A volunteer story: Coordinating a festival project in UK and teaching English in Spain - summer 2016

Here is an article from one of our most committed volunteers, Barney Smith, who's been supporting Concordia for many years by joining projects overseas, promoting our work, co-ordinating projects in the UK and offering us his Blogs and reports every year. We would really like to thank Barney for all his support!

Here we would like to propose today one of his BLOGs written in 2016.

This summer of contrasts started on the English south coast in the busy tourist season and ended in the tranquil olive groves of Andalucia.

My twenty-fourth international volunteer project (my third as coordinator) was at Patchfest in Brighton, a community festival project which I had also coordinated 2 years earlier. My group consisted of Julien from France, Fabienne from Germany, Eduardo and Martina from Italy, Esther from Netherlands, and Leena and Marti from Spain. Our work involved setting up and taking down the equipment for Patchfest, and helping on the day with the running of the event, including stewarding, selling food and drink, washing-up and recycling. The festival is a source of pride for the local community and provides a platform for entertainment from local music talent. As in 2014, we were blessed with glorious weather. Our leisure activities included touring the sights of Brighton and walking under the cliffs near Brighton Marina, after which we found time for the quintessential English meal: fish and chips.

After a night’s camping near Brighton Marina, an overnight coach journey to the south of Spain, and a week’s Spanish course in Granada, it was time for my twenty-fifth international volunteer project – in the town of Jódar. In addition to our group leaders Rubén from Spain and Robbie from Ireland, the other volunteers were Jack and Nancy from China, Nikol from the Czech Republic, Christine and Sara from Denmark, Elena from Greece, Leonardo and Silvia from Italy, Mihailo and Sofia from Serbia, Nikolas from Slovakia, Jane from South Korea, and Can and Ozan from Turkey. Our work involved teaching English to the students by means of games and other fun activities. This gave me an opportunity not only to use my experience as a teacher but also to develop my skills and imagination in developing students’ linguistic skills outside a classroom setting. In our free time there were trips to Cazorla, Úbeda and Baeza, as well as hiking in the mountains, and almost daily swimming in the town’s outdoor pool, as we sought to cool off from temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

As I reflect on my summer of volunteering I would like to thank the people who made it possible: especially Suzi and her colleagues at Concordia; Duncan, our host at Patchfest; our Spanish hosts and the people of Jódar for making us feel so welcome; and all my fellow volunteers on both projects. 

Barney Smith, Summer 2016

Testimonio from a SVE in España

I first heard about European Voluntary Service during a Blablacar journey from Brest to Rennes in northern France.  

An excitable fellow passenger spent almost the entire 3 hour drive telling me all about her life changing experience she was having as a volunteer. I was astonished to learn that such an opportunity existed; even more so that I’d never heard of it! As soon as I got home from that journey I jumped straight on the computer, and typed in those three magic letters E V S. Little did I know, I too was about to embark on a life-changing journey….

Flash forward 6 months. After what seemed like an eternal flight from London, I arrive, dazed and confused at Madrid-Barajas airport. I walk through the sliding doors expecting to find my tutor Cristina, struggling to remember her face from the Skype interview we’d had months previously. After making eye contact for a couple of seconds too long with a few potential Cristinas, I give up and go outside to see how warm it is. ‘Hmmm I could get used to this!’ It crosses my mind to get practicing my Spanish straight away and ask someone “donde está Majadahonda?” just in case Cristina doesn’t show up. But how do I pronounce Majadahonda again? I decide to have another go at the arrival lounge.

 As I walk back towards the sliding doors, I notice out of the corner of my eye someone holding a card with a British flag printed on it and ‘Bienvenido Sam!” written above it. Ah that must be Cristina, but who’s this grinning blonde girl with her? Of course, it’s Greta my fellow volunteer from Lithuania. Immediately, my nerves disappear and we chat all the way to Majadahonda. On the way, I pluck up the courage to ask to Cristina to pronounce it as slowly as she can. Now I’ve got it!

Cristina takes us to our new apartment and we meet our housemates Martha and Juliet. Once the ‘besos’ and ‘encantados’ are out the way, Martha looks at me and says something very quickly in Spanish, everyone laughs… loudly. I join in pretending to understand the joke. Greta and I exchange a look of bemusement and then the tour of the flat begins. I think I got away with it this time but I it makes me realise that my Spanish is going to need some serious work.

The following day it was time to meet the rest of the team at the youth centre. We were greeted with beaming smiles and warm embraces and given a tour of the building. Though making small talk in Spanish was a challenge, whatever lingering anxiety was quickly extinguished and I knew then that this was going to be a great year.

The first few months of the project flew by as Greta and I settled in nicely. From making new friends from across Europe at the on-arrival training to starting our intensive Spanish course, from exploring Madrid at the weekends to getting to know our students at the English conversation workshops, our full-on schedule kept us incredibly busy. Before we knew it, it was Christmas and a chance to reflect on everything we’d learnt so far.

I went back home to the UK and bored my family and friends with perhaps too much detail of my time thus far in Spain. I realised that despite a few minor imperfections, the experience I was having was an incredible opportunity to learn many new skills and to grow as a person. Though it was hard to say goodbye once again to friends and family, I was eager to get back to Spain.

The second half of the project seemed to go by even quicker than the first. Though our Spanish course came to an end I was gaining more and more confidence speaking this wonderful language. We started with the English Book Club in January which turned out to be a great addition to the project, a chance to make new friends and of course to read some brilliant books.

Arriving back in Majadahonda from a weekend trip to France in March, I realised that I was starting to feel very much at home here. Our conversation workshops were improving week on week, I was meeting loads of new people, my Spanish was coming on leaps and bounds and after a long, wet winter (by Madrid standards!) the sun was starting to shine again. In just a few short months the whole thing would sadly be coming to an end.

It is only now, with the project drawing to a close, that I am starting to appreciate the excitement and passion of the girl who introduced me to EVS during that fateful Blablacar journey back in France a year and a half ago. it is starting to sink in just how much I have learnt this year. From simple Spanish slang words like ‘chungo’, ‘majo’ and ‘molar’ to using video editing software, from running a book club to learning all about how EVS works, from writing a newsletter of international opportunities to improving my confidence in public speaking, the list goes on and on.

Sam Bartrop

European Volunteer Service 2016

A Festival in Andalucía

I had very mixed feelings as I set foot in Granada for the first time in nearly nine years. I felt sadness: in the four years after my previous trip I lost both my parents and both my grandfathers. I felt excitement too, as I began to embark on a two-week course in Spanish followed by my twenty-third international volunteer project at the Parapanda Folk Festival in nearby Íllora. Now living in a part of the world where summer temperatures reach fifty degrees Celsius, I also felt strangely at home in the blistering heat of an Andalucían summer.

I was joined at the project by three Spanish volunteers: the coordinator, Ena, Almudena and Aly; two Ukrainian volunteers both called Maria; Virginia from Italy; and Rhu (pronounced ‘You’; he became known as ‘Mr You’ to avoid any confusion!) from South Korea. We were guided in our work and helped during our stay by Daniel and his team from the local volunteer organisation. Our work included setting up and taking down the equipment for the festival, constructing fences, arranging chairs, watering plants, looking after the needs of the performers, sweeping, cleaning, laying the table, washing up, and playing with the local children. We also enjoyed a varied free time programme including games, flamenco lessons, a dance class, watching performances and a day off hiking in the nearby mountains. During the project I tried to revise the Spanish I had learnt while studying in Granada, and want to say muchas gracias from the bottom of my heart to the Spanish volunteers who helped me and showed me great kindness and endless patience.

As a student in Granada, I had learnt a lot from watching fellow teachers do their job and was able to empathise more with my own students in my French classes. Another benefit, both of the course and of my project in Íllora, was meeting people from different walks of life: not only fellow teachers but people from many other fields too. When not studying, I took the opportunity to see what I could of the local area: at the weekend in the middle of the course, I went to Fuente Vaqueros and to the ski station at Sierra Nevada, where, as I stepped off the bus, I felt cold for the first time in many weeks. I soon warmed up hiking in the beautiful and peaceful surroundings on and around the deserted ski slopes.

The festival over for another year, after a day with the other volunteers in Granada, I began my journey north to my UK-bound coach in Barcelona, with stops on the way in Cazorla, Úbeda, Jaén, Baeza, Madrid and Manzanares el Real. I found nothing but friendliness from local people who often went out of their way to help me. In Úbeda, for example, having got nowhere in the local tourist office in my quest to find the nearest campsite, and by now exhausted and demoralised after a fruitless search with heavy luggage, I asked a passer-by, who not only went to the trouble of showing me on his phone how to get there but even offered to drive me.

I often think back to my adventures in Spain last summer, as I go about my daily life in Kuwait. When I see the Spanish and Latin American students in my classes, I think of the Spanish children we met at the festival, and how I wrote their names in Arabic on their arms and made wristbands for them. As I watch Spanish series on my laptop, I think back to our accommodation in Íllora, where I watched the first episode of Desaparecida. When I listen to Spanish music on my MP3 player and proudly wear my Parapanda Folk Festival t-shirt, I often get goose-bumps as I remember moments of great emotion. As I reflect on those memories, I feel an overwhelming sense of happiness at what I experienced and at the people I met, and an overwhelming sense of longing both for my twenty-fourth international volunteer project and for my next visit to Spain.

Barney Smith

international volunteer 2015

EVS diary from Spain

I’m writing this as I have just seven days left of my EVS in Burgos, Spain.   It wasn’t always easy.

To start, the winter here is cold. It felt a lot colder than the UK, which was something that I wasn´t expecting. The language barrier was also very difficult and people from Burgos didn’t care too much for speaking English. At the beginning I felt a little isolated, living in a city of 180,000 inhabitants and not knowing any fluent English speakers. City living was strange for me as well, having lived most of my life in rural Devon. But I soon learnt enough Spanish to communicate, bought a warm coat and started to enjoy the endless parties! 

Pozo de la agua

Burgos is a handsome, authentic and traditional Spanish city with so much tradition and culture, from the food and architecture, to the Camino and fiestas. I had never experienced anything like it.

I’ve got to know so many interesting people from Spain as well as the volunteers from other countries, something which would have been very difficult to do without my EVS experience. I live with a French and Italian girl and have been able to learn so much about other European cultures and traditions. I’ve also been able to travel to many parts of Spain (I even managed to complete 250 km of the Camino de Santiago). It’s an incredibly dramatic and beautiful country which I feel privileged to have seen.   

It’s really hard to summarise the experience I’ve had, it’s the kind of thing that just needs to be lived. If you get the opportunity to do something similar, I would say you should (but obviously experiences will differ). In fact, enjoyed it so much here that I am hoping to return to Spain after my EVS is over. Un saludo!

On the beach of Malaga

James Hewitt 

Adrian in Spain on EVS - 2010

Half-way through my EVS in Asturias, Northern Spain, at Libelula Huerta (dragonfly market garden). It´s a community-supported agriculture project that grows vegetables for 22 families on the outskirts of Avilés, a small industrial port with about 80,000 inhabitants. Most of our work is in the garden, tending to the vegetables, harvesting and managing the soil. In the process we are learning all about agro-ecology (small scale, locally produced organics) and the need to re-skill a new generation in how to grow good nutritious food sustainably. We have also done a number of workshops with kids, sometimes in schools and sometimes in the garden - taking them round and showing them what a tomato plant looks, smells and feels like. I am also just about to embark upon giving a series of workshops on organic gardening, with the aim of creating a ´forest garden´in the centre of the city with a piece of land that the local council have granted us. Nervous doesnt even come close. I have no idea how it will turn out, nor if the trees will even survive the first winter!

I am here with another EVS volunteer from Italy, Arianna and another volunteer from England who has stuck around in Asturias and still helps out in the garden. Has been a great summer, with trips to the beach after work, hikes up into the stunning mountains to the south and long drawn out lunches (we always eat at the garden, cooking together after we finish at 1230). For the colder months I have just taken up a woodcarving course and have been to visit a baker in the mountains who has shown me all about artesanal breadmaking.

Would recommend highly this project. The values it promotes are focussed on a very practical aspect of social change: that of changing our diets and system of food production, and of becoming more politically aware of the implications of our choices and the way we organise society for what will become of our future.

Liam in Spain on EVS - 2009

I've been in Barcelona for about three months. I love this city, the history, the culture, the people, the food, the music, the list, it goes on. It's one the of the reasons that I chose this project, a big reason to be honest. But I was under no illusions that it was going to be easy, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I applied, when I signed up.

Like any big city, Barcelona has it's problems. But unlike other cities, the place that the problems are concentrated is right in the centre, in the notorious barrio of El Raval. Barely a day goes by without the neighbourhood being on both regional and national news; Drugs. Prositution. Robberies. Violence. Unemployment. Immigrants. The homeless. The same problems any other big city has, but concentrated into a relatively small barrio which these days is constantly patrolled by the police. This is where I work.

My organisation has a huge variety of projects, most centred in and around Raval. My project works with immigrants, from 16-21/22 years old. People from Morroco, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, the Filipines, India, Pakistan, Bolivia, Columbia, todo el mundo! We do language classes, computer classes, music classes, sports classes, etc. etc. I teach kids who can't swim how to swim. Guys that can't even send an email how to use a computer. I train our football team. And generally support the running of all of our activities. One of the most important aims of all of this, is to give these guys something to do, something constructive, just something that isn't struggling to make a living by whatever means possible. And ultimately, we guide them into work training courses to develop some skills so that they are qualified to work.

Summed up in a paragraph it sounds fairly straight forward. It's not. There are a mountain of problems thrown into this mix. Primarily, I arrived without speaking Spanish. Nor Catalan. Nor Arabic, nor Swahili, or any other language that would be of use to me here. And Í'm the only EVS volunteer in this project, and so fairly isolated. The embarassment you feel when somebody speaks to you, and not only can you not reply, but you very little idea of what they even said, is horrible. Horrible enough to motivate me into studying Spanish every spare minute of every day! Next problem, the guys can be difficult. Extremely difficult. They're in a very strange and difficult situation, and so considering this it's understadable that they can behave like that. Another issue is the massive predjudice and discrimination that they face. Consider what it must be like, to arrive in a foreign country, where you don't speak the language, you don't know anybody, you have no money, no food, no home, no job, and then even if you do manage to get a grip of the language, you do learn some skills, become qualified even, after all of this, you're still faced with blatant discrimination. These aren't bad people, regardless of how they may behave at times, regardless of how they are forced to make money to survive, they are just people. It's only the situation that's bad. Life can be hard and massively unfair. But this project is trying to do something about it, I'm trying to do something about it.

The whole EVS experience can be a really strange one. It's a long period of time to be doing something, and so it's important that you know as much as possible about what you're going to do before you get there, to be happy with the type of work you'll do, to make sure that it's right for you. But it's just as important that you do it, that we do it. The whole EVS project is designed to promote cross-cultural learning and European cohesion, it's effectively designed to help the EU as a whole. But regardless of the political motivations behind it, it's an incredible opportunity, as the cliche goes, too good to miss. Not only is it a means of living in another country for an extended period of time, it's a means of really knowing that country, really learning the language in a way never possible at home, and above all, it's a means to do something useful, something important. I don't think you can ever really know what you're capable of until you do something that challenges you. This project is not only important for the kids that we work with, but for me too. I'm learning a language which opens up an entirely new world for me. And I'm learning things about myself, discovering what I am actually capable of. Something is happening to me, something that I need to think about for a long time. But that thing is good, it's a thing which inspires me to be better, to do more, to be more.

Chapapote's Angels, Galicia- Winter 2002

Normal people in extraordinary places: 20 Italian volunteers from Legambiente in Galicia.
We are a group of men and women with the same motivation: to fight in front of this environmental disaster caused by the Prestige. We are working for the ocean: infinite, strong, brave, and alive, still breathing and fighting to make itself free from this sticky oil. We start to shiver, not only because it is cold. It's very hard to collect the oil while it's raining and windy. It's even more difficult to separate the oil from the water, but it's necessary before the whole coast becomes deeply contaminated, sentencing the beaches to death.

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The Fisherman's Drama, Spain- Winter 2002

The first Legambiente group has arrived in Galicia. They will stay for ten days, from the 8th of December until the 18th.

We are continuing to search for contaminated birds, from Fisterra to Muxia. At "Langosteira" beach we have just found eight "Chapapote" victims - Chapapote, a new galician word born to definite the thick oil poured into the sea by the Prestige...sounds even funny, but it's not. We have found the army cleaning the oil on the beaches, together with the fisherman, and with the Spanish and international volunteers. The fisherman are those most affected by the economic consequences of this tragedy. Those who have a license will receive some money from the government, but there are too many without a license...too many that live from the sea will receive nothing.

From the fishermen’s words we recognise a trauma, they are already thinking about other jobs, other places: "Because this oil we see at the beaches is a very small part from what is into the sea". His father, his grandfather and even before, for generations, a job as a part of a family; now, dramatically, it has been stopped.

The Black Tide Strangles, Galicia- Winter 2002

Ten days after the sinking of the Prestige, the catastrophic gravity is still present. Rocks, beaches and even the piazza of this sweet Galician village are coloured black and covered by a nauseating oil layer, many centimetres thick in some places. A few seagulls continue to fly, curious about the actions of those strange Martians who try to clean this toxic waste from beaches and rocks.

On the other side of the village, the beautiful beach shows no evidence of the tragedy; seagulls and cormorants continue their lives over the sea, going out only to dry their feathers in the sunlight.

The only sign of the catastrophe is the small port, completely full of boats, that at this time should be working on the sea. The fish market is empty. Many houses have hung a banner against the government's censoring of information, the mass-media and the management of this crisis.

From the first moment, the Spanish authorities have tried to minimise the dimension of the accident. "A black tide never existed. Only some cases of pollution at the coasts, spread as leopard spots". If we look at the actual facts, we find that 400 Km of coasts are contaminated. Out of 350 beaches existing in Galicia, about 150 are affected, and about 700 people and thousands of volunteers, who do not see their efforts recognised or organised by anybody.

Many beaches look intact or already cleaned, but actually the oil is still there, hidden under the sand, because the oceanic tides and the powerful waves settle it, creating a kind of "sandwich" with deadly effects for the fauna of the sand: As many people say, this is only the first step of the real black tide.

The French experts from "the Cedre", the most important European institute in hydrocarbon contamination, say that the oil inside the ship 4000 metres below the surface will probably remain on the bottom. The oil spilt during the catastrophe can still be seen in the sea, threatening any unfortunate coast. They say the slick that is coming contains about 11,000 tonnes of oil and is tens of kilometres long. It has been followed by anti-pollution boats from many diverse European countries including France, Holland, Great Britain, Germany and in few days also by two Italian ships.The slick is viewed with terror by all Atlantic countries: Where it goes depends on the tides, the weather, and the winds, and the water barriers are not able to work correctly with these oceanic waves and because the skimmer ships able to collect dense oil are few, too few.It's a fight against time.

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Iruna de Oca, Archaeological project, Spain - Summer 2005

Before the work camp I had feelings of anxiety but it ended as perhaps the most amazing experience of my life! After a day of travel I arrived at the meeting place in the Basque Country and gradually the other volunteers arrived one by one, all very relaxed, friendly and welcoming. Despite the varying levels of English it was still possible to communicate, whether it be through mime or actions, or through others as translators, and everyone could still have fun together. Conversation was so good, everyone and everything was so much fun and so interesting. Work was short but relaxed, and finding bones, pots, pottery, metal nails and even some bronze was incredible, others even found coins and baby skeletons! The afternoons were very chilled, an opportunity for a siesta or to visit the nearby swimming pool or sunbathe. The evenings and weekends were always well organised with local places of interest to visit, walks, hikes, excursions to towns and coastline, wine tasting, many fun games and even a night of massaging. The summer festival in the village/town included live music and an opportunity to let your hair down in the fiesta whether through dancing or a few drinks. The 23 volunteers included seven nationalities, many of which I feel I will keep in contact with and meet again in the future. On board were four autistic boys who despite their handicap managed to integrate just as everyone else. From this camp I have discovered it is the people that really count the most and I now recognise the importance, despite a difference in nationality or language, of the learning, enjoyment and understanding that can exist between us”

Oliver Pitcher

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