Inclusion Ambassadors

long-term EVS project organized by Egyesek Youth Association. Szécsény, Hungary February-November, 2015

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It happens not that often, but when it happens - Egyesek people know how to party. Last Saturday we spent giving 100% on the dance floor of Earthdance Party, which aims to create peace and harmony through the whole world with a synchronized series of events in many points of the Earth!  This year organizers of this event support different NGOs and Egyesek is among them. But before we’ve got there, we spontaneously did some unusual promo event.

To be more concrete, we made a rain. Yes, it was raining hard with Egyesek flyers just above the huge queue to the theater. It happened, that our apartment was just next to the theater. And accidentally or not that night was also the night of theaters in Budapest with no entrance fee. So, of course, we just couldn’t miss the opportunity, grab our flyers and started to throw it from the high of our balcony to the street, which was full of bored people waiting and waiting for theater finally opens the door. And it was really nice to experience the good vibes from those people and even get applause :)

After such a great warming up we were ready for the real paaaaarty!

Photos are borowed from goa.hu

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As we said before, now all EVSers working on their own projects. Nagylóc turned to be one of the most popular locations - 3 projects will took place there. 

The main topic of Antonia’s project - fairytales from all around the world and diferent activities based on them. Soňa with her energy and imagination prefers to focus on outside games for children. Marion from France, our new volunteer goes for recycling. All days long she is practicing in making useful objects from used materials so later she can pass her knowledge to the future generations.

So, recently we visited Nagylóc to make little promotion - to put posters and inform school that very soon tanoda will be open again. We met children next to the school and it was very nice to see that they recognise us, remeber our names, they ask about other volunteers and when tanoda will be open again. So we decided not to wait next week and spontaneously made small play session. 

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First days of September finally gather all EVSers together. Some of us were traveling around Europe, some visited family and friends, some were getting new experience in different kind of trainings. We said good bye to our volunteers Chris and Andre, who went home to start their studies and welcome Marion from France. 

It is time to come back to our work, and we spent 3 days in lovely house in the small calm village to share our best moments from summer, to recharge, to plan, to get some useful inputs and prepare ourselves for the next 3 months. We completely change the format of our work. Now all of us working on our personal projects, where we can realize own ideas and ambitions, develop it in a way we want. We’ve got a lot of freedom but also much more responsibilities. Sound challenging, isn’t it? 

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Here’s a slight insight into very final preparations for Avatars of Nógrád International Voluntary Camp ;) The team is getting all fit (yes, you wouldn’t say by the video and everyone being attached to their laptops, but literally - we exercise and even run around the house in the mornings) and excited to welcome the participants! 2 DAYS LEFT.

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Today was our last day in Endrefalva before Summer Holiday. Thank you all for your energy and the fun time that we spent with you during these months! Have a wonderful holiday and see you either during the Summer Camp activities in June-July or once the school starts again in Autumn! Köszönöm szépen! ;)

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Two weeks left until Common Vision, Different Action - media and communication training! Less than a month until Avatars of Nógrád International Voluntary Camp! The season of trainings hosted by Egyesek is almost on!

All these take place in Creative Space Training Center in Hollókő, a picturesque village about 15 km from our hometown Szécsény. So this is the place where we have lately spent all of our mornings and afternoons, giving our best to fully prepare the site for the busy season. And it’s not only us who have been involved in this thorough Spring Cleaning. Two weeks ago Egyesek also held an Activity Day, open for all the local youngsters - and there will be another one on upcoming Saturday!

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As promised in the last post, we now wish to reveal the main secret of surviving when sharing a flat with almost 10 volunteers! Never leave your dirty dishes around the house? Wake up earlier to avoid a line behind the bathroom door? Try not using the washing machine at 2 am? Immediately offer chocolate to everyone you are about to have a disagreement? ... To tell you the truth, it’s way more simple than that. To survive sharing the flat together, simply leave it

& spend some quality time together outside the flat. Sunday’s walking trip to Robinson Lake or a picnic with locals at the beautiful park in Szécsény doesn’t only help us to survive living together, but also makes it enjoyable :)

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Thoughts on wandering around

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list. Yes, here we make lists of where (everywhere!) we want to go, we plan, we discuss, we search - and, we go!

One of the advantages of doing EVS in Hungary is that we are kind of in the center of Europe here, you know. That’s why we try to use every possibility to leave our pretty, yet small Szécsény for some days and discover other places, too. Mostly we travel separatedly because - believe it or not - at times we also need a rest from each other ;) (As you probably know there’s 9 of us living together here! More details on how we are still alive will come soon). So some of us already visited Bratislava, Vienna, Krakow, Warsaw. And, of course, we often spend weekends in  Budapest – our common love, the place to go when we are hungry for big city life.

Waiting for girls getting ready to go out can be sometimes pretty demanding

We also give our best to discover Hungarian reality, so far visiting such towns as Balassagyarmat, Salgótarján and Eger.

Eger vs Salgótarján, betonváros

One of our inevitable rituals is Slovakia check-in, ‘cause from Balassagyarmat it takes only a few minutes to cross the border. Last weekend, however, we proved to be even braver than that and went further, spending a whole Sunday in a Slovakian town Lučenec.

“Let’s go Slovakia!” as our Andre would say

Sunday’s trip to Lučenec

One more thing worth to mention (not to say: worship!) is Couchsurfing – probably one of the best ways to travel, meet new people and truly experience local lifestyle while staying in another country. So by now almost all of us have profiles there :)

Next popular destinations among all of us are Prague and Zagreb. So be prepared for some pictures from those places soon ;)

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Hereby we bring you some nice weather and good energy from Endrefalva!

Yesterday we found out the fastest and strongest of us. You might be surprised of the results! Girls’ team won boys and not only once! ;)

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Last week in Nagylóc we had the most amazing time playing the pirate game! Children were pirates and their mission was to collect the treasure, find the english words to name their treasure with the help of the wizard, and of course, try to avoid the dangerous sharks on their way!!

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Greetings from Endrefalva! ;)

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This week Egyesek Infopoint team tried their hand at video production :) Yeah! 3 cameras + 8 high school students + 2 EVS volunteers and, of course Marietta, our coordinator = a lot of smiles and funny moments! 

After shooting session - a little bit of video editing - and it’s almost ready. Wait for it and you will get to know why you should come to Egyesek InfoPoint and what you can do there :)

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It is Tuesday today! And so what, you ask? For those who have been following our blog for some time now, it should be an easy one to guess ;) Tuesday means...

...another fun activity day in Endrefalva!

And we were happy to find out that this time Tuesday also meant a lovely greeting card from our local friends there (hint: see last picture). Thanks, guys! We put it on the wall of other important messages in our home, in Szécsény :)

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Here we are! At Egyesek InfoPoint we actively continue to break the language barrier! Last time - no videos, just real conversation - in the circle, face to face - no chance to escape:) To make it less stressful and more fun we played our several beloved games. Lady Gaga, Mickey Mouse,Jesus Christ - they all were among us! Finish our meeting we decided (no, not with crazy disco, as you probably thought looking at the photos) but with the pantomime game. First some easy words for warming up and then - try to be an earthquake, traffic police or even the cross on the top of the mountain:)

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Time to share some emotions ;)

Can you guess why it’s completely impossible for at least three of us to be sad or bored on Tuesdays? But of course, because we are always happy and excited to meet our friends in Endrefalva!

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This week in Nagylóc we learned the colours through several games!! See how much fun we had with the kids :)

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Happy Easter to everyone from Nagylóc-group! In our “Szivárvány” tanoda last Thursday, we had Easter activities, in which the children painted, played, created, but also learned some English Easter words such as chicken, rabbit etc. As you can see, we had a lot of fun :) :)