On Friday the 17.
October we left Rezekne in the early morning, heading to Kegums near Riga.
There we had a really nice Hostel named Umuri directly at the Daugava river.
When we arrived there
we were the very first so we had to wait and used the time for a second
breakfast. Slowly the other EVS volunteers and their mentors arrived and we
could already get a first impression of each other. Then our trainers Valters
and Sintja arrived and we started the training with a name game and some
icebreaking activities. They were good fun and after only a few hours we
already had a pretty good group feeling! The first day was really busy and in
the evening everyone was tired and wanted to go to sleep but we got the
homework to prepare our EVS-story until the next morning so we even had to work
in the evening.
In the next morning
after breakfast we had a very long round of EVS-stories. It was very
interesting to hear, why the other volunteers decided for EVS! After that we
had some discussions about themes as cultural diversity, social inclusion and
active citizenship that should make us aware of the EVS values. In the
afternoon we talked about the different EVS institutions e.g. sending and
hosting organization, national agency or volunteers and mentors. In the evening
the mentors (all Latvians) prepared a Latvian night for us where they showed us
their traditions and habits in a funny way J
Sunday was the last day
for the mentors and we finally had some time to speak with our mentors about
different things. We also got a learning task which was to learn juggling with
three balls in only one hour with the support of our mentor. Most of us totally
failed but it was still very interesting and the aim of the task, to show us
how learning and support works, was also fulfilled.
In the evening, after
the mentors left, the volunteers occupied the kitchen and cooked very
interesting food: Schnitzel, some kind of mashed potatoes and carrots, original
Spanish tortillas, nice salad and Crepes as a dessert.
Monday, the last day
of our training was still very busy but with different topics. We talked about
learning Latvian, differences in cultures and possible clashes between them,
and how to organize and advertise an event. In the evening all volunteers and
the trainers enjoyed playing Werewolf – some of them until 3 in the
morning.
On Tuesday we all departed
and most of us headed to Riga, where we explored the town a little bit but we
just had to little time because most of us needed to catch their trains or
busses in the early evening.
All in all we talked a
lot about the future, our visions and organizing events. We made many new
friends all over Latvia and already visited some of them. It was a very good
and valuable experience and brought us a lot of inspiration for our EVS.
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