Holiday activities – Activitati de vacanta
Between 7th and 14th of February there was a school holiday. We, at Curba de Cultură took advantage of it and we even had activities planned in two locations in two different projects. Anyhow here we will talk about what our EVS volunteers prepared, but if you want to find out more about that period click here.
Under the name of Winter Fun, Liina and Ania with the help of Franck and Sophie organised three captivating days for the children and youngsters in Schiulești.
Tuesday was boardgames day – children had the opportunity of learning new boarding games, practicing or even teaching others how to play. The games form Curba de Cultură’s collection proved their value and utility once more.
Wednesday in the afternoon the girls projected Monster Inc, a funny and catchy animation to which they added popcorn and so the day ended in an optimistic and joyful note.
Friday was the day which brought a Treasure Hunt. And even though there was lots of wind and a cold weather the hunt for finding the clues which lead to the treasure heated up everyone, organizers and participants at the same time.
Între 7 si 14 Februarie a fost vacanță școlară. Noi, la Curba de Cultură am profitat de asta și am avut chiar activități planificate în două locații, în două proiecte diferite. Aici vom vorbi însă despre activitățile pregătite de voluntarii SEV, dar dacă doriți să aflați mai multe despre perioada respectivă, click aici.
Sub numele de Winter Fun, Liina și Ania, cu ajutorul lui Franck și al lui Sophie au organizat trei zile captivante pentru copii și tinerii dind Schiulești.
Marți a fost ziua de boardgames – copii au avut ocazia de a învăța noi jocuri, de a le exersa pe cele pe care le știau deja și de a-i învăța pe ceilalți să joace. Jocurile din colecția Curbei de Cultură s-au dovedit încă o dată valoroase și utile.
Miercuri după amiază fetele au făcut proiecție de film, Monster Inc. o animație captivantă și amuzantă căreia i-au adăugat popcorn. Așa se face că ziua s-a încheiat într-o notă optimistă și distractivă.
Vineri a fost ziua care a adus Vânăoarea de Comori. Și chiar dacă a fost o zi cu mult vânt și vreme rece, cursa găsirii indiciilor care au condus spre comoară ia- încălzit pe toți, organizatori și participanți deopotrivă.
Mentor si Coordonator – Mentor and Coordinator
Fiecare proiect SEV este pus în aplicare de o întreagă echipă de oameni. Dintre aceștia, cei care lucrează direct cel mai mult cu voluntarii SEV sunt mentorul și coordonatorul.
Every EVS project is implemented by an entire team of people. Among these, the ones working directly and longer with the volunteer are the mentor and the coordinator.
Mentorul e persoana care poate ajuta voluntarul să reflecte asupra experiențelor ca voluntar și prin intermediul acestui process să găsească o cale personală de schimbare, dacă voluntarul își dorește. De asemenea mentorul supraveghează procese precum aculturația, șocul cultural, procesul de învățare și este capabil să reacționeze în momentele în care simte sau observă că este nevoie. Mentorul poate fi și deschis pentru a întâlni voluntarul nu doar pentru reflecție ci și pentru a lega prietenie, pentru a crea o relație bazată pe încredere.
Mentor is a person that can help a volunteer to reflect on his/ her experiences and through the process of reflection help to find a personal way of change, if it is wanted by the volunteer. Mentor also oversees such processes as acculturation, cultural shock, learning process, learning process during volunteering experience and is capable of reacting in those moments when the need is felt or observed . Mentor can be also open to meeting the volunteer not only for reflection but also bonding as friends, to be able to create a trust-based relation between them.
Coordonatorul de voluntari este cel care se ocupă de munca voluntarului, cel care îi prezintă locul de muncă, sarcinile, colegii și beneficiarii. Voluntarul lucrează sub directa lui îndrumare și tot el este cel căruia îi raportează sau căruia i se adresează dacă apar probleme ori dificultăți în îndeplinirea sarcinilor. Tot coordonatorul este cel care pregătește organizația pentru a primi voluntari, face recrutarea și selecția acestora, planifică și organizează programe de orientare și instruire, menține relația cu presa/ media și este în general veriga de legătură dintre voluntar și organizație.
The volunteers coordinator is the one in charge of the actual work of the volunteers, he/ she introduces the volunteer to the working place, tasks, colleagues and beneficiaries. The volunteer works under direct guidance of the coordinator and is reporting to him, as well as contacts him if there are problems or difficulties in accomplishing the tasks. Also the coordinator is the one preparing the organization for receiving volunteers, makes the recruitment and the selection, plans and organizes orientation and induction meetings, maintains a relation with press/ media and represents in general the link between volunteer and organization.
Mid-Term Evaluation
I was on MidTerm Evaluation for 4 days. First of all, I must say that my last day was so crazy that I actually lost all my ideas and words that I was going to say about the entire Mid-term. Today I am a mess and probably my post will not be long and so understandable at some point. Plus I will not talk about the sessions that we had inside the training room from 10 to 19, because it will be boring to read it.
For people who don’t know about this mid term – basically, Mid-Term Evaluation brings together a lot of EVS volunteers who are somewhere in the middle of their projects. The days consist of sessions with different topics. For example:
- Youthpass-what it exactly is and how to fill it.
- Me in my project. Creating an EVS graph with all the ups and downs that have either brought my mood up or have brought it down nearly close to zero.
- Life after EVS.
- A tool fair, where people could share their teaching methods that they use in their projects, so other volunteers could get some ideas to use in their activities.
- And so on and so on.
And I have to mention that I finally met my first Estonian in Romania. The meeting took place in Busteni, and it is located in really amazing place. Every time when I got out from our hotel with Ania or Sophie, both of them had to listen to me ”WOW”-ing for many times. Probably they finally got sick of it.
Right behind the hotel I could see huge mountains that most of the time were literally in the middle of the clouds. I told my friends that I found my place and thats it, I will stay there.
All the people in the MT (at least the ones who I communicated with) were so super friendly and fun. And actually I even met a guy who probably has the same craziness level as I have. And can you imagine, there really exists someone who seemed to be surprised in a good way that I am a huge fan of hobbit and LOTR.
Being there was juuuussst great.On the first day of MT I went just for a walk with some people during the lunch break and I ended up rolling around in the snow, making snow angels and having a snowball fight (which, by the way, I believe that girls won). And by the way- it felt freaking good to act like a kid for an hour.
The same evening I thought how awesome would it be to go hiking in the mountains that are behind my hotel. Or at least go and see the waterfall that I have heard about. But the problem was that I only had enough free time during the evening, when it was obviously too dark to hike in the forest. SO I planned (yes, you read it correctly, i really PLANNED) something cool for the next morning. Luckily, someone decided to join me – so I had a super good motivation to get out of bed so early. We left the hotel at 8 and just hiked up up up, through the forest, until the waterfall. I surprised myself, because I have NEVER been a morning person, when people talk too much with me after I have just woken up, I have this killer-look for a long time. I have never woken up early in the morning because of something like this. And well, lets say that actually it was not only about hiking.
After our small walk I felt really good and I was even more motivated to go hiking the next morning, that time even higher, as far as the time allows me to go. Because why not? I don’t come to Busteni often and I don’t have a lot of people with who I could take some long ways up to the mountains and have fun conversations. I had a plan that I will leave even earlier to have more time for hiking. BUT, like always when I make plans, then the plans change. Something happened, which kept me awake all night, my sleepiness was gone very quickly. Basically I spent all my night sitting in the lobby, sitting on the stairs, sitting on the floor, sitting sitting sitting everywhere and talking. In the morning I felt like a zombie so I decided not to go hiking. WHICH MEANS that I will go back to Busteni as soon as possible and do what I didn’t do.
Something from someone: Time flies fu*king fast when you are doing something that you enjoy. So make the most of your EVS, because it will end. And believe me, it will end quickly. 1 month feels sometimes like 2 weeks in my case.
Liina,
Estonian volunteer in Romania
Portret de voluntar – Franck (Franta)
I have chosen Curba de Cultura, because I think that the association principles are close to mine. I admire the work done to develop rural areas with local events and to increase the quality of the educational process by nonformal education, especially when it comes to the youth’s entrepreneurship. The mission of bringing cultural interest to youngsters by nonformal education activities and organizing events that will make the communities more lively it seems to be something easy and maybe not interesting but it is actually a hard but rewarding job.
I also reckon that working with Curba de Cultură brings me professional experience abroad and I’d like to learn your vision of nonformal education and new ways to broadcast culture. I’m really enthusiastic about discovering a new culture, improving my English and finding goals for my life. And by the way, I am Franck, I am 22 and I am coming from the North part of France.
Am ales Curba de Cultură deoarece cred că principiile după care se ghidează asociația mi se potrivesc și mie. Admir munca depusă pentru dezvoltarea zonelor rurale prin evenimente locale și creșterea calității procesului educațional prin educație non-formală, în mod special când vine vorba de cel antreprenoriat. misiunea de a aduce interes cultural prin intermediul educației non-formale și organizarea de evenimente care vor da viață comunității pare a fi ceva ușor și neinteresant dar este de fapt o treabă grea și plină de satisfacții.
De asemenea socotesc că colaborând cu Curba de Cultură îmi va aduce experiență pe plan profesional, și mi-ar plăcea să învăț mai multe despre viziunea asociației asupra educației non-formale precum și noi căi de a difuza cultură. Sunt foarte entuziasmat să descopăr o nouă cultură, să îmi îmbunătățesc limba Engleză și să descopăr noi obiective în viață. Și apropo, numele meu e Franck, am 22 de ani și vin din partea de nord a Franței.
Back to work
2016 is here already and we are back in business, trying to find our routine, to get to full potential and thinking a bit of next vacation. We planned some changes for this year and we’ve got also some great ideas ready to be implemented in order to improve the community’s life and moreover, to bring smiles and joy on the faces of all those involved in a way or another in the good things Curba de Cultură does.
We also wish you lots of energy and luck for you 2016 plans!
2016 e deja aici iar noi suntem din nou în acțiune, încerând să ne regăsim rutina, să activăm la capacitate maximă și să ne gândim puțin la următoarea vacanță. Avem ceva schimbări plănuite pentru anul acesta și câteva idei grozave ce așteaptă să fie implementate pentru a îmbunătăți viața comunității, mai mult chiar, să aducă zâmbete și bună dispoziție pe fețele tuturor celor implicați într-un fel sau altul în ceea ce face Curba de Cultură.
Totodată vă urăm mult spor și noroc la îndeplinirea planurilor pentru 2016 pe care le aveți!