One year ago I had no idea that I would be about to spend a year in Latvia, now I I can’t believe that in a matter of days it will be over.
The office where I have been volunteering is nothing like I imagined it would be before I arrived, however despite there being things I would change I’m grateful for the experience that I’ve had.
Work in the “World at Our Home” office can often be sporadic, as was the case for a few weeks at the start of the summer, but in the last month it has become crazy again as we plan for a seminar and a youth exchange both of which will take place during October. As well as this, at the moment we are also writing applications for seminars and an exchange that will hopefully take place next year and also looking for the new generation of volunteers for the centre to host and coordinate.
Looking back on my time I’ve been here I realise just how much I was able to see and do and even if there were moments when I wanted to give up (and very nearly did) I will remember this year for a long time.
Before I came Latvia wasn't a country I was interested to visit, but I’m glad I did because I would never have been able to experience what I have; from swimming in a lake to finding that travelling four hours+ to get to Riga or Lithuania really isn’t so bad after all and seeing more countries in the last few months than I ever expected, to making friends with people from France and Spain to Italy and Romania and surviving a winter with temperatures of -30°c.
My bags are packed and soon I will be embarking on the four hour journey to Riga. The thought of four hours on a coach or train used to worry me but now the thought that it’ll be the last time I do this journey is strange to comprehend.
But with every end, there is a beginning and I’m looking forward to future challenges. Thank you to everyone who made this possible.
EVS is a fully funded volunteer scheme. Email evs@concordiavolunteers.org.uk to find out more.
Not so long ago, or so it feels, I was saying goodbye to my family and friends, excited at the prospect of a year in another country, where I knew none of the language and couldn‘t even pronounce the name of the city in which I was to live. Like Alex (who was in Latvia last year and who‘s blog entries can also be read here) the time between hearing about this last minute project, being excepted by my hosting organisation and arriving had been a matter of weeks. However, I had known about EVS and had been looking for a project for almost a year by this point.
I’ve been in Latvia for around five months now. Five months of highs and lows, many firsts and new friends, and, ultimately , new experiences and memories that will last a long time. But there’s still just about seven months to go, in which I hope to see and experience many more new things.
My project is in the Language and Cultural Centre “World at Our Home” in Rēzekne, the seventh biggest city in Latvia, not far from the Russian border. Due to this a fair majority of the population are Russian speaking. A language I have only just started to learn. However, in my first four months I had Latvian lessons, and while I’m nowhere near fluent I am able to at least make myself understood mostly and understand others if they speak slowly. Which is a big improvement on when I first arrived not even being able to pronounce the name of the place I was to live in.
“World at Our Home” are involved in organising and participating in seminars and youth exchanges in Latvia, other European and neighbouring countries, as well as this they also hold weekly language lessons and act as a sending, coordinating and hosting organisation for EVS volunteers. Mostly the lessons are English, but recently Spanish, German and French started as well, as in early January we were joined by three new volunteers.
In the past few weeks we’ve been busy writing applications for two seminars and a youth exchange
to hopefully be held at the end of this year. As well as this we applied for a cross-border project between Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus with a very confusing application form.
I’m from southern England, where snow isn’t so common and the coldest I remember it being is -10°C so you can imagine my surprise when I heard last winter here was around -30°C and that it’s normal for snow to last from November to March. So far about half of my time in Latvia has been covered in snow; the most I’ve seen that has lasted longer than a week or two. This has some good points, such as being able to go ice skating and a first for me; sledging! In the last few days the snow has begun to melt and it’s already beginning to remind me of Spring. I’ve also heard much about Summer which I’m looking forward to.
Like many things, being away from home can take some getting used to, especially if, like me, you haven’t lived away from home before. After all that, what I basically want to say is I think EVS is an amazing experience. Yes it has it’s up and downs, but so do most things. So if you’re currently searching for a project I wish you luck in finding one soon and if you’re on your project now I hope you enjoy the rest of the time wherever you may be.
Well it now almost exactly 6 months since I started my EVS in Latvia, and it seemed like a good time for a progress report of sorts, so here goes nothing. I decided on this EVS at the very last minute, I was more concerned, I think with getting out into the world and doing something challenging then what precisely I was doing. While some may not agree, since I did not have a particular field, like social work, which I wanted to go into, it seemed to me then that the best idea would be to just throw myself into something and make the best of it. I still believe this to be true. I knew going in that there would be challenges and difficult times, but I felt that these would be nothing compared with another year behind a till at WH Smith!!!So I arrived in Latvia last September, the day after, for those keeping score, my 22nd birthday. It was on the plane that I had felt my first nerves, reflecting that I had none of the language and what if no-one met me at the other end? Upon landing the second of these worries was put to rest, as I was indeed met, by Aytan, from the organization I would be working at, and John, who had himself just arrived from France, and who would go on to be my next door neighbor and very good friend. The problem of language did not go away quite as quickly, and on reflection the first real low points for me were due to not being able to communicate easily with local people. This was, I think, due to three factors, the first was, I am sure the same from any EVS in any foreign country, it does take time to get to grips with a new language, especially if you did not get the bare bones of it at school. (It should be noted that even if they had offered Latvian at school, my track record does not suggest that I would have made a lot of the opportunity ;)) The second factor is more unique to my project’s location, Rezekne, a mere 40km from the Russian border, boasts a large Russian population, and as a result many people are disinclined/unable to communicate in Latvian.
There are few things more disheartening in the early stages of language learning then painstakingly constructing a sentence in a foreign tongue, only for the listener to scowl and reply in another language entirely. Though these two factors were critical, the third and most important one, in my opinion, was me. I spent a good deal of my social time with John, the aforementioned French volunteer, and two French Erasmus students. As well, of course, of the pleasure of cultivating friendships with likeminded people, I also took the chance to get my French back up to conversational level. I told myself this was still language work, as indeed it was, and it was a distinct pleasure to get myself back to a level where I was able to “switch” to French in the middle of a conversation. This is all very well, but it does not help with the local language, and I have resolved for the next 6 months to get more stuck into the local culture, so as not to squander the opportunity presented here. I will also mention that, due to the considerations of population mentioned above, as well as future application, I am now focusing on Russian over Latvian, which is initially daunting but vastly rewarding when one starts to understand a bit.
And so to work. The work on my project so far has been interesting, enough to keep me challenged and busy without feeling overworked. I am mainly employed as an English teacher, due to my native language, and although at the beginning it was difficult, having never taught before and only having a very bare bones text book to work from, it has become if not easy at least enjoyable and rewarding. The big highlight of the last few months for me was teaching a more advanced class of mine “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. It was a challenge, for my part to spend time before the class dissecting the poem and establishing a concrete meaning for a number of archaic phrases, but more so for the class, who really got stuck in and did an excellent job. This was rewarded with them getting to watch “The Simpsons” parody of the poem after we had finished studying it!
The other work on the project is connected to the centre, that is, a sending, hosting and coordinating organisation for EVS and the Youth in Action program. This usually takes the form of applying for seminars and youth exchanges and the paperwork associated with that, but on occasion we have a larger deadline, for a final application for a project or seminar, for example, and this gets quite hectic, but this is very much the exception rather than the rule. The living situation here is, from what I gather from other volunteers in Latvia, somewhat unique, as there were (at the start at least) 9 volunteers in Rezekne living together in a youth hostel. Although I was initially keen on the prospect of living with so many other people, I would be lying if I did not confess that we have had some rough patches over the last six months…
At the start we, all together, resolved to do lots of things together, and so we established a kitty for food money and cleaning supplies, organized a Rota for the cleaning, and then realized that we all lived very different lives and had different eating schedules, and the systems broke down, which had a knock on effect of causing some friction between the volunteers. This, I am happy to say, is now essentially resolved, with people buying their own food and organizing the cleaning of the hostel in a less formal manner. The learning curve here, I suppose, is that a group of very different people, even if they are all placed into the same strange environment, are unlikely to all see eye to eye on every issue, and it was when we had accepted this and moved on that the atmosphere living in the hostel became much more pleasant.
I suppose the end of this (retrospectively) overly long piece, is to heartily recommend the EVS program to anyone who happens to still be reading. I have volunteered abroad before, though not for as long, and lived away from home for some years, and I thought that there were few things that would surprise me, at least as far as living with other people go. I have found that I have been challenged and forced out of my comfort zone in a manner which I could not conceive of if I had remained in the UK and kept working, and as far as instilling self confidence and general life experience this is certainly one of the best experiences I have had so far. It has, at times, been difficult, but this, I suppose, is a natural part of life, and this is really a once in a lifetime experience.
Overall I have had a great 6 months, and anticipate enjoying the next 6 just as much (especially seeing as the snow has just melted!!) If you are reading this while on your own EVS, then I hope you are having as rewarding a time as me, and if you are thinking about EVS and are looking through the blogs, then go for it, there is literally nothing to lose!
Well, I’ve been here for almost a month now, and some early impressions are starting to form. As far as the weather goes, it has been more consistently cold then I was expecting, I mean before I arrived I knew it would be a cold winter, but the average temperature even now is much lower than I expected. The warm stuff I thought I was bringing for the winter is now in daily use in the autumn, we received a snapshot of what the winter would hold for us last week when there was a day of freak snow. It was blizzard-like, and served to illustrate how I may have underestimated the Latvian winter.
This, identified in October, is a very manageable situation, and already I am making enquiries into where a guy like me gets hold of more significant cold weather gear. By winter I will be kitted out and (fingers crossed) ready for anything!
As far as the living arrangements go, the first speed bumps have been hit on the road to happy families, nothing out of the ordinary or anything you wouldn’t expect from a group of under 25’s living together; people not washing dishes, not drying dishes, bathroom not being cleaned, etc.
Leaving aside these more trifling matters (I have never heard an argument that could convince me that an able-bodied person is unable to or shouldn’t have to do their own washing up) the more serious consideration was to do with shared foodstuffs, bread, pasta, etc, and where the money should come from. We decided in the end to introduce a kitty system, whereby everyone puts a set amount into a pot at the beginning of the week and from that we buy things all these little essentials that everyone uses. This should, at least keep everyone happy with regards to basic food, and hopefully head off the “Who ate my last...?” arguments which do no one any good.
And so the domicile is shaping up nicely. We have a rota for cleaning the bathroom and hallway weekly, and are managing to keep the kitchen in a reasonable state most of the time. As far as my digs go, I’ve reshuffled the furniture and am lobbying the system for a desk and chair.
As far as work goes, my job has been both varied and challenging. Most days I function as a language assistant in the English lessons run at the centre, focusing on the speaking side of things. My classes range from adults who already have good knowledge, through high school pupils who know a lot of English but lack confidence, and on class of two 10 year olds and a 7 year old. This last one was dropped on me last minute, I am on hand to fill in for Natasha when crisis arises, and it was actually much easier then I had expected. We had a good text to work from, and once I had got them laughing it all went fine. The secondary school pupils are a challenge in a different way; the text is useful but very boring, so we need to change the pace from time to time to keep people interested. I was at something of a loss about how best to do this, but fortunately for me I was helped by fellow office working volunteer, who has experience working with children in France and suggested singing; we pick a song that everyone knows (for example, “We Are The Champions”) and I write the lyrics up on the board. We talk through it, I explain words they are not sure about, and then we all sing, their nervousness quite overpowered by my enthusiastic (if somewhat tuneless) contribution. The other diversion was actually suggested by one of the students, she suggested that we prepare cards with basic words on them (car, tree, road etc) and each person has to take a card and describe the thing to the others, who guess. An amusing diversion which is actually excellent for developing both their confidence and vocabulary, which I have quite shamelessly adopted in my other classes!
The adult classes are usually small, and more advanced, requiring more intense conversation and careful correction to ensure that they are learning and improving.
The other work we do in the centre is the organisation of volunteer projects for the local population, both foreign and domestic. This can entail talking people through the EVS process, discussing potential seminars and voluntary work in our town, and organising youth projects and exchanges for young people in Europe. In practice office life is usually quite relaxed, it is only when we have a deadline for project submissions that it can get really hectic. Then we will be working late discussing what sort of projects we could run, brainstorming ideas, and then in my case either taking the ideas in bullet points and writing them up, or proofing documents written by others in English. All in all the workload is manageable, and there is more than enough to keep us busy and out of trouble.
So, what else? Well, I am still in quest of a guitar; this is proving a challenge because Rezekne is a very small town, with only one music shop. This obviously makes it something of a seller’s market, and so when I was in at the weekend the bloke in the shop, an incredibly nice man whose one flaw, it would seem, was the somewhat inflexible position he took to his massively overpriced instruments. I (in my very limited Latvian) tried to explain that I was a volunteer, that my funds were limited. Although he agreed that volunteers are generally a good thing, he was unable to get the price down as much as I wanted. We fenced a while longer, in an incredibly good humoured way, and in the end I left, promising to be back in November when I had more ready cash. He warned that all could be different by then, and the time for action was NOW, but I cheerfully resisted.
I left the shop feeling, despite the failure of my mission, very good. This had been, I realised, the first time I had actually communicated in a jovial fashion with a Latvian stranger.
Alex Layden has just arrived in Latvia where he will spend the year as EVS volunter working in a language and cultural centre supporting projects connected to international youth and cultural work.
Birthday time - EVS volunteers celebrate!
“No problems, only challenges” says EVS volunteer Alex Layden
I was surprised as I waited for my plane at Glasgow to find that I was actually quite nervous about going to Latvia. In my case, the process from phoning Concordia for information about the EVS and getting into the car to go to the airport had been a matter of weeks rather than months, so there had been a sense of unreality about it, all the last minute details, coupled with trying to get potentially 12 months worth of gear into 15kg worth of baggage, had kept me too occupied to really think much about what I was doing. It was only waiting at the departure gate that I started to get concerned. Latvia? A country I know nothing about, a language I have not even the meanest knowledge of, and a volunteer project about which I had only an overview of what would be expected of me.
I reflected on this for most of the flight, but I found as I got closer to Riga International, I started to feel better. This was an adventure! What was the worst that could happen? People go travelling alone all the time, with no more than a passport and a rucksack. I was being met at the airport, I had a host organisation to sort my accommodation and food, and, break glass in case of emergency, I could always call Concordia.
I arrived in Riga 15 minutes early yesterday, and so hung around for a bit waiting, giving me a chance to reflect on the fact that I know none of the language and was entirely in the hands of the staff at the cultural centre. Fortunately they are both efficient and organised, so when, as I stood outside, I heard two people bearing luggage mention both France and Azerbaijan (in English) the lessons I had absorbed from reading The Hound of the Baskervilles on the plane came to the fore, and I introduced myself to John (from France) and Aitan (an Erasmus student from Azerbaijan).
There was another French girl coming into Riga that day, but not until 1745, so we took a bus into Riga and ditched the kit at the left luggage before going to do some sightseeing.
It was here that it got interesting. Aitan figured (quite rightly) that it was silly for all of us plus luggage to go to the airport just to come back into town again, so John and I went and had some dinner and arranged to meet Aitan and Line, the French girl later on. Later on came, and then another hour, and still John and I were kept company only by our mountain of bags.
For what I presume was some offence committed in a past life, my telephone decided that this would be a good time to play up. The time had come to phone Natasha at the centre for a game plan, and so I eventually found a signal outside the station (in the rain obviously). It was at this point that my phone gleefully informed me that I had a low battery. Cue much smiles and pantomiming at the bar where we had eaten to convince the girl there to let me charge my phone for a bit. Eventually I picked up a voice mail from Natasha telling us to wait and that there had been a problem at the airport; the plane was late and, arguably more seriously, Line wasn't on it.
When we met up with Aitan again, it was just gone 2000, and we had missed the last train, so it was to the bus station instead. We eventually got the 2120 bus which got us into Rezenke at about 0130, where we were met by Natasha and conveyed to the hostel, which was, as one might expect, different from what I am used to.
Alex's bedroom the morning after he arrived, still in need of a little warmth...
All needs are provided for, not as they would be in a hotel, but then this is the place we will be living for months, and so, I figure it is up to us to make it feel like home.
So we arrived very late on Tuesday, John and I, and by Wednesday we had met the other volunteers (those that had arrived) Elsa, from France, Luzzy, Germany, and Loukas, from Austria. First impressions were good, but I think that the purpose behind the application process in EVS is to find people who are outgoing enough to function well as part of a group in challenging circumstances, rather than people who are academically qualified (see my CV if you don’t believe me ;))
On Thursday morning we had to travel again, back to Riga, for out EVS on arrival training. In all honesty I was not enthusiastic, because I wanted to spend some time getting to know the town where I would be spending most of the next year, but at the same time I hadn’t made it to a pre-departure course in the UK, so maybe it would be full of useful information. Of course, I had no idea what to expect, but reflected that neither did anyone else, and at least it was all happening in my native language.
The journey was in itself an experience; we caught the morning train that had come into Latvia overnight from St Petersburg, and were surprised by the fact that there were beds which folded down from the walls of the carriage, and even the seats were designed as benches you could sleep on. Most of these were filled with large Russian people, who had enough experience to bring blankets and pillows with them.An interesting slant on train travel.
From Riga we took a bus out of the city to the guest house where the training course was happening, and it was here we started to meet the other EVS volunteers and get a sense of the other types of projects running in Latvia. The training course itself was actually surprisingly fun, and there was lots of useful information about the logistics surrounding an EVS project, and things which I didn’t know (covered in the pre-departure training). There wasn’t much which I would call essential, but all of it was useful, and we had a chance to talk about our projects in more depth and discuss what we would be doing and what we would get out of them. It was also a chance to really get to know not only the other volunteers from Rezekne, but also from the rest of Latvia, and network a bit, both for the sake of the projects, perhaps inviting other volunteers to events we will be hosting, and also for fun, it is good to know that there are other people in Latvia to visit to see more of the country.
Getting back from training almost brings me to the end of this little update, we got back to Rezekne late on Sunday after meeting Line at the airport, and we have spent time since then trying to figure out how to organise the day to day life in the hostel, bearing in mind there will be nine of us eventually.
The main point that came out of training for me was how much situations depend on how you perceive them. If you look at something that goes wrong as a terrible catastrophe, then chances are it is. But we are not the first people to do EVS, and chances are that there will be nothing we come across that another volunteer has not already encountered and overcome. And with the support network we have in place, it would take something quite dramatic to give us real trouble. So no problems, only challenges, and it’s shaping up to be a great year!
Would you like to volunteer on a fully funded European Voluntary Service (EVS) project for 6-12 months? Email: evs@concordia-iye.org.uk to request an application pack.
