Saying goodbye and welcome new adventures

The time came when the 'old' volunteers are saying goodbye making a place for the new ones. Time passes very fast when you are busy :) 

EVS was a great time for all of us but it is time start new adventures with all the things we learned here :)

We are grateful for the opportunity we got and happy that more and more people are getting out of their comfort zones and applying for EVS.

Everyone should try it !

You as well :)

Beijnhos e obrigada :) 

EVS in Latvia - OPEN MIND OPEN HORIZONTS - STORY OF VANIA

My EVS, took part in Cēsis, a small town in Latvia and it was for one month, during August of 2016. We were eight volunteers from 5 countries of European Union, from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Hungary. And Latvians volunteers also participated in the project. The main aim of the project was organise an art festival and the theme was "Open Mind - Open Horizons".
I participated in this project because when I was looking for some project to do during the summer, and this project was proposed me I realised  that it cloud be a great opportunity because it was to work with creativity, with manual work, with art and with imagination. So, I felt really excited to accept it. And I decided accept it, even knowing that it's  in Latvia, in a completely different world for me. I challenged myself.

When I arrived in Latvia, I was really nervous, eager and curious to see what was going to happen. At the beginning I felt like a stranger in a new place with new people, everything was really new and different for me. But even eager I was very opened to get involved in the project, to discover new things and to meet new people. And after some days, I started feel more close from the other volunteers, because we and the mentors of the project played a lot of games and talked about ourself and they were very important to knowing each other.

During the EVS I had a lot of different type of tasks, and for me this was the strongest point of the project because, everyday was different. I chose what I wanted to do, remembering the main goal, but at the same time giving preference to what I really wanted do. My main task with my team was organise a workshop of "Mandala" and explain to the visitors of the festival the meaning of "Mandala". And I had other tasks like do dream catchers and lanterns for the decorations of the festival, and many other things.

As the theme of the project was "Open Mind - Open Horizons", the project showed me exactly how to be "Open Mind - Open Horizons", because I learned a lot of things, for example how to be more tolerant and patient, how be more open to new ideas, gave me tools to understand other ways of life, etc. And it opened my horizons because it gave me new tools for my future, for example it make me feel more interested in this kind of festival and gave me ideas to put on practice in my own city.

And sharing this experience with other volunteers was really important for me, because I had opportunity to show my own culture and to know other countries and cultures through them. And as we lived together or we spent a lot of time together it allow us share so many things and I think I can say this experience brought me friends for life.

Vania

The project was funded by the program Erasmus Plus under the number: 2016-1-LV02-KA105-001111

EVS in Lavia - Open Mind Open Horizonts

All my life I was fascinated with the idea move one time to the Baltics, and the Open Mind Open Horizons project gave me the opportunity I was looking for. The project it was, in a few words, about art and performing, where I could have the chance to add some value, namely in the music and photography activities, in a cozy small countryside city, called Cesis, 2 hours from Riga. I move to there on August 1st and I comeback to Portugal several days after the end of the project, which was on September 2st. I just knew I would work together with more 7 volunteers from Portugal, Italy, France, Hungary and Spain. 

Looking back to these all days there I’m realizing how intense and grateful was my experience. Of course I had bad things too, some adaptation problems (how a miss the beautiful Portuguese sunny days…) and a big cultural shock. But do you know what? I´m feel much more strong and with better knowledge about myself than before. This short-term project gave me nice moments and experiences to know myself, to see how able I am to work in an international group environment, to increase my English language level and, of course, to learn, sharing and teaching a lot of stuffs. The bright light shining in these kind of projects and experiences it’s the possibility to feel you are not only dealing with informal learning process, but also you are working in a professional and responsibility spirit, where you care about a lot of things, you feel you are growing up, acquiring new skills and tools, getting professional and social experience, and you still work or to be in a funny and informal environment, where you have space and time to make mistakes, to be pro-active and entrepreneur, where you learn by doing and you really take part in the process to achieve the goals of the project. 

We got our goals, we made it happen. During 4 weeks we planned, organized and prepared all the activities and moments of the project, we made a lot of brain storming’s and group dynamics to reach it, we gave “wings” to our creativity to fly and we had space to be pro-active and put into the project that characteristics and skills you know well you are good. The feedback from the participants was awesome and we need to be proud of it. Such a heterogeneous and different profiles/background group could to reach a great team spirit level, finding common goals and purposes and, at the end, get a great experience, give fun and good memories to the participants. In overall, what all of us were looking for when we applied for it.

Since some years ago I’m taking the advantages of the Erasmus+ program, from doing exchanges and internships to volunteer projects. It´s wonderful what European Union gives us. Not only about the financial issues but the huge opportunity to think further, to meet people from all Europe, to have the possibility of acquiring the European values and the European citizenship, which makes us bigger than you were before. 

I will remember this full month for long time. I will stay connected with it and I will try to take part in more projects. It’s kind of a good addiction, you know?!  

Jose

The project was funded by the program Erasmus Plus under the number: 2016-1-LV02-KA105-001111