21. January : Animals gone wild!🐘

(Post from Tanja 😊)

This Saturday, we made cute little animals out of toilet paper rolls.

Every kid was allowed to create as many as they wanted to using their own imagination. I only showed them two examples,  a fox and a mouse and was truly surprised what they came up with ☺

This is how you do it:

1. Fold in the top of the paper roll, to make it look like ears.

2. Paint it and glue cardboard, wool, eyes or other material on to make it look perfect.

3. Finished  😊

The reason, why we used the paper rolls, is because waste is a huge problem in the whole world affecting the ecosystem everywhere.

Waste often lands on gigantic landfills where it takes ages to rott.

Sometimes it is burned, producing a lot of CO2 at the same time, which is one of the main reasons for environment change and an increase of nature catastrophes.

So you should always try to reduce your waste. The waste, you can't prevent, you should try to use in a clever or nice way ☺

13. January : Speed dating with volunteers 🍵

This is me, Tanja and I must admit we didn't do any speed dating.

But it was sort of like it 😁

Karo, another EVS volunteer from Poland, invited several volunteers, including me, to join her event. She works in a huge youth center in Rezekne with Camilla (Italien volunteer)  and Melyne (French volunteer). 

This Friday, we, a total of nine volunteers from Poland, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Turkey, Czech Republic and Germany gave locals the opportunity to get direct information about EVS.  The event was called CreativiTea and took part in the youth center. Each of the locals was allowed to talk to one volunteer for three minutes, before switching to the next. Therefore we secretly referred to event as "speed dating". They asked us questions about our motivation, our work,  free days, travels, money, applications etc.

Funnily, the most common question was: "Why Latvia?" 😁

Of course, we had tea and biscuits during the event😉

In my opinion, CreativiTea was a success, because many of the attendees were thankful and very interested. They gave us positive feedback and are thinking about doing an EVS, too. 😊

Creative Christmas Celebrations ❤

Dear everyone, this is me, Tanja 😀

My Christmas was very special for me and completely different to all the previous years. Therefore I would like to share this experience with you and add a report about the EVS Christmas event for seniors I helped out at. 😊

Most volunteers go home for christmas to reunite with their friends and family for the fest of love.
I, however, decided to stay here in Latvia and experience something completely new.
And I don't regret it at all!☺
So Thursday evening (22.12.) I arrived in Ruijena with another German volunteer, Moritz.
Why Ruijena? - because that's where the big party was going to be.
Actually, I only knew one of the hosts, Abdu from Italy. Therefore we started with a welcoming introduction round and I got to know Abdus flatmates Clemence, Yassin (both French) and Luca (Italien) and  Ani (Armenian) and Monika ( Tschech) working in Daugavpils. After we had traditional Latvian potato pancakes for dinner, we went to bed quite early because we had work to do the next morning.

Event in the senior center
Friday morning we made some cakes before Victoria (Russian) arrived. It was here nameday, therefore, of course, we all gratulated her.
As soon as Abdu and Luca's coordinator (another Victoria, but from Latvia) arrived, we set off to go to the senior center. Abdu works there as a volunteer.
After we had collected approximately 15 seniors, we introduced ourselves and thought them how to make tiramisu, a typical Italian dish.😊

One of the seniors had an accordion, on which he played happy Christmas songs. While we were waiting for the tiramisu to cool in the fridge, we ate the other cakes and biscuits and tried chatting with the patients. 

After we had eaten up the tiramisu and drunk tea, we brought them back again and tidied everything up. By the time we had finished, it was already quite late, but we were happy and satisfied about the event. 😌

That evening we went to the only bar, to chat about Christmas traditions, our work experiences, politics, especially the Russian politics, which was 

interesting for me, because I had never talked about

that with an actual Russian. 

That night we continued talking and playing games in their flat, which meant going to bed very late.😉

Christmas!

Christmas morning we started decorating the house. Monika and I made pretty snowflakes and Christmas crackers while Victoria created a beautiful Christmas tree out of paper. At noon, finally the others arrived and I must admit, that I was totally utterly surprised. Of course, I knew that we would be quite a few volunteers, but I honestly hadn't expected that many to come 😀

So we decided to devide in three groups, a pizza group, a salad group and a soup+desert group and prepare the Christmas dinner that way. Furthermore, Lam (German) introduced us to "Weihnachtswichteln" or "secret santa" , which is common in many European countries. It acquires you to pick one of the participant's names and sectrely buy a gift for them. 

Approximately at 9 pm we could finally enjoy our dinner! 

Afterwards,  we opened our presents, went for a walk, danced around the town Christmas tree, played a lot of funny games and got tipsy on mulled wine.
All in all it was just an amazing Christmas! ❤🎄
For me, the highlight was when Angelika (Georgian) took the guitar and started singing with her beautiful voice. It didn't take long until everybody chimed in.
Just imagine young people from 10 different nations singing together at Christmas in the middle of the night. 🎶
I will never forget that evening - it was just as loving, peaceful, harmonic and happy as the perfect christmas should be.

So far

Hey there, everybody :). It is me :) - the girl you never hear from :D. I do realise you don’t get to hear from me as often as from Tanja, that in fact you barely ever get to hear anything from me :). But the truth is that I am here as well and I do stuff too :). I’m not that open about my personal opinions or when it comes to publicly exposing my thoughts and views, and as silly as it might sound, it is sort of a challenging moment for me to write a blog post that I would consider to be readable and interesting, rather than just a mash up of empty words.

It’s been a while since I came to Latvia and a lot of things had happened during those months. I’ve met tons of new, amazing people… I got to know a lot of new things, learnt a lot of new things, got used to plenty of new things, had ups and downs during that time, but mainly was smiling and trying to be as present as I can be.

You know, when you decide to do something like an EVS or generally something new, when you suddenly find yourself in a situation you’ve never been in before, there is no ‘best’ way how to get things done… people can advise you and tell you what they think and you can try to prepare yourself as much as you can  - make a huge research on what you can expect, but in the end the reality might be completely different... And whatever the case is – whether you like the situation or not – it is only up to you how you deal with it and how you let it to affect you.

However, what I can say and what I would like to advise to everybody who is about to do something new, something challenging, exciting - I think the best advice I can give is what I've been trying to do since I arrived to Latvia - and that is to be as present as you can be. Because to properly experience things, to properly feel them and live them, you have to be right there at the place where you are. Not worry about what’s going to be or what was, just try to enjoy what is right at that moment. Because time flies fast and within a blink something amazing can be gone :).

My project is all about working with people. I work with children, I work with people with certain disabilities. And as much as I can study what is right to do and what isn't, when it comes to people and especially kids in particular, in reality you usually learn by trial and error. And that’s how it goes with me, too. And even if I cannot make any major differences to happen in the lives of those people I work with, I try to give them the best of me I have. I offer my friendship, loyalty or support… because what makes me feel good in the end of the day is knowing that I did or tried to make people around me feel good as well. That I gave them something from myself.

In all EVS projects the participants get to learn plenty of new stuff… new culture… new people, new traditions, new nature…I’ve learnt lots of that by now as well. To name just a few :) - I learnt that sour cream is life here :D, I learnt that name days are a thing, that “Nu” is a really catchy word :D and that Latvian people are not as cold as it’s usually presented. Taking time to get to know someone or not cheekily greeting everybody in the street is not a bad thing. To me it all feels more like that to earn someone’s  trust is something really valuable here…

Yet what I know by now is that the learning aspect doesn’t really apply just on learning things around me. I know that I learn a lot more about myself while I’m here. And to learn things about yourself, your abilities you might have never known about, your weaknesses, your strength, and a lot more, I feel like learning all this is just as equal as learning about your surroundings. And no one can ever take that gained knowledge away from you.

From the geographical point, I haven’t visited many places in Latvia yet. I’m in love with the sea and the nature, but my time is yet to come in spring and summer, when I would like to travel a bit more. For now I’m really looking forward to Riga Christmas markets and hoping for more snow to come because that makes my days happier and brighter :). I hope that everyone who hasn’t got fully caught into the Christmas spirit yet will do so soon and enjoy this precious and magical time of the year :).

And even though it’s a bit too early for new year's resolutions yet, I will give myself one and that will be to become more regular with my blog posts :).

‘Seeing is believing but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see‘ – The Conductor (Polar Express)

Sincerely,

Your Rose :).

2. Adventspecial: If you don't need it, it's not a good deal!

If you don't need it, it's not a good deal!  (Post from Tanja)

It's Christmas time and of course, many people are thinking about which presents to give to their friends and family.
Especially in Germany, citizens are utterly stressed out, running threw shops buying cheap special offers that actually nobody really needs.

I am sitting in a shopping mall right now (they've got a sofa and free WiFi here ;) ) watching purchasers consume useless goods.
Seriously, do they need a tenth pair of trousers? The twentiest shirt? Red sparkly highheels they will only wear once? Hairclips that look like fairies?
Do their friends and family really need another wallet? That huge reindeer cuddly toy that sings jingle bells when you press it's belly??  :D

Will they be happy when they receive that present?
And what I ask myself, too:
Do they remember all the people living in our world who can't even afford to buy food for themselves and don't get any present at all?

However, not only in this time of year do the wealthy purchase useless items. Daily dustcatching decorative stuff, clothes that rarely get worn, easily breakable plastic toys etc are being bought.   ;)
Nonetheless, while consuming, these people are not only harming themselves, they have a significant impact on our whole world.

You might ask yourself how wealthy consumers are harming themselves.
Well, they go to work every day. Often, they do not even like their job. So basically they are wasting their time earning money that they will spend on stuff, they don't need. Unfortunately, it is proven, that consuming stuff usually only makes you happy for a short period of time. Consequently, after their purchase they still aren't satisfied. So they will work even more to get more money so they can buy more stuff hoping that might make them happy.
On top of that, these people haven't got enough time for their friends, family, hobbies, talents....

Obviously, it would be better for them to work less and instead, focus on things that they truly enjoy.

Now you might ask yourself, how can they have a significant impact on our world?
Well...   ;)
Whenever you buy something in a normal shop
1. it is made of different materials, some of them are fossil fuels.
One day we won't have enough left and then people will be asking themselves: was that toy really worth it.
2. it is made of materials that can't be recycled.
One day it will be waste. But where will it end? In the sea killing fish? In some field killing birds and bugs? On some rubbish pile that gets bigger and bigger every day and produces methan? On the moon? ;)
3. a lot of energy was used to produce it.
Which obviously increases the CO2 level...
4. a lot of water was used to produce it.
Did you know that to produce one box of teabag you need 100 litres of water? Did you know that we don't have endless resources on clean water in our world? It takes ages to regenerate and clean the water we use. In Germany for example we won't have any clean water left in about 30 years.
5. the item travelled to various places until it arrived in the shop. Transport always pollutes our world: CO2 emmisions, LKWs, trains, ships, streets, train tracks, harbours etc have got to be built, which of course destroys nature and demands the usage of fossil fuels......,  sound pollution that has impact on e.g. birds lives, large ships influence sea creatures lives etc
6. ... Just imagine you were an extremely poor person in a poor country working all day and night in a devastating factory barely earning anything while producing absolutely useless stuff that you know you would never ever be able to afford.
How would you feel?

Of course, you want to give your friends and family presents anyway.

Here's an advice from me:
Surprise them with a lovely self-made gift!  :)
Most probably that will make them much happier and btw, did you know that creating things usually increases your own happiness, too?  ;)
Francly, that way, you've got a win-win situation  ;)

If you need some inspiration, visit us in Ligzda. We've got plenty heartwarming ideas :)

E.g. pretty christmas cards like the one on the right.

29. Oktober: Second workshop

Mini Monsterbags  (Post by Tanja) 

Halloween was on its way!!
Most kids already had their costume, but I knew exactly what they hadn't thought about yet:
A bag! Obviously, you need a bag to put the sweets in if you want to go around the houses asking for them.


So that saturday, my attendees were allowed to
create their own monster bag.
I had prepared the bags beforehand by cutting up and
sewing together old shirts.
All they had to do was sew on eyes, mouths, shoulder straps and everything they could imagine.
Luckily all kids knew how to sew already which made it easy and fun for me and for them.  :)

22. Oktober: Tanjas first workshop for kids

Creating kites   (Post from Tanja)

That saturday I held my first workshop for kids at Ligzda. Honestly, I was super excited and extremely nervous. I didn't know how many kids would come but I didn't think there would be a lot, because I hadn't done a lot of advertisement on media.
Also, Leonardo, the previous volunteer had told me, that usually there aren't a lot of people attending.

So when suddenly ten kids arrived, I was positively surprised. Of course, not everything worked out exactly as I had planned it, but in the end, everybody had a pretty kite.  :)
Andris and some of the others who were first to finish went outside and tried them out. They really did fly!  :)

As I mentioned, we made kites.
Because I am interested in upcycling and love the idea of being able to make art out of rubbish, we used plastic bags to create them. So the next time you want to fly a kite instead of spending a lot of money on a new one, just get out your trash and make it yourself  ;)

This is how it works:

You need a plastic bag (80cm x 45cm), rope, two sticks (each 45cm), something to decorate the tail with and duck tape

1. Cut open a plastic bag.
2. Measure a piece 80cm  x  45cm
3. Measure 20cm from the two short sides and mark it
4. Measure 15cm from the top on the short sides and connect the point at the top that is 20cm from the edges with the new point.
5. Cut off the corners.
6. Glue on the sticks.
7. Glue on a pretty face.
8. Make the tail.
9. Connect the two ends with a 110cm long piece of rope.
10. Connect that piece of rope with a very long piece that you will use to hold it.
Finished!!!  :)