Posts Tagged ‘experiences’

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Kärt Koosapoeg, Estonia

The date then was the 12th of April. An important religious day celebrating the rising of the dead. Our goal for that day was to experience it according to the local Moldovan traditions. Weeks before we were told that all the people will leave the comfort of their homes and city surroundings to take some time off and head to the graveyard to meet with their dead grandparents and the weirdest part suggesting that people eat with the dead. Of course we were curious, who wouldn’t be?

We got an invitation from a volunteer we had met a short while back to join him for this holiday in a city called Comrat. Our host was waiting us already in the graveyard when we arrived in the middle of the city. At first we feared of getting lost, but after arriving we noticed that a lot of people with food were moving in one direction, so of course using our logic we started following people with food supplies and in no time soon we arrived to a big blue church. There were two big tables simply covered with abundant food and drinks and a priest went around putting holy water on food. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Ronja Wӧstheinrich, Germany

It’s incredible how fast time can pass by. Especially when you are doing something as great and exciting as an EVS in Moldova. So when I got the invitation to my mid-term training I couldn’t believe that I am already halfway through my stay here. But it is true and thus I took part in the mid-term training in May in Lalova, Moldova. During these three days we talked a lot about our so far experiences, problems we had encountered, our learning process, goals for the second half of our stay and even plans for the time after the EVS. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Helene Thau Jackson, Denmark

Raindrops were landing on my head as we stood surrounded by a sea of achievements, wrapped in blue plastic bags. We had been through sweat, blood, and tears, walking the paths of mud and garbage and now, finally, we could see the result of our hard work. In front of us stood around 50 plastic bags filled with all the trash you could imagine; clothes, cups, condoms, car parts, bottles, bags, bones, diapers, gadgets, shoes, tin, toys, toothpaste and I could go on.

We were around 30 volunteers who had faced the rain and decided to clean up Riscani, the north part of Chisinau. Not only us, but all over the city, few brave people had defied the bad weather to clean up the capital. “Cleaning up Chisinau” was initiated by ADVIT in cooperation with Art Labyrinth, AVI and Youth Generation and was set up not only to clean the parks in Chisinau, but also to create awareness of environmental issues in Moldova. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: Ingrid van der Heijden, The Netherlands

“Bine at venit!” echoed though the Charity Centre for Refugees in Chisinau on the 8th of May 2010. The sign to start the day was given and “Ziua copiilor” (Children’s Day) had officially started. After a short presentation of the day, given by Alf and Chris, two international volunteers, the 141 exited children could start to discover what was waiting for them. Some of them knew immediately were they wanted to go to, while others looked doubtfully around for a few minutes before they made a decision where to start.

Only a little later all the children managed to make a decision between activities such as football, making bracelets, twister, limbo dancing, face painting, making windmills, origami, dance workshops, juggling and the big bouncy castle. Between all these activities there was special guest “Clown Jozef” walking around, ready to make the most amazing figures out of balloons for the children. “Ziua Copiilor” was initiated and organized by four EVS volunteers hosted by ADVIT Moldova. The activities were prepared and carried out by the 25 of ADVIT’s international volunteers. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Maxie Riemenschneider, Germany.

I started my EVS in Chisinau, Moldova in September 2009. At this time, my only hosting project was an “Animation Centre for Children and Youth”. The first month there were ok, not always easy (as I had to get used to the mentality at first), but always interesting. After a while the feeling that I also want to do something else as just working with children grow in me. At the same time, I got more and more concerned about the Moldovan stray dog problem. A dead dog is lying on the sidewalk for more than 2 weeks and nobody cleans it, on a walk to home at night dogs are following me with the hope to get some food or just some minutes of affection, while another dog is dying just right in front of me on a poisoned peace of food.

Reasons enough to search for an organization which work with dogs, and try to help these, in my eyes, wonderful animals. With the support of Marina, one of the ADVIT-angels, I found the dog shelter “Casa Katharina”, situated outside of Chisinau, based on and financed from a German organization. Already on my first visit there, I completely fell in love with this place. You enter the gate and immediately 120 dogs start to bark, run to you, jump up on you and try to catch your attention. Right away it was clear: This is meant to be my second EVS Project! Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Hannah Rees, United Kingdom

After a day of travelling I sighed a breath of relief as I met my mentor at Chisinau airport. We jumped into a taxi, not a seatbelt in sight, and one of my very first impressions of Moldova was the roads, or in places the lack of. Pot holes were swerved round on the lane-less roads as we drove up the wide highway and entered the capital through the ‘Gates of Chisinau’; two vast apartment blocks on either side of the road reminiscent of the USSR era. Yet, these were exactly the stereotypes of Moldova that I had heard back home; poor infrastructure and vast concrete blocks left behind from the Soviet times.

However, I was soon to discover that Chisinau, and Moldova as a whole, has far more to offer than what fits into these stereotypes. One of my favourite things about the city is its greenness. Vast parks are found in every district and tall trees line the majority of the streets. Another favourite is all the markets selling fresh produce from the countryside, second-hand clothes at bargain prices and flowers in all the colours under the sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Ganziantep Training and Youth Association is an EVS hosting organization in Turkey. On their website you can read comments from volunteers about their EVS experiences. For example about the experiences of Johanna Smit (20) from Germany, who worked with and for children in various associations like nurseries or centres for young people with disadvantaged backgrounds or difficulties in their daily life. She gave English lessons and organized leisure activities such as excursions and games. At the end of her EVS project she wrote this letter to the children.

Johanna: ‘My project can be described as 8 months full of joy, feelings, friendship, activities, adventures, tears, experience AND baklava. One of the best things about the association was that we had the possibility to meet lots of new people from different countries. Now I have friends all over the world.’ Are you curious to other EVS experiences in Ganziantep? Please visit their website.

Abbas Zahidi (24) from Azerbaijan went in March 2008 to Romania to work as an EVS volunteer with Roma people and disabled children. Below you can read about his experiences during his 9 months abroad: ‘EVS experience was definitely one of the best experiences in my life!’

‘First of all, I would like to notice, that the project where I have participated was the biggest one in Romania and one of the biggest in Europe. We had 52 volunteers from 18 countries. It meant, we had chance to discover many-many cultures.’ Read the rest of this entry »

The International Exchange & Experience 2010 competition presents the top 100 blogs on living abroad! The blogs are written by people from all over the world living, learning, exploring and experiencing a foreign country. Curious? Please click the button below to check out the blog top 100.

As you could read in the category ‘In the spotlight’ doing your EVS in Moldova is quite an experience. Below you can read the reports from 5 EVS volunteers about their experiences in Moldova:

Wiebke Alina Knäpper:
‘Doing my EVS in Moldova I’m facing many new challenges, so I can always learn something new – Using the marshrutka, working together with NGOs etc. Moreover I enjoy to get more and more independent in mobility and in using Russian language. At the beginning we had nothing to do and I had doubts if I will find a place for me, but now we had an on arrival training and I started to work. Our project allowed us to live first in Komrat than in Chisinau, so we could see the contrast between more rural Gagausia. While people in Komrat produce homemade wine, honey and kompot, people in Chisinau have a more urban lifestyle. We have much opportunities to choose our working field according to our interests and skills. Soon each of us will decide in which organization he wants to engage.’

Read the rest of this entry »