our trip to Miegantys Drambliai

Labas visiems,

Christmas time means present time and as a gift to our children as well as to ourselves we organized a trip to Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-biggest city, to the “Miegantys Drambliai” climbing hall. “Miegantys Drambliai” is the project of three other EVS volunteers we got to know in the meantime: Leonie from Germany, Alex from Romania and Milko from Bulgaria. For December they sent out a special invitation for all kinds of organizations working with different social groups to come to their hall for a free climbing lesson. Our “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras” took this amazing chance and together with Rasa, Kristina, Artūras and eleven youths we volunteers went there on the 11^th of December. And we had an amazing time there.

our group with Leonie, Alex and Milko

The whole program during our stay was planned and led by the volunteers themselves, starting from some stretching in the beginning over some games for warm up and of course the actual climbing. For our school it was the first time to do an activity like that so you could tell that the youths were all very excited about it. They definitely enjoyed their time at “Miegantys Drambliai” even though the climbing might have been quite a challenge for some of them. Of course for some it was scary in the beginning to go that high up basically only being secured by a rope but with the excellent support of Leonie, Alex and Milko they all gave it a try. For me it was very nice to observe how differently the youths took the task and how some progressed in just this short time we spent there. There were some who merely dared to go high up in the beginning but later just tried on their own without hesitation. And of course we ourselves also gave it a try, I’ve only been climbing a few times before but I definitely always enjoy it.

After this great experience and having to say goodbye again we took the chance of already being in Kaunas and went to the city’s old town to take a short look at the Christmas tree there. You know, before we had heard a lot of things about how fancy this tree apparently is for it’s not a normal tree but a very aesthetic piece of art. I’ll spare you my honest opinion on it but I can tell you that special really is the word that hits it best. Anyway it was a nice stroll through the old town that offered us a first short glance at the city.

in Kaunas

For this day we not only enjoyed a great activity but it was also special in that way that it was the first time that we sort of worked together with other volunteers from a different project, and this first time definitely was a good experience. If you want to know more about their project or are simply interested in climbing, take a look at their homepage: www.miegantysdrambliai.lt

Viso gero,

Monika

a visit to the kindergarden

On Monday 1st December, the dance group of our school were invited to show their performance for a kindergarden. There were 2 more other kindergarden groups invited. Our 6 powerfull and energetic girls started the performance with their cheerleader's pon pons!
Then other groups were more calm but very sweet. Some had been drawing cute faces and we were all invited to hang on a big train draw. Other gave us flowers made by lace and funny faces.
After that, we had a big tea time with sweets, biscuits, fruits,... our school made a cake (usually for birthday).
It was short (10 am to 12) but nice to see children dancing together and singing!


Emily

Music Week

Laba diena,

Today I would speak about the music week (which took place on 24th to 28th), and especially Wednesday, in 26th November. This day, our shcool welcomed some groups of 7-8 children/adults with disabled for a show!
Each group sung or danced, with or without instruments. Our school well-organised the show, with a schedule, a break for eat, etc... well, the end was more "dowhatyouwant", Rasa (our music teacher) put music known by all the children (as they are learning them in music lesson) and children started to sing and dance, that was really nice and all children were happy.

our school's singers

Afterwards, Kristina, Rasa and our director gave a "diploma" for every groups and a ceramica made by children during the afternoon activity.

That was a greatful day for the children, their performances were pretty good and they enjoyed the show a lot!


Emily

Žymios Negalios Motorinio Aktyvumo Čempionatas

Labas!

On the 13^th of November the “Žymios Negalios Motorinio Aktyvumo Čempionatas” took place in Panevėžys - a sports event for children, youths and adults with more severe disabilities organized by our “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras”. For this competition teams from 26 different schools and institutions from all over Lithuania came to our town to face the challenge of twelve different sports tasks they had to fulfil as fast as possible or with as many scores as possible. So you can imagine, with their coaches and all their “cheerleaders” it was quite a big crowd to be present.

our "fans" :)

We volunteers all got different tasks to support the course of the event. Laia got the job of taking pictures of the competition and you should really check them out on the school’s Facebook page. Also she organized some dances in the breaks with a group of our girls whose courage I still admire – I’d never dance in front of such a big audience! Fine had to supervise one half of the sports hall to see when every group is done with their current task so sports teacher Artūras could give the signal for everybody to move on to the next station. Emily shared the supervision of one station with one physiotherapy student; there was a whole group of students who supported the event by taking care of the single stations. I had the honour of supporting our own team, consisting of six competitors of our school’s Social Classes. So I accompanied them for the whole event, cheered for them and celebrated each fulfilled task with them – quite a nice job :)

Laia's great dancers :)

The tasks varied from scoring a goal with a football to pulling yourself up a bench lying on the stomach and were mainly organized as relays. Also they were variable in a way that everybody, no matter which disability they had, could fulfil them. I can tell you all the teams were really enthusiastic and passionate about being the best of them all, it was a great feeling to be amongst them :)

teacher Birutė, our school's team and me :)

After all the tasks had been done and the results were collected, the most important part of the competition took place: The award of the medals. Each competitor got one of them and every team celebrated as if they had made the first place. Our team was so proud of their medals that I still saw them wearing them at school days after the competition. Which still makes me smile.

I can only imagine how much work it must have been to organize such a big event. I am very happy that it took place and that we could take part in it. You know, there’s almost no “normal” week at the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras”. There’s always some special event happening that brings together the whole school and breaks the daily routine. This is something that I highly appreciate and that makes me very thankful to be able to experience all of these special days together with the pupils of the school. It never gets boring here which is probably only one of the numerous reasons why I am so glad to be at this project.

Viso gero,

Monika

P.S.: For the photos I told you about, the link to the school’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Panev%C4%97%C5%BEio-%C5%A0viesos-specialiojo-ugdymo-centras/1463001787321178

Bočios Čempionatas

Labas!

On 6^th of November the Lithuanian Bocce Championship for people with special needs took place in Vilnius. For this event, organized by the Lithuanian Special Olympics Committee, only (former) pupils of Developmental Classes were allowed to take part in. The competing teams were separated in different classes, according to their age for not only schools but also adults from different Day Care Centres took part in the competition. Our “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras” sent a team of four competitors and I had the honour to accompany them. 

 

You know, that was really a huge thing for me because I wanted to go there so badly. I already got in touch with Bocce at my former workplace in Austria since some of our kids there also took part in competitions and practiced for them every week. I took some sort of class to learn the rules and everything to become a referee and I worked as such at different competitions in Innsbruck which always was a lot of fun. So you can imagine how keen I was on seeing the competition here in Lithuania.

It soon turned out that there are some slight differences between what Bocce in Austria is and what it is in Lithuania. I ended up having tons of questions about the game while I had announced so proudly before that I am a referee for it. Well, at least I understood the ways after some games. 

This Lithuanian Championship was quite a big deal of course. There were several teams from schools and Day Care Centres all over the country taking part in it. And although the atmosphere basically was very relaxed and friendly, you could see the determination and tension in the players’ faces. I mean, taking part is the main thing and so on but of course everybody came to win! What – and I am really proud to say that – our team really did :) After some exciting games including an emotional rollercoaster from infinite happiness to deepest grief the four youths of our “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras” each received a medal for taking the first place. And I guess we were altogether pretty proud of that, the players first, then Artūras as their coach and me, the more or less mental support.

our awesome champions :)

I really had a great time witnessing this competition and all the passion and emotions our players showed during the games. Seeing such happiness is a very unique thing. And also contagious, I felt great as well. You know, what I like so much about Bocce is that no matter what kind of disability you have, you can play it. This specific time there weren’t many players with physical disabilities, but I know from back home that with the right aid anybody can take part in the game. And you would be surprised how well they can. It’s a serious competition with all the emotions that come along with taking part in something like that and the great possibility of reaching some real achievement all by your own. Well yes, I love it. So much that I started planning to do an own weekly training for my own initiative at the school. As soon as that’s working I’ll tell you more about it ;)

Viso gero,

Monika

Helowynas

It‘s October – it‘s time for Halloween!

For the scariest day of the year deserves some celebration we organized a party at the school’s dormitory together with Kristina and Rasa and the educators of the dormitory. Since now, in the week of the real date of Halloween, there are holidays and all the pupils aren’t around, we had to organize our party a bit earlier, precisely for the 22^nd of October. That meant a bit less time for planning; that Kristina and Rasa weren’t around the week before meant even less time for a whole lot of work. But of course that’s not a big problem for volunteers like us ;)

Together the four of us thought of some program for the party finally turning out as sort of a big paper chase with different stations and tasks for the children and youths. Laia even wrote an own story for the game so we had some scary background for the tasks. That story basically went like this: Long time ago the school area was a popular place to celebrate Halloween where the whole town met to spend this night together. One time a scary looking old woman appeared and wanted to take part in the celebrations but the people there wouldn’t let here because of her looks. Angry about that she put a spell on the area that would turn everybody into fierce little animals who dared to celebrate Halloween at that place again. So to be able to really have a party, the children and youths had to break the spell first by finding all the pieces of the map which told the location of the magical potion that had the power to do so.

When Kristina and Rasa came back from their work trip to Austria, we discussed our ideas with them and finally made up a concrete plan about what’s to be organized for the party. With only two days left for preparations we got really really busy but in the end we managed to get everything done on time, also thanks to the help of the educators.

us volunteers with Kristina, Rasa and educator Rūta - and how pretty we are ;)

The party really went by fast for me since there always was something to do for us. We started with welcoming the children and youths to the second floor of the dormitory which was amazingly decorated before by the educators with ghosts and spiders, eyeballs and spider webs and a lot of burning candles in the dark. When they all came together in the theatre room, Kristina started to sort of moderate and although I hardly understood what she was saying she really sounded great doing so.

The first thing to do for the children and youths was to cut out pumpkins – for me it was the first time ever to do so. Though I really didn’t think it was an easy kind of work the children and youths were done very quickly and the result were some really good looking pumpkins. 

After that Laia’s story was read to the children and youths by Rūta, one of the educators. At that time I went off to prepare my station. You know, each of us volunteers had an own station to host during the game, there the groups had to fulfil different tasks. The children and youths were divided into four groups – two younger ones and two older ones – and according to their age they had different stations to visit. Probably one of the best stations in my opinion was in the basement. Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to look at it myself but it must have been so much fun. The basement was Laia’s station and she decorated the corridor there together with Emily in the afternoon. It was full of “spider webs” and dark with the exception of a few candles lighting the way. The two older groups had to pass the dark corridor, always hearing noises and getting frightened by the people who were down at the basement, and in the end they found Laia hanging from the ceiling with a rope around her neck and they had to find the hidden piece of map somewhere in her pockets. Still days after the party I could hear the youths at school talking about Laia all the time and her hanging from the ceiling as a “dead person”. Scary!

After all the groups had fulfilled their tasks they met altogether and put together the pieces of the map they had gotten at the single stations. The story ended with their finding of the magical potion which had to be poured around the dormitory building to break the spell. Then finally the party could start!

A part of the party was celebrating the birthday of all people born in October. The dormitory organizes such birthday parties every month and since Halloween is such a great occasion for celebrating, it was done on the same date. Emily also took part in the games for the birthday people since hers was just a few days before she came to Lithuania (I’m not sure whether she knew about that before but it looked like a lot of fun for her). After some scary games the birthday people all got some small presents.

Besides the things for the game we also prepared some food for the children. That also took some time but it wasn’t the worst job, you know, whilst cooking we could have all the fruits and chocolate that was left over ;) Also the results looked very nice and luckily for us, none of it was left when the party was over.

om nom nom!

When the party was over and the children and youths went to bed or got picked up to go home I felt like the evening had just started, that’s how fast everything went by for me, for of course the whole party had lasted for some hours. I think all of us were really really tired then but also satisfied and happy. Almost all of our plans worked out without problems and the children and youths really seemed like they had a lot of fun during the evening. In fact they’ve been talking about the party days after and that’s what makes us also a bit proud I think. It was the first time that the four of us worked together to organize something and the result was something really good. That definitely calls for repetition.

all the brave kids and educators who partied with us :)

Viso gero,

Monika

P.S.: If you want to see more photos of our great Halloween party, check out the school’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Panev%C4%97%C5%BEio-%C5%A0viesos-specialiojo-ugdymo-centras/1463001787321178

Choosing a class

As you might have read before, we volunteers get the chance at our project to once visit every class at the school before we can decide at which one we would like to stay. With a total of 18 classes that’s a lot of impressions to experience. Each of the classes is different from the others, different children and youths with different needs and different things to learn. It was a very interesting time to visit them all.

Finally deciding for a class in October was quite a process for me. From when I arrived at the project on I always imagined myself ending up with a class of quite young children because I thought that’s what would suit me best and also most of my experiences from my former workplace in Austria were with younger children. At the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras” there are some really nice lower school classes with really lovely children, most of them already falling around my neck the first time they met me. Quite soon I visited this one class, it was a second grade, which I really really liked. I liked the lessons, the way the teacher worked and of course also the children though they were a very lively group. For a long time after that day I was sure I will choose this class and that there couldn’t be anything that I’d like more.

In the end my decision was a completely different one. After some time I started visiting the higher grades and Special Classes. The lessons there are a lot different than what I had seen before. You know, the younger children and especially the ones from the Developmental Classes need a lot of physical help. Many have problems with staying concentrated, so you have to try to keep them focused; they just started to learn things like reading and writing, so you have to support them a lot, count with your own fingers with them or practice writing one and the same letter with them for a while. The higher grades are more used to the structures of school, they know that you’re supposed to be quiet during the lessons or stay seated. And the youths in the higher Special Classes are very autonomous, they can do a lot of work all by themselves. But they also have a need for support, it’s just very different from the one of the smaller ones or the pupils of the Developmental Classes. The problems of the higher Special Classes are more about their behaviour and their understanding of social interaction.

As I started visiting the higher Special Classes I found that I really liked them. Of course, in some lessons there wasn’t a lot to do for me since I don’t yet understand most of the talking. But I always had an interesting time observing the youths and trying to understand their behaviour. Also I had a lot of fun with them while communicating with them during the breaks – as far as it was possible with my poor Lithuanian. In fact I noticed that I liked those classes so much that I couldn’t imagine anymore to be in a lower grade. After visiting all the classes once I had a week time to revisit all of the classes that I liked best. Among those there were still some lower grades and I still liked them when I visited them the second time, I just felt that they’re not where I want to spend my whole time at the project.

I finally decided for a ninth grade Special Class, with pupils around 15 years old. It’s sometimes very challenging to be with them or to try to understand why they behave the way they do. But I like being with them and I’m really interested in them. I’d like to get to know them and understand them and therefore I’m even very motivated to learn Lithuanian as fast as possible (though that’s really not the easiest thing to do). I’m looking forward to all the time I’ll spend with them and I’m already wavering over what I’d like to do with them during the next few months. I’m excited!

Viso gero,

Monika

On Arrival Training Berbrusų

Laba diena!

In this article I would talk about my On-arrival training.

All volunteers didn’t go to the same training. My training took place from 23 to 26 October, in a huge hotel set in “Berbusų dvaras”, around 30 minutes from Vilnius. We were 21 volunteers from all Lithuania: 1 Armenian, 1 Georgian, 1 Serbian, 1 Bulgarian, 2 Italians, 5 Spanish, 4 German, 3 French, 1 Macedonian, 1 Latvian, 1 Portuguese.

By the way, it was a huge hotel lost in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived on Thursday 23^rd on the early afternoon. After lunch, we started some games to know more about each other. For example, one game was to write down 3 sentences about us, 2 right sentences and 1 false sentence. We put the paper on our back and everybody had to write a cross next to the sentence they thought wrong.

I found another game really interesting: It was a fancy/art game. We were sitting down in one room and we had some material taken in nature (leaves, wood…). We had to respond by our own imagination at 3 questions:

1.)    Do we currently imagine our EVS as we imagined before coming?

2.)    What is/are our EVS challenge(s)?

3.)    How can we achieve those challenges?

Our art had to represent our EVS story. My story started in a forest representing the chaos. That’s how I imagined my arrival here, in Lithuania. BUT, I left this forest very fast, because I talked a lot with Kristina, my tutor before coming and she reassured me. Furthermore, I realized pretty early that my hosting organisation is well-organised and won’t let me down surrounding by difficulties. (1^st question)

One of my best difficult challenge is the language. I took a frog and a tiger figurines, face to face. The frog (me) don’t speak the same language as the tiger (the children). Yet, as I said before, I am not alone and my tutor and mentor are here. In addition, my flatmates and the other volunteers of Lithuania are here. Dovilė, our Lithuanian teacher, is here so we will overcome this challenge together and finally, the frog won’t face the tiger but they will walk together, one beside the other.

Another big challenge for me, and I’ll face it alone, is my Japanese skills. I am learning Japanese since 7 years now and I don’t want to lose my skills. I know that not use my Japanese during one year could be my worst mistake.  That is why I decided to continue autonomously and I’ll do everything in my power, no matter how the other judge me, to pursue my goal. (2^nd question)

So, I went out of the forest and I arrived in a straight way, representing my EVS course. This course is full of pitfalls and traps. I know more or less some of them, like to be disappointed if my projects with the children don’t work, the homesickness, not to be understood by the other, etc…

After overcome all of those traps, I want to see the children and me doing some hand craft workshop as origami. That’s how I see my EVS course.

This article will be very long and I apologize for it. If you are brave, please read this article to the end. I will skip some elements for summarized my thoughts. I want to speak about a last (but not least!) thing: The hiking day.

It was, according to me, the best day of the seminar.

You know, I’m kind of person who like travels. Even though I always mention this “hobby” when I talk about me, I’ve never travelled a lot. I went to France’s neighbour countries such as Spain, Italy and United Kingdom. But it wasn’t a big challenge for me.

I learn, the day before, what’s the “comfort zone” (safety space where you feel good). According to you, you can expand this zone, or if you do nothing to expand this zone it will start to shrink. Over the comfort zone, you have to find some things/people/mental strength to help you come back to your comfort zone.

With this hiking day, I expand my comfort zone. It was the most amazing adventure I did. But let’s begin with the start:

We left the hotel around 11 am to cross the lake (next to the hotel) by canoe or boat. I’m really afraid of canoe/kayak, since I can’t see what is under me, on the water. I’m also afraid of sinking and being held under the canoe/kayak.

Nevertheless, I was on this canoe to cross the lake. Even I was stressful, I can’t omit the beautiful landscape in front of me.

After reaching the other side of the lake, I was waiting for the other. We were 16 volunteers (if I remember correctly) who chose the hiking, despite -5°C. We made a fire while waiting the others to come. It took some time, because the Bulgarian boy (Milko) had his shin injured and therefore had to ride the bike, as well as the Armenian girl, Serine (we were a nice multicultural team by the way). When everybody were here, we drank tea and left the fire place, to start the hiking. It was around 12:30.

At 3 pm we stopped and made a fire for lunch. We eat pasta (kind of weird when I think about it!). Seems that everybody was surprised that I eat with Japanese sticks made with 2 thin branches and the knife of Ana, the Spanish girl who was born in Georgia.

After lunch, our task was to split in 3 groups of 5-6 people, go to the nearer village, knock on the door and ask to do some volunteering task for half an hour, and then receive a tea from local person.

I was with Ana, Laia, Nadja (a volunteer in Panevėžys from Germany) and Maxime, a French boy. We went to the village as well as the other teams. I was really excited because I always see this kind of situation in TV, through a TV show called Pekin Express. The aim of this TV show is to go to a foreign country, cross it with 1 Euro per day and person, to do hitch hiking to cross it and ask to local people to spend the night in their houses.

First of all, the village looked like a haunted village, however we knock on the doors, nobody respond us. The only people we saw was an old woman with her dog. We understood that if we don’t leave her garden, her dog was going to bite us. After that, the second person was a younger man (around forty years old) let us understand that we were in a private property and we had to move.

Nice first impression of the local people haha! !

After knocked the door of every houses (there were 10-15 houses) we decided, a bit desperately to cross the big road and go to the second village, near the first one. But it was the same scheme: We knock on the door of every houses (there were 5-6 houses in this village). We were really disappointed and thought that we look scary with our big hiking bags, because nobody wanted to talk to us.

It was with a last hope run-up that we knocked a second time on the second house of the village. Miraculously, an old woman opened the door. I tried to talk in Lithuanian with her, but the only thing I could say was: “Atsiprašom, mes savanoriai” (Sorry, we are volunteers). After some understanding exchanges, she lets us come inside. Her house was small, one living room and one kitchen separated in two small rooms. We entered in the living room and saw another old woman, apparently the mother of the old woman who opened the door. They invited us to take a sit, and asked if we want a cup of tea or coffee. They also bring food: brioche, cheese and mind candies (from Russia, from what I understood, the son, at least the young man in the photo frame hanged in the living room who’s living/studying in Russia).

I tried to explain that I wanted to help them before but either they didn’t want our help or they didn’t understand. So, we had our “comfort” before the “effort”. We asked them to take a photo with the 2 old women and their address to send them a letter.

Their behaviours touch me a lot. It was much more than a cup of tea for them. They seemed really poor, and even we didn’t do a volunteer task for them, we bring our smiles to them. I’m still wondering why did she open the door the 2^nd time. Did she expect something from us? Maybe they just wanted some company…

Anyway, when we came back to the fire place, the other groups were already there and we realized that we were really lucky because the other groups worked but didn’t necessarily receive tea or coffee.

I was so excited after that, to receive so much from those 2 women. The simple fact that they welcomed us in their house was incredible for me. We were so desperate and it’s always in those moments that you can see a small glow. I totally forgot how it was difficult to find a house, but just felt a strange and warm feeling inside of me. We continued our way and arrived to a second lake. It began to be dark and we knew the sunset will start one hour later. To be faster, we decided to cross the forest. We arrived in a big road and the group had been separated in 2: one went back to the hotel by car, and the other went back by canoe and boat.

I decided to go back by canoe, despite my fear. I just imagined the beautiful sky and stars reflected on the lake, and Maxime told me “we only have one life. And go back by car is not the adventure”.

We continue on the way for 10 minutes since we reached some houses, whose we can see light from one of them. Maxime asked us if we are okay to ask some hot drinks to people. Of course this idea sounds absurd, yet we all were on and decided together to knock the door. An old man opened, we started to speak in Lithuanian, and after some misunderstandings an old woman completely opened the door wondering what’s going on. She let us go inside their house, and the old couple gave us some tea and coffee. We explained that we came from different countries and they seemed really happy to meet some people from all over the world, repeating the word “international”. We took some pictures with them and also asked for their address. We explain that we are in the region for 4 days and sleep in Berbrusų hotel. We understood that we can come back anytime. This couple was adorable with us, caring about the cold outside when we showed them that we will go back to the hotel by canoe.

It was almost 08:30 when we left their house, we were extremely touched by this kindness and we get back on our way with big smiles.

The next challenge was to find where the canoe, the boat and the paddles has been hidden. It was difficult to identify which way is the right way but we handled that we find the canoe. I went back on this, with Maxime and Carmen (a Spanish volunteer). We tried to put the canoe on the lake while the other found the boat and put it in the lake too. This took almost 5 minutes to do that, but it was really calm when we were on the canoe. We were afraid by the wind, especially to navigate with the canoe. However, there was no wind and the lake was quiet. Taškas, our trainer, was on the other side of the lake guiding us with a light. We sent to lit signals with our light to him, but we switch it off during a while, to look around us and admire the beauty of the lake by night…

We finally arrived safe on the other side and Taškas took a photo of the “7 team”.

It was a big victory for us. We achieved this challenge, and for the first time of my life, I understood what’s really mean the word “adventure”.

It was 10 pm when we came back to the hostel.

Emily