What's happening? Regards from the coordinator!

Hi everyone! I thought that I could let you in to see whats happening in the "scenes" :)

As you know, we have had our first volunteers here in Lahti, Teja and Denis from Slovenia. Working with them has been awesome! Tomorrow we are doing things concerning coordinator role; checking receips from the traveling here, getting signatures to the participant list, they will give us feedback about the period and some other things as well.

In the same time Mikko is in Slovenia. We have been in touch with him by messages, checking up how is he doing there, what's the work been there like etc.

Also we have keeping contact with Slovenian workers Barbara and David by email. Just to let everybody in the same page and checking that everything is going as it's planned :)

AND! November is coming fast! So this means that the volunteers from Sweden are coming to Lahti at Ohjaamo :) We have been in contact with Anna in Sweden, sending different documents and agreements to her and of course planning together the period with our EVS-team! We are hoping to have a skype meeting with Anna and the volunteers before they arrive here.

So lots and lots of emails, WhatsApp messages, writing documents, doing things together and enjoying our work! I think it's refeshing to do work with international level. It might take a little bit of more time to write the emails and documents in english, but if the volunteers and youngsters have learning experiances, so do us workers! And it's been nice to notice how youngsters in the workshops speak english, take part in the conversations and help our volunteers to adjust living here in Lahti.

We had a attitude indicator with our younsters in Drama, Media and Interior desing workshops before Denis and Teja arrived. The goal of this indicator was to discuss about attitudes, prejudices and how do the volunteers see Finland and Lahti when they come here for the firts time.  We are having the second meeting with the younsters next week. It's also about giving an opportunity to the younsters tell and talk about what they have learned from internationalism and possible tell if have they learned something about themselves! We are doing these indicators in every period that happens in Lahti. So stay tuned, we will make a summary of it.

Can't wait the to see the next volunteers!

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… :)