The end is nigh….

Do you remember our EVS volunteer in Romania? Catch up on her story below...

I write this blog entry just as I am about to leave for my last travels around Romania, across the country to explore the Danube Delta and (finally) its capital Bucharest.

All project activities with the kids came to a close at the end of last week. The final two weeks of the summer camps were devoted to primary school aged children in the villages. For the most part, it was a lot of fun-particularly the first week, where we were in sole charge of the kids.

The first week and into the second we prepared (quite last minute but thankfully successfully) activities with the theme ‘Discover Europe’, with the aim to introduce the children to the culture, history, geography and language (a little) of different European countries. The first day was focused on Romania and we then branched out to present our own countries and others.  I was in charge of British and Romanian culture, as well as preparing French activities-for the Romanian activities we decorated clothing patterns, made bookmarks and vampire masks amongst other things, and in the British activities included split-pin soldiers (thanks Mihai for finding them!) and loo-roll bagpipers. In the afternoons we played fun games outside and in with the kids.

The second week was slightly disappointing in comparison as we were slightly usurped by another lady running a camp-to her credit she managed to hold the attention of 60 kids with her voice, however a little less shouting at the youngest kids wouldn’t have gone amiss. Despite only assisting for some of the week, we still had fun being with the children, accompanying them on walks around the village and teaching them English and German songs.

The rest of our time in the week was filled with cleaning the flat before the imminent departure of two of the long termers the beginning of this week-(cleaning a kitchen thoroughly takes a long time but I was successful at getting the grime off the oven) as well as recording and filming for our end-of project music video to present in the closing event. With ingenious lyrics by our resident song-writer Mathias, improved singing to last time and an easier rhythm, as well as some fun scenes to accompany the music, I think it fair to say, it was a success and our audience were thoroughly entertained!

The week culminated in the closing event in which we presented on our EVS experiences and a meal followed at the weekend by a full-blown trip of Maramures all together featuring a chance to try on traditional Romanian clothes, a horse and carriage ride and hike to the Horses Waterfall in Borsa as well as a delicious meal in a shepherd’s hut in the mountains.

Thanks for organising AIST staff-was a lovely way to spend our last few days together as a full team

Annika Mathews