EVS-dagbok 37 2011

Hej!
I am Mihaela and I come from Romania. I work in Lindhaga Fritidsgard, in Molndal, and my project is based on dance. So I plan to teach kids to dance and make a dance group (actually I already have one, but they are not to consequent so far), eventually even a dance show.

It has already passed 2 months since we are volunteers in Sweden so there are some things to talk about. We have already seen the capital (if you can ever say that you have seen it) or at least a big part of it. We have breath a lot of northern woods air, some of us have already felt the temperature of the sea and beach in Gothenburg, the swing of the waves of Gota alv, and of course the sound of the Friday nights and the movement of the Saturday nights.

I came to Sweden hopping that I can give something here, but one of the Swedes just blow my theory away one day asking me “why would Sweden need volunteers?”, so now I just try to reconfigure my route. I definitely have something to get from here and I plan to have as much as possible. If it turns that I have something to offer also at the end I will be the happiest volunteer.

Fortunately I have one of the best mentors, who help me taking every step, optimizing and applying every new idea. I am still amazed about this because the other volunteers, that I had contact with, from all around the Europe and more, are not so satisfied about their mentors or supervisors, some of them don’t even communicate to each other. Even the social mentors are truly involved in their work with the volunteers and try to find appropriate activities for all of us (Which is not that easy!) and to help us integrate in the new culture and geographical space. So KEKS has got an A+ for the way they prepared their mentors :D .

Living in a new house it was great, because it offers everything necessarily for a very good accommodation. We still have a bloom rose in the back garden ;). Cohabitation was very nice at the beginning, due to the curiosity of living with different people, it become shortly a challenge that I like to think we all have set well, because now we behave like a family with different personality types.
Working in Lindhaga Fritidsgard is sometimes a challenge but always a real pleasure. Starting it was weird because of the difference of culture and working strategy, probably my formal teaching experience had also significant importance in the process. So I can say that I already learned a lot here from the people working in Lindhaga. I understand that working it doesn’t necessarily mean to go home totally sweaty after a full day and the quality doesn’t consist from making plans. Sometimes the hard work comes from letting things go, observe and interfere just when necessary. Working non-formal with the kids it means letting them free to create and to develop them selves. Trying to plan to much is like you would try to put the sea in a concrete box: no matter how huge it is the space the sea will loose it’s own beauty . So let’s keep the sea in her natural perfect space and just make sure we don’t throw garbage in it J

My job is working slowly, it looks like not too many youngsters wants to learn couple dances, at least not for free. My group of dancers is increasing and decreasing it’s number weekly. Also the dancing evening we planned and tried to do this month had no success. But I keep in my mind the words of a gold digger, telling to himself – in Jack London’s story - “Slowly and surely Bill, slowly and surely!”. So I am not worried anymore because I know it will happen not in the way I am expecting to but definitely in the right way.

I am a little sad because I cannot take part in all the meetings and I know being there it would help me understand more what I have to do here and especially how to do it! Last week it was almost empty of events for me because the fritidsgard was close several times, due to meetings and some school activities. Is also frustrating that sometimes I am not counted as responsible person (because of the rules), but more like a kid. But still I think this is because of the great barrier of the language that keeps me away from understanding and the most important: it keeps me away from the kids.

Last week my laptop got back to life thanks to Cissy and her great father! It was dead in last two weeks so I am terribly happy now. And it was a week with full house. We had one visitor from Turkey and four people from France which was very nice: we managed to share the space and everything we have, so that it can be good for everyone. We also had some intercultural exchange and I think we made some new friends.

Also last week we tried to start a dancing course for volunteers, I even baked an apple cake to say welcome, but it didn’t work.
But… Last week it was a happy one for most of the KEKS volunteers in Gothenburg and Molndal because we just received the approval for personal numbers, so we become somehow statistically important in Sweden and we have now more possibilities than before. Now we all look forward to start Swedish classes in order to understand better the culture and lifestyle of Swedes.

And some of us ended the last week in a very relaxing way in Kultur Museet, enjoying the exhibition of migration and travel, but most of all the place for kids inspired by kids. We also meet there our own destiny in a roulette, so I just discovered that my next destination is digging for gold in a place we never heard of.
So I wish for all the volunteers to get “The time of your life” here! For all KEKS personnel: I hope we are what you were looking for! And for all of us I wish to get all the best from this unique experience!
Kram
Mihaela