On-arrival training with Mikko and his group

Traditionally, when the weather is nice, I do on-arrival trainings outside, under the walnut tree at the entrance of the Vila. This tree became kind of our summer check-in place for workshops, evaluations and other meetings, but at the same time also a nice playing spot for the children and with its’ deep shade, the best place to chill-out during the hot days.

This time, the training was done with six volunteers: Mikko from Finland, Theo and Benjamin from France, Anka and Adrien from Romania and Youssef from Sardinia. 

The introduction started with a short get-to-know activity and a small challenge of how are we able to communicate without speaking. It’s hard, but possible. J After that, we went into the details of the volunteers hosting organization, it’s aims, goals and vision. It’s really empowering to share our learning processes with the volunteers and vice versa, and with the help of our volunteers’ new ideas, their fresh heads, hands and hearths being able to continue building a comfortable and safe place for experiental learning, for the local children and other curious souls. The intercultural dimension which volunteers bring, is an awesome value which can change also the people who are indirectly involved in our projects: by-passers, neighbours, parents etc.

Hey, what about volunteering? What does volunteering mean to us? Are volunteers able to do their job better that a professional? Where is the learning in this story? What are the volunteers’ rights, responsibilities and commitments in our local reality? Do we need to pay to be volunteers? These are just a few questions when we discuss about the background of the volunteering and at the same time open our way for the practicalities of every-day life in the Vila.

After the pre-departure trainings, all the flights and journeys to arrive in this small village “under the mountain”, it is time that the volunteers lift their anchors and start to sail. Like in all new oceans, it is important to set our compasses, astrolabes and other instruments to prepare for the storms that might come. But we can’t get ready for the storms, if we don’t know in which direction the winds blow, how the streams behave and what is behind the horizon. For these reasons, we continued the training by having a hike around the village.

First check point is usually at the memorial park behind the old manor, where we run an activity about our cultural backgrounds, what living in a community is about, which are the obstacles and challenges, coming along with these topics.

After giving the volunteers some time to adapt to the first “waves”, the first challenges come. Finding a way to our destination – the old Castle Kamen can be fun, but with a serious learning process behind it.

When the group arrived to the small crossroads in the forest, me as a coordinator (named “United Nonsense-UN” :) ) proposed to democratically vote for the path we should take. The first question was, whose votes count? Wait a second, what is the majority of voting? Then what? Are we voting for the path or for a person who should have the power to decide which path to take? Should we then elect a leader? Is that leader then an absolute leader or can he or she be a democratic leader? What is better – a bad democratically elected leader or a good dictator? And many many more... The group trusted the elected leader, the leader did everything not to become a tyrant, and they all accepted their actions with understanding and high awareness.

After continuing the walk to finally reach our destination, we ran into a place where ancient settlements used to be. Today, this place is a nice climbing area and perfect climax to use the climbing metaphor: stepping out of our comfort zones, accepting and dealing with new challenges, preparing for and using the proper routes to reach the goal, trusting yourself and the persons next to you in case you fall down, using not only the force but also the technique when dark days come and so on. Hopefully, one day we can actually try our climbing skills here :)

The last part of the training was held at the castle Kamen. Being tired from the hike, all the activities and so many new information, the only thing left was to come closer and congratulate each other for doing a great job!

However, the training doesn’t finish here… :)