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