“Armenian Special Edition”

Last Thursday, 03.10.2019  was really important and memorable day for me. That was sprecial day  not only for me but for all the armenians who came to participate. And the Event was called

 ''Armenian Speial Edition''. 

This Armenin event was organised in Multi-Culti and it was sponsored by them. 

This was not an ordinary event. I've tried to organize it in a different way, without any formalities. 

We had a special guest, DJ Moris. Armenian DJ living and working in Fnland, and he made the event even more attractive, playing armenian music during that few hours. And all our guests were dancing and having fun with us.

The aim of this event was to represent Armenian art, culture and of course Armenian hospitaliy,  and I think it succeed. During the event I had a little presentation about Armenia, its histoy, cuisine, art and the culture. 

Some Armenian national dishes were served, like dolma, baklava and other sweets, 
made with love (by me😚).

 So that finnish people could feel the taste of Armenia. 
And for me it was pride and success to have so many guests. We had more than 30 guests during that evening and not only armenians or finnish people, but from Romania, Honduras, Iran, Afganstan and ect. 

This was perfect and unforgettable day for me, and I'll remember this day forever, and I hope that those who were participating will also remember this event and some things about Armenia.

#YOUTHere  ESC  EUsolidaritycorps  ESCvolunteer Dusya Armenia Finland volunteer

Ewan Reid

Name:  Ewan Reid

Age: 20

Why I'm went to Finland? I’m going to Finland because I want too have new experiences.
I haven’t been in Finland or worked in another country. I want to see the world, so Finland is a good start!!

What are you expecting for your time in a foreign country? I was expecting people to be afraid to talk to me because I am a foreigner... But it was'nt so bad i met some really good people and got to see most of Lahti, but i would like to see more of Finland, like the nature and the countryside.

Is there something you find exciting? I found the idea of being in a different country exciting and this meant everyday would be different and not the same, this made everything interesting.

What are your hobbies? What kind of stuff are you interested in?
I like to go out in the evenings and see the nightlife, I also love to cycle as I do it everyday at home, in my spare time I like to hike, which i have'nt done in Finland as there is only little hills!

What is the most important thing you're going to stow with you? 
My phone.

What would you like to tell about your homeland to people you'll meet in your destination?
I want to learn about the finnish people's ways and how they are different from irish people, I told them about Irish culture and how different it is from finnish culture, and it what ways it is the same.

What do you wish for your future? What is your dream? I really want to travel the world and see the most interesting places in it and now Finland is off my list!!

Presenting the mentors for the volunteers from Ireland

Hello and welcome to Finland! We are Riina, Susanna and Larissa, the mentors for the volunteers from Ireland. It is finally starting to feel like summer so it looks like the perfect time for a volunteering period.

Riina is working at Ohjaamo Lahti, which is a one-stop guidance center for young people. She is helping young people to get a job or getting into studies. The aim is to create functional networks and decrease bureaucracy.

Susanna is working at Ohjaamo Lahti too. She is a work/career coach and helps her clients to plan their future which can mean e.g. to find a jog, a work placement or a place to study.

Larissa works as an outreach-worker. She helps young people to find solutions to their problems, small or big.

We mentors will be welcoming the volunteers to Lahti and take care of the on-arrival training. We will have regular meetings with our volunteers and help them with the Youthpass as well as other issues concerning the stay.

We hope we can make you feel at home in Lahti and make the most of your EVS-experience in Lahti. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have a questions. Welcome!

Hey! I'm Pauliina.

Name: Pauliina Suonio

Age: 23

Why I'm going to Slovenia? I’m going to Slovenia because I want to have new experiences.
I haven’t been in Slovenia or worked in another country. I also want to meet new people and see what’s every day life in Slovenia like.

What are you expecting for your time in a foreign country? I’m expecting to see beautiful Slovenian nature. I have heard that it is stunning. I also expect to become better English speaker in foreign country.

Is there something you find exciting? I find working another country exiting. And also I’m exited to use English more.

What are your hobbies? What kind of stuff are you interested in? I’m interested in many things. I do yoga, run and meditate. I’m very creative person so I most of the time paint, draw or shoot pictures with my camera and edit pictures. Most of my paintings and photos are gothic because I’m very in to goth subculture and goth is what I am. I’m also interested of metal music and goth music, science, pagan religions, conspiracy theories and psychic powers.

What is the most important thing you're going to stow with you? My camera.

What would you like to tell about your homeland to people you'll meet in your destination?
About finnish language and old pagan culture of Finland.

What do you wish for your future? What is your dream? I wish to become my greatest version. I also dream to publish my action comics, make epic animation movies of them in future and have great time and future with my boyfriend.

Final post about my trip to Ireland

Hello guys!

It has been over a month since we came back to Finland from Ireland, and a lot have happened! I started in a new workshop and I try to make plans for future etc.

I really want to say thanks to all who've been included in this whole EVS project, especially Juuso, who've been with me all that time in Ireland. It was really nice to get to know you!

I was surprised how pretty easy it was to live an abroad. Well, yeah, there was a lots of people helping but I still survived on my own. And now my dream to live in Canada grew even bigger, because I know that I can survive an abroad alone. It was nice to notice that I understood English and even nicer that people understood me and said that I speak really good English. I thought that I suck at English because I don't use it in Finland that often, so it was like a really big surprise to me.

Overall my time in Ireland was awesome, even tough I cried some nights because wanted to be in Finland with people dear to me. But still, I didn't forget to enjoy my time in Ireland and get to know to local people. Irish people were so nice and I wanted to know them better, but one month was kinda short time there.

After we arrived back to Finland we had some meetups where we talked about how our time in Ireland went etc. It was really refreshing to let it all out, what bothered me and what I liked in Ireland. I hope next volunteers who go to Ireland have even better experience!

Okay I'm pretty clumsy to write blogs, because it's not really my thing (I love to write and have few novels of my own, but writing a blog text is really different thing), but I hope that you enjoyed reading my blog!

See you again! :)

Dublin was really beautiful city!

Bon voyage, Teja & Denis!

Have a great journey and awesome learning experience in Lahti Youth Services and around the "perimeter"! 

Warm regards from me and my friend(s)!! :)

The appartment in Lahti

Hopefully all of the volunteers who are staying in Lahti feel like home here :) Thanks to all of the youngsters in the workshops and trainers! I think the place looks amazing :)

Here is a little sneak peak :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The EVS-appartment is almost ready and waiting for you guys!

Teja and Denis! You will be the first lucky ones who will be living in our new appartment in Sammonkatu :) Interrior decoration worksshop with the youngsters has been working last week and doing the painting jobs and making the appartment nice for you :) They will continue the work for couple of days this week to get the furnitures in! If I were you, I would like to live there, hih ;) We hope you like it what we have done with the place. And the best thing, see you two soon! Jia!

Some fresh paint!

Terhi, Coordinator

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… :)

Juuso - Back in Finland / Final thoughts

How you doin?

Heyo, long time no see! I'm back here with some final thoughts about my EVS trip in Ireland. Its been almost one month now and I think now is a good time to make my final(?) blog post.

First of all, I want to say that the whole trip was amazing. Even that one month is kinda short in a way, I'm amazed how well me and Allu got through living in a foreign country and using English in a everyday basis. Also, just how much I learned about Ireland and learned something new of myself as well.

One of the biggest things that happened to me in the trip was how well I actually understand English. And I realized that when Laura took us to this Mental Health Talk that happened in the Sports Festival week. That evening was kinda "special" to me, 'coz I actually understood like 99% of what the people were talking about in there, and that kinda blew my mind. I walked away from the event with small grin on my face and just thinking "Hey, my English is actually pretty good"

Also, one of my biggest dreams is to live abroad.. At this moment, I don't know where/when/how but, its a dream and trip to Ireland kinda boosted my confidence that I could actually survive in a foreign country... Well at least in a English speaking country.

Now then, 'lil something about the stuff that we did when we got back to Finland.
We had couple of meetups with the whole group, Terhi, Anna-Kaisa, Vesa, Susanna and Allu. There we talked about the overall trip, challenges, what we learned etc. These were super fun and it was nice to "open up" and just talk about our month in Ireland.

I'm not a writer by any means and writing a blog, still feels kinda weird, but I hope you got something out of this and from my other blog posts. Also, I hope that if someone has questions about the whole EVS process, I'm pretty sure I can answer some of them.

Last but not least, I want to thank everyone who was involved with this project and a big thanks to Allu, the trip wouldn't have been the same without you. Also, big cheer up for Mikko who is leaving to Slovenia!

Bonus pic of my cat Leo!

Allu's 3rd week

Monday
On Monday we went to Roscrea with kids to swim. Well, just kids swam, we just sited and waited for them.
After that we went on a little picnic in some kind of play park.

Tuesday
On Thuesday we didn't like anything. Just sitted on computers and listened kids rapping. There were some guy who makes music, rap music. They were rapping something about their hometown, Thurles, I think.
On evening the Spanish students were there again, So we had a reeeeally long day, like 11 hours.

Wednesday
On Wednesday we went to Athlon. There we did some bay sports, like a kayaking and stand-up-paddling. Also we learned how to fire a campfire. It was really easy for me, but looked like it wasn't that easy to kids.

At first I didn't event want to go, because my swimsuit is "broken" and I was afraid that they gonna fall from me, But then I learned that they give us a wet suits, so I tough that why not to go, because wet suit  cover whole body, so my broken swimsuit wont fall off.

Thursday 
On Thursday we went to work only at 5 pm. We went to Templemore to watch a billiard competition, where kids played against each others.

Friday
Friday was a day off.

Allu's 2nd week

Okay so week had a lot to do, and everyday we were going somewhere. But it was wonderful and I had a lot of fun!

Monday
On Monday were National Play Day at Rugby Club. I painted that board, what I mentioned in the last post, in this event. Kids didn't took photos with it, but adults seemed to be happy of that board.
Kids were playing like all the time. Also we had a a little picnic after 12.
There where a little competitions like jumping in a sack and potato and spoon running.

Tuesday
On Tuesday were trip to Limerick again, to bowling. That little bowling center was at arcade hall. We didn't play with Juuso, but I watched kids playing.

At evening we went to some college to listen lecture of mental health, gambling, alcohol etc. It was very good lecture and it made me to think about stuff.

Wednesday
On Wednesday we went to  Lahinch beach to surf. I didn't bring my swimsuit with me and weather were so cold, so I didn't want to go surfing. But when I went to water just walk, it wasn't so cold as I tough it will be. Water was actually pretty warm.
The scenery in Lahinch was very beautiful and I really loved the sea.

Thursday
On Thursday we went to Dublin in X-HALE event. It was a campaign against smoking. Kids from different Youth Center's did amazing 2 minute - videos against smoking. I liked to watch them, kids did a wonderful job.
Also there was some dance group, and their performance was really amazing!

Friday
I have nothing to write about Friday, because we did nothing.

Saturday
On Saturday we went to bucket collecting for Youth Center. We've collected only for 1,5 hours, but I got in my bucket a lot. Youth worker joked that I got that much money because I'm young and beautiful. I don't think the same, but I laughed :)

Allu's first week

Okay, so it's already a whole week behind! That week there was so exiting.

On Monday we were Karting, like I already told in my previous post.

On Wednesday Laura told me that I have a little project. I had to paint soldiers in 1916 clothing on board with holes to faces.

On Thursday we had air soft. Juuso went air softing but I waited in tent, because I wasn't in play mood and didn't want to wet my clothes. It was a bit rainy and very cold day, so maybe because of that I felt a little sick.

I've been doing a whole Friday that hole face board thing. It turned up pretty good. It was the biggest painting project what I ever have done, so it was kinda hard. But Laura and others are happy with that, so am I.
In the end of the day we went to see a Sport Festival's opening. There were a bagpipers, horses and kids, who plays national Irish sport, Hurling.

There's so cold like all the time, even tough there are warm moments in weather. It feels like weather is changing every hour, from rainy to sunny.
We don't have a internet connection at our house, so keeping a connect to home country is a bit hard.

It have been a very nice week and I'm exited what 3 next weeks going to have!

Our trip to Thurles by Vesa and Susanna

Juuso and Allu at Helsinki-Vantaa airport

We left on Sunday morning accompanied by a really sunny and hot day in Finland. As it was the second day of Midsummer weekend, we had a bit of a problem finding a place where to eat on our way to the airport. Luckily there were some fast food joints offering their services to starving travelers, and we headed to the airplane with our stomachs full.

 

The flight to Dublin went well, but was a little delayed. Fortunately we had reserved enough time to get to the train station from the airport. Our journey there was very easy by airport coach. The weather in Dublin was cooler, cloudy and a little bit rainy. On our way we saw a lot of people watching the euro football game that was on, and many houses were decorated with the flags of Ireland. Sadly Ireland lost the match to France.

 

 

 

After hopping on the train it was an easy and relaxing journey to Thurles that took us one and a half hours. We were able to just enjoy the Irish landscape, where green is definitely the keyword. The scenery was very beautiful even with the clouds hanging low in the sky. The sun came out once in a while when we were passing the small villages and meadows where horses and sheep were grazing.

 

The scenery on our way to Thurles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura picked us up from Thurles railway station and we headed straight to the apartments where our volunteers would stay for a month. It was a nice area with student villas, but because all of the students had moved out for the summer it felt a bit abandoned and spooky at first. Laura told us that there will be some spanish exchange students coming to live there soon. For us, Thurles seemed like a nice little town with some 8000 inhabitants.

 

Old tower

                                                   

The river view in Thurles 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we met some of the staff members at the TRYS office and took a quick tour at the youth project community center. After that we jumped on a bus accompanied by a crowd of local children aged 13-16 years, and started our afternoon trip to Limerick. The ride there offered us some more sightseeing of beautiful landscape, small towns and villages and Tipperary city streets. We also saw some great looking old castles on our way.

 

Juuso, Vesa and Allu in front of the youth project center

 

 

 

Inside the center

 

 

 

 

 

In Limerick we all got to race with go karts. We had a lot of fun on the race track trying to get as fast laps as we could!

 

Allu, Susanna and Juuso getting ready for karting

 

 

Some serious racing going on

 

After an exhausting afternoon we had a quick visit in the nearby fast food restaurant that helped us to grab some lost calories. After that we started our journey back to Thurles.

 

In the evening we had a chance to discuss about the practicalities of the coming month with Laura and our volunteers, and after that we had a lovely dinner at the  next door Indian restaurant.

 

Then it was time to give farewell to Juuso and Allu and wish them a good and rewarding month with a lot of new experiences in Ireland. We had a strong feeling that everything is going to work out just fine. With minds at ease we headed to our hotel to get some rest before strating our journey back to Finland.   

Allu's first day in Ireland

Hello from Ireland!
My time there started greatly. People are very kind and nature is really beautiful. I feel kinda relaxed there. We go everywhere together with Juuso, so I feel safe.

The departure day was worst. I was really calm at first, but then truth hit my face. I'm not going to see my family, girlfriend and friends for a whole month. I started to cry in car when Vesa and Susanna asked my how I feel about leaving. It was horrible. I try to not to cry in front of people, but this time I can't hold my cry.
Gladly I calmed down really quick and I felt better after that. Because I can contact everyone there in Ireland, so I don't have anything to worry about.

The very first day we traveled a lot. From Lahti to Helsinki, from Helsinki to Dublin and from Dublin to Thurles. It was so tiring, so when I get to bed I felt asleep immediately.

On the next day we went in Limerick karting. It was very fun! I and Juuso were in the same team, Susanna and Vesa in other teams. We were in the first team to race, so we had a lot of free time after that.
We went outside, because inside were so hot! Don't know why, but I looked in the sewer on the ground and saw a 5 euros! So we tried to hook it up and after a half hour (I think) we finally get it! Lucky!! So now I'm 5 euros richer!

Today we have nothing to do, but maybe tomorrow I start to paint. Ireland is celebrating their independence day, so I'm going to do something to that. Ireland left Great Britain in 1916, so that their 100th year independent. I'm so exiting, can't wait for tomorrow!

A view from airplane

Dublin's train station

Wearing a karting clothes

Pre-departure training.. what?!

My name is Anna-Kaisa and I’m the coordinator of this project. My responsibility is to look after that our volunteers are aware of all aspects in their volunteering activity. And there are quite a few things behind, that I’m also taking care of. Such as funding, insurances, communication with partners etc.. I’m glad that I’m not alone, instead I have a big group of great colleagues doing the work with me. But let’s get to the topic.. 

“Okay guys, it’s 2 weeks and you’ll be in Ireland, Thurles to be more precise. There are few things, that we need to go through. And I’ll bet you might have couple of questions as well.. “

"What are the feelings right now? Vesa, Juuso, Allu and Susanna wondering what picture would best describe their feeling."

And so started our first pre-departure training in this project. Basically, it means that we go through all possible things, which need to be taken care of in order to build a successful experience. 

“Do you have valid passports?... How about vaccinations?... Do you have enough pills for your hay allergy?... Remember to inform your sports club that you are out of country for a while!... Did you check your employment plan in the electronic customer service?... Do you have a trolley where to back your belongings?... Remember to shut down the data services in your cell phone when you’re there!... Are you going to take a buss to the airport or is somebody driving you there?... The travelling takes long time, take some snacks with you!... How does your girlfriend cope the time without you? … And how about your mum? Yes, she can call to me whenever she needs to. “…

The list is loooong, as you might understand everybody’s situation is different. Somebody has to focus more on leaving family and friends for a month, and the other might be more worried about who’s looking after pets and taking care of post. And even more it is about the feeling that volunteers are ready to start the journey.

Going through insurance matters and the house rules for volunteer's apartment

EVS is about learning, experiencing, jumping out of the comfort zone and reflecting what happened. In the training we focused a lot on communication and surviving in the foreign country, in the middle of different culture and a bunch of unfamiliar faces. And when you’re placing yourself in your imagination into the summer fun activities for the local kids in Thurles, the only way to do it, is to look in a mirror and ask a question: Who am I?... What are my values?... What am I afraid of?... How do I react?... Why do I react the way I do? 

In EVS it's very useful to think about personal goals in order to get most out of the experience.

This is a learning tree.This is also first lesson of Finnish to our partners..  :) My goal: what will I learn / become aware of? What competences / skills I need for that? What competences I already have? What have I learned before, that will help me?

Excitemen is competing with slight insecurity. The more we go through, the wider the smiles get. Yes, it will be a great experience! 

Juuso

Allu

But wait a minute! Who are these two other guys?

Susanna

Vesa

They are my colleagues Vesa and Susanna who are going to travel with volunteers and spend the first 2 days with them. This is first time ever when we do EVS in co-operation with Youth Work Ireland Tipperary. We have visited there once, but for a different reason. And we met Laura already in APV and got loads of information. But still it is good to assist volunteers all the long way to Tipperary and help them to adapt the fact they will be spending the whole month there. And Irish people speak super fast, so it’s good to have two extra pairs of ears and brains. ;)

I can’t wait to read and follow the stories and updates that Juuso and Allu are going to post during their time in Thurles.

Anna-Kaisa, coordinator

Yep, that's me!

A short film about Youth Work Ireland Tipperary

Juuso and Allu are leaving to Ireland in the end of June. We all are curious what Tipperary has to offer for them and what kind of people they will meet.

Laura from Youth Work Ireland Tipperary send us a video which we like to share with you. The video describes Youth Work Ireland Tipperary through the works of their young people staff and volunteers.

Wow, I think that Juuso and Allu are going to have great experiences and meet wonderful people in Ireland. Don't you think so too?

Anna
The head blogger

Advance planning visit 2.-3.6.2016 in Lahti

The first mobility in our project took place in the beginning of June when Laura (Ireland), Annika (Sweden) and David (Slovenia) came to Lahti! We had two days full of conversations and success. We also had an amazing weather, days were heat all day and night long :)

The purpose of the advance planning visit is as the name says; plan together with all the partners and discuss about the coming activities, get to know how each organization is arranging practicalities like accommodation for volunteers, do joint operating agreements and go throw the financial side as well. All hard work but interesting and exciting to think about the awesome experiences what volunteers can have through this project.

From Lahti we had several people, workers and youngsters along these two days.

So that our visitors would know what their volunteers are doing to do in our workshops, we had a tour! Our youngster, Mikko, was our tour guide when we visited the catering, arts and crafts, car and metal and carpentry workshops. Oh yeah, Mikko is also chosen to do his period in Slovenia at the beginning of September :) So you will hear more about him later on.

But our hard work in the morning going throw the project and presenting our organizations to each other’s for a reminder, we had to have lunch before the tour! Youngsters in cafeteria had translated the menu to us.

Pictures from to workshop tour:

After the tour we went to Ohjaamo Lahti where volunteer from Sweden will be working at the end of this year. Ohjaamo is only a walking distance away from Sammonkatu, so we met up with Juuso who is doing his period in Ireland and walked there together. Laura and Juuso got to talk about their coming teamwork. Laura told Juuso what kind of volunteer work Juuso is going to do and Juuso got to tell about himself to Laura.

At the end of the day we visited Niemi youth club where the volunteers are staying in Lahti and rest of the day we spend working in the harbor, discussing how each organization is arranging practicalities.

In Finland we even have moving Sauna’s :DD

The second day was also full of work!

We discussed around topics; roles of different people in the project, agreements about project management etc. The day was full of conversations and result was for example updated risks assessment and we shared good practises about trainings.

This blog and how we are going to use it in this project was also on discussion. So that you will know what we decided you should stay tuned! ;)

Vesa for media workshop was helping us with the blog

So that the hole day wouldn’t just been sitting around we had again lunch in cafeteria workshop. After that we continued the workshop tour. We visited media, interior decoration and environment workshops. During the tour Laura met up with Allu, who is our other volunteer leaving to Ireland :)

Vesa and Saija from the media workshop

One workshop is still missing from the tour! So that’s why we went to see Drama workshops show in Ohjaamo Lahti later on that evening. Although the show “Tunto”, “feeling”, was performed in Finnish, our visitors got the hang of it and liked it! As well we all :)

Reason why we got to know the workshops in Lahti was because now by seeing their own eyes Laura, Annika and David can tell their youngsters and show pictures what’s the place and people about :) For anyone who’s going to a new place, you know that it’s easier and nicer to come when you know something before :) The same thing when Juuso and Allu met up with Laura!

We were all pleased about the two days working together. Now the project continues on, we will make use of all the information that we gained from the APV and will start sending and hosting volunteers, do what this project is about!

Terhi
Finland's coordinator