What was OLE, again?

“OLE” or Outdoor Leisure Education is a project financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Program, hosted by Asociatia pentru Protectia Mediului, Turism si Educatie Arad which takes place in Arad, Romania between July 2015 and September 2016. This project is an exercise of solidarity and active participation addressed to 9 young people from Macedonia, Portugal and Spain. The goal of the project is to promote healthy life style through sports, outdoor leisure activities and non formal education. For that manner, the past few months the volunteers joined their knowledge, experience and passion and put a lot of effort to present the children the benefits of leading active and healthy life. The activities mainly took part in schools where the pupils were given a chance to see that physical activity does not have to be boring, repetitive and tiresome but it can be fun and inspirational instead. Since we have a few more months until the end of the project we will continue with our mission to help the creation of future healthy generations.

Christmas, you said?

This is an article about a bit different Christmas to the one that you are normally used to. It is about Christmas seen through the eyes of an Atheist. I assume that at this point many of you are angry at me and think that it is nothing but arrogance to put Christianity and Atheism together and are in temptation to scroll down or to report this article for being annoying or not interesting. But, before you do that I would like to ask you to give me a chance and I may convince you that this is not mixing apples and oranges.

   Now that I have your attention back I will start from the beginning. I was not always an Atheist. I was born and raised in religious family that followed the principles of the Orthodox Church. And those who are familiar with this branch of Christianity know that Orthodox Christians have rules about everything and tons of legends about what happened to those who did not obey them. The normal reaction of a child that grew up under these circumstances would be to become a loyal Christian following the example of the parents and of the close family members. And normally the story would have ended here and you would not have to read this but I did something that in my family is still considered to be “taboo”. I thought outside the box. It was long time ago but I think that my first “sinful” thought was about Christmas. Isn`t it the best invention of all times? If I had minimum knowledge of science I would have said that there is a so-called “Christmas formula" and that is how Christmas was created at first place. A simple but genius formula to make everybody happy. Believers celebrate the birth of their God, children receive presents from their favorite character - Santa Claus and companies have this “grand finale” at the end of the year after their income has been increased by 80% thanks to their loyal customers and their idea of spending all the money on presents. It sounds pretty genius to me. Fortunately, this holiday has a second face; the more profound one. The one that is more concentrated on giving and receiving love, sharing happiness, forgiveness and hope. And if you ask me this has nothing to do with Christmas. It has to do with something bigger than that - humanity. Sounds familiar? Here`s a hint. It is a word that does not apply for Christians or Muslims or Jews or religion in general. It applies for humans and being a human is a mystery for itself. It does not surprise me why there are so many holidays. They exist to remind us to what specie we belong to and what are the responsibilities that come with it. We usually forget who we are and why are we here. And it is not until Christmas or Easter or Hanukkah that we rediscover the urge to treat others right and use our human powers to make ours and other people`s lives easier. It is good to have reminders, I mean, we need them. Seventy years, more or less, is a long time for a human. The problem is that we spend twenty days of trying to be good people and the others three hundred and forty-five to demolish everything that we were more than lucky to get as ones. Constant behavior for two thousand years and not a single religion could change it. The question here is unavoidable. If the religions don`t have a solution, then who has it? The answer is simple. We just need to change the perspective and take a closer look. Imagine the World as a place where every day is Christmas. Close your eyes and you can see people with cheerful faces greeting each other and wishing good health, love, happiness and wealth. The enchanting melody of carols makes you sing. The whole family is gathered for dinner. The adults sit by the fireplace and drink hot wine while the kids use their absence of attention and eat all the cookies at the table. The less fortunate are not longer to be forgotten. They receive clothes, food and shelter. People forgive and forget. The World is in peace…

    It feels good, right? The good part is that we don`t have to imagine it, we can do it. We are humans. We have absolute power to do whatever we want. We have the power to create the World and recreate it over and over again. If we just for once stop investing in all those absurd wars and start investing in our own happiness… I will finish the article with the words of Elvis Presley and leave you space to think about it.

     “Oh, why can`t everyday be like Christmas,

Why can`t that feeling go on endlessly

For if everyday could be just like Christmas

What a wonderful world this would be.”

Intercultural Evening

Recently the members of the OLE project took part on an event which is always very special for the volunteers: an Intercultural Evening. This event, organized by the volunteers of Life+ project (and also our dear friends) took place in Free Wine Pub and was opened to all the community, to give Romanian people the opportunity to learn more about different cultures.

And what cultures are those, may you be wondering. Since there are volunteers from dozens of different countries, this type of event tries to explore the diversity at its best. This time the beautiful countries presented were Spain, Italy, Portugal and Macedonia and there was time for a lot of different activities to show the best about them.

As soon as the guests arrived they could immediately see and recognize the presence of the four countries through decorations, flags of each country, photographs of the most traditional cities, symbols and traditions. Then, as the night went on, the guests had opportunity to learn about interesting facts of each country through a guessing game, to watch and participate in traditional dances of different countries and even to watch a performance about Italian gestures!

Popular songs from each country were accompanying all these great moments because, as we all know, music is such an important part of every culture! In the end of the performances everyone had the opportunity to taste typical food from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Macedonia and I can honestly say that congratulations are in order, since the food was amazing! Lots of Romanian people tried it and we could see the happiness in their faces while eating tortilla de patatas, rabanadas or apple pancakes!

In conclusion, this was an amazing event that allowed the volunteers and the locals to share their cultures, try different foods and get involved in a new experience of culture exchange. To be repeated very soon, for sure, because one of the most beautiful things of volunteering abroad is opening up to new ideas, cultures and knowledge, at the same time as you share your own!

Ladies and getlemen, His Highness - FOOTBALL

   Trough out history, kicking a ball or something that looked like a ball was bringing joy to humans. This is how football was invented. At the beginning the rules of the game were very few and simple. During the years the game underwent major changes in the number of players and rules but its goal remained the same – having fun.

   The greatest thing about football is that you do not have to kick the ball to have fun; you can watch the others doing it and be amused as well. The past week the volunteers from ”OLE” decided to bring joy to their loyal pupils and for that manner they organized a football tournament. They named it “Future talents of Mihai Eminescu” and they were right about the name. These kids are talented and their future is brighter than “Alianz Arena” in Munich. Since this was the first event of “OLE” it came as a big surprise to see One hundred and twenty pupils organized in thirteen teams signed in for the tournament. But, as they say: The more, the merrier! And merrier it was. Thirteen teams were carefully chosen to represent their class and supported by cheerleading teams – their classmates. Each team had its own cheerleading team and each cheerleading team did the best to offer its team the best support. Pomes in different colors, confetti and banners with “Tigri albastri” , “FC Arad” , “Go 3C!” and many more could be seen everywhere. As always, football did its magic. The whole school was talking about it and the players of the winning teams were welcomed in the corridors with applause and ovations. As an acknowledgment of their effort and devotion the winners of first place were given a trophy and a foot ball while the winners of second and third place received certificates of participation. Every participant in the tournament received a small gift which was donated by the non-governmental and non-profitable organization “Aspis association” from Arad. It is nice when you have friends to support and help you, isn`t it?

   What I learned from this tournament is that during the years not only the rules of football have changed but the meaning of it has changed also. Football is not only a game; it is a way of life.  A good one! 

New experience: First Aid Training!

As every volunteer realizes very fast when they start this experience, European Voluntary Service is about much more than only one project. Since knowledge is never enough and the most important thing in EVS is doing as much (quality) things possible, we take advantage of every opportunity we have to try new experiences.

Last week was time for first aid training with Red Cross. During three hours we had the chance to learn about health and how to act in emergency situations, so that we can be able to react in a positive way if we encounter this type of case during EVS.

The experience was great! We had a very patient trainer, who taught us step by step what to do in different emergencies, such as if someone is choking, unconscious or seriously hurt in a leg or arm.

For every example we would learn first the theory and then we would do it ourselves, what made us really understand how difficult it can be and what we should do to make it easier. We also learned the importance of thinking fast and improvise when we do not have the desired equipment at hand. 

After all, I can say that we are now definitely more prepared to deal with the emergencies we can come across, which is extremely helpful for our volunteer work. I feel now more confident when I am responsible for the children in the school, since I have knowledge of what to do if they get hurt during any sports activity. 

2 Months of a Portuguese in Arad - TV and UTA

Big awareness, big challenges and big rewards.

From adapting to the language, trying to understand what people say, involve in the local community and with the volunteers, sharing a place with people that we never imagined to share, play with the children and adapt to local customs, etc.

All big challenges that in the end will make us stronger.

So far, so good and it stills can get better. Romania is more and more understandable despite of speaking might not be one of my biggest strenghts due to the lack of vocabulary and some misunderstandings of the "rules" of the Romanian way of speaking. 

Local community and children, it is quite possible the integration. Of course the language gap might lead to some misunderstandings but with the basic, will and gestures, everything might be possible. I have appeared on local TV (TV ARAD), also in a video of the UTA ARAD facebook (the main local football team!), the kids try to understand my romanian and what I pretend of them...so step by step and things are getting done!

UTA ARAD VS Chindia Târgoviște - VIDEO OF THE PARTY

What can I give as an example of success from gestures and lack of Romanian Language?

Entering into a store looking and trying to find out some halloween customs. The store only had Masks. So I asked "pe halloween?", and she replied "Masks". Ok, then I said Halloween customs and started to move on my jacket and pants, and she replied "Haine" (that means clothes in Romanian). After that, she told that she didn't had but gave me a card and the coordinates to the place (asa, aici, acolo, la stunga, la dreapta, da, multumesc, cu placere).

Step by step things are figuring out. Matter of time of "almost  full" adaptation.

Spanish classroom and Art Conferences.

Hello everyone!

We are Ana and Daniel, and we want to explain you some reasons because we decided to do the Spanish Clasroom and the art conferences in the school of art of Arad.

Daniel and me decided to do more things for the Arad society. For that reason we asked in that place for interact and teach art knowledge for the teenagers because we studied history of art at the University of Madrid.We will teach Spanish in Monday and Wednesday since 3 until 4.30 p.m. The Art Conferences will be until June twice per month. We are preparing s blog to share more information about art and about the conferences and our schedule. They will be in Thursday since 2 until 3.30 p.m.

With our work in the school of art we want to teach what I learned in our degree. We want to share and interact with that future artists. We want to make the potential of these future artists and be an example to follow the path of the humanities. It is the way of personal and social learning, the way teaches you to be a person, become interested in what's around you.