i huelga !

That week there were strikes in some public institutions of La Laguna. Amongst others in the playgrounds. That´s the reason, why I had to work in the office of AURI, which is a group of voluntaries organizing activities for erasmus students and more. On thursday and friday then also the students striked which brought us a free day at the end of the week. Actually not bad. But nobody appreciated that day off; how could we, knowing that some teachers of the playgrounds don´t know when they will work again or IF they will work again, seeing masses of students being on strike and hearing the police siren outside every several times?! A really depressing feeling...
Nevertheless the weekend was amazing again: On this island there´s so much waiting to be discovered ;)

autumn

Today Iza and I decided to fight against the boredomn in "Reloj de fantasia" this week and to design the "tailler" in an autumnal way. For this the small group of kids were optimal. So we prepared some jigs with the shapes of leafes and animals (i.e. hedgehogs, squirrels...) which the kids used to handicraft and paint their own colourful leafes... the kids had fun- we too and the result is more than beautiful :)



all in all three days of work ;)

Los Gigantes

Salsa in hiking boots & flipflops

Yesterday we´ve been hiking at Los Gigantes. Even if it´s some one and half an hour away this trip was absolutely worth it from the very first minute on!! Los Gigantes are breathtaking themselves, left alone the circumstance that we were hiking where there were no paths at all...in about 200 meters above sea level, one wrong step and you could fall down the partially vertical cliff! Can you imagine hafing lunch in this height, sitting on a tiny wall in a row with 13 people who love hiking, the feet hanging in the air, 200 meters below them you can see the open water, on your left in far distance the city, on your right the other rocks, vertically emerging 400 meters out of the water?! Of course you can not... and even if this sounds a little bit mean: this whole day, continued with a beach stay, having a drink and salsa/ waltzer dance lessons on the street (everything in this perfekt hiking group consisting of people from every age) has been so perfect, it´s unfortunately impossible to describe it to you in a way which delivers that feeling...





Los Gigantes

monday

Today it´s a special day for me: last night it rained for the first time (a certain domstic feeling appears)  and los correos deliver three (!!) postcards for me :) you can´t imagine how glad you will be to surprisingly receive postcards from home with pictures of the landscape and some nice words! .... I just wanted to share this with you so you´ll not forget to give your address to everybody at home ;)

La Lagantija

(The last playground)

This is it. The last unknown playground ;) It´s not much left to say about it. The only specialties are that it´s actually more a garage than a big area but I didn´t see many playgrounds that are arranged with so fondly self-made (by the kids and teachers) details and where is a so trustful relationship among everybody J This is also the place where Iza and I started our first little “project”: after teaching the oldest kids the most basic sentences in German/ Polish (i.e. hello, how are you, thanks …) we showed the typical dances (Waltzer and Bolognese). Everybody had much fun but the dancing lessons afterwards hadn´t been very useful and Iza and I recognized for the first time how difficult it can be to seriously work with children, to keep them quiet and interested. Bigger projects could be exhausting… but at least as funny ;)

La Pescera Feliz

3rd playground

La Pescera Feliz. This is where I spent the last four afternoons. Just another playground. Similar to the two before. And also totally different! Like in the previous playgrounds the teachers fixed a weekly schedule with new activities every day and also the whole routine of the day resembles the former ones. Besides this the children are divided, too: the older ones attend from 15.30 to 17.30, the younger ones attend the following two hours. That´s the plan. Sadly there are every day only one to three children present during the first two hours. This means, that during this time there are altogether four teachers amusing one single child. Quite boring :( For the future I would like to offer sth like language lessons during this time. Being in that a small group is perfect for this kind of intensive work.

first language lesson

Half an hour ago I had my first language lessons :) my head is still aching.... the teacher is nobody else than Iza, my flat member, which makes things extremely easy ;) from now on I will (finally after almost one month) have 3 hours of lessons per week (2x 1.5 hours). The most important thing is now to learn as many vocabulary as possible! I already recognised that it´s quite easy to learn those vocabularies which are known from Latin but also extremely difficult to learn the completely unknown ones as they are so similar... work is waiting!!

leisure time

Being new in another town/city/country the weekends are always a sensitive theme: used to go out with old friends and visiting the favorite places you could feel pretty lonely at a saturday evening... but not with the four of us! :D spending the weekends lazy on the beach, at Salsa classes, going hiking with friends of friends which are randomly neighbours, having some Sangria/ beer, practicing extreme-tourism in the city centre, cooking and asking the neighbours for lasagna forms, doing noisy artisan activities at 22pm or get to know new people through AURI (= organisation which prepares trips etc. for erasmus students) activities and making plans for explore the islands..... no chance for boredom or loneliness!


Hiking: Roques de Anaga

 

...

How could I forget this? There´s one thing you probably don´t know yet about Tenerife: people here love celebrations. Big celebrations. Huge celebrations :) Especially La Lagunas´ citizens! This is why there was this holyday on Friday the 14th (holyday only in this single city!!) with an incredible firework that evening and all in one one month of festivities. Enjoying the astonishing firework at a roof balcony, having delicious traditional foot and relishing the crowds in the streets afterwards I get a deep impression of Spanish way of life ;)


firework

El Dragón

(2nd playground)

During the last four days Iza and I visited El Dragón. Also here the two teachers are likable from the beginning on, even if none of them speaks English at all. The area of this playground is –connected with a school- even huger than the first: additional to the football fields there is a big assembly hall which affords playing in a cooler climate than outside J besides this there are many similarities between both of the centers: the same kinds of kids (the “Spanish teachers”, the rebellious ones, the loud ones, the touchy ones…) and besides the continuous high volume there is a fixed daily program. In this case the program is as follows: conversation in a sitting circle followed by a daily changing activity offered by the teachers (such as handicraft work or traditional games), then free time*. After the first two hours the older kids leave and the younger ones arrive. We have the eating break all together, afterwards again free time*, sitting circle and common game. This playground convinced me not only through the balanced contact between kids and teachers and towards us J Nevertheless, after several days you can see a difference concerning the behavior of the kids towards Iza (who perfectly speaks Spanish) and me …they are not as… blustery, more reserved. The Spanish lessons still didn´t start.

 

*free time= Iza and I have to play with the children in the assembly hall. The preferred game is a mixture of hike-and-seek & chasing...played for at least 55 minutes a day = VERY exhausting! = sports compensation ;)

El Dragón

self reflection

Today two things happened:

1.       I arrived at the flat and thought for the first time: “Home sweet home” or sth similar (the point is clear I think) and

2.       I recognized for the first time that I already started to think in English language. After less than one week. Crazy!

Reloj De Fantasia

(1st playground)

As the local kids have still school holydays this week, the playgrounds are opened in the mornings. This means that Iza (my colleague & cohabitant) and I have to leave the flat at 8 ó clock. At this time it´s cold and windy outside…. Who would have thought it could be cold and windy in Tenerife?!  Whatever, we arrived at the first playground on Wednesday morning, excited. When we entered I wasn´t only stunned by the view right into a deep canyon next to the playground and the high mountains on the other side but also positively surprised by the big area being part of the playground: two football fields and the building itself. Even if it was obvious that at least one of the fields already passed its best times. The two teachers were congenial at once- one of them even tried to translate the most important things into English. Once in a while. The kids themselves were called upon to speak extra slowly and clearly. In contradiction to my expectance they have been shy for about ten minutes but then they talked, reported and narrated without a break and a short “Sí” motivated them to speak for another half an hour. But of course are there also situations when they ask you something and an answer is expected… what then? There is no universal answer to all questions which just can be learned by rote… I need Spanish lessons. At once!  Even the kids recognized this and so it happened that some tried to teach me. This is how I learned the colors and going shopping for vegetables during one day J Some single kids are additionally already interested in learning German and I have to dictate them basic sentences….so far so good. But won´t the kids get bored speaking to me after few days when there´s no answer to expect?

playing football at >30°

acclimatization

(not only for the humid climate...)

Finally arriving the main bus station in La Laguna (Intercambiador) I was relieved to see Santa, my mentor, already waiting for picking me up… of course, knowing her only through facebook so far  I didn´t recognize her.  For her it was much easier, I guess; with my baggage, my lost gaze, the obvious fatigue and all! Two more girls arrived for helping carrying my baggage and when we reached the flat some minutes later, I felt immediately comfortable! My room went with me: white walls, a window and Spartan furniture: everything I liked about southern accommodations. At this time there has been only one thing I was a little bit concerned about: How should I ever cope with the bus network not to mention finding my flat again in this huge city’s street chaos?!  For relaxing the rest of the day and get to know each other we went straight to the beach and enjoyed the hot rays of the afternoon sun…
The last girl of our flat share arrived the next morning- eventually! Everybody´s curious about each other and after exchanging the most important things (origin, level of Spanish language, age and previous experiences as voluntary) we start removing spiders (3 spiders just from the bathroom!) and cleaning everything from windows to cupboards. Our first common activity :D After visiting IKEA several days later –armed with trolley, backpack and sundry bags- and buying the most necessary things (i.e. cupboard boards ; ) our flat already gives us a certain domestic feeling. Especially after hanging up some personal pictures in my own room.

Result:  The two most important points for starting a new phase of life in a foreign surrounding are
1. Finding a new home / place to withdraw oneself (done) and
2. Get to know the people with whom you will live for the coming months (started)

Only 4 days ago...

It´s been long time after midnight and I still didn´t know what to expect from the next day. Actually I didn´t know what to expect from the next nine months of my life. These are 36 weeks after all…  I was sitting in the back of my parents´ car and trying to realize the 180° change my life did at that moment. Short time later mum and dad had one last breakfast with me –Mum has been unexpectedly composed for her conditions- and dropped me off at the airport. Suddenly I was on my own, trying not to be afraid of my own courage, with the little I was allowed to take with me for the next couple of months.

As soon as I sat into the plane I fell into sleep, not waking up until the airplane was flying a circle above a little island western to north Africa; Tenerife. There it was: with its´ scant mountains, the dusty air, its´ deep blue sea, the highest cliffs I´ve ever seen and the Teide volcano surmounting everything! We departed at the South airport and I had to make my way to the northern end of the island- with almost 30 kg on my back and only the tiniest knowledge of Spanish language…

What already seems to me as being an adventure long time ago happened the last Sunday; this was when I arrived in my new home for absolving a 9 months lasting volunteering in local Spanish playgrounds. Some five months ago I had applied for this European Voluntary Service and finally- in mid of July- I got the ultimate acceptance. I remember that I wasn´t able to silently sit on my bottom for the rest of that day and had a big smile in my face for the following ones… whatever, now I´m here, sitting in the flat that I am occupying together with three other girls- also volunteers but much older than I am- and supposed to write down the impressions and experiences I collected during the last week. An unsolvable challenge. Nearly impossible to remember everything that assailed me these days. But I’ll try…

FOREWORD

 Dear reader,

I´m glad you finally found my blog... Marys blog! And I appreciate that you obviously want to have an insight into this formative and completely different abstract of my life! But in advance you need to know some details about me and my former life:

My name is Mary, I was born in Bavaria, a part of Germany, more than 18 years ago. I am used to live in a small rural village (approx. 800 inhabitants) which frankly contains more cows than humans. Last June I absolved my A-Levels in Bavarias smallest secundary school -of course!- and decided to do an European Voluntary Service before starting my studies. When I began to  actively search for projects it was already beginning of April. However,  I needed several days to figure out the chaos of hosting, coordinating and sending organisations... Finally, after diverse phonecalls I found not only a hosting organisation in my nearer sourrunding but also a quiet useful website (youthnetworks.com) which announces hosting organisations that are willing to receive volunteers. And there it was: my project!

Announced by the HO Isla CreActiva it was described as working in different local playgrounds to teach children at the age of 4 to 14 European awareness, European and social values and even languages in a non-formal way . The setting was Tenerife, Spain. Two weeks after my application I got the message: I am in! Now the hardest part followed: more than two months waiting without knowing if the project will be supported by the EU and can even start or not. So far, these were the longest two months of my life! But the waiting was worth it: the project should start in September. I grew more and more excited and happy every following day, my parents just started to realize that what I mentioned once in a while at lunch worked out after all. It made them sad to have to say good-bye to their oldest child for almost a year. But I guess some when this day just arrives in the life of every parent. The day when they have to let their kids go, to let them life their own adventures…