Moja izkušnja EVS se je počasi prevesila v drugo polovico.

Novembra je bil v Berlinu čas za vmesni seminar. Če smo na uvodnem seminarju med sabo še govorili angleško, smo na vmesnem že vsi komunicirali v nemščini. Ponovno sem se srečala z nekaterimi prostovoljci iz prvega seminarja in spoznala nekaj novih obrazov. Čeprav stanujem blizu Berlina, je bilo tokrat prvič, da sem ga doživela v družbi skupine sovrstnikov iz celega sveta. Vmesni seminar žal traja samo pet dni, in ti so spet prehitro minili.

Ob mojem prihodu nazaj je bil Frizz že poln božičnega vzdušja. Sodelovala sem pri delavnici izdelovanja adventnih venčkov, ki so se ga udeležile predvsem družine beguncev iz Čečenije, kar me je prijetno presenetilo, saj so le ti muslimani, a očitno se dobro prilagajajo naši kulturi.

Decembra je naše mesto organiziralo tudi božični sejem na trgu pred našo hišo. Seveda se ga je udeležil tudi Frizz. Že novembra smo z otroki izdelovali snežake in Božičke iz keramičnih lončkov, ki smo jih potem prodajali na naši stojnici. Sejem je bil res lep: lesene hiške s kuhanim vinom in sladicami, vrtiljaki za otroke, oder z Božičkom in celo mali živalski vrt s kozami. Seveda sem obiskala tudi božični sejem v Berlinu, na Aleksandrovem trgu. V bistvu sta tam bila kar dva: prvi je bil »ta pravi«, imel je stojnice s kuhanim vinom, kandiranimi jabolki in ostalimi dobrotami ter ročnimi izdelki, celo drsališče okoli Neptunove fontane, čeprav je bilo pretoplo za sneg. Drugi pa je bil neverjeten. Počutila sem se, kot da sem v Gardalandu, le da je bilo več luči, glasbe in vzdušja. Bil je poln vrtiljakov, vlakcev smrti in hiš strahov. In bil je neverjetno poln ljudi.

Tja sem se vrnila še enkrat decembra, ko sem se v Berlinu ponovno srečala s tremi prostovoljci iz prvega seminarja. Zelo sem bila vesela, da sem jih lahko ponovno videla, saj noben ne razume prostovoljca v tuji deželi tako, kot drug prostovoljec. To veselo snidenje je žal zaznamoval neprijeten dogodek, saj so prostovoljki iz Madžarske med vožnjo na podzemni železnici iz žepa ukradli telefon. To mi nikakor ni šlo v glavo, saj sva se celo vožnjo pogovarjali, a očitno je tatu kljub vsemu med direndajem ob izstopu uspelo izmakniti telefon. Takrat sem se resnično zamislila in se zavedla vseh opozoril, ki jih nikoli nisem jemala preveč resno, kako ti lahko v velikem mestu takoj sunejo telefon ali denarnico.

Kmalu po nesrečnem dogodku sem bila nazaj v Berlinu, tokrat na poti na letališče, saj sem se čez božično-novoletne praznike vračala v Slovenijo k svoji družini. Čeprav uživam v svojem projektu, se je bilo lepo spet vrniti domov, videti domače in govoriti slovensko. Prazniki so hitro minili in kaj kmalu sem bila spet v Benetkah, na letališču in spet na poti nazaj v Berlin, nato pa uro in pol z vlakom spet v Seelow.

Januarja sem končno zbrala vse informacije in dokumente, da sem poslala prošnjo za priznavanje mojega poklica. Pred tem sva šla z Micho, mojim mentorjem, še v mestno hišo, kjer me je tudi uradno prijavil, da stanujem v Seelowu. Postopek je bil zelo kratek in brezplačen, ker mi je bilo v veliko olajšanje. Manj prijetno je to, da je potrebno tri mesece čakati na rezultate priznavanja poklica.

Micha me je peljal tudi na koncert od Ellie Goulding v Berlinu. Ponavadi ne hodim veliko na koncerte, zato sem bila navdušena, da sem lahko v živo videla in slišala tako veliko zvezdo. Dvorana je bila nabito polna in šov je bil res fenomenalen.

Nato je bil čas za učenje. Januarja sem zaključila s tečajem nemščine in odločila sem se v marcu opravljati izpit za Goethe Zertifikat B2. Bila sem zelo živčna, saj je izpit kar drag, tako da bi bila res škoda, če mi ne bi uspelo. Izpit je trajal pol dneva in je bil zelo temeljit, a na koncu sem kljub vsemu imela dober občutek. Na rezultat pa sem še morala počakati.

Takoj naslednji dan sem sedla v avtobus in se odpeljala na konferenco Jugend für Europa v Nürenberg. Tja me je poslal Micha, saj sem mu veliko pomagala pri iskanju novih prostovoljcev za naš počitniški tabor v Lebusu. Tam sem spoznala veliko strokovnjakov za mladinsko delo iz cele Nemčije in Avstrije. Pogostitev je bila izjemna, prav tako mesto, ki je čudovito lepo. Ko sem prišla nazaj, sem imela le en dan časa, da sem prepakirala svoj kovček, takoj zatem sem namreč že letela na dopust v Köln. Tam sem se srečala s prostovoljcem iz Španije, ki sem ga spoznala na seminarju. V hostlu sem spoznala tudi nekaj zanimivih ljudi in skupaj smo raziskovali mesto.

Naslednji teden sem se za velikonočni vikend odpravila v Prago. Tam nisem bila prvič, a Praga je tako čudovito mesto, da se ga ne naveličaš. V hostlu se mi je pridružila moja družina, tako da smo velikonočne praznike preživeli skupaj. Mesto je bilo nabito polno, glavni trg pa poln stojnic in velikonočnega vzdušja.

Takoj naslednji dan po dolgi avtobusni vožnji iz Prage sem se odpeljala na počitniški tabor v Lebus. Tukaj trajajo božične in velikonočne počitnice po dva tedna in v drugem tednu počitnic smo organizirali mednarodni dekliški tabor z nemškimi in poljskimi deklicami. Na žalost nam je nagajalo vreme, a punce so vseeno uživale v aktivnostih, vsi pa smo se najbolj veselili izleta v Berlin, obiska v Sea Life in nakupovanja. Zadnji dan smo le imeli nekaj sreče z vremenom in sodelavca sta za otroke postavila napihljivi grad, da so se lahko popolnoma znoreli, preden smo jih odpeljali domov.

April se je začel z veliko zabavo v kulturni hiši, ki smo se je udeležili tudi skoraj vsi sodelavci iz Frizza. Po devetih mesecih sodelovanja se med njimi počutim sproščeno in tudi oni so me sprejeli medse. Do zaključka mojega projekta me ločijo le še trije meseci. V tem času sem ugotovila, da me delo z otroki resnično veseli. Videla sem, da jim znam pomagati in prisluhniti. Vem, da želim nadaljevati z delom v tej smeri in po možnosti ostati v Nemčiji.

Lucija Korošec

A month has passed.

My first (and probably last) EVS experience has started even before I arrived in Maribor – skype calls, packing, paperwork, looking at maps, nervousness. I imagine that at the end of all this I will be laughing at how I felt at the beginning, even though it’s not the first time I’ve been away from home for a long time on my own. It’s always more and more enjoyable – some things are different from last time, some are not. You recall an old feeling at a new place or with a new person and things somehow feel familiar. It’s a feeling I get here almost constantly, since I see more and more similarities between Slovenia and Slovakia – not just the countries‘ names and their language, but the political/social issues, the mentality, the vibe, the culture. I often laugh at how learning slovenščina for me is a bit like trying to read with your head tilted to the side – it’s just beyond understandable and somehow difficult. I feel this way about everything here and I’m slowly getting used to it.

So what’s it like to be here, live here and work here, now that I’ve gotten somewhat used to it?

My flat is a huge apartment from the secession era with white walls and doors, creaking wooden floors and windows with blinds overlooking the street and the Drava river. It has five other people, most of them pleasant students of medicine used to EVS volunteers living there, and an old untuned piano. I was also told that there might be a cat coming soon. (I adore cats.)

Infopeka, Pekarna Magdalenske mreže is a smaller place than I thought, but what it lacks in office space it makes up for with connections, passionate people and work. This month was mostly quiet, since the organization was applying for grants, but the pace should pick up over the next few months. Even without that, there is always something to do – meetings with different groups, checking out other organizations in the city, working on things for Infopeka or for myself as a volunteer, attending events and workshops. There were two grand ones this month, both of which I attended as a photographer – a forum theatre workshop beaming with vibes from all participants who surprised themselves and were thrilled by their performances, and a project happening around Europe called Corners, where four artists collect games in different cities and create new ones, exploring traditions and culture behind them. As I’m writing this, Corners is still in progress in Maribor and I’m excited to see what games will be created.

Maribor is a city like any other in Europe, with pretty parts and ugly parts, small corners worth visiting, tens of coffee shops for everyone’s taste and style, more opportunities than I can count and a seemingly endless stream of people, some of which I already meet on the street sometimes. Everything is unfamiliar and wet and cold now, but I only expect it to get better with spring and summer. I will get to know the city and, in a way, make it mine.

A month has passed. Nine months are left and I await them at the edge of my seat.
Michal

Forum Theatre workshop

So this weekend (20. in 21. 2. 2016) I attended an intensive Forum Theatre workshop. It lasted two days, 6 hours a day. We were pretty punctual, for a workshop with more than 10 attendants and 3 trainers – the breaks did not last for more than established, we started at the announced time and finished on schedule. I think this is quite important, as it gave the whole experience a certain structure and discipline. But without the irritating authority. Forum theatre is about politics and empowerment, and authority is never really empowering.

One of the things I wanted to tackle while on this EVS was my stage fright. Theater is one the things I love most, and no matter what role you play in this art form, be it director, actor, or producer you will, at one point or another, have to face some public speaking or public exposure. Some time on the stage. And so far in Maribor, I feel like I’m making progress with that.

The workshop took place at Vetrinjski Dvor, an interesting and cozy space for all sorts of artistic events. The days were sunny so we ended up using the patio to work on our final performance.

The 3 trainers complemented each other very well. Each of them brought their character into their work.

The exercises were gradually intense – first, getting to know each other, to become comfortable with each other, mostly using our bodies and emotions rather than our words. We’ve then done some exercises meant to show us, in practice, how first impressions can deceive (a particularly telling one was when we had to form two groups, without communicating in any way, just according to who we thought would prefer drinking beer over drinking wine, like warm climate rather than a cold one, is introverted rather than extroverted etc.).

Little by little, we got more accustomed with performing in front of an audience, with expressing emotion, with not judging ourselves as much when exposing ourselves, with getting into the skin of a character.

The final part was building a small forum theatre performance based on a specific oppressive situation that we chose. We split into two groups, each with a joker (a sort of a facilitator, with specific attributions such as presenting the situation, warming the public up, making it familiar with participatory theatre and facilitating the spect-actors’ contribution at the end). We had two performances, one per each group. One spoke about class differences and poverty, the other one about heteronormativity, the ‘normal family’ and other oppressive, conservative expectations and pressures one’s family inflicts upon its members.

We’ll continue to work on the performance, so…maybe more on it later!

by Ioana Sileanu

Actors of Urban Change - EVS

Akterki urbanih sprememb na misiji vzpostavljanja spletne platforme, na kateri se bo predstavilo in sodelovalo skoraj dvajset razlicnih projektov širom Evrope. Gre za različne kulturne projekte, ki so se prijavili na dvoletni program (2013-2015 in 2015-2017) Actors of Urban Change v sodelovanju z MitOstom in Robert Bosch Stiftung.

Anja Koleša iz Berlina

EVS is coming to end.

2^nd January, end of my EVS project, is unstoppably coming. Some melancholic feeling of ending I had already two months ago during opening of exhibiton TU-BITI. This exhibition was about reflection of my stay in Slovenia. Therefore, it was done from perspective of action that is already finished and now is just reflected - thirty photographs that captured my stay in Maribor and travelling across whole country. Fortunately, this recapitulation was a little bit too early. My EVS was prolonged for one more month so there were still another two months. So, quite a lot of time. And moreover, these last last two months were so busy (in good sense) that I didn't have any time for melancholic feelings anymore.

Full of optimism and enthusiasm, we set in our Pizda group end of November as date of publishing new Pizda, number 4. Of course, after while it was totally obvious that meet this deadline will be impossible for us. Result: just one week for drawing illustrations. Moreover, creativity crisis came in this worst time. How to draw refugee crisis and don't be similar to all those previous caricatures that had been already drawn by someone else? How to draw satirical joke about postmodern nihilism if I am postmodern nihilist a little bit too? Fortunately, some muse finally came. Therefore, some my pictures in new Pizda! 4 you can find. (A little bit of promotion: We printed 200 copies of them so there are still some in Infopeka. I recommend to pick one. It's inspirational reading).

As New Year is coming, my next big task for this time was making calendar for upcoming year. But this shouldn't be any ordinary calendar. This calendar is for ZIZ, theatre group that is fascinated by breasts. Therefore, demanding mission was waiting foor me. 10 people and 12 different poses for each month. That means, 120 photographs of breasts. Really strange EVS experience :-)

Everything is finished now. Celebration of new Pizda successfully happened. Photos for ZIZ calendar are taken and calendar itself is printed in printing office right now. Therefore, now I can just enjoy a few last days. Meeting with friends, visiting favourite places like Piramida, eating delicious čevapčiči in Baščaršija, ...

by Marek Šurkala