Mirakolix » Voluntari

Veronica – Spania (Catalonia)

alexandra — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 09:28:25 +0000

Vero. 26 years old. Spain.

Although I was born in Barcelona, I feel a citizen of the world, perhaps because I have been living also in Belgium and China. I did an Erasmus programme in Antwerpen, Belgium for a semester, and an intensive 3-weeks English course in Dublin. I have also been living and working in China for almost 2 years, where I started to host a weekly CouchSurfing meeting with two friends, and where I met people from different countries and cultures.

I was monitor in a scout group for 4 years and a half, with children and teenagers from 5 to 16 years old, dynamising activities with educational background.

I consider myself a pro-active and responsible person, eager to learn and to help in everything I can, who enjoys working in an international and multicultural environment. My philosophy consist on trying to change the world and leave it better than how we found it.

I love travelling, hiking, reading, meeting people from different countries and discovering different cultures.

Thomas van Uden – Olanda

alexandra — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 08:00:50 +0000

I lived on Strada Maior Cranta, Brasov, in the Mirakolix volunteers home on the 4^th floor.

My name is Thomas, I am 27 years old.

In the morning after brushing my teeth, checking my mail and playing some online chess, I refrain from having a breakfast because I seldom feel hungry in the morning.

In the shower I use a deep pore cleanser lotion and a honey almond body scrub. On the rare occasions I do shave my beard, I use a after shave lotion with little or no alcohol because alcohol dries the skin and makes you look older.

While I prepare the rest of my routine I listen to music, “Stabat Mater” by Pergolesi and parts of the “Mattheus Passion” by Bach are among my favorites.

Ideally after that I would cycle to work and enjoy the hot Romanian sun.

My passions are about:

- Cycling

- Music

- Literature

- History

- Chess

Maija Skripste – Letonia

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 11:25:39 +0000

If there is one thing that EVS has taught me for sure, it’s that you maybe can be so proud to think that you haven’t set any expectations for yourself, but you will soon learn that it’s impossible. And what do you do when you don’t get what you expected? Well, you either cry for something else… or you take it as it comes. I think now that I was not so smart in the beginning to take it as it comes and I felt sometimes that I’m being blocked, slowed down, that things are not happening as fast as I would like. Also, living together with seven more people felt like I have left my family for 11 months just to get instead even bigger and more unbareable version of it. Some days when I had a feeling that the activities were not carried out so well, I asked myself why I decided to take a year off from university… But then there were those days when everything went better that I had expected and I felt like I can do whatever in this life and be successful with it and that doing EVS is totally worth it! Well, to keep it short, EVS is like life with it’s ups and downs.. It only takes place somewhere else.

Sounds depressive? No, it’s not. EVS gave me an opportunity to work with youngsters and I discovered that I like it. I had work in office and I had work with people, and I discovered that I like it. It gave me opportunity to hike in mountains and travel around, and I discovered that I like it. It also gave me opportunity to learn a bit of new language, and I like that one as well.

Daniel Hofmann – Germania

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:40:38 +0000

The European voluntary service has been a great experience for me and I am very happy about the decision to come to Romania and discover this to me unknown country. We started with settling and getting comfortable in our new home, new to all of us international volunteers. Discovering Brasov and its surroundings already made me aware of the impressing beauty of the place where we were going to spend the next 11 months. I quickly realized that I enjoy living together with the other volunteers, sharing consciously and unconsciously our cultures, languages and personalities. This made it much easier to find my place here in a new country and environment, far away from family, friends or everyday life in Germany. Soon, we started to also get to know our project environment, a smaller town called Intorsura Buzaului near Brasov. Working here with teenagers and children of different age groups taught me a lot of flexibility and an open attitude. It was great for me to discover differences and similarities between the people and conditions in a big city like Brasov compared to a remote town. I got the feeling to really grasp life reality in my host country with its many different facets. The time flew with our regular activities and when it got warmer and warmer and the days longer, it was time to think more about another aim that we as volunteers had set ourselves: to organize a summer festival with the name Ceva de Vara. This moment of working together with all 9 volunteers demanded a lot of structure and communication among each other but after the long preparation phase, we all could see the result, curious and happy people, giving our activities a go and experiencing a new kind of spending leisure time for them. With this in mind, I can happily prepare myself to leave after 11 incredibly eventful and perspective-changing months. I had the possibility to discover and experience situations which give me more self-confidence and plenty of new ideas for what there is to come in my future.

Grytine Twijnstra – Olanda

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:21:56 +0000

Different reasons made me chose for doing an EVS project. My study International Development was too broad, I wanted to discover in another way what I like to do, and I was eager to experience living abroad. These reasons led to one idea, to spend some time in another country while being useful, which came together in an EVS project. Eastern Europe had my preference and after different applications it turned out I would participate in a project of the organization Mirakolix in Braşov, Romania. I expected to dive into the unknown, to get to know a new country and new people, and to learn a lot about myself and others. I also expected to improve my English and organizational skills. Surely my expectations became true, and even more. I am really glad that I chose to do this
adventure, and it taught me a lot. I became more aware of myself and others and I know better know what I like to do. I also became more confident which gives me a lot of courage and energy for new ideas back in the Netherlands. Besides fulfilling most of my learning goals I met a lot of different people, heard various stories, did new things, experienced unknown places. The speed of discovering in a new country and surrounding is amazingly high, which is both confronting and inspiring. Even these difficult moments are part of the adventure, which makes you more mature.
In conclusion, beforehand I didn’t know how exactly the adventure would be, but I knew I was ready for it. I experienced this year with all my senses. I have been through difficult moments but mostly I really enjoyed my time here. This adventure led to a better awareness of myself and others, and I am grateful for this experience.

Egle Udraite – Lituania

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:05:33 +0000

The main reason for me to do volunteering was to live for a year in the other country. I was after my university studies, I felt, that it is the time to go to unknown country and face there whatever is going to be there. I thought – adventure is coming. And indeed, it had the full setting for adventure motion: completely new place for me– Romania, Brasov, about 2000 km away from my home-town; the hosting organizations – MIRAKOLIX, where our projects were completely open to contribute ideas; I had the feeling, for all 11 months, that I am so incredibly bad at remembering the names of new people… this feeling was because I was meeting new people almost every day.

Since, I came to Romania; I couldn’t stop wondering. Firstly, about the group of volunteers with whom I lived and worked. New fellows were from different countries, with various experiences to share and stories to tell. So that was already everyday learning process. Secondly, the big wondering was coming after traveling around Romania – it is so beautiful and diverse country. With its friendly people, various landscape, rich culture. Thirdly, the EVS opportunity itself let me to understand that there is a possibility to realize ideas that I have in mind and those ideas are worth to realize. Only if I really want it. Before I came here I was feeling aware about who I am and what do I want, but after experience in Romania, I have to admit, that I had to learn many things about my own way of being, how I see things, how do I work, how I react. To say things in 1 sentence, this year was fool of learning everyday about various topics, because that was very different surrounding from the one I was used before.

Remi Almodt – Germania

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 09:59:17 +0000

For me, the EVS was the perfect combination of contributing, with what I already know and learning new skills and putting them directly into practise. The whole year was an ongoing learning process, on a professional and a private level.
As I mentioned, I could share and gain knowledge on social/ youth work, improve my level in English language and learn a new language (Romanian). I had the chance to work with different target groups in different situations, which also taught me something on the social, interactive level. But also as a person, the EVS was an amazing opportunity. Coming to another country and live here for 11 months with a completely new surrounding and people lets you grow a lot. You have the chance to reflect and see the situation which you had before and might have after again in a
completely new way. The life in EVS gives you this opportunity and also the chance, to travel and see more than just the city where you are working. Also traveling and the ways how to travel were good teachers for me, to appreciate on the one hand the small things during each day and on the other hand, the situation I had and have in my home country. And in a third way, it also made me discover my passion and appreciation for Romania. I did youth work before but EVS helped me, to gain new creativity and approaches in the field of non-formal education and I am sure that the experiences made here will be useful for my future working process.
All in all I can say, that I am proud of myself, to have made the decision to come to Romania, work with Mirakolix, stay with the other 11 amazing people and discover a part of the world and things about myself.

Ina Rossmann – Germania

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 09:47:15 +0000

My decision to do EVS was determined by the wish to experience a restart in a strange country that I have little knowledge of and to work in a field inexperienced to me. It was a leap into the unknown – and what I found there exceeded all expectations.

Facing the challenges that come with living in a new place with strange culture, traditions and habits as well as the close contact with your work colleagues that also happen to be your flatmates stimulated my personal development strongly. I learned to embrace differences in culture, beliefs and opinions as they broaden my horizon and teach me tolerance.

My pool of experience gained great qualities from the honeymoon of the first two, three month where everything was shiny and fun as well as it did from the demotivating phase that followed after it. Suddenly I began to notice that work was not as enjoyable as I imagined it and first frictions with my colleagues appeared. It was encouraging to go through these times and to discover how lucky I consider myself with the people that surround my life here and the job I accomplish. My relationship with my colleagues and flatmates grew closer in that time and I learned to admire and appreciate them strongly. Also my coordinators are persons I emboss and look up to as they are the ones that taught me what it means to pursue a project with all the energy because they believe in it.

With these inspiring people at my side and a new world to be discovered, this year shaped my identity and the way I want to live my life fundamentally and permanently.

To put it briefly: EVS was like opting for the 3-star option but getting something that goes beyond the scope of all-inclusive.

Pierre Marquet – Franţa

Maria Gavaneci — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 09:28:56 +0000

EVS was a wonderful experience even if it was not my first experience in Romania and abroad. I left one more year my family and friends for a year of volunteering ! I arrived in Brasov, an unknown city for me. Very peaceful and beautiful town. After one month the winter was arleady coming, also something completely new, a harsch and white winter but fortunately the team was getting along togethet while we were learning to know each other. The beginning of 2015 was more difficult, two volunteers decided to quit, another follow two months later. But my project team is still complete and I had to experience lot of new things , they teached lot of stuffs about handcrafts objects, re-use old objects to make yourself new items. Then the spring and summer came finally, and the nice weather with. And with the solidarity between EVS volunteers and the generosity of romanians I discovered even more this country !

Simon Phelep – Franța

Project Playride — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 11:35:02 +0000

Hey!

My name is Simon and I´m from France. I´m a 20 years old volunteer in Mirakolix Brasov.

I chose to do an EVS because I didn´t know what to do…I made 2 years of University in Environmental protection, I also play music a lot and I really couldn´t choose. What is sure is that for 4 years I wanted to come to Romania because I´m a gypsy-music passionate.

This EVS is for me a godd opportunity to discover something else, working with children in an ONG in a foreign country but also a time to see what is important for me, to find what I want to do after by developing what I truly love MUSIC.

This experience in Romania provides me also time to explore the gypsy communitites and to understand and learn from them.

In every moment you can learn during an EVS, even the simplest thing: working and living with four other crazy volunteers, coming from other European countries, in the same flat and on the same project. For sure you will improve your English…but also your German, Czech, Lithuanian or even Dutch…

This is all for me, until next post!

Don´t forget: Keep MooOooving!