Active Women Assosiation – European Volunteers in Poland

Liberty in education

Cześć!

I am Kubra and I am from Turkey. I have been an ESC volunteer at Bullerbyn Free Democratic School for a couple of months. This type of education seemed very different to me at first because It was my first time experiencing non-conventional education on-site , although I had some idea about alternative educational methods before.

Education takes place in three different places at Bullerbyn and on a regular day within the first three days, students and tutors have a meeting session, which, they greet each other and talk about how they feel. Afterwards, they make their daily plans and choose which type of activity they would like to take part in other days. If they need to decide on something among many options, the option adopted by the majority of them is added into the program. It does not matter if the decision belongs to a student or a tutor because these kinds of democratic schools are known to have the least amount of hierarchy, so, an opinion of a student is equally important as an opinion of a tutor.

Every Tuesday I have a Turkish language session. At those sessions, I introduce my language and talk about general expressions used in daily life. Students interested in my language teach me the equivalent expressions in Polish and this makes our learning more mutual and productive.

On Thursdays, we usually go to cultural activities like visiting museums or art places. Students and tutors are divided into two groups, juniors and older students and each group visits a different place.

At the last day of a week, some sport activities like swimming, ice skating or hangar are chosen to participate. Students prefer any of them based on their interests and a regular week at Bullerbyn comes to end.

Kubra from Turkey, a European Solidarity Corps Volunteer at Bullerbyn Democratic School in Warsaw

This project is co-founded by European Solidarity Corps

#EUSolidarityCorps #ActiveWomenAssociation

Ayshan in Poland

When I opened my laptop to start writing, then I realized it is the end. But a beginning of new adventures. When I first stepped into Poland, I felt a bit nervous for sure. But then I met with other volunteers in my first week. They helped me a lot in every way. Then my coordinator, Monika, from AWA made me feel less stressed. She helped me a lot along the way. On this photo you see volunteers visiting my school in a festival day.

Then I came to Tychy which a lot of people said oh it is not a good city, I hope you won’t get bored and stuff. But I absolutely loved Tychy. Such a quite, my taste city. I love nature. I am not saying it as it is not important. Nature is a big part of our lives. I was glad to be here. I met lots of great people such my neighbors. With my broken Polish, they understood me very well and we got communication amongst us going on. I will miss them as well.

Right down on this photo girls at school drew my day of look. I was super happy as you can see. Kids taught me a lot of new things starting from emotions.

Now, let me talk about my first day at Wolna Szkola Dzika. They welcomed me with a big ceremony and hug. Everybody gave me a hug. Kids were amazing. They got used to me so easily. My tutor, Ola, was a total helper and a great friend. I learned a lot from her, I spent my great time with her. About other teachers at school. They were great as they are.

I need to add a part about parents at our school. We were glad that they were open to meet up, have fun together. We were playing games or tasting local food in a restaurant. On this photo at the following, we were invited to one of parents’ house. We had such a great time together. Having a chat, eating, playing. Right after this moment, we spent time in a lake swimming. Yes, we were winter swimming. That was my first time, however it was worth everything. I am glad I had this experience.

Thank you for making me feel like home. Everybody I know here. I am leaving gladly with great moments.

Organization skills level up ;)

During this year I managed my activities regarding to my work and my free time in a calendar that I made in Excel and I kept updated in Google Drive. This calendar has been very useful mostly when I needed to plan new activities for the future and see how I can manage all of them.

I also have improved my skills in managing my expenses and income. To do this, I created a table in Excel where I have been including all the expenses and income to make a record of what I spend the most on and what I spend the least on. It is very useful to see the overalls and think about what you are doing in excess comparing to other activities where money is involved.

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko.

This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

Local Polish people and I

During this year I have had the opportunity to meet part of the Polish local people of Sokolowsko, either young and older people. There are two types of locals, people from Sokolowsko and people who moved to Sokolowsko in the past 10 years. Regarding this, as being involved in social and cultural activities with both groups of people, it was very interesting to know their different points of view about Sokolowsko, the reasons of living here, the ways of living, their local discussions about the fact of that Sokolowsko is getting popular and more external activities are taking place here, so also how these activities are influencing the village and the surroundings. This fact is called gentifrication.

On the other hand, it was also very interesting to spend the Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Sokolowsko, so I was able to experience it with only Polish people and following their traditions. I also enjoyed a lot to have international dinners and showing my cooking skills to the Polish people, so we could exchange our knowledge from our different cultures and gastronomy.

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko.

This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

My work and my achievements

I have been involved in four festivals: Kulturalna Czerwcówka w Sokołowsku (3-6/06/21), Hommage à Kieslowski (27/6/21 – 28/8/21), Konteksty Sokołowsko (29/7/21 – 1/8/21) and Sanatorium of Sound (13-15/8/21). During these festivals, I was working mainly as a Sound Technician and a lot of physical work too related to the preparation of the festivals.

In the first festival, I was working as a sound technician and team leader of the volunteers, so the producer and the head technician were in close contact with me and I had to manage the time efficiently, to take decision and solve any problem quickly from the beginning till the end of each day.

On the other hand, the other volunteers and I have been working as a team on the creation of a digital map of Sokolowsko. Each of us had different tasks and ideas. We were interviewing local people asking about their stories, their past in this village, taking pictures about architecture details, ruins and historical buildings. During this project I recorded soundscapes in speceific places in Sokolowsko, to be uploaded in the digital map. I was very interesting to excercise active listening in different spots of the area and at the same time the work of storing and cataloguing all the sound recordings.

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko.

This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

Kania (mushroom) – 5th time I try to post in this blog and it’s not working properly :/

My hobbies

Good morning, it’s Andrés again. I am passionated about sound and music, so during this year I spent part of my free time on learning new things like how to use a Dj controller, and also one of my hobbies is about field recording (soundscapes), so I have been recording soundscapes of different locations in Sokolowsko and other places in Poland, I like to catalog them and save them in my computer, so I will be able to use them in the future for things related to sound art, sounds libraries for music production or sound design, or just uploading them on the cloud on sound maps like radio aporee (have a look a it, it’s very interesting ).

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko.

This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

Andrés in Kulturalna Czerwcówka w Sokołowsku (3-6/06/21)

Hi! It’s Andrés, the sound guy in Sokolowsko. So, we have had a great festival in June and the other volunteers and I have been working a lot, really, a lot, but it was really nice. I was one of the two sound technicians for the events, the head sound engineer and me as a volunteer, and I have had to lead part of the team of the volunteers because we have had to work all together and in different spots of the town at the same time. So much work but worth it. I felt a healthy stress that it was even addictive, made new friends and contacts, musicians and people related to my work. Next time I will manage to get a better work conditions before the festival, something new that I have learnt too.

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko.

This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

JamSessions in Sokolowsko

Hi, it’s Andrés. I want to share that I’m feeling very glad to meet Polish people who are into music so we can play music together!! Jamsessions in front of a bonfire, in the flat, in the forest, in the pub… An amazing thing is that when we are playing we all are “listening and speaking” to each other with the language of music, so there are no language borders here ^^ singing, dancing, playing whatever you decide that becomes an instrument… It’s really nice. Thanks 🙂

Andrés, from Spain, volunteer of European Solidarity Corps in In Situ Foundation in Sokolowsko. This project is co-funded by European Solidarity Corps.

RETROSPECTIVE

As time passes so fast is difficult to sketch and recover every feeling, good moment and good days with the new friends i made but afterwards u just can have an atmosphere of bright and warm light about all these days and all the trips and experiences.

I just can be thankful to this project, the association, the school and of course everybody i have spent time with and travel with to know and discover this wonderful country of mountains and beach, trees and dessert ( near Olkusz 🤣) and light and clouds!

I could enjoy and develop my taste in arquitecture due to the amazing buildings around Poland from Krakow to Wrocław and the skyscrapers in Warsaw. Linked to this I could develop too my passion for photography shooting in downtown not even abandoned buildings in Katowice. Plenty of aesthetics, in buildings, uptown, forests, lakes and structures.

I enjoyed and experienced Christmas and Easter in this country and get soaked in the local culture and traditions in each context, visiting museum, traditional coffee shops and tea places! and of course enjoy the big amount of different beers and the good quality of them.

Thanks to all of them who helped me and all of them who i could learn of, and to the Solidarity Corps for bringing me chance of learn, discover and enjoy so much! ♥️🇵🇱