’re Germans. You never stop learning.

All in all I really liked the festival. I think it was a good thing to experience at the beginning of our stay, you know, to have all that action around to look at. If you ever come to Lithuania and end up around Panevėžys, you should check the date in the beginning of September and come by the city festival. It’s definitely worth to see.

Viso gero,

Monika

About our EVS

On September 3rd, 2014, Monika arrived as the first volunteer of our project this year in Panevėžys. One day later, Fine arrived, and on October 1st, Laia and Emily joined the group. For 10 months we are going to live together and work at the „Panevėžio „Šviesos“ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras“, a special school for mentally and physically disabled children and teenagers. On the school‘s facebook page you can read about and see photos of their latest events: https://www.facebook.com/paneveziospecialioji.mokykl

The students of the school are divided into 3 different kinds of classes: special classes for students with slight mental disabilities, developmental classes for students with severe mental disabilities, and social classes for former students of the developmental classes who are prepared for a more independent living after school and where they practice to socialize with other people. As a whole, the school consists of 18 classes with approximately 140 students. Each class includes 5 to 10 students.

For the first month, we can visit a different class and afternoon and evening activity every day to get to know all the students and fields of work. Afterwards we will be able to choose one class and the after-school activities we want to support for the rest of the year. Additionally, every one of us can think of an own project to do with the students. We work about 6-7 hours per day, 5 days a week.

During our entire stay we are supported by our project team, which consists of Kristina, the deputy director of the school and our project coordinator, Rasa, consulting teacher and our mentor, Dovilė, the school's psychologist and our language teacher, and Artūras, the sports teacher of the school. With our project team we meet every other week to share and evaluate our experiences, talk about the upcoming weeks and plan our own projects. All four of us are very happy to have such a great and dedicated team, that we can not only ask for help but also joke around with. 

Fine

What is EVS?

EVS stands for „European Voluntary Service“. It is a program for 18-30 year-olds who want to spent 3, 6, 10, or 12 months in another European country to volunteer at a project listed in the data base of „ERASMUS+”. (There are A LOT of different projects.) The traveling costs, rent for the flat, and monthly food and pocket money are provided by the European Commission of the EU.  

Fine

LAIA!

 

 

I'm a person that always needs to do somethings, gain new experiencies in every moment and feel new feelings.
I like to discover the world, and maybe this is the reason why I'm here. For me it is fantastic to learn a new language ,life in a diferent culture and relation with special people that teach me a new things every day.
Only in one month I could see that this experience possibly will be one of the most beatiful in my life and although i have nostalgic moments it's great to be here.
I come from a region called Catalunya, to be exact a small town ,Oliana, a village of 2000 inhabitants surrounded by mountains. During 22 years I have lived there with my family and my friends, although at the same moment I needed to live in the big capital, Barcelona, to continue my studies.
I studied Social Work, I like to think that I can help people to improve their life, and this is one of the challanges that I get myself here, to contribute to the education of children and to try to improve  the inclusion of disabled people.
I don't know how to describe myself but I think that never I thought about this; maybe this experience and blog help me to get to know myself better while you can get to know everythings that we do here.


                                                                        A HUG!!

Laia:)