…I can really say I love England and English people, of course I don’t like English weather, but lately it is abnormally hot (for English standards) that I can’t even complain about this!
The project I’m doing in Concordia UK office is called MTV (medium term volunteer project). It is a volunteer projectto which can apply anybody experienced in social or international volunteering aged from twenty years old. It can take place in every part of the world and its main aims are: to provide a non-formal intercultural learning experience for young people and to support the development of local communities. This project lasts around 6 months and you can choose the field you prefer (environment, arts and culture, activities with children, young people and elderly, disabled and so on). During the project you receive money to cover your basic expenses (food and accommodation), in fact the highest expense you have it’s the travel to reach the destination of your project.
I really enjoyed this experience and I can strongly recommend it to all of you. Living abroad allows you to know deeply your host country and at the same time it offers you the chance to learn a lot about you facing everything on your own in a new environment. After the first disorientation it’s so gratifying to discover you able to arrange all your new ‘life’! Everything here has become so familiar to me that I feel upset when I think I’m going to leave soon.On the other side I’m also happy to come back to Rome, I’m missing my friends and my family. And later I can decide to leave again for a new destination, it’s true, when you start to travel and live abroad you can’t stop!
…I can really say I love England and English people, of course I don’t like English weather, but lately it is abnormally hot (for English standards) that I can’t even complain about this!
The project I’m doing in Concordia UK office is called MTV (medium term volunteer project). It is a volunteer projectto which can apply anybody experienced in social or international volunteering aged from twenty years old. It can take place in every part of the world and its main aims are: to provide a non-formal intercultural learning experience for young people and to support the development of local communities. This project lasts around 6 months and you can choose the field you prefer (environment, arts and culture, activities with children, young people and elderly, disabled and so on). During the project you receive money to cover your basic expenses (food and accommodation), in fact the highest expense you have it’s the travel to reach the destination of your project.
I really enjoyed this experience and I can strongly recommend it to all of you. Living abroad allows you to know deeply your host country and at the same time it offers you the chance to learn a lot about you facing everything on your own in a new environment. After the first disorientation it’s so gratifying to discover you able to arrange all your new ‘life’! Everything here has become so familiar to me that I feel upset when I think I’m going to leave soon.On the other side I’m also happy to come back to Rome, I’m missing my friends and my family. And later I can decide to leave again for a new destination, it’s true, when you start to travel and live abroad you can’t stop!
It seemed almost compulsory for the kids quoted on the publicity material for the likes of “Operation Raleigh” or “BUNAC” to write long, breathless sentences full of superlatives to describe their experiences. However, the small print brought only disappointment for the studious 20-year-old I was four years ago. As the eldest of a family reared on (generally successful) holidays to Britain’s extremities and the occasional horrendous misadventure in the near continent, I’d always suspected I’d enjoy travelling abroad on my own steam. Unfortunately, for a student of my means then, a “suspicion” could no way justify raising a couple of grand for a “working holiday”.
That’s why it was a godsend when my sister thrust a Concordia programme at me. Suddenly, hundreds of work-camps in just as many fascinating locations were within my reach. The atlas came out and I eventually decided on an environmental project in Bulgaria as I was aiming for somewhere that was really culturally alien to everything I was used to.
The first night was horrific! An aging craft of different coloured bits of metal under the now-defunct banner of “Balkan and Bulgarian Airlines” touched down (to the customary applause) in Sofia a full 4 hours late, giving me the night-time arrival I’d tried to avoid. Wide-eyed as I was, I jumped into the taxi of the first greasy scheister to greet me at the airport and was driven in circles to the Novotel Europa, the Sheraton and every other over-priced western hotel that didn’t bear the address of the Lonely Planet-recommended hovel I’d shown the driver. Eventually deposited in a dark street full of stray dogs and a wad of Monopoly money lighter in the pocket, I walked up and down until I found “Hotel Bolid” myself. I wouldn’t recommend it!
Okay, so that’s where the nightmare ends. The following day, on the railway platform to my designated arrival point of Sliven, I made a bee-line for the only non-Bulgarian face I could see. Mikiko, who was also destined for the camp, became my girlfriend for the next two and a half years, including one wonderful year I spent teaching English in her native Japan.
It’s fair to say that that work-camp - set in the isolation of the largely-unspoilt Bulgarian countryside – involved a greater degree of interaction amongst the volunteers than with the locals as many of us have spent the intervening years jetting across the globe to see each other (I’ve met up with no fewer than 8 of the original 15 myself and the emails keep coming). I now know that the Bulgarians (bureaucrats and Sofian taxi drivers aside) are an honest and sociable lot, whose lifestyle affords a good deal more time for coffee and spirit-drinking than our own. It suits me so well that I spent last year teaching English there and I’m due to return to Plovdiv in September for another year.
At the end of that first work-camp, it was my turn to abandon my reserve and spout trails of superlatives in the evaluation form. In just two weeks, I was transformed from a curious but inexperienced student to the wanderer I am today. “A brilliant, life-changing experience” it certainly was.
On arrival at PestalozziInternationalStudentVillage, I was given a tour of the site, set in acres of lush green countryside and woodland.As I was shown to my room, I was delighted to see a freshly-made bed and when we reached the dining room, where I was informed that three cooked meals would be served each day, without us lifting a finger, I was sure I’d chosen the right project!The food proved to be tasty and plentiful.We had our own lounge and the long-term volunteers welcomed us to use their kitchen (on the floor below us).This enabled us to sample French specialities created by volunteers Emilie and Emmanuel, and we also took advantage of their offer of internet access.
So, once we had settled in, two hot sunny weeks in June were spent staking out walkways, strimming grass verges, moving furniture, putting up fencing and erecting marquees.Whilst inside, signs were produced, curtains were hemmed and animal sculptures were created, all in preparation for the all-important “Pestalozzi Festival”, which promised to be bigger and better than ever before!
Although some volunteers proved difficult to motivate when there was heavier work to be done, generally preferring to sunbathe during the long sunny days, everyone agreed the end result was worth the effort.Over the festival weekend, volunteers worked on the gate selling tickets, served behind the bar, did face painting and acted as marquee stewards and stagehands, still leaving plenty of free-time to enjoy the music, acrobatics and story-telling, sample African and Asian cuisine, browse the craft stalls and mingle with the stars!
The site also hosts PGL Adventure Holidays for children.The hard-worked, but permanently hyperactive staff, were easily coaxed into providing us with a few evenings of entertainment. Firstly they took us to the “trapeze” in the woods, which involved climbing awobbly 30ft pole to leap from a tiny platform to a swinging trapeze! By the time I reached the top the pole was violently shaking due to my knocking knees (bearing in mind that small children do this daily).Although I was petrified by this, there was worse to come when volunteers dragged me across the fields and back into the woods at midnight “just for fun”.Noises in the darkness left us clinging to each other, followed by a hasty retreat!
More warm summer evenings were spent playing football, basketball, card games and scrabble, singing and playing guitar (kindly lent by our hosts).Although by 10pm each night the lure of the local pub always got the better of some!When PGL staff invited us to their campfire in the woods, Mirco, our ‘guitar star’, and PGL’s Chris, made beautiful music and everyone sang along.The children’s song “How Funky is your Chicken?”, with actions, was also taught to the group and heavily practised all week!
Our first Saturday was spent in Brighton, with artists “Maambena”, who were singing, drumming and performing acrobatics in the city centre to promote the festival.Whilst handing out flyers, we managed to visit Brighton Pavilion and take a stroll along the prom.During the project we also visited the local towns of Eastbourne, Hastings and Battle.Our journey by open-top bus, along Eastbourne sea front and up to Beachy Head, seemed to be a highlight for the volunteers (despite it blowing a gale up there) and “How Funky is your Chicken?” was performed, yet again, in public!
The genuine gratitude from our hosts and the whole festival experience made this a rewarding experience for all of us.Although I found myself facing new challenges each day, having the opportunity to lead this diverse group was an invaluable and enriching experience.For most of the group, this was their first project and first time in England, and to be part of that experience, in such a beautiful setting, was a privilege.
Although I have spent a great deal of time in France in the past, it was still quite nerve-wracking arriving on the train into Guingamp for my first ever work camp.However, my fears were allayed when I met up with the group and we set off in a rickety old minibus to the ‘sports field’.Well, we were all expecting a football pitch, maybe a bit of astro-turf and as ‘swimming costumes’ wason the list of things to bring, we all hoped for a pool.We were wrong!Our ‘sports field’ was a bit of mowed grass on the edge of a small village!We soon made it our home though, setting up our campsite and getting to know each other.
There were eleven of us, all of different nationalities with the common languages of French and English.Our enthusiastic leader Eckaert spent a day showing us around before we were welcomed by the mayor and residents of the village.Our project was the rebuilding of a pigeon house that had just been bought by the community as part of their heritage.We spent the first few days erecting scaffolding and learning about the history of the 500-year-old site that we were working on, then the work started: clearing branches from and rebuilding the roof and building a flight of steps.Small jobs like this took such a long time, as we had to be very careful not to damage the structure.
It wasn’t all work though!Mealtimes were quite an event and we took it in turns to cook, sampling Indian, Turkish, German and French cuisine as well as some that was less recognisable!We spent an afternoon bringing in hay with a local farmer and his horse and cart, then sampled some of his homemade cider!The campfire in the evenings became our centre of entertainment and it was so hot that some nights we slept out under the stars.We visited local monuments, churches and towns and spent a day at the coast followed by a night of reggae music at a local bar!
I was sad to leave when my week was up, as most of the others were all there for longer. However, I made some good friends whilst I was there and now have invitations to all corners of the globe! For anyone wondering whether or not to take the plunge with their first work camp - go for it! I had a great time and I’m looking forward to next summer now, when I’ll be going further afield.
My volunteer project in Finland was split into two parts, the first week in a small town called Nivala and the second week hiking in Lapland. The other volunteers came from all over Europe and within a surprisingly short space of time we had all got to know one another and made good friends. There was always a good atmosphere in the camp which made the experience really enjoyable.
Our task in the first week was to repaint one of the buildings that belonged to the Nivalan Museo. This involved scratching the old paint off with wire brushes and painting on a new coat according to a traditional Finnish method. The working hours were not too demanding, allowing us to do a wide range of activities after work.
For the locals, the arrival of 12 young foreigners was very strange and we attracted attention wherever we went! We competed in a rowing competition on the lake (we came last but were awarded a bonus trophy for effort), watched a Finnish baseball match, explored the local nightspots (all two of them!) and, best of all, experienced a traditional Finnish smoke-sauna followed by a swim in the river!
Having never done a volunteer project before, I didn’t know what to expect of our accommodation but a youth hostel complete with kitchen, TV, radio and electric sauna suited very well indeed. Food was cooked each day by a team of three and throughout the project we were treated to a wide variety of European cuisine, all of which was surprisinglycomfortable but, in truth, the first week was just preparation for our amazing trip to Lapland.
We hiked along the banks of the Ivalo river in northern Lapland. This really was a wilderness experience – the only other people we saw were lonely gold prospectors! This region of Finland is well known for its beautiful scenery, thousands of reindeer and of course Santa Claus! But it is also a gold mining area, with many thousands of Finns trying their luck at panning or sluicing each year. Our task was to clear up any rubbish left by the less considerate gold prospectors as we progressed.
Carrying our week’s supply of equipment meant that our equipment our backpacks certainly weren’t light and I was thankful for my good pair of boots.
Each night we stayed in wilderness huts or tents and spent our evenings around the campfire. There were no hot showers here- washing oneself was done in the river and the water was cold but definitely invigorating! One of the strangest things about the experience was the incredible 24 hour sun.
The best part of the work camp was definitely the people. The project would have been nothing without the great leaders and volunteers that I was privileged to meet on the camp. And the worst part? I’m afraid that came at the very end of the fortnight and that was going home!
During my two weeks in Germany I learnt a lot about other cultures as well as work I was not used to. I was there for 13 days all together in a place called Holzerner See, near Berlin. Later on I found out this meant ‘wooded lake’, which should have been obvious as there was a lake on one side and a forest on the other.
My first job was to clean the top of an old hut (or so we thought). An hour into working we found out it was to be turned into ‘bat house’ so the top was to be left as it was (the way the bats liked it). Instead we had to fill in the gaps in the walls, which let the light in, by making mud out of water, dirt and straw. The guys were doing heavier work at this time, making a mini garden.
The next job involved splitting into two groups, with one half filling the holes in the windows and doors and the other designing a table tennis table room. We decided to paint the lake on the main wall of the tennis table room and on the other walls we painted flags, hand prints and wrote welcome and goodbye in all the languages of the volunteers.
Whilst the girls were painting the guys were making a fence for the bat house as well as a notice board with explanations in all the volunteers’ languages.
Our last job was to work together to make a fence out of logs and twigs. This was the hardest out of all the jobs, but also the most rewarding.
We didn’t only do work on the project. We also had fun and went to places like Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden. We also had use of the facilities, including boats, bikes, table tennis and volleyball on the beach.
Going to Germany opened up a lot of doors for me and I got to meet lots of new interesting people. I would recommend it to anyone. It was a lot of fun!
Katie Jones
Katie joined this project through the EVS programme
In 2003, Concordia was involved in setting up and supporting a new project in Moldova. Three volunteers participated in this project, which consisted of running a summer camp for disadvantaged children – including children with physical disabilities - and renovation of a school in order to create a comfortable learning environment and a centre where students can come for different after-school activities. Both schemes would have been impossible without Concordia support and, more importantly, the motivation and commitment of the volunteers who took part. Here one of those volunteers describes her experiences in the summer camp
To visit a place and embrace everything about it means to keep the memories and experiences of it in your heart. I will try to recreate these unbelievable moments of my magical Moldovan summer of 2003.
After a tiring but exciting overnight bus journey from the Romanian capital Bucharest, we arrived at the camp, a beautiful space full of natural play areas, a volleyball court and cute wooden huts. As we walked round to investigate I really felt the excitement and anticipation of the children’s arrival, to fill the quietness with their laughs and happy games. And within an hour they certainly had!
The camp was full of happy faces and at first some homesick, not so happy faces, which soon changed when friendships were made and smiles and hugs exchanged.
The first meal was the most memorable, the children looked at these three strange Brits sitting in the dining area, eating borsch and drinking punch (an apple stewed flavoured water) and watched with curiosity and bewilderment.
I think the children found the language barrier a hurdle at first, however this was only a small problem for a couple of days. Soon the naturalness and want for fun interaction took over, and very quickly it was if we were speaking the same language as opposed to coming from completely different parts of the world.
I believe we shared even more with these children as we communicated through smiles, hugs, laughs, games of 'it' and volleyball, or just sitting and sharing fruit in the wonderful Molodovan sunshine.
The spirituality and ethos of the camp encouraged respect and courtesy to be shown to everyone and everything, which the kids embraced wholly and maturely.
The games at night offered fun and laughter and relaxation, while the activities and themes for the day gave the children educational, fun times with a group feel, as well as freedom to develop friendships and personal skills.
These activities and games were so successful due to the commitment and dedication of all the volunteers involved, and CNG (the Moldovan volunteers) were just fantastic. The children recognised the friendship and trust of the volunteers, and their enthusiasm and energy had such a positive effect on the children and their everyday interactions, games and difficulties.
The parents' involvement and energy was overwhelming for me as they showered their children with encouragement and love, away from the harsh society of this developing country.
The beautiful, natural surroundings with space and adventure for the children with the sun shining all day, every day, symbolised the unbelievable happiness of the camp.
On our return, I look back on my remarkable experience with joy, pride and total admiration for all the fantastic people I met. They will always be in my thoughts and in my heart.
Thank you to Concordia, my fellow friends and volunteers and most of all to the wonderful children and their families. I miss them all very much."
I’ve been asked to write an article on the project I went on in Cuba, but I have a problem: my experiences were so varied, so conflicting and so far from anything I know at home that I don’t know quite what to say.I’m sure you’ll agree that one of the most vital things to put in your rucksack is a journal, and luckily I took mine to Cuba, so I thought a few extracts might give you a taste of a country you can only really appreciate by visiting yourself.
‘Norman stopped to get his hair cut and while we waited the second barber played the guitar for us’
‘Today at 7am the ‘rush hour’ consisted of about four cars… lots of people cycle around Matanzas and it’s normal to see two or even three people on the same bike’
‘We are desperately trying to explain why we can’t eat all the food they give us.Meat three times a day is really generous in Cuba, so we feel rude leaving it, but in the heat, especially at lunchtime, it’s just too much.’
‘The sand is soft and white and the sea is incredible.It starts off really clear, turns turquoise and then right out in the distance it’s a bright sparkly blue’
‘I’ve finally found something about Cuba that I love and that I will miss – everyone can dance, and the men more so than the women’
‘There is a ‘problem’ with the water – in that there is none and won’t be for two days’
‘We went to Cueva La Saturno.There is a freshwater lagoon inside a cave where you can swim and jump off the stalagmites.It looked and felt like something out of a Disney film – not real at all, but amazing.’
‘The creepy crawlies seem to have come out now that the weather is slightly cooler.We are used to having little lizards in the bedroom and have also learnt that spraying insect repellent on ants kills them!’
‘We sat and drank freshly made Pina Coladas, listened to some decent Cuban music and looked out at the palm trees.It was really relaxing and just how I imagined Cuba to be.’
‘After two weeks of it coming ‘manana’, the paint arrived today.Everything here happens in ‘Cuban’ time, which means late, if at all.It’s a good lesson in patience, but soooo frustrating at times.’
‘The main achievement of the day was having ice cream for lunch at Coppelia, and paying in pesos, which came to about seven pence’
‘Having a rucksack AND being female is annoying.Cuban men hiss to attract your attention, which is very irritating, especially when it happens about twenty times an hour’
I could go on for pages, not because my journal is a literary masterpiece, but because Cuba is a fascinating country and I have so many stories to tell to anyone who’ll listen.Certain things infuriated me (the entire political environment) and certain things I loved (Guava milkshake) but while I could never live in Cuba, I don’t think I’ll ever see anywhere like it again.
After a 13-hour journey from Istanbul, I stumbled off the bus and into an adventure I knew very little about. All the better really, because to have embarked on the project with any preconceptions would have been a huge mistake – the next five weeks were far more challenging, rewarding and fun than I could ever have imagined, especially as this was my first experience working with disabled people. I was volunteering in Alternative Camp, a centre in Southern Turkey which offers sports and social activities for groups with all kinds of special needs.
As volunteers we were given the rather daunting task of running the camp on a day to day basis, as well as organising activities such as swimming, origami, English lessons and basketball. I soon realised that this included cooking for over 40 people (I learnt how to peel a cucumber to perfection) and cleaning the guest rooms/toilets – really fun, honestly! One of the best parts was the constant variety. The groups who came every week ranged from kids with Downs Syndrome and autism to a wheelchair basketball team. We ended up playing blind football, singing ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ in Turkish too many times to count and having a disco every single night without fail…!
Being able to see the pleasure we were giving the guests (for whom life in Turkey is a real challenge as there is very little government support) was really rewarding. For example the excitement of taking a man with cerebral palsy into a swimming pool for the first time in his life brought our group together in an incredible way.
In our free time we managed to cook a full English breakfast despite frequent power cuts, developed a taste for Kurdish music and went on a chaotic road trip, spending the night on a deserted beach being attacked by mosquitoes!
Leaving the camp and saying goodbye to everyone was one of the hardest things I have ever done but we’ve all got some amazing memories and the knowledge that as volunteers we made a real difference. I’ve come back to England much more aware of the difficulties disabled people overcome and already planning my next project!
I have never done a camp abroad and this year I decided to try my English and carry out a workcamp with Concordia. I was not worried when I arrived in the country, despite the great difference which exists between Africa, or more specifically between Togo and England. Perhaps because I have learned about white people of different nationalities not only through volunteer projects but also through television. I was a bit worried when I arrived on the project to discover I was the only black person there. But after we all arrived and had dinner the atmosphere relaxed a lot.
The project took place in the mountains in the ExmoorNational Park, It rained a lot while we were there! What was different was that we did different work throughout the three weeks – in my projects in Togo we usually did a standard type of work. The rangers were very understanding and made sure all the volunteers understood when they were talking. And especially, the solidarity and good feeling
between the volunteers was very strong. I will miss everyone very much and will try to stay in touch after the project.
