Departure

The most difficult day of the project began after a final party, so many of us were quite sleepy. From the moment we woke up, we knew that we have to be brave enough to say goodbye without fear, without tears. It is curious that at the beginning we had to take courage in order to meet new people and open ourselves to them, but we need more courage to say goodbye to the same people after just 9 days with them.

We enjoyed our final brunch all together at the Kompressor and after that it was the moment to say goodbye for the first time, Caroline and Virginie were the first to depart and some hours later all the Lithuanian group. It was difficult, but hugs and kisses made it easier as well as the promises of seeing each other soon in the future. The rest of us had more time to spend, all of us except the Estonians booked one room in the Dancing Eesti, so we knew that we had one night more although most of us had to depart early in the morning, so we decided to share our last drink at 9 pm. It was a fun end, we talked a lot about the future and our experiences in the project and when we decided that it was time to sleep, we said goodnight as well as goodbye.

Alejandro and Andrius

Bicycle trip day

Breakfast. This day was special. Turkish team preparedtheir traditional meal Menemen. It includes onion, peper, tomatoes and eggs. It was very tasty. It was a kind of intercultural experience for all of us. We will try to prapare it in our homes.

Then we had bicycle trip. All group was divided in two groups. First one went after breakfast, another one went after lunch. We traveled much in Hiiuma forests, all around local villages, discovering Estonian nature, rural culture and beauty. We visited the oldest lighthouse in world at Kopu, the one that works still. We felt, that this house could be used for defence as well, becouse it has small holes in the walls for snipers. The stairs are high and very narow, it makes climbing difficult. On the top of the lighthouse you can feel on top of the Hiiumaa, it is good to see all the island, it is all green, very different from other countries.

It was so nice for all of us to travel in one of the most beautiful paradises in the world.

Also, during of trip we felt the feeling of common spirit, the sense, that all we have something common, not taking into account our cultural background, religion, race, other diversities. We understood, that we will meet again, in other projects, in our counties, in our life.

In evening sauna party is waiting, it was the first time for some of participants on Sunday and it is judged both wise, also for cultural background. Of course, it is good after tiring bicycle trip.

Ignas Dzemyda from Lithuania and Sercan Sahin from Turkey

13th july - Surprise Estonians!

We started this beautiful day with having breakfast, like usually. The weather was really nice!

After the breakfast, we spoke about our voluntaaring day and shared our experiences of this work. It was a really interesting discussion because we realized that everyone was so happy of this day ! It made us also realize the importance of volunteering as it benefits everyone : the volunteer as well as the people you help. We discussed a lot about volunteering especially how it can help a person find a job and how to make volunteers more attractive for employers.

Following right after the lunch, we had some free time, so we decided to go to the beach ! Sun bathing, swimming in the Baltic sea, playing volleyball – it all felt too good to be true, yet it was.

We started the evening doing some theatrical sketches to show different sides of unemployment and how it can be solved, but the real surprise came after, when we organized a surprise thank-you party for the Estonians ! We built a huge bonfire at the end of the pier, tried to sing their national anthem, but could only manage one verse, yet the thank-you speech practically moved everyone to tears ! The night was long, but at the end everyone finally went to bed to prepare for the new day.

Best wishes,
Caroline from France and Sarunas from Lithuania

Volunteering at Samaaria

After guys to Koolikodu were off the bus, there were only left five of us and some participants to

Kärdla's volunteering bus. I'm very happy I had such a great and little group of people to come with me to help a lovely lady who is helping Hiiumaa's old, homeless and sick people. THANK YOU IAN, EDGARAS, ROSA and ANDREI! You were great! :)

When we arrived to Samaaria second-hand shop, which also was a shelter for people, who have had rough life for some reasons (illness, disability, homeless etc), we firstly had a great tour

through the building. Inhabitants of this shelter lived in very nice rooms, 2-3 person in one room. Living conditions there were great and we all were happy that Hiiumaa has such place for people who need help :)

After the tour lovely manager of this home, as I like it call, gave us our works. Rosa was cleaning the windows inside the house, Ian and Edgaras cut the heck, me and Andrei cleaned the basement. I have to say that work wasn't the easiest one but we all managed it well.

Manager was really pleased with us. She didn't think we could do all the works that fast. She offered us DELICIOUS lunch, cake, tea and gave us presents too. We also had some time to play outside with some fun toys :P

We were so happy and satisfied that we had the chance to do something good for these people.

After this day I personally understood how good it really is to do that kind of volunteering job. It makes you feel much more special and it makes people happy.

Thank you again Ian, Edgaras, Rosa and Andrei for this wonderful day! The manager is really happy that we visited her and helped her :)

Volunteering activity supporting Estonian Loore :)

Volunteering at Kuulikodu

The second group who climbed off the bus was the one to go to do their volunteering work in Harju. Harju is a village in Hiiumaa that is special for Kuulikodu, the only animal shelter on the whole island. Kuulikodu is a NGO that offers home for abandoned animals, organizes different training courses and lectures and takes care of local animal protection issues. When our group arrived there, we got warm greetings from Kadri, the caretaker of Kuulikodu. At first Kadri invited us inside her house, where we all sat down in a cozy living room and introduced ourselves, the project and our mission there. Kadri also talked a bit about herself and the essence of Kuulikodu in general.

After the introduction part our voluntary work started. The task for the day was to help Kadri to prepare the household for winter by carrying cut-down logs of wood from the forest to the collecting place near the house. It wasn’t too difficult and we had fun creating different ways, how to make our work more effective and faster. By cooperating and dividing tasks we managed to finish working at the first pile of logs quite fast. However, our work there was far from being done yet!

After eating delicious vegetarian lunch that Kadri had prepared for us, we continued with working. This time we decided to divide our group into two: boys and girls. Originally boys were supposed to carry big heavy logs out from the woods by themselves and girls at the same time were supposed to carry on with lighter work; however soon the group was united again as together the work was just so much easier! By working together, we were soon out of work again, so we took another brake to collect our strength… or to be quite honest, because those logs were HEAVY! So, exhausted, we sat down with Kadri once again just to relax a bit, play with lovely kittens and dog and just to chat. After the break, Kadri took us to a field to pick some herbs. We examined different plants and Kadri introduced us different possibilities of their usage. When we eventually arrived back with some flowers and herbs, it was time to leave. We said farewell to Kadri and to the animals and got into the bus, which took us back to Kalana.

Everybody was very pleased that they had decided to volunteer in Kuulikodu, because all the positive feedback we got from Kadri was absolutely amazing and her gratitude was endless, even though we didn’t do so much at all! We all went back with such positive emotions and a feeling that volunteering is really worth an effort!

PS! Check out http://hiiumaa.loomakaitse.ee and http://www.facebook.com/kuulikodu

By: Greete

Volunteering at Tohvri

In the morning we had a quick lunch, grabbed some sandwiches to go and hopped on the bus. We were the first team to go off from the bus at Tohvri retirement home, where our voluntary action was to take place. After meeting the manager, we put on the gloves and headed for our mission – stack firewood. First task was to put the winter wood into woodpile of 3 meters. We made a human chain to make the task easier and work was progressing well. Only angry wasps didn’t like our effort and give us some hard time, stinging Oleg twice.

We made a little break to have a short chat with Estonian minister of social affairs, who just happened to visit Tohvri on the same day as our action took place. We told him about our project, our mission, shook hands and made a photo together. After that we continued our work with the woods.

We had delicious lunch and after that we continued with different task, but still making stacking firewood. When we finally finished, we were really tired, but happy with the result. Volunteering gives satisfaction for the soul.

We also discovered a little bit surrounding areas near Tohvri, visiting the Sõru harbour and old ships. It was a good day :)

11"th July travel to Kardla: Participant Cafe

Tere to everybody!

We are on Monday 11^th July and we starting the day in the bus going to the Kardla. We arrived to the city centre around 11 and then we have our first shopping experiences in Hiimuaa. Later we went to beautiful restaurant with nice grass fields around and the beach. Before waiting to eat, some people played football some others were lazy and some made funny games.

Finally at 13:30 we got a tasteful lunch attended by beautiful waitresses. It was nice taste of Estonian foods, afterwards in a hurry to participant cafe.

There two women made a presentation of Estonian unemployment insurance fund. Also Heleri gave us a more interesting presentation about EVS and Toomas talked about career consulting.

We were divided on five different groups to talk about: What government should do to decrease unemployment?, How does volunteer work increases the possibilities to find a job?, Higher /Vocational education, Promoting volunteering and the last one was basic education. Every twenty minutes we changed to different topic and the people taking part in the debating.

The topics were difficult because 20 minutes is not enough for finding solutions. At the beginning we were bored a bit but we were getting more interested on during the process.

Then back to Kalana.

Ending the day we were ready to have beach party with locals but we just found wind in our faces.

Simulation Game and Practices from different countries for fighting unemployment

In the first part of the day, Lithuanian group organized for us a simulation game which topic was unemployment. It was a simulation about life where everybody were a role like in real life (shop owner, buisness man, employer, policemen, administrator, dealer, prostitutes...) some people had a employment and others no. The goal of this game was to understand diificulties to found a work and to survive without one but also realise the inconvenients of a shop owner or buisnessnan. We have also realised that some traffic or black shop can take place when the situation ask it. This game represtented one week with all obligations that someone meet in his life like food, drugs someties,... After that everybody has told what were his impressions and feelings. We concluded that unemlpoyment is an very important issue in modern times, which has a lot of different causes and backgrounds.

In the afternoon we had an workshop, where every country presented the situation with unemlpoyment with a focus on youth unemployment from their countries, statistical data from European Union and different practices to fight unemployment. Some of countries have now bigger problems with unemployment, the others are having very low unemployment rates, like Belgium. Our conclusion was that in each country we can find both good and bad practices, that cpuld be easily implemented on European level.

In the evening, our wonderful Estonian hosts organized for us a barbecue in the forests of Hiiumaa Island, which have been an excelent opportunity for socializing and to know each other better. The night ended with a traditional Estonian Sauna Party. It was a quite extreme experience for some of the participants, taking into account that sauna was combined with baths into the cold waters of the Baltic Sea. At the end of the day everybody was happy :D

The beginning

Five people, one car and 9 hours on a road. That’s how Lithuanian team arrived at the Hiiumaa island. Finally! Amazingly beautiful sunrise while waiting for a ferry to Hiumaa. Just couple more hours and…PARADISE!

Lithuanian (Vaida’s) team was the first one to show up on a camp – sorry - a piece of heaven in the middle of nowhere called Kalana Holiday Resort: hot sun, blue skies, rocky beach, green trees and plenty of adventures ahead! For the rest of the day Lithuanian team was enjoying all the pleasures of Kalana resort and waiting for the rest to arrive. Estonian group was the first one. Four chatty smiling girls arrived and started showing us where our home for the next 10 days will be: small wooden houses situated among high trees, facing the coast of the Baltic sea.

Belgian (Ian’s) group showed up late in the evening, together with the rest. Plenty of smiling, excited and couple of serious, kinda lost faces came out of the bus. Lithuanian and Estonian group met them at the main house. It was a late evening already so everybody just dropped their stuff in the small houses and got together to the main harbor house to start getting to know each other. The evening started with name games and lasted for couple of hours so afterwards we managed to remember at least couple of names. There are many left to learn. Hopefully we will learn a lot throughout the next 9 days:) Everybody had a long day today, so we’ll keep it short. Goodnight and see ya!

Ian and Vaida

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