Danni on EVS in France - 2011

"I have friends living in Paris, the alps and the south of France!"

I’m finding it incredibly difficult to describe my first month in Brest in only a few short paragraphs. My new life here began the moment I stepped off the plane. I met my first new friend in the airport. She was a Welsh Erasmus student and through her I met a whole horde of Erasmus friends. Five minutes later I met Martine – my mentor for daily life here. She has been a major help. From taking me to Ikea on my first day to taking me to the doctors to get my medical certificate to do sports, she has been absolutely indispensable. Next I met my mentor at work, Agnes. Without her I would never be able to do my job. I have continued to meet new friends every week. In fact, I seem to meet people every time I take the bus, although I suggest you avoid those people!

I have had the opportunity to travel a bit throughout Brittany already. My on arrival training was in the south of Brittany. Despite the often strange training techniques and the fact that people spoke English more than French, it was a very useful week. It was a great opportunity to meet other EVS volunteers and now I have friends living in Paris, the alps and the south of France! I also learned to say, “j’ai la gueule de bois” – “I have a hangover” in French. A very useful phrase when the majority of your friends are Erasmus students. I have also travelled a little with the Erasmus students and will soon be heading to Paris with them. Furthermore, I travelled to the North of France with the boss of my hosting organisation to work as a translator. The 11 hour car journey is something I won’t be forgetting any time soon! And this weekend I will be travelling to Nantes with the gaelic football team of which I am a member despite only playing twice in my life (and being absolutely atrocious).

In terms of work, I help organise projects on international mobility and have successfully held my first event (although Agnes really did all the work), I do a lot of translation, I hold english discussion sessions, I appear to have won my battle with the photocopier and I am finally learning the incredibly complicated art of poster making so I shall soon be helping a lot more with events! I also have my French courses which are a great help and even count towards my work hours!

Now that I am into my second month I no longer look the wrong way when crossing the road, I find the French keyboard easier than the English and find it acceptable to eat pain au chocolat for breakfast every morning. However, my Scottish accent remains as strong as ever. Brest is an amazing city to live in. I have so many great new friends, am surrounded by bars (mainly irish), cinemas, theatres, students (mainly irish) and whenever I think I’m learning more about the Irish culture than the French, I just eat a crepe and all is well.

Amy in Greece on EVS - 2011

Being a couple of months through my placement with Archipelagos on the Greek island of Samos, I thought I would write a blog about the work that I am doing out here. For a start do not be fooled – Greece has a winter and it is horrible! When I arrived here the sun was still shining constantly and temperatures rarely dropped below 30 even at night. Then last week we had a huge storm and since then the temperature has dropped ridiculously to the point I was wearing a woolly hat and gloves this morning. I have been told that it will heat up again, but at the moment, with my hands wrapped around a mug of tea, I refuse to believe this!

Although Archipelagos is predominantly a marine organisation it also does work on land as well. It is this terrestrial team that I am part of. My role here predominantly involves working with the chameleons on the island. First of all when I came here I had no idea that chameleons lived in the Mediterranean let alone in Greece! As it turns out the species of chameleon that is found on Samos is not found anywhere else in Greece and is therefore meant to be protected. However very little work has been done on them and no one knows how many there are on the island or their exact locations.

My job involves going out at various times of the day with a small team and surveying two transects near our base. We have to walk slowly up and down these transects searching the vegetation for chameleons. Obviously this is very hard as by nature they change their colour to match the vegetation, but it is possible! Once we find one, we capture it, measure its size, check if its male or female before releasing it again. I have to admit my first chameleon capture was incredibly exciting and the creatures are amazingly. Their ability to change colour in your hand and vanish into the trees, regardless of how well you follow them, is absolutely fascinating!

I am thoroughly enjoying my placement with Archipelagos, as not only am I experiencing the joys of working on a small Greek island, learning a language and culture that is so alien to me. I am also working with fascinating creatures and have met and worked with people from around the world.

Alistair in Austria on EVS - 2011

sJust as I thought, the first few months of my EVS Project has been a true roller coaster and a mixture of highs and lows.

From my journey down to the Concordia office in Brighton to the many train journeys I have enjoyed in Austria, it has all been a great challenge so far.

Duties at the youth centre include playing video games with the teenagers who can freely drop-by whenever they want (when the youth point is open!),chatting with them (in German) and generally being there for them. They really appreciate having somewhere they can come to meet their friends and to relax.

In my free time I find myself often cycling along next to Lake Wörthersee, the most popular lake in all of Austria. I have also taken to climbing up a couple of mountains here in the beautiful Alpine air and who can miss Monday night’s show, “die Millionenshow”, Austria’s version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’, I never miss it for sure when I have a say over it!

As I write this in mid-October, the sun is shining once again and the trees have a lovely colour. The only problem now is deciding where to cycle to in this bike-friendly country.

Hannah in Latvia on EVS - 2011

"...I will remember this year for a long time."

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.

Barney Smith's Project in France

Monsoon in France

This article is dedicated to my parents whose lives were cut short by cancer – my mother in 2008 and my father last year - but who inspire me every day.

I must admit, it took me a while to find Giat on the map. I was sitting in my classroom in Kuwait one sweltering June afternoon long after the students had gone home, and I’d just had email confirmation of my acceptance on a project in the Auvergne region in central France. One of the benefits of international volunteer projects is the opportunity to visit places far off the beaten track and meet people from a wide variety of cultures, nationalities and backgrounds.

Volunteers and Leaders from Giat with Volunteers and Leaders from Chantelle

The leaders and other volunteers came from the north to the south, from the east to the west: Eda and Gizem from Turkey, Amaya and Miren from Spain, Kristýna from the Czech Republic and Fabien and Patrick from France. Our leaders were François, a teacher, and Fred, a stonecutter, who together made a fantastic team. The three weeks were a very special and happy experience thanks to everybody, both leaders and volunteers.

This was my sixteenth international volunteer project (my earlier projects were in Russia, Germany, Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Serbia and Romania) but my first in France and my first camping project. The work focused on three places near the campsite along the shore of la Ramade, the nearby lake: rebuilding a footbridge across a marshy area, rebuilding a footbridge to the lake’s bird observatory, and clearing the lakeside path. Volunteers also worked to clean the observatory and signpost the area with information on local wildlife.

Volunteers and Leaders meeting the Mayor of Giat

The local community in Giat, a village of some 900 people, were very welcoming; there were regular visits from the mayor and his deputies, often bringing a very welcome snack, to see how we were getting on and to raise our spirits. If ever we needed our spirits raised it was because of the weather: it rained... and it rained... and it rained. This wasn’t just drizzle of the kind you get used to if you grow up in Britain, as I did: it was downpour... after downpour... after downpour. It rained almost every day, often most of the day. I think Kristýna timed the longest downpour as lasting eighteen hours! The weather inevitably had an effect on our schedule. The first working day it rained we were given the day off. It soon became clear however that if this continued we would get no work done! So we either braved the elements with waterproof clothes or did work which could easily be done inside, such as painting and varnishing signs for the footpath.

Conversations ranged widely, from the way of life in each other’s countries to politics, from music to sport, from past international volunteer projects to family and friends. In many cases we did our best to learn each other’s languages, did the occasional crossword or Sudoku together, and read newspapers and books. There were many games and sports too, from card games to guessing games, from football to Frisbee. And inevitably – we were in France after all – there was pétanque, which I played for the first time (with mixed results I should add!). The rural lakeside setting was ideal for outdoor activities like jogging and swimming (until, even for the most hardened swimmers, the lake became too cold!).

Volunteers and Leaders in Giat

There were also many excursions: to the region’s largest city, Clermont-Ferrand, to the Museum of Radio in Saint-Avit, to the beautiful village of Crocq, to the medieval festival and to the market in Giat, watching the Tour de France as helicopters buzzed overhead, hiking in the mountains, buying cheese at Châteaubrun, enjoying a lavish Bastille Day breakfast and guided tour (and even trying out the hose!) at the local fire station, riding on an aerial runway and watching two spectacular firework displays. We also spent a few days at a nearby project in the village of Chantelle where work was progressing on renovations to the abbey, and from where we attended the Festival of World Cultures in Gannat and visited the picturesque village of Charroux.

As I return to Kuwait for the new school year I know that I will miss this summer’s international volunteer project in Giat – the place, the surroundings, but most of all the people on my project. My new surroundings are a world away from rural France, but the memories of this summer are still here and will be with me forever.

Barney Smith, volunteer in France, 2011