A week with half of the team (13-17. April)

This week was pretty unusual because we had only 2 volunteers in JACis most of the time. Georgiana had a friend from Romania as a guest all week long and Moritz got visited by his parents on Wednesday so they both took some days off to enjoy with their friends and family. But Clem and Paul were not bored at all thes days they were alone.

On Tuesday we had a JACis team briefing which was really needed and very productive. We have some big activities ahead like the French week, a garden workshop and a football tournament that shall take place end of May already.  

Thursday JACis was a very full house again because we got visited by a large group of people involved in Erasmus+ projects. They were 30 people from France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany and Latvia. They stayed here in Rezekne at the Zeimuls hostel for all the week because they wanted to explore what kind of work volunteers are doing here in Rezekne so they visited a lot of EVS places and also our center.

Clem and Paul played for them their song little talks on guitar and accordion and then just talked a little bit about their project. And at the same time they made some appointment to show the nightlife of Rezekne the next day!

Later the same day we started with 3 youngsters baking two sheep for Easter which was a lot of fun for everyone and also very tasty the next day!

Before we finished we got another visit by a woman called Ruta from Rezeknes library. She made a really nice presentation about paintings and pictures of Rezekne. There were around 10 interested youngsters who watched the really interesting pictures where you could see how Rezekne changed in the past 100 years but also kept some of its buildings like the old Apteka. In the end we finished baking and played pool and it was an exhausting but nice day.

On Friday then, we met at JACis and went to the Orthodox Church at 4 where we had a short tour which was not that interesting for us but then we went on the churchtower and were ringing the bells! It was incredibly loud but a lot of fun except for the people who needed to listen to us! After that we went back to JACis and had the sheep we baked the day before and tea!

On the weekend some volunteers were not in Rezekne because of their visit or some events. Moritz stayed in Tallinn with his family until Sunday. And Paul went with Tamara hitchhiking to Jaunpiebalga on Saturday to visit the “survival training camp” organized by two French volunteers. It was a lot of fun with more than 20 volunteers from all over Latvia and a nice Orientation game and soup at the bonfire.

We are looking forward to the French week, Clemence will get visited by her parents and Paul will go to St. Petersburg and Moscow next week.

Moritz also spent the weekend in Tallinn and now has all three Baltic capitals ticked off on his bucket list. Tallinn is a very different city from Riga and Vilnius. Vilnius is landlocked, and despite Riga being near the coastline, there is not so much of an obvious maritime culture. Tallinn, on the other hand, is located directly next to the Baltic sea, and it is filled to the brim with this certain Baltic feel. There is a real, finished skyline, the governmental quarter overlooks all the city, There are several giant parks and a medieval restaurant where the question for a spoon is answered with a straight "No"!

Trashmen walking, Russian poetry, Bagels... (6-10. April)

Some weeks in JACis are more eventful than others. Last week was one of those: Baking, running and presentations left us few minutes to breathe, but aforementioned weeks are also especially satisfying.


Because of Easter Monday, our week started off on Tuesday. Moritz prepared Bagels, an "American" specialty, originating from Polish jewry. There is an equivalent to these breadrings in many Eurasian cultures, for example Russian "bublik", Lithuanian "riestainiai", Finnish "vesirinkeli" or, more commonly known to us, the Romanian "covrigi" and the German "Bretzel". The breadrings are made from a dough of wheat and yeast sweetened with sugar, then they are boiled in water and baked in a normal oven. We ate them with butter spread on top, but other ways to serve a bagel include cream cheese and salmon, turkey or chicken or cold steak. It took almost all day until all the dough was turned into Bagels. They were a real treat.

Wednesday the next big event followed, as we joined a talk/event on the life and works of Russian author Boris Pasternak, who received the Nobel prize for literature in 1958 for his novel "Dr. Zhivago". He also translated Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare into Russian. The event was dedicated to the commemoration of his extraordinary life story and the analysis of his works. Moritz read the poem "Winter night", the motifs of which laid the foundation of the biggest part of the event, the analysis based especially on the word "sudzbyi", meaning "destiny" or "fate", which is a reoccurring trope or symbol in Pasternaks writing.

Thursday, Paul and Clemence participated in a trash run. Two days prior, the team members worked very hard on costumes. The teams met at the city council to hear a presentation on the rules of this competition. The teams had to walk to three different checkpoints, which had to be reached at a certain time to answer question on garbage and recycling. Two big orange bags had to be filled with trash. Afterwards, the bags were weighed to determine the winners. There were three prizes: The team with the best costumes, the most efficient garbage collection and the team with the most correct answers. The participants received a diploma and a bag from recycled material.

Friday, two very important events happened:
Moritz went to a "Erasmus +" Event with Vija, where there were very interesting talks on the different E+ events in Rezekne, including JACis' big project "Connected by rivers". He also held a presentation about our project, "Volunteers United". You can see the presentation by clicking the following link: (http://prezi.com/bpih12xs4n_r/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy )

Clemence participated in a competition about Latvian folklore. In the morning, her team rehearsed vividly. In the early afternoon, the team went to Rogovka, where the competition of folklorist dance, music and theatre took place. All the afternoon, people danced and in the end, there were different prizes, of which Clemence won two, one being the qualification for a big event in Riga in summertime.

Jaunatnes čemodāns

We started the week with the big opening of the"Jaunatnes čemodāns" -  a new youth centre for the local people. The room (located near the hospital) is really big and nice and gives us volunteers a lot of new possibilities especially because it also has a big garden in front of it, where we can do outdoor activities like a planting workshop or games.

The opening ceremony was really nice and creative. Despite of the rainy weather, we start the opening with a sketch about suitcase which was very apreciated by all of the guests. 

After the show, everyone went inside where all the program was designed like a journey to a far away place and in each stop, different people came to talk, offering gifts and wishes to the new centre. We also had some nice musical performances such as one boy playing the violin and singing and Tamara, Clemence and Paul playing their song “Little Talks”. Then we watched the short movie with zombies advertising to clean up garbage in the city where Clemence and Paul participated in last year. In the end we had nice pizza, cake, tea and coffee.

On Tuesday Clemence, Paul and Vincent had a rehearsal in Jorik to prepare for the Russian language festival. They have to learn a poem about bread and additional Clemence and Paul also have musical performances. It is going pretty well and will be perfect on the 22. May.

The rest of the week we just played a lot of Ligretto and Jungle speed – our favorite games in JACis! On Wednesday, 1st of April we celebrate fool's day in a french style: Clemence and Karina prepared a lot of paper fish and they put them on the back of people trying to fool them.

Georgiana started to prepare two other projects: a training about interculturality in colaboration with GORS and a summer activity with the local Red Cross.This week she had the first meeting with these organisations but soon we will find out more details about these surprises. 

On Friday we started our Easter holidays. Clemence used the time to visit her friend from France in Tartu in Estonia and Paul went to Tukums. We had a long weekend and we enjoyed a lot. Happy Easter!