And after the calm, here comes the storm…

Something changed this week. The previous week were more or less relaxed: we had the Summit, we started to go to some schools, we organised activities, etc. But this week was an explossion of work. Somedays I had no time even to think. We were going to one or two schools the last weeks but this week we had to go to four different classes, each one very diferent (since hungarian 6 years old kids till almost adult teenagers in cavnic), so we have to plan the activities, prepare the matherial, go to the schools, feedback, etc. In adittion we are organising another events like The bloody friday, the non violence day, a flashmob for the voluntary day. As well we have to go to romanian lessons, mentoship, meetings, etc. And of course write in the blog weekly…

Does it sound stressfull? Of course it is (someone said that the “S” in EVS means slave?). I have to say that I am a person very easy to get stressed so that extreme change affected me a lot. Of course I am not here just for party and fun ( I think I proved that, because I am very responsible) and of course I have to adapt to this new rythm of work, but this day I felt I have no life apart from the association. And I think that been a volunteer is more than that, and I have to plan have some life apart from work because I feel my life now is anything but balance.

But well, I also want to be positive so I will tell you a little about the kids and how is it going. First of all I have to say that each class is different world. Of course you have different aproches when you are working with 6 years old kid that don’t speak english (not even romanian) or if you are working with 16-18 years old teenagers. But even with that, some activities that you planned for an specific kind of kids maybe cannot work with another class on the same age. So what should we do? Be flexible and let it flow. Try to learn each time. And I have to say that work with children is very grateful. Maybe while you are working with them you are feeling they don´t care or they are bored but at the end of the activity they are shaking hands with you, doing high-fives, looking at you with a smile in their faces, asking where are you coming again and even giving us cake from their own food for the break. So even if you feel you are not controling the situation at all, I think they apreciate that you are there dedicating time to them, doing something different from what they use to to in a school, they appreciate to meet new people from other countries than came to Romania to help and ask us a lot of things about our culture, our languegens even our lives. Maybe this enchantment will not last too much and when we know each other better that curiosity will vanish, but it’s a good starting point to build a relationship or at least they are receptive. And that calm me down a lot.

As I already said I am a person very easy to stressed, even to feel beeing forced to write weekly in this blog instead of when I feel like to do it (and even when I am not doing it that well) stress me. I complicated beeing me, but maybe you can star to understand xD. So imagine what is for me to put myself in front of a new class to do a new activity. But I am discovering that I feel more confortable than what I thought at the beginning. For me is even more stressful to plan the activities, to think of what they maybe need or want, to find entartaining and educational things to do with them, etc. Besides I enjoy to plan them I am worried all the time about if that is going to work right with the kids or if we block, or if everybody is agree with what we are doing and so on. But I don’t know how, I swear, when I am aready in the class I can forget all these worries and anxiety or at least hide it and fake and energetic and positive appearence in order to go on with the activity. And it comes more natural than I it suposed to be (maybe my little training as an actor? Or just the life?). But definetly I am happy this is working to me. When we finish an activity I don’t think about the mistakes (just if we can learn from them), I just feel proud, even when we didn’t do that well. And maybe you, my dear audience, noticed that this is exactly what I described in the first post of this blog about how I work and how I relate with the art. So maybe I am not how I think I am, maybe I am more complex that I imagined myself in my previous life and maybe I am here to dicover it and maybe the work with the children is good way to do it…

Right?