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.
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| Radio Stanvatse |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| My work of ''art'' |
Klara, Croatia
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