Stories by Participants: Beware the Jabberwock
ESC Team Volunteering (30 Oct.- 5 Dec. 2021) Terrassa, Spain
A Report by Stelios Patedakis
The journey begins!
At the very beginning we received gifts from LA Vibria (yeeey!). We introduced ourselves and met the team. We talked about the schedule of the project and got informed about logistics. It was also a time to start thinking about workshops that we will lead.
We played games for team building purposes and related them to real life situations. We continued to share and exchange ideas for our workshops. Also we split into three committees (Communication, Free Time, Materials) in order to distribute responsibilities among the group.
Today we were on television! Superstars vibe! 😀 We were participating in “gymkana”, exploring Terrassa and meeting wonderful people. We took the first step into Catalan culture. In the afternoon we made artistic projects about storytelling, historical memory and intergenerational dialogue.
We started our work with storytelling: today we worked with collages: we created human libraries and shared stories about our families histories. In the morning we had a video call with Anna Oromi, author of ‘100 años de un Alma ardiente’. Later we visited the La Vibria office and had a great lunch at the park. Afterwards we divided into teams and planned our main objective: meetings with elderly people. At the end of a day, some of us prepared national dishes for an international evening. We had a great time.
We took our breakfast and then we went to meet the elderly. We had an interesting conversation with them and learned about their lifes through storytelling. Afterwards we returned to the hostel and shared our experience with the other volunteers.
We had more free time for ourselves to explore the city and also meet and take advices from the people of Terrassa. After that we met again at the hostel and shared our thoughts and feelings with the others.
We prepared our questions and then we had the second session with the elderly of Terrassa. It was an interesting meeting and we learned more about their life stories. Afterwards we met at the hostel where we exchanged the stories and shared our feelings about this unique experience.
We met at Ateneu Candela early in the morning. There we met an actress and saw her perform a play about her grandmother. Afterwards we did some theatrical exercises with her and we also had the opportunity to do an act ourselves. Later we met with one of the place managers who explained us the activities and the actions that are taking place there. We met back at the hostel where we shared our feelings about the experience.
We have been in the resindents and we have met old people that were around 85-95 years old. There we exchanged life stories and they shared with us their feelings. Later, we met at La Vibria office and spoke about our experience and shared our feelings through the radio. We closed the day reflecting about the process of this week.
We have gone to Ateneu Cardenas. There we watched and participated in the workshops of three volunteers. At the beginning Noemi showed us the poetry slam and spoken word in different languages and after that we all tried to write a poem. In the second workshop Weronica shows us how to relax in front of the audience so that we can perform better. In the third workshop we work on a choreography with Anastasia. In the night we attended an open-mic event where some of the volunteers presented some of their work.
After breakfast we went to tub d’assaig where we met clown Jordi. After some introduction games we did some theatrical plays with various objects and we learned to use our imagination by using them in different ways. After that we improvised a theatrical play using only our bodies and expressions. Afterwards we met Carol which explained us how an association works and the activities they do. In the end we returned to the hostel we’re we had some time to reflect the things we learned and received the tasks for each committee.
We met Adria at the hostel in the morning. At the beginning, we started to communicate with the others using materials like paper or pens in a different way. Afterwards, we made a circle and the people inside tried to communicate by body contact. Last but not least we made theater by improvisation and we acted like objects or persons in a special scenery. We closed the day talking about our feelings about the experience we had.
In the morning we went to Barcelona. There we visited a park where we had a a walk. After that two of the volunteers presented their workshops. Katerina made us a presentation about emotions and after that we tried to connect the emotion that she randomly gave us with a mini-filming. Afterwards Jo made for us questions about how we feel about police and made us choose if we agree, disagree or neutral. In the end of the day La Vibria invited us to lunch in restaurant near the beach where we had a wonderful time.
We met in the morning at the hostel. In the beginning we were asked to do a gesture that describes our feelings about volunteering. After that one volunteer presented his workshop. Thomas made for us some communication games in which we had to communicate without some of our basic senses. He made us realize that we can communicate with multiple ways like sound and also understand how difficult this is for other people whose lacking a basic sense. Afterwards we had time to think about the previous week with the elders and think of a story to write. In the end we shared about our feelings and proposals we had this week and had a representation of what will do in the next.
We met in the morning at the hostel. In the beginning we talked about the poem of Carol. Afterwards we started talking about ideas for our performance.
We found the main concept of our performance based on the headlines everyone gave about the meetings with the elders.
We finished the discussion about our performance. We made the final touches and directed the videos. Also we had time to think about the materials that we will need.
We started practicing our performance. We were at the stage for the first time. We fixed the final issues with the help of La Vibria, Bea and Ares.
The day of our performance. We met after lunch at the place we had our performance. We met the others volunteers from Terrassa and showed our creation. Everything went perfect. We partied a lot after that😁😁😁
Our second performance took place at Roca residence. Older people from all the different residences came to watch us. Moments were unique and special and the audience was very nice. By the end of the performance we spent some time together dancing and chatting. We had our lunch there. Going back to the hostel we closed the day with Marion’s open space, a drawing workshop with watercolors.
Our morning was free and we had our last performance at the school downtown. We were flexible to make the performance suitable for the kids’ audience and the place taking place. Children laughed a lot, and we had some minutes after the show for their questions.
We spent the day at the hostel. We discussed some last logistic things and we brainstormed a lot about the book. We started chatting as a group and then we were separated into smaller groups.
Last day at the hostel began with Armel’s workshop of painting, making origami and collage. Our creations were gifts for the hostel where we lived on this amazing Journey. After Armel’s open space, we started the closing of the whole experience using dixit cards, writing and expressing our feedback/ feelings. Later, we organized our youth pass details and we closed the day with our personal goals about the future.
Our last day finally came. No one could realize what’s happening because we were very moved. We walked at the city center, we visited and thanked the municipality and we ended up at la vibria office making wishes to each other, expressing our experience and saying goodbye to the project. After all these things we ate lunch outdoors at a very nice restaurant. An unforgettable gathering followed at nighttime and this beautiful Journey came to an end…❤
-Stelios Patedakis
– Katerina Bardaki
