Living together

When Klara, the administrator of our blog, told me to write a text about us living together during the last months, I knew that it would be one of the most difficult tasks I have done here.

How should I express this experience in words?

Five different people from five different countries and cultural backgrounds living together for 8-10 months.

Maros and I arrived in the beginning of November here in Kruiningen.

I would live two months alone with him before the other EVSer arrive.

My first thought: Why should they put the youngest girl (20) and the oldest boy...or better man (his age is a secret) together to live two months alone? I admit that I was very skeptical in the beginning. It seemed that we have a lot of differences. And that was true, but we concentrated on our similarities and after all we were depend on each other. 

Until the other EVSer came in January, Maros and I already experienced a lot together, he cooked his healthy food for me and we started becoming a very good team.

This team of two people became a strong group when the other EVSer arrived.

Not only at work we had to function well as a group, it was even more important to function as a group during the everyday life in the “Vierslag”.

Everyone had his own role in the group.

We cooked together, played games, made music, celebrated birthdays and had parties, played volleyball and visited different cities. We learned from each other.

The aspect that we all come from different countries makes it even more interesting.

For example Noel from Galicia taught us how to cook tortilla and Klara from Croatia taught us how to play a Croatian card game (to which all of us got addicted).

In every single situation you learn something about different cultures and there were not few evenings, where we discussed how one aspect, e.g. corruption, influences our different countries.

When we played a game called “Dixit”, where you have to know the other players very well, with a person from outside, this person had no chance to win.
Of course there were also difficult situations and some arguments.

Who doesn't clean enough? How much money should we spend for shopping?

But this is simply part of it.

After a few weeks, many of us were on vacation, visiting the family and friends. Most of us

experienced how much we miss the others.

I for my part have after these 10 months a second family.

This is my best way to express it in words.

Wietje, Germany

Trip to Tholen and North Sea Flood Museum

As a part of the Water Project , we visit different water facilities and places connected to water.  Our first trip was to the island of Tholen. First of all, we went to see the sea locks and learn how they work. When a boat wants to pass from salt water to fresh water, it has to go through a lock in order to prevent the salt water intrusion. The fresh water intrusion is no problem as the fresh water comes to the salt water anyway when it rains. After seeing the lock from a close distance, we climbed a tower to see the locks and the whole area from a high spot.

In the afternoon, we visited the North Sea Museum. The museum tells the story of the huge flood in 1953. We could see the documents about the flood and a large number of chronicles with pictures taken during the flood. There are many objects people used that time or got as material help. Those who understand Dutch could listen to the life stories of individuals who lost their lives in the flood. Another interesting thing to see was the way the Netherlands deals with the water nowadays. There is still danger something could happen again but the country has developed its water policy a lot since the mentioned flood.

As the last, we went for a walk to a nature reserve. The weather was nice and we could enjoy the nature which we don't see so often in the Netherlands. We saw many different kinds of flowers and some animals, especially birds. 

At the end of the day, we took a picture of our group and shared our experience with the others. 

Markéta, Czech Republic

Rotterdam City Safari

Every EVS volunteer in the Netherlands, and I assume in other countries as well, has to participate in two trainings organized by the Dutch National agency. The first one is called the on-arrival training and the second one the mid-term training. Noel, Marketa and I had our mid-term training last week in The Hague.

On the first day of training we got to meet our EVS friends again, see how they’re doing and how their projects are developing.

The second day of the training was reserved for something called City Safari. The only thing we knew about this safari was that it was going to take place in Rotterdam. Our trainer was very mysterious and refused to give any additional information. So, the eight of us and the trainer left for Rotterdam to meet two people who were supposed to tell us all about it.

The meeting happened in one of many Rotterdam restaurants.

The concept of City Safari was created some 15 years ago. The idea was to get the tourists away from the usual sightseeing places and to offer them the opportunity to meet local people, hear their interesting life stories and feel the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity of this beautiful city.

They split us into two teams, and gave each team detailed instructions what do to and where to go. As soon as we read the names of the places we were supposed to visit, we knew that this would turn out to be one very interesting day.

Radio Stanvatse

The first place we visited was Radio Stanvaste. This radio station started off as a pirate radio station some 20 years ago. Its founder was a Surinamese man living in the Netherlands who wanted to create some sort of media meeting point for other Surinamese immigrants. The word about the radio soon spread out and as its audience increased, the radio went legal and nowadays has more than 80 employees. Well, calling them employees is not really correct because none of them gets paid for their work.

Assistant to the director took us around, showed us the offices and finally the studio. A children show was going live at that moment, and they asked us if we want to say anything or talk to the children. EVS-er Maria from Austria talked to the children in Dutch about Queen’s day and the monarchy, and afterwards the rest of us also spoke to children in our very limited Dutch.

It was time to leave and find our next destination.

Noel the Craftsman

The second stop was Remi Glass Studio. The Studio is run by Dutch brother and sister, both of them in their seventies. The brother told us how he started the business many years ago, showed us all the different machines and explained what they’re used for. They gave each of us a glass with a paper sticker on it. Our job was to carve out the pattern on the sticker. After that, the man took the glass, put it in one of the machines and each of us left with our own hand decorated glass. 

The third and final place to visit was the Mevalana Mosque. Two guys were already waiting for us to show us around. Everything started with the well known Turkish hospitality – a warm cup of tea. After that, they took us around the mosque explaining what each of the rooms is used for. Then we went to the most sacred part of the building - the prayer room. Beautifully decorated in Arabic calligraphy, this room was simply breathtaking. The guys told us about all the ceremonies and prayers that are obligatory for all the adherents, but also about the optional ones. They were really nice and tried their best to explain the main concepts of Islam to us.

So many questions, so little time.

I wanted to stay longer because there were still so many questions I wanted to ask, but it was late and the others were already waiting for us at the restaurant.

Prayer room wall decoration at the mosque

During the dinner we exchanged our experiences with the other group.  They visited different places and met different people, but were just as impressed with the City safari as we were.

We spent the next day back in The Hague at an event organized by Platform Spartak. There were some interesting performances, but I spent most of the time in the art-workshop, painting and pretending I know what I’m doing. 

My work of ''art''

Klara, Croatia

Bevrijdingsdag in Vlissingen

Last Sunday it was Liberation Day in the Netherlands. Dutch people celebrate every year on 5^th of May the end of the occupation by the Nazi Germany during World War II. We planned to go to Vlissingen, where the “Liberation Day Festival” took place.

But our day started in different churches in Walcheren, the region where Middelburg and Vlissingen are located.

Klara went to a church in Middelburg, Maros went to one in Veere and Markéta and Noel went to one in Vlissingen. I went with Klara to Middelburg, where Wim, his wife and their three children picked me up. They brought me to Vlissingen-Souburg, where their church lies.

Before it started, Wim warned me about a service, which lasts two hours. In Dutch...of course.
But the service started with very nice songs, the atmosphere was warm and many people danced and clapped.

After the preaching (I noticed later that it was the piano player who preached), I participated for the first time in the communion.

When the service was finished, we had coffee, tea and lemonade. A lot of children were running around and Wim told me proudly, that a lot of families attend this church and the number of church members is increasing instead of decreasing.

Then we went to their house to have lunch. While the parents prepared lunch, I played with the kids. They taught me a game and we had a lot of fun. Of course everything in Dutch, because only the oldest one could speak a few words in English.

The lunch was... guess what? Surprisingly bread and soup. But it was very tasty and we ate in the garden, because it was beautiful weather.

After lunch we went to Vlissingen. The Festival already started and the other EVSers waited for me.

I said goodbye to the family and hoped that I will see them again. Especially the time with the children I enjoyed a lot.
After I left them, we saw some bands, ate fries, went to the sea and enjoyed the sun.

Wietje, Germany

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

“Are you seriously going to Amsterdam on Queen's Day??? Good luck surviving it.”
This was the general response we got whenever we told people that we're going to go to Amsterdam on Queen's Day. But, nothing could discourage us from spending this historical day in the capital.

We left Kruiningen VERY VERY early in the morning because someone (read: our fellow Dutch volunteer Marc) told us that if we don’t take the first train, we won’t be able to get into Amsterdam.  However, the train was almost empty and, of course, Marc had to take jokes about this the whole day. 

Article in PZC (center picture)

A journalist from PZC was also on the train looking for people who were going to Amsterdam to find out why they decided to spend this day there, what they think about the royal family, how important the Queen’s day is for them and so on.  Since there weren’t that many people in the train, eventually she found us, and the next day – we were in the newspaper! 

After arriving in Amsterdam, we immediately went to Dam Square. A big crowd was already there. After less than an hour, the abdication was broadcasted on two big video walls. After that, the royal family came out on the balcony to greet their loyal subjects. After some ten minutes of royal hand waving they went back inside to continue with the formal ceremonies and Amsterdam turned into one huge party. We decided to visit the flea market in Vondel Park first. 

Now, that was one unique experience. Seems like this was the best day to sell any kind of junk you had stored in your house; most of it was just old clothes and shoes, but also jewelry, video games, DVDs… But, there were also some less conventional attempts to make money. There were people to whom you paid certain amount of money; they would give you a box of eggs, put safety goggles on and it was up to you to aim and throw. Also, parents whose children had any kind of talent brought them there to sing, dance, paint…you name it.

After that, we walked to the Museumsplein, and then back to the center, trying to find a party with the kind of music we like.

It’s really difficult to explain the atmosphere of this day. I have never experienced something like this in Croatia, except maybe only after we win during some football championships.

Klara, Croatia

Peppermint church

On the 10^th of March, Markéta, Noel and I went to Schouwen, a nice island north of Kruiningen. On the way to our host families for this day, we had to cross the Oosterschelde, an estuary between Tholen and Schouwen-Duiveland.

You feel like you are driving the car directly on the water.

John brought Noel and me to Marianne, a single mother of four children.

When we arrived we were welcomed by two lovely, but noisy dogs.

Both of us were very impressed by Marianne's house. We felt welcomed from the very beginning.

First we met her daughter Julia, who showed us around. They have horses, chicken, cats, dogs, goats, rabbits and a rooster. We were so jealous of her and at the latest when we saw the pool, we invited ourselves to come back in the summer.

The farm they have is surrounded by a nature reserve for birds. It has to be amazing in summer.

At ten o'clock we went to church. It made a very bright, friendly and open impression. The walls had the colour of mint.

And that fits to the church, because during the service most of the church-goers got some peppermints out of their bags and began to chew. Marianne told us, this is common in the Netherlands, but we saw it for the first time.

Marianne and our magnet message

When we came back to the farm, Marianne began to cook lunch and asked us to build a sentence with her magnets. It took us a while, but you can see the result in the photo.

The lunch was very delicious and we could see that Marianne likes to have guests in her home. Not only neighbours were there, but also her brother, who lives very close and two people, who help with the horses.

It was a very convivial company!

After lunch Marianne showed us the island. But because it was so cold, we went by car to a lot of little villages, through little alleys. Not easy with a big jeep...

We came back right on time, John and Markéta just came 5 minutes after we arrived.

When I look back to this day, it was probably one of the greatest days here in the Netherlands, although it was rainy and cold.

But I met this open and friendly woman, who is stronger than you would ever think.

Because of her hospitality everyone feels so welcome in her house and I look forward to seeing her again.

Wietje, Germany

Jip, Janneke and Old Trabant

During our EVS project in the Netherlands, we often visit Dutch families in different places. We usually go with them to the church for Sunday service and then they invite us for lunch and small talk. There is one thing I really like about it. One can always experience something new and unexpectable.

            A few weeks ago, we went to a church in Kapelle. We sang a lot and listened to the sermon. As we got the English version of the sermon and I could read it in advance, it was easier for me to follow it in Dutch during the service. Then we were asked to introduce ourselves and tell our motivation for taking part in the EVS. I felt a little bit nervous as I didn't expect us to be invited to the front and speak into the microphone. After the service, we drank coffee and tea and talked to the people from the church. Then I left with my host family for their house. We had some Chinese food - rice with vegetables and peanut sauce. And then we ate ice-cream and talked about many different things. I mentioned that I had read two books written by Annie M. G. Schmidt. She was a Dutch writer and wrote many children books, songs, poems and musicals. And she was born in Kapelle. After hearing this, the family decided to take me for a walk and show me Annie's house, statues and paintings of the characters from her books and streets named after the book characters. They told me a lot about Annie's life.

Russian car

        Last Sunday, we visited two different churches on the island of Schouwen and then we spent some time with host families. My host family took me to their house with their old Trabant. That was really interesting for me as my own family had a Trabant when I was very little, but I haven't ridden in or even seen any of these cars since then. 

         We had German Spätzle and lots of other 

food for lunch. It was really delicious. After lunch, we went for a short walk to the sea. They showed me a place they call a "forest" but it was no real forest for me. I guess I can experience life at sea here but for a real forest experience I have to go back to the Czech Republic.

Markéta, Czech Republic

Heelman

Everything started at the train station of Kruiningen-Yerseke. It was cold. I arrived 10 minutes before the train usually arrives, wrong. The train was delayed ten minutes, so I had to wait twenty, easy addition. I took the train when it arrived.

Our Dutch volunteer mate was waiting there for half an hour before the train arrived because of a misunderstanding. We had to go to a sport hall which was not so close to the train station. OK, it started raining. The Dutch volunteer had a bike and I had a tracksuit, so run. It was good because we would do sports and I was warming up. Breathing was not easy… Finally, we arrived at the sport hall.

We found our court and we met Jan whom we already know because of the Sunday afternoon before. He was the one who told us about this sport day.

Czech girl was already there, but she didn’t wear sport clothes. We introduced ourselves, we talked about our organization, our hobbies and our motivations for coming to the Netherlands and our project. After that, they made four teams. Competition would start soon. There were two games: football and… and another, but it’s hard to explain. It was a gymkhana, just two teams were playing. Each person in the team had to do (without our shoes):

1.       –Put on pyjama bottoms.

2.       -Run and put on a little jersey.

3.       -Run and jump over a vaulting horse.

4.       –Put on a jacket even smaller than the jersey.

5.       -Put on shoes with heels, of course, four sizes smaller than mine at least.

6.       -Run and hold a spoon in your mouth with a table tennis ball on it.

7.       -Then, remember that we were wearing heels and we were bringing a spoon with a table tennis ball on it, we had to put on a necklace similar to ones in Hawaiian parties and also two caps. The brim of one cap had to point forwards and of the other one backwards.

8.       -Walk with this stuff on till you get to a mark and then do everything in reverse.

Who won or who lost is not important, just having fun. Of course I’m saying this because we lost…

Then we play against the same team, but this time we played football. It was really nice. The youth leader who invited us is a great football player. WOW. We lost again, but it was funny.

We repeat the activities against another team. It was a long day after the lesson in Pontes and these activities, but I like days like these.

Noel, Galicia

Little terrorists in school

On Friday the 8^th of March we were invited to a school in Goes to give lessons.

We worked several hours on it, but of course we were still nervous.

Luckily, Maroš was the first one to go. He was very comfortable when he asked the pupils to prepare a terrorist attack. Yes, a terrorist attack. But the teacher didn't show anything and reacted very composed. His lesson was about violence in all kinds of religions and this of course includes terrorism.

The next lesson was Noel’s. He had a very... let's say noisy class.
But they were also very interested and motivated. You could really see that they had fun with Noel's quiz. Everybody wanted to win and be the „Royal family“ of the class.

The following class was less willing to cooperate. Markéta, who gave the lesson about prejudice, started with tongue twisters of each of our countries.

When Noel said his, the pupils couldn't stop laughing.

„Se vou nun bou, se non vou nun bou non vou“.

After Markéta's lesson we had a break and refreshed ourselves with sandwiches from the cafeteria.

And then the last class. Me and Klara were left.

This class had a very nice and enthusiastic teacher, who asked a lot of questions in the first 45 minutes, when I had my lessons about nationalism and patriotism. Then the teacher left to another class and after some technical problems, Klara gave her lesson about the Homeland War. In a role game the pupils discussed the pros and cons of intervention of other countries in a war.

After this long day, we were all very tired. But in the evening the next event waited for us and Noel will write about it...

 Wietje, Germany

Sunday 3.3.2013

           Like Abel Tesman, Dutch seafarer and explorer, first know European to reach islands of New Zealand, we also have to explore outside of region Zeeland to find right behind a border a very specific community. In Ekeren, International Church of Antwerp has the services at local school. Sometime they use gym, sometime theatre of the school, today coffee room. It is a gathering of people coming from different cultures and different backgrounds. Coming from all continents, coming from all generations.

            It is almost a miracle, that in such variety something common could be created. Contemporary world struggles to build multinational society and here it looks so simple. Joined together, surrounded in a open circle around mystery of cross.

            Contrarily, there is a traditional and rooted community in Goes we have also visited the very same day. Jan and Tessa - couple living in the house for sale, while they are looking for bigger one to give their coming child a space  -  become a face through which we could enter and experience this community. Hospitality of these people doesn’t have boundaries. Good food, interesting and deep stories, a hundred minutes long service were generous enough.

            One has to be just thankful for the world, life in all those colors and people fighting to life in it.

       

Maroš, Czech Republic 

Pregnant Lady

Sunday, 17th of February 

Getting up early on Sunday - not everybody is used to that.

But we could sleep 30 minutes longer than on a typical working day. At least

something.

On the way to Kapelle it has been a tight squeeze in the car, but I won't explain it in

detail.

Safely arrived in the church, the service began with the soft voices of the children

choir. While everybody sang composed, I found a tiny sentence in the programme:

"Introductie nieuwe vrijwilligers 2013 Atlantic Bridge"

Shock!! I asked the other volunteers, if they knew something about it. No. Fear in

their eyes. When Peter Moree began to speak about Atlantic Bridge we calmed

down, thinking we were safe. But then his inviting gaze in our direction and we

knew we have to come to the front and introduce ourselves in front of perceived

thousands of people.

We stuttered something and some bad words just slipped out of Noel.

After the service I met Joop, who took me to his home, where I should meet his wife

and his daughters Esther and Debby.

We had some cups of tea and delicious homemade appelflappen.

Then the crucial sentence of Esther: "Do you like horses?"

It came out, that they have 2 Shetland ponys and that Esther rides a horse for two

girls, who are not very often at home.

So, I ended up on the beautiful horse called Lady, which expects a foal in May.

I had a great time and felt really happy. Thank you family Joosen, especially Esther!

When we came back to their home, soup and bread (the typical dutch lunch) waited

for us. Zeer lekker!

In the late afternoon I met the other volunteers at Manon's.

They all looked very happy...

Wietje, Germany

Axel Sunday

If I had to choose one thing I will remember the Netherlands by, it wouldn’t be the tulips, or the coffee shops, or the windmills, or any other touristy images the rest of the world usually links to this country. What impressed me most about Holland are the lengths the Dutch have to go to just to stay dry.

Because large parts of the province of Zeeland (Sea land) are below sea level, storms and high tide used to be a constant threat for cities and villages. But, it seems like the sea has definitely lost this battle. People have seen to that. So when driving through Zeeland, our Dutch guides mostly draw our attention to dikes, locks and dams that hold the water back.

The same happened when we went to Axel for a Youth Group Meeting. Before the trip, whenever we told someone that we’re going to go to Axel, they would immediately start talking about the underwater tunnel built some ten years ago, connecting this peninsula with the part of the province bordering with Belgium. Tons and tons of concrete…that’s all I can see.

…

The Axel Youth Group Meeting was a lot of fun. If I weren’t that bad with Dutch names I would have listed them all here. Maybe next time ;)

Dinner, introductions, casual atmosphere…

And the openness of the Dutch to joke at their own expense. The youth from this club were asked to prepare a short sketch demonstrating the most common stereotypes attributed to their country and nation. Not surprisingly, thriftiness, the perception that everyone is on drugs, and wooden shoes were the first things that sprang to everyone’s minds.

It was great meeting enthusiastic and smart young people. Hopefully we will have many more fun Sundays with them. 

Klara, Croatia