Do you want to know our new volunteer in MLC, Frederic Blindow?

Guten Tag / Dzien Dobry,

I am a 19 years old german called Frederic Blindow.
Now I am a new member of the Multicultural Language Cafe at Semper Avanti. This means a lot to me, because I can give back what I have received so far. Nowadays europe is changing in every second, so I would like to improve this changes with the whole team. Of course it is scary to be in a unusual enviroment, but I think it is a big chance for me to get out of my comfort zone and to become a better version of myself.

As the most germans I love soccer. Furthemore I like to read, to dance, to explore the nature
and to listen great music. Travelling and cooking are my hobbies aswell.

I was named by Fryderyk/ Frédéric Chopin a famous pianist from Poland with a huge predilection to France. Moreover is my father Polish and my mother German. So my parents represent multiculturalism and my name is a symbol of that. Definitely I can support the idea, because I love Europe and all the diversitys that are included. That's why I am proud to be a volunteer at Semper Avanti, because now I have the opportunity to improve the multiculturalism.

I wish all of you a nice day and kind regards,
Frederic Blindow

New volunteer in Semper Avanti: Ana Bernardino!

I’m Ana, I’m from Granada, from the south of Spain. I’m 29 years old. I studied pedagogy in Granada and one year in Valencia with an exchange program.

I like trekking, walking through the city and knitting.

I’ve worked in a women and families homeless shelter for one year and a half.

I want to be an EVS volunteer since a lot of years, but I could not do it before. I wanted to finish my studies before I do an EVS. I chose this project because I wanted to work in a kindergarten. I’m interested in non-formal and informal education.

I’ll be here for 6 six months. I don’t know anything about Poland or Polish culture. I think I’ll enjoy this country and the experience.

Julia`s polish summer!

Just 1 week left till the end of summer. Not so much at all but still there is some nice memories about my polish summer 2015.

I think it will be good to start from midterm EVS training. It took place in the beginning of summer. All volunteers who were involved in their projects more or less half a year had opportunity to get together in so calm, peaceful, historical city – Kaziemierz Dolny. We were living in the forest on the hill and most of our activities we did in the nature. It was in a form of conversations, discussions in small groups, games. Also I can say that we had really creative and interesting group of EVS volunteers from different countries. Participants were from: Indonesia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Georgia, Greece, German, Armenia, Mexico, Macedonia, France, Hungary and our trainers from Poland. I can just say this meeting and especially people gave me a lot of energy, new emotions and motivation.

Second good thing to remember is travelling and hitchhiking after training from Kaziemierz Dolny to Lublin.

After training some participants decided to  travel together. On the way we met different people, businessman of Kaziemierz Dolny, architecture  women, student boy from Warsaw. With them we have spent very good time, we shared our culture to them and also got many information about Poland. That`s  why hitchhiking is interesting and informative.

The first place of destination was Lublin.  It was even more  funny than I expected. We met one Ukrainian girl Daria, who hosted us, showed the city and shared her hospitality with us. We invited her to visit us in Wroclaw. Thanks to this trip we have got one very good friend.

Flash mob of Femininity

First of August, in the main square of Wroclaw was held Flash mob of Femininity.  It was amazing event. I think most of you will agree with me, when girls gathering together, they create a special atmosphere of the beauty. Exactly this atmosphere we were sharing  with everyone around!  Main idea of the flash mob was to give womens  flowers and to remind everyone about feminity.

“Global Village”

For more than four years I was a member of one youth international organization – AIESEC. Month ago I and other volunteers from Semper Avanti were invited to visit one cultural event “Global Village”. I was very happy to meet people from different countries, more over to try their national food and  talk about our cultures.

Training from Semper Avanti “World at our home”

Frankly speaking, it was the best training I have ever visited. Main topic of this training was Human Rights. All participants created really friendly atmosphere. People were from different part of the world. That week we became really good team. I really enjoyed with program. The most challenging part for me was simulation games, such as UN model, refuges game.  So many useful tools that I am sure every volunteer can use in daily life. This one week was big challenge for me, now I feel more confident at my work.

Thank you for attention.

I wish everyone to have good  weekJ

Michael Běrský's summer activities!

Volunteers from Semper Avanti in language school named Ger-Elis

There is an English - German - Spanish language school in the city centre of Wroclaw. Rooms and the whole space of this schools is totally splendid. Beautiful Paintings on the walls, friendly animals and positive people everywhere around. Summer holiday is going on right now and so many children spend their time in this summer school learning English and having good time.

What are a volunteer´s tasks in this school?

We make presentations, tell stories, play games, do some yoga, and catch me if you can game and the main thing: speak English. We try to make presentations suitable for an one´s children age. That means we use pictures, fairy tales and simple words.

There is a weekly and amusing program for kids. We go to Hala Stulecia to see Marilyn Monroe’s exhibition, parks, village farm, sometimes for a boat ride or stay in the school.

In the end of an each day children go to a vegan restaurant in the city centre of Wroclaw. Eating meals as a vegan pancakes, pierogy and kotlet with vegetables.

All about Chiara!

Hi there! My name is Chiara and I am from Bergamo, a small town at 50 km distance from the better known city of Milan, buzzing economic heart of my country, Italy. After getting a Bachelor in International Studies and European Institutions at the University of Milan, I moved to Padua for my Master and decided to spend my last student year as an Erasmus in the dynamic city of Valencia (Spain). 

Then I got back to Italy, got my Master in European Law and Policies and found a run-of-the-mill job in my hometown. Yet, I did not want my international journey to finish yet. Firstly, I started being more involved in my community and collaborating with an informal group of youngsters in my hometown organizing events on the themes of human rights, culture, heritage and active citizenship. 

Later, I found out about EVS and decided to embark into a new EVS adventure! I have been volunteering in MLC for Semper Avanti since August and I actually started off with a bang, since on my second day in Poland I was already heading to Nowy Gierałtów to participate to World at Our Home training course about human rights. I also have the chance to make some presentations and games about Italy in GERELIS language school in the last weeks and I found out that Poles (even the youngest ones) love my home country and already know so much about it! 

 I am really excited to be part of this project and I am eager to share something new about my culture with the people I meet, discover Poland, learn and improve myself in the exciting Wroclaw! On a side note, I have always been fascinated about more northern-like places and temperament, which can be quite different from what I am accustomed to. 

Unluckily, the language is still a barrier for me, but Polish classes will start soon and I am committed to learning it and becoming a bit “Polish” in this year ahead. Na razie! :)

World at our home

From 9th to 14th of August, Semper Avanti was conducting a training about the Human Rights, called “World at our home”, and three EVS volunteers from MLC were participants.

The mainly idea was not only to develop the participant’s knowledge about that subject, but also to train them about how to make their own Human Rights workshops.

The training was located in a mountain hotel in Nowy Gierałtów, just the perfect landscape to disconnect from the routine and be focus in the topic during one week. 

During the first day the participants started with building team activities, to prepare themselves to work together during the rest of the days, and with the idea to know each other better. 

The afternoon was reserved for a walk in the mountains, crossing the Czech border, with a talk about the situation of the Human Rights inside the participant’s countries.

One of the most interesting activities during the second day was one called “World Bank”, which was great to improve the empathy and understanding of the global economics functioning. In the game the group was split in six groups. They were asked to make some shapes (circles, rectangles, etc.), and try to sell them on the International Bank.

There were six tables for the six teams, each one representing one country. They were ordered in the way where the first tables had the most advanced tools (scissors, glue, good quality paper), and the last tables did not have tools, even if they do it was very basic, and more bad materials.

By the end of the game they discovered that the real functioning system of the World Bank does not start from equal situations, and the related actors –in real life, countries themselves- cannot have equal results. Also it was interesting to observe the participants inside their game role. The behavior of the participants which were impersonating the first world countries, resulted with a familiarity which is very close with daily stereotypes in the ordinary life: the people from the powerful tables –countries- were sure that they had won in the game because the “poorest” groups were lazy.

Other greatest moments in the training, happened in the third day: the participants played the short version of the “UN Model”. To sum up, each person was representing one country in a United Nations meeting, to discuss and vote, whether to make a military intervention or not in Syria. For that, the participants were supposed to find information about the nations they were representing, to make more realistic roles.

The fourth day had very funny and interesting activities, from Drama and Forum theater activities to Frisbee match or theory of creating workshops with the Kolb’s cycle of learning.

The level of the activities during those days was advanced, and no one expected to have a last activity as interesting as the previous. But it happened in the fifth day, with the refugee’s simulation. During the whole morning the participants were in groups, in the role of families who are being refugees. First they started with a normal life, but soon the troubles were coming. They were forced to abandon their homes, and they were exposed to many challenges: to find the rest of the family who was lost inside the chaos, to prepare the bags and suits and to leave their home, to hide, to try to cross the national border where the people was speaking a strange language, and to start a new life in the next country. The game was so emotional for lots of participants, who got deeply in to the game role.

 
The training “World at our home” ended with a cultural day to discover the beautiful city of Wrocław. 

In conclusion, the training was a very great and intensive experience. The trainers did a hard job and the participants took the consequent benefits, which are reflected in their Youth Pass :)

Dutch culinary workshop

Hej! / Hi! / Hoi!

Our Multicultural Language Cafe would not be a good 'Cafe' without some multicultural food every now and then. We can present our countries and teach our languages, but sometimes a delicious example of our national cuisine can be much more convincing, or heartwarming. When we eat, we can use all our senses, and it doesn't need translation.

Last Wednesday I gave a Dutch culinary workshop in the community center of Godzieszowa, a small village only 15 kilometers away from Wrocław. Actually, because of the time it takes to get there - and the huge contrast between the two places - I thought this village was somewhere far far away. First I had to take a tram, then a bus, then somebody had to pick me up by car, and after more than one hour of travelling I was in the middle of nowhere, called Godzieszowa.

There, a couple of women were waiting for the Dutch chef - i.e., me. ;) The culinary workshop took place from 11 AM to 4 PM, and the participants were free to come and go whenever they wanted. When I heard this I became a bit nervous - what if there wouldn't be enough food? But fortunately there was just enough for everybody: the estimated number of participants (10-15) was close to reality.

The traditional Dutch cuisine doesn't differ much from the Polish one - I think mostly because of the similar climate - and a lot of Dutch dishes are heavy winter dishes, so it was quite a challenge to come up with a good menu. The food had to be suitable for a hot summer day, and of course it had to be Dutch, but not Polish, and not too Dutch. (You can find Dutch Gouda cheese almost everywhere, but good old Leyden cheese... Different story.)

Cooking Dutch food together with the participants was a nice experience. You should know that normally I cook maximum two things at once - if I have to work with three pots at the same time, I freak out. Therefore, in the beginning I had a hard time supervising the participants, but soon I realized that I was working with experienced cooks who only need some instructions, and from that moment on I was able to enjoy the workshop as much as they did.

For those of you who want to try some Dutch food: the Dutch cultural evening will most likely take place in September!

Na razie! / See you! / Tot ziens!