On the 24th, there was a debate in the Medical/Cosmetic school. Urska asked me to join them to talk a little bit about EVS and volunteer work in general.
I was the closing act you could say lol. I talked a little about what I am doing here at Pekarna and explained that I have a lot of freedom to choose my own projects, but that not everyone gets this opportunity. I let them ask me some questions and I was really happy with what they asked. I'm really used to these superficial questions or even once a comment like:,,What there aren't enough jobs in Belgium so you come take ours?'' (btw my answer to that once there ar enough jobs in Belgium and better payed too...i was annoyed). This time I got questions like: did you do other volunteer work before your evs?, what are the cultural differences between Slovenia and Belgium?, where else in the world have you been?...
I think there are some pictures, but I have to ask where they are and then maybe I'll upload one :p
Showing posts with label Gwenny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gwenny. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Volunteer work
On Monday, 20th April 2008, it was the Global Youth Service Day. Pekarna and other organisations gathered in the city to inform people about voluntary work. Some workshops were organised, like making a wallet out of empty milk,juice,... cartons, painting on a bag, ....
There were also some EVS people present: Sarah from Brezice, Sveto and 
Ludivine from Lasko, Aurelie from Ptuj and of course I was there too. Our aim was to inform people that showed an interest in EVS. Sveto and Ludevine also made a movie about the day for the National television, but I don't have that video yet unfortunately.
Ludivine from Lasko, Aurelie from Ptuj and of course I was there too. Our aim was to inform people that showed an interest in EVS. Sveto and Ludevine also made a movie about the day for the National television, but I don't have that video yet unfortunately. It was a nice day, with lots of fun during the day. The closing event at Kibla didn't attract many people, but since it was a weekday, it was understandable.
Afterwards Sarah and I went to grab a bite to eat at Ancora and watched a movie. I didn't finish it, I was getting too tired...
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Belgium presentation 3
After presentations in Brežice and in Črna na Koroškem, it was time for the tird one in the elementary school Martin Konšak.
I went there on Saturday, 18 April at 8.45. As an all out Belgian raised girl I am not used to working on Saturdays and it's programmed in me to have the whole weekend off. Getting up early, that means somewhere before 10 during the weekends, is just a nono. But hey I'm a good girl and I'll do what I have to do.
After listening to a presentation about healthy food, half of the audience was gone and the other half was given to me. I told them a little bit about Belgium and showed them a lot of pictures. When the presentation was done they could all take a waffle. I had made the waffles the day before and luckily I made enough, because on friday night around 11 I found out that I would have 30 kids instead of 15-20.
Afterwards the group fell apart in even smaller groups and I went with the group that was gonna make posters about Belgium (nature, people, 'de smurfen' aka Smrkci aka the smurfs ) and the EU in Brussel. While the kids were working on their posters I was making waffles and writing an interview down. They were very interested in the waffles and almost all of them wrote the recipe down.
After all of the group gathered in the dining hall to present the work they did that morning. A lot of them used the healthy food theme and others used something about Belgium. One group (one of the younger ones) made little smrkci, another one drawings of the houses in Gent and the group I was with did a version of the Belgian dance.
It was a nice morning and we didn't get everything done that we wanted to do, because we just didn't have enough time left.
Waar komen jullie toch vandaan?
Waar de smurfenhuisjes staan
Hebben jullie ook een eigen taal?
Ja, die spreken wij allemaal
Doen jullie iets wat wij niet durven?
Ja, want wij zijn echte smurfen
Dit is een lied met een leuk refrein
Jullie zijn groot en wij zijn klein
LA la lalalalalalalala
La la lalalalalalalala
La la lalalalalalalalalala
I went there on Saturday, 18 April at 8.45. As an all out Belgian raised girl I am not used to working on Saturdays and it's programmed in me to have the whole weekend off. Getting up early, that means somewhere before 10 during the weekends, is just a nono. But hey I'm a good girl and I'll do what I have to do.
After listening to a presentation about healthy food, half of the audience was gone and the other half was given to me. I told them a little bit about Belgium and showed them a lot of pictures. When the presentation was done they could all take a waffle. I had made the waffles the day before and luckily I made enough, because on friday night around 11 I found out that I would have 30 kids instead of 15-20.
Afterwards the group fell apart in even smaller groups and I went with the group that was gonna make posters about Belgium (nature, people, 'de smurfen' aka Smrkci aka the smurfs ) and the EU in Brussel. While the kids were working on their posters I was making waffles and writing an interview down. They were very interested in the waffles and almost all of them wrote the recipe down.
After all of the group gathered in the dining hall to present the work they did that morning. A lot of them used the healthy food theme and others used something about Belgium. One group (one of the younger ones) made little smrkci, another one drawings of the houses in Gent and the group I was with did a version of the Belgian dance.
It was a nice morning and we didn't get everything done that we wanted to do, because we just didn't have enough time left.
Waar komen jullie toch vandaan?
Waar de smurfenhuisjes staan
Hebben jullie ook een eigen taal?
Ja, die spreken wij allemaal
Doen jullie iets wat wij niet durven?
Ja, want wij zijn echte smurfen
Dit is een lied met een leuk refrein
Jullie zijn groot en wij zijn klein
LA la lalalalalalalala
La la lalalalalalalala
La la lalalalalalalalalala
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Belgium presentation 2
From the 14th till the 15th of April I was in Črna na Koroškem to give a presentation about Belgium in Center za Usposbljanje, Delo in Varstvo (center for training, work and care), which is a home for people with a disability.
The home has about 250 guests and has diffenent locations. I went to visit a few of them. There was the main house, the house for the kids, the houses for the adults who are living together on their own and the mountain hut. They really took me on a tour to show me all of the work they are doing.
It would have been interesting for one of my school assignments last year. It really showed how the organisation was working and that it has results. It basically goes like this: new arrivals spend their time in the main house where they get lessons and trainings in all kind of fields. They have music, singing, music, cooking classes and much more. All to prepare them to move them to one of the other locations where they have to take care of their own meals and house together with the people they are living with.
The center has a mountain hut with a view of the Topla valley. It's an amazing location, when you are there it's really like you are alone on the world. Every year a group goes there for a week, they take walks, cook for themselves, and in general just have a great time.
This picture is one of the views from the mountain hut. I only had my mobile phone on me, so there is a bit too much light, but I'm sure you'll see what I mean.
They also took me to a lake full of frogs, some fish and I even saw 2 turtles. It's a very commercial lake, where people go swimming in the summer. I just hope that dispite that the reptiles and fishes and every other life out there won't disappear over time.
One of the things I really wanted to see in Slovenia was a horse from Lipica. Guess what? Yes yes I got the chance to do this. During my tour, it was mentioned that CUDV got 2 horses from the Lipica farm and that we were very close to them. I told them that we should go and they agreed if we had enough time left. And we sure did. The horses are old, about 20 years, they still needed to be brushed and cleaned, but I didn't care at all. I didn't go as far as touching them, my reason is that they are too holy just yet :p.
After the tour and the drive there it was already evening. One of the guests gave up his room for me, so I had a room and a bed waiting for me to kick back, relax and sleep. At 6 in the morning I woke up because there was already a lot of activity in the hall way. It was a little bit too early for my taste, so I tried to stay in bed as long as I could, but I didn't sleep any more. At 8 it was time for my presentation. After the presentation we went to the kitchen and made some waffles. Around 12.30 I returend back to Maribor.
It was very nice to visit another beautiful region in Slovenia and I'm sure it will be a visit I won't forget any time soon.
The home has about 250 guests and has diffenent locations. I went to visit a few of them. There was the main house, the house for the kids, the houses for the adults who are living together on their own and the mountain hut. They really took me on a tour to show me all of the work they are doing.
It would have been interesting for one of my school assignments last year. It really showed how the organisation was working and that it has results. It basically goes like this: new arrivals spend their time in the main house where they get lessons and trainings in all kind of fields. They have music, singing, music, cooking classes and much more. All to prepare them to move them to one of the other locations where they have to take care of their own meals and house together with the people they are living with.
The center has a mountain hut with a view of the Topla valley. It's an amazing location, when you are there it's really like you are alone on the world. Every year a group goes there for a week, they take walks, cook for themselves, and in general just have a great time.
This picture is one of the views from the mountain hut. I only had my mobile phone on me, so there is a bit too much light, but I'm sure you'll see what I mean.
They also took me to a lake full of frogs, some fish and I even saw 2 turtles. It's a very commercial lake, where people go swimming in the summer. I just hope that dispite that the reptiles and fishes and every other life out there won't disappear over time. 
One of the things I really wanted to see in Slovenia was a horse from Lipica. Guess what? Yes yes I got the chance to do this. During my tour, it was mentioned that CUDV got 2 horses from the Lipica farm and that we were very close to them. I told them that we should go and they agreed if we had enough time left. And we sure did. The horses are old, about 20 years, they still needed to be brushed and cleaned, but I didn't care at all. I didn't go as far as touching them, my reason is that they are too holy just yet :p. After the tour and the drive there it was already evening. One of the guests gave up his room for me, so I had a room and a bed waiting for me to kick back, relax and sleep. At 6 in the morning I woke up because there was already a lot of activity in the hall way. It was a little bit too early for my taste, so I tried to stay in bed as long as I could, but I didn't sleep any more. At 8 it was time for my presentation. After the presentation we went to the kitchen and made some waffles. Around 12.30 I returend back to Maribor.
It was very nice to visit another beautiful region in Slovenia and I'm sure it will be a visit I won't forget any time soon.
Monday, 13 April 2009
Family visiting
On the 4th of April my parents, aunt and uncle came to Maribor for a little vacation. While we were waiting for them, Petra and I made them a pie with cherries, put everything they had asked for in a box and waited for their call.
After a +/- 13 hour drive they arrived at their apartment. They arrived here quite hungry so I took them to Ancora. They all got a big pizza, but they couldn't finish it. It was just too much.
I was at work almost every day, but I went to them during the evenings to hang out or go for walks. On friday we went to postojnska-jama. If you want to know more about the caves, visit this website: www.postojna-cave.com. I was really happy they decided to go with my idea and go there, because it was one of the things I really wanted to do while being here. It didn't hurt of course that my uncle is a big fan of things like that and that they really wanted to go too.
On saturday, around 1 they left. This time it only took them about 12 hrs to get back to Belgium. They took all of the pics back home with them, because I forgot to plug the memory card in my computer, or rather I forgot to take my computer to them to get it done.
It was a very nice visit with lots of benefits for me and I enjoyed their visit. In June my parents will come back for a 14 days vacation in Terme Čatež (http://www.terme-catez.si/en/)and afterwards they'll drive me home.
The day I'll have to leave Slovenia is almost here and I'm not looking forward to it at all. :(
After a +/- 13 hour drive they arrived at their apartment. They arrived here quite hungry so I took them to Ancora. They all got a big pizza, but they couldn't finish it. It was just too much.
I was at work almost every day, but I went to them during the evenings to hang out or go for walks. On friday we went to postojnska-jama. If you want to know more about the caves, visit this website: www.postojna-cave.com. I was really happy they decided to go with my idea and go there, because it was one of the things I really wanted to do while being here. It didn't hurt of course that my uncle is a big fan of things like that and that they really wanted to go too.
On saturday, around 1 they left. This time it only took them about 12 hrs to get back to Belgium. They took all of the pics back home with them, because I forgot to plug the memory card in my computer, or rather I forgot to take my computer to them to get it done.
It was a very nice visit with lots of benefits for me and I enjoyed their visit. In June my parents will come back for a 14 days vacation in Terme Čatež (http://www.terme-catez.si/en/)and afterwards they'll drive me home.
The day I'll have to leave Slovenia is almost here and I'm not looking forward to it at all. :(
Friday, 3 April 2009
Exhibition opening
On the 3rd of April at 20.00hrs it was the opening of the exhibition Ujeti by G. Pachla. The week days before I was quite busy with putting the pictures in the frames. And I had to do it again later, because when we moved them to hladilnica they all moved a bit down or up. It was a mess, but a fixable one.
On the day of the opening I went shopping for things I needed at the opening, like toastbread, bread spreads, drinks, chips and salty stickies. About an hour and a half before the opening we started to toast the bread. In Belgium we have these little pretoasted squares for receptions etc, but I couldn't find them here. We made triangles instead of squares and thanks to the grill-toaster Polonca gave me to use, it didn't take long at all.
In the beginning I was thinking that it won't be a success at all, but at the end of the evening I was very happy with the outcome. About 20 people showed up to look at the pictures, to talk, to drink and to eat.
For this exhibition and because I can right now I also want to thank everyone who helped me setting it up and making it possible. Thank you all!
On the day of the opening I went shopping for things I needed at the opening, like toastbread, bread spreads, drinks, chips and salty stickies. About an hour and a half before the opening we started to toast the bread. In Belgium we have these little pretoasted squares for receptions etc, but I couldn't find them here. We made triangles instead of squares and thanks to the grill-toaster Polonca gave me to use, it didn't take long at all.
In the beginning I was thinking that it won't be a success at all, but at the end of the evening I was very happy with the outcome. About 20 people showed up to look at the pictures, to talk, to drink and to eat.
For this exhibition and because I can right now I also want to thank everyone who helped me setting it up and making it possible. Thank you all!
Friday, 20 March 2009
The day Julien left
Today at 7.40 Julien went back to France.
Yesterday during the vegan dinner I gave him a little goodbye present, a bowl and a cup. It's because every morning he uses both to eat his breakfast and drink some coffee, so from now on he can remember his time in Slovenia every morning.
I also made some vegan pancakes. It were going to be waffles, but the recipe I found for it didn't work. Every time I tried to make a waffle in the machine, the dough didn't stick together, so in the end I decided to make pancakes out of the dough. It had some banana, rice drink, brown sugar, whole wheat flour, vegetable oil and a pinch of salt in it. I served it with some powdered sugar or abricot jam. I should've made more though, because after a while the plate was empty. However that might have been because a lot of people showed up.
Today I woke up at 7.30 to say one last goodbye to Julien and to wish him a safe trip home and good luck on his exam. Afterwards I decided to lay in bed for a while longer and then I went to the boarding school to put up the posters for the new movie and discussion session on monday and now I'm at pekarna updating my blogs, before I'll go home for the weekend.
I hope you will all have a great weekend!
xxx
Yesterday during the vegan dinner I gave him a little goodbye present, a bowl and a cup. It's because every morning he uses both to eat his breakfast and drink some coffee, so from now on he can remember his time in Slovenia every morning.
I also made some vegan pancakes. It were going to be waffles, but the recipe I found for it didn't work. Every time I tried to make a waffle in the machine, the dough didn't stick together, so in the end I decided to make pancakes out of the dough. It had some banana, rice drink, brown sugar, whole wheat flour, vegetable oil and a pinch of salt in it. I served it with some powdered sugar or abricot jam. I should've made more though, because after a while the plate was empty. However that might have been because a lot of people showed up.
Today I woke up at 7.30 to say one last goodbye to Julien and to wish him a safe trip home and good luck on his exam. Afterwards I decided to lay in bed for a while longer and then I went to the boarding school to put up the posters for the new movie and discussion session on monday and now I'm at pekarna updating my blogs, before I'll go home for the weekend.
I hope you will all have a great weekend!
xxx
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Lunch
Time for another update.
Last week I had the discussion group on Monday. Three people showed up to watch the movie, which of course isn't lots, but highschoolers have lots of other things to do, so I'm really happy that some of them are interested in the group. The discussion was not so easy. I had to ask a lot of questions, they still have to learn to speak their minds and because of the fact that the discussion is not in their native language it was even harder. I don't mind though this is the reason I'm having those discussions with them. So they learn how to express themselves in English.
The rest of the week was spend on preparing the new session and the exhibition of course. On thursday morning I had a little health problem. For some unknown reason I fainted in our little bathroom and I hit my head on two diferent places. I still wanted to come to my Slovenian class, but my teacher decided it was not good for me. I was being very slow she said. To make up for it I filled out the form she gave me about adjectives. I also finished the invites yesterday and they will be printed next.
Yesterday we and our colleagues had lunch in the Spanish restaurant Olé. I had some grilled salmon with rice and vegetables, a salad on the side and some Slovenian dessert (whipped cream with pieces of fruit in it). I really enjoyed my food this time. The restaurant had a good atmosphere imo. I didn't take any pics, but I know some people did so I will ask for them to send me some so you all can see it too. The lunch was a goodbye lunch for Julien and Iris (infodesk), both of them are leaving this week.
I still have to prepare the new poster for the discussion group, so I'll spend the next hours doing that.
Last week I had the discussion group on Monday. Three people showed up to watch the movie, which of course isn't lots, but highschoolers have lots of other things to do, so I'm really happy that some of them are interested in the group. The discussion was not so easy. I had to ask a lot of questions, they still have to learn to speak their minds and because of the fact that the discussion is not in their native language it was even harder. I don't mind though this is the reason I'm having those discussions with them. So they learn how to express themselves in English.
The rest of the week was spend on preparing the new session and the exhibition of course. On thursday morning I had a little health problem. For some unknown reason I fainted in our little bathroom and I hit my head on two diferent places. I still wanted to come to my Slovenian class, but my teacher decided it was not good for me. I was being very slow she said. To make up for it I filled out the form she gave me about adjectives. I also finished the invites yesterday and they will be printed next.
Yesterday we and our colleagues had lunch in the Spanish restaurant Olé. I had some grilled salmon with rice and vegetables, a salad on the side and some Slovenian dessert (whipped cream with pieces of fruit in it). I really enjoyed my food this time. The restaurant had a good atmosphere imo. I didn't take any pics, but I know some people did so I will ask for them to send me some so you all can see it too. The lunch was a goodbye lunch for Julien and Iris (infodesk), both of them are leaving this week.
I still have to prepare the new poster for the discussion group, so I'll spend the next hours doing that.
Friday, 6 March 2009
First week of March
The week started with some bad news. Julien will be leaving soon, because he has some things to take care of in France. Maybe he will write an entry about his experiences so far. I'll do my best to ask him.
This means that the flat will have a free room. Anyone who is willing to live on their own and wants to pay some rent (sorry I don't know how much it is), can contact us. But beware, I won't just take anyone :p.
As for the projects I'm doing. I will have a movie and discussion evening at a boarding school on monday. The movie we are going to watch and discuss is American History X. So we will talk about racism mostly.
The exhibition will be from the 3rd of April until the 17th of April. We still have to go buy some frames and I'm working on the invitation and poster to promote it. It's all gonna be black and white. I already showed the previous preview of invitation to some people and they liked it. I'll put it on here too so that you can add your opinion. It's very simple, but that's how I want it though. I'm just a beginner and thus really not good at this. Well..take a look: (note: it's just the front)
And I've modified this blog a little bit, so that it hopefully looks nicer.
Until next time
Friday, 27 February 2009
First post - new start
Zdravo,
For those of you who are going to read this here is some background information.
In October 2007 Julien (France) and me (Belgium) started our EVS-projects at Pekarna. This month they asked us to start a blog, so that people can see that we are actually alive and kicking or at least something like that. What happened in the past, happened in the past, so unless you ask us about it we will not go back in time to tell you what we have been doing. However, because we recently had something official going on, I will go back one week in time to tell you about our midtermtraining.
Last week Julien and I had our midtermtraining in Korte, Izola. Yup you got that right, thanks to Nina (she organises the trainings) we had the opportunity to see the seaside of Slovenia. We stayed in a youth hostel (http://www.hostel-starasola.si/eng). We took a trip to Piran, had a walk around town with a guide. Well, to be honest I didn't pay much attention to the guide. I took in the sights and everything else, but I tuned him out. After our stroll through the city we went for a coffee and afterwards we ate lunch in a fish restaurant. The food looked and tasted great imo.
Of course midtermtrainings are not just a vacation for the EVS volunteers, we are there to actually learn something. We talked about our experiences so far, what we wanted out of our EVS, about the youthpass ( good tool to make ur future employers know what ur competences are). And maybe one of the most important things we have learned is that you have to take the time to say to urself: ,,Well done!". Of course u actually have to accomplish something, reach ur own goal, before u can actually congratuate urself.
In this picure u can see all the EVS people who were on the midtermtraining and Jasna, one of the trainers. Nina is taking the pic.
This week we (mentors and evsers) planned our work for the coming months and I will be the curator of an exhibition that Pekarna will host in their exhibition room, Hladilnica (damn I hoped I spelled that right). I am looking forward to that, because around the same time of the exhibition my parents will be here to see what I have been up to and of course to discover Slovenia. But to keep the suspense I will write more about it next time :p.
One last thing before I sign out. I will try to write something here every week and hopefully I can entertain you with it. If you have any questions about EVS, feel free to contact me or write to evs@pekarna.org.
Lepo se imej
Gwenny
For those of you who are going to read this here is some background information.
In October 2007 Julien (France) and me (Belgium) started our EVS-projects at Pekarna. This month they asked us to start a blog, so that people can see that we are actually alive and kicking or at least something like that. What happened in the past, happened in the past, so unless you ask us about it we will not go back in time to tell you what we have been doing. However, because we recently had something official going on, I will go back one week in time to tell you about our midtermtraining.
Last week Julien and I had our midtermtraining in Korte, Izola. Yup you got that right, thanks to Nina (she organises the trainings) we had the opportunity to see the seaside of Slovenia. We stayed in a youth hostel (http://www.hostel-starasola.si/eng). We took a trip to Piran, had a walk around town with a guide. Well, to be honest I didn't pay much attention to the guide. I took in the sights and everything else, but I tuned him out. After our stroll through the city we went for a coffee and afterwards we ate lunch in a fish restaurant. The food looked and tasted great imo.
Of course midtermtrainings are not just a vacation for the EVS volunteers, we are there to actually learn something. We talked about our experiences so far, what we wanted out of our EVS, about the youthpass ( good tool to make ur future employers know what ur competences are). And maybe one of the most important things we have learned is that you have to take the time to say to urself: ,,Well done!". Of course u actually have to accomplish something, reach ur own goal, before u can actually congratuate urself.
In this picure u can see all the EVS people who were on the midtermtraining and Jasna, one of the trainers. Nina is taking the pic.
This week we (mentors and evsers) planned our work for the coming months and I will be the curator of an exhibition that Pekarna will host in their exhibition room, Hladilnica (damn I hoped I spelled that right). I am looking forward to that, because around the same time of the exhibition my parents will be here to see what I have been up to and of course to discover Slovenia. But to keep the suspense I will write more about it next time :p.
One last thing before I sign out. I will try to write something here every week and hopefully I can entertain you with it. If you have any questions about EVS, feel free to contact me or write to evs@pekarna.org.
Lepo se imej
Gwenny
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