Creativity is the opposite of routine

Some people asked me¨ What am I doing in my EVS project? ¨ :)

So I decide to write an article about my work in a toy library ¨Spelotheek¨. Now I am painting a big logo  on the windows. In the beginning I thought that I will make it very fast but now I know that I will need more time.

I need to paint this train with wagons. The big copy of toy library logo. Pity that I can't use copy and paste like in my computer :) 

The photos can express more than letters, so enjoy !!!!!

  

Of course I don't finish yet but I will do that. Only 1 or 2 days more.:)  I hope so :))

Charity never fails

Today the weather brings horrible- high wind and strong rain. Brrrrr. But thanks to them I have a time to write a new article in my blog. The beginning of November was very busy.  Believe me! So many things that I needed to do and I did it and I am proud with myself. 

I participated and helped in “11.11.11.” action. This action focuses on the climate change this year because it is primarily the population in the south that goes through the hardest part of climate change. So I helped in annual breakfast - action  in Eversel and my day started at 6 o’clock in the morning. So early, early…Till 8 am we needed to make 520 breakfast packages. One package consisted of cheese, yoghurt, apple,  egg,  juice, jam, croissant, butter  and bread etc. All this to one person. Njam, njam! I also had one package. :)

From 8 till 10 am we needed to deliver packages  to people who ordered them before. We were divided into several groups. One group had about 50 packages.  The most interesting thing was that some people had forgotten that they ordered breakfast before and  I saw their surprised faces and expressions: ¨ Wow, this is for me, really?! ¨. Some people were just woken up. And you can imagine how people look in the morning in this situation - so funny!:)

I also didn't look very good so early woke up.

Also I helped in an art project "Article 27¨. The project refers to an article of the declaration of human rights "everybody has the right to enjoy art …". The project brought art of local artists and artists of other countries together. The theme for all artists was politics, revolution, crisis etc. One part of the earned money of selling paintings was donated for schools in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

¨Artikel 27¨exhibition place

 

 

The exhibition of arts took 20 days and 4 of them I helped in a cafe. My responsibilities were to service visitors. It wasn’t so easy, because my knowledge of Dutch language are not so good yet. On the first day it was the most difficult for me because of this reason and the people were so many. Anyway, other days were quite peaceful. On the last day I knew everything much better and  also the knowledge of language was better.

In the conclusion of the exhibition was Tango performance. It was very beautiful! 

 

¨ Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.° /Pablo Picasso/

Here you can see what I am doing in my free time. On every Friday and Saturday I am going to art academy  to make my art lessons. Since I started these lessons which is approximately 2 and half months ago, I have painted 3 paintings. 

Complete painting

My working place

My first painting with oil colors

My second painting

The teacher of art said that I have talent. No wonder 'cause for 4 years I was studying in  secondary school of art. So I already knew lot of things and techniques in painting. But anyway this was first time when I was painting with oil colors. It is something new but I like it a lot.:)

I know for sure that I will make more paintings here and I will continue to do it also after I will finish these lessons. Art is not a work, it is a passion.:)

Workshops in Turkish cultural center

This Wednesday I helped in Turkish cultural center or Turkish Selimiye Mosque and leaded a workshop for 8-12 year old children. 

Turkish culture center

In beginning my workshop wasn’t so popular and I had just 3 girls who wanted to make a necklaces from paper crumbs. But some minutes later girls came more and more and I had not a free place on a table. I had together about 8 or more participants. In one moment it looked like in chaos. Because everywhere was glue, glitters, paper balls…… And of course too many questions in one time and naturally I didn’t understand them completely because I learn Dutch just 2 months. But I had 3 girls - assistants who helped to translate and to organize. Thank you girls! Without you I couldn’t organized my workshop so good.

My workshop place

After break children needed to continue their workshop but they didn’t came back. I think they just enjoyed the time with parents and forgot about necklaces. I hope they enjoyed this workshop because I did it. That was so fun, fun…!  :) :)  

And of course I challenge my self and now I know that I can lead a workshops but before that I need to more practice and learn Dutch language because with my current knowledge’s is not enough.

Another workshop

 P.S. First time I ate a Turkish kebab. I don’t know way but I expected a more from that. It is something like hamburger but in Turkish version. And of course I tasted their tradition sweets and cakes - for me little bit to sweet. But I liked it. :)

To age-old gold. Tongeren’s antique market

Every Sunday morning in Tongeren is antique market which is the largest in the Benelux. Of course if you are real treasure hunter, you must get up early, but we ( I and my host family) came there before noon. We didn’t miss anything because our aim was to see this amazing market and Tongeren town.

This was something amazing! All these old pictures, paintings, furniture, masks, dishes, statuettes, toys, jewelry etc. Each object has it own history. Visiting this market, seeing history and atmosphere that was there – it feels like you coming back in 19 and 20 century.  

Do you want mask like this in your bedroom? :)

Every building even street has fascinating history because Tongeren is the oldest city in Belgium (Roman period). The city Centre has numerous of monuments and buildings that were built over the centuries. For me this city is amazing with its history. Only  that I can say –woooow!!!!!

Of course we went to the Marsh Gate but this day it was closed so we didn’t enjoy a beautiful panorama of the city centre but we saw it from outside. This building was made in 1379 and it looks very good even after such a long time. 

Marsh Gate

After antique market we went to Basilica of Our Lady. That kind of basilicas I saw in my art history book in secondary school. Now I understand way the Basilica is the most medieval relic in the province of Limburg. It looks amazing!!!  From the minute you make first step in this Basilica magic feeling takes over you. It is surprising that someone made this building – es ist fantastich!!!  All interior, statues are beautiful and miraculous. 

Basilica of Our Lady

 

We couldn’t see all interesting and tourist places in Tongeren ‘cause we didn’t have so much time to do that. I will go there again to see Gallo- Roman Museum which is the most popular tourist place. Tongeren, I will be back. :)

Never underestimate the power of a great story

Hi everybody, here I am, back after one month with some more new. This last month, my adaptation period, has been important for me. Normally, when you start to live in another country it‘s always hard at the beginning. New people, weather, another language, in fact, many things that are different if I have to compare with my home country. For myself, the adaptation was not so complicated or difficult. Because  Belgian and Latvian cultures- traditions and people  are similar. After two months here I feel that I am managing my life as I want to and that my period of adaptation is finished. Of course I still have to learn a lot of things about Belgian culture but everything will come with the time.

In this month I managed to do lot of things: 

• I was in “on arrival training” in Groot - Bijgaarden near Brussels. Together we were 30 people and we have an initiation seminar. In general those 5 days I spent with them were great, everybody was friendly and tried to get to know each other better.

   

There we presented our projects

Of course sport activities in free time :)

The activities were ok, sometimes we spent too much time just talking or doing something a bit boring, but other time we were doing really interesting things, especially when we had to do our own project. 

We went to Leuven and asked to people some questions about Belgian culture and we learned a lot of new facts and information. Gathering information from people is more interesting than reading brochures that consists only of facts that you can read in all information papers. And Leuven is very beautiful town. I hope that I will have a time to visit this town again.

Our group :) It was very fun trip

• In school ¨De Koepel¨ with children we had a puppet show and cake decoration event of sugar glaze. It was very funny not only for children but also for me. Also I was happy to do something relaxing and fun :) Because this was Halloween week all children were making pumpkins, bats, eyes, cats, mummies etc.   

That we made together. Looks very good :)

Afterwards we had to present puppets that we made. Smallest children were scared to speak in big audience and they forgot what they needed to tell. But they tried and at the end they said everything we talked about.  They were like heroes and they did it. Also I made puppet and I told about myself in Dutch language. It wasn’t so easy but every day I learn more and more.

It is me. Of course I also was scared to speak Dutch :)

That puppet I made myself :)

I did quite a lot of other things, for example, I had meetings about different projects, visited museums  and cinema in Hasselt or with my host family we went to the ¨Open  Door Day¨ in ¨Dingens¨  (they made barometers and clocks) and ¨Machiels Building solutions¨ companies (house building) etc. Believe me I was very busy all this EVS time to discover Belgium culture and amazing places. I forgot to tell you - I passed my language exam and I was the best in my group. Sometimes the time what you spent to learning it pays back in good way. Congrats for myself. :) 

Open Air Museum Bokrijk (21.09.)

This day I spent together with children from Heusden- Zolder. We had a trip to Bokrijk Open Air Museum. As we were a big group we slit in small groups. So our journey could start. But, first of all, a little bit about the museum. 

 

The domain of Bokrijk is some 550 ha large and consist of woods, gardens, farmland and ponds. Most of all, the Bokrijk Open Air Museum is known for its magnificent collection of old Flemish houses and farms. A large part of the Flemish countryside must have look like this around 1850. There are more than 100 historic buildings taken from locations all over Belgium and restored to their original condition piece by numbered piece there in the park. The buildings are open to the public with original furniture, tools and authentic household goods inside and even better, often in use. You can walk through the entire park and admire the cottages and farms of the different Flemish provinces: East and West Flanders, The Campine region, Brabant, and of course Limburg.

The living room

You can imagine how it is to go in tour with together with children. One moment they are with you, another – you can’t find them. :) They are running around with such an enthusiasm and joy. More than that – in this museum there are lot of attractions especially for children – archery, karaoke, etc. And of course, they want to try completely everything. 

Archery and karaoke

About me, I really liked nature, buildings and botanical gardens. This place was amazing. Is  for sure that I will visit this place again. :)

After the museum we went to Flanders' largest open air playground. I suppose that children were waiting for this moment all day. I was surprised about their fearlessness and energy to try all attractions, by the way, also the biggest ones. I was too scared to try them. 

Today I spent the day with the lovely 6 children, wandering  through Belgian time and space. It was amazing. Thank you Brigitte for taking me there, I loved it. And Lotte, you are amazing and beautiful girl. But it is impossible to learn English language in one day.

All group together

First impressions and arrival

Hello everybody!

My name is Evita as you can imagine I am the new volunteer in Gemeente Heusden- Zolder. I am 25 years old and come from Latvia (Northern Europe). I arrived in Brussels 1 week ago and since that moment I realized that lot of thing will happen in my life.

The first day was strange for me, I was getting use to live in a new city and country. Besides that was my first flight so in the same time I was excited and scared. But when I met my host family I understood that  everything will be all right. 

Also I had a trip by bicycle with my host family. Then I was surprised how many people in Belgium use the bicycles. They were everywhere. Only   bicycles, bicycles and bicycles...

I saw a beautiful Meylandt castle (art academy) and fountains. I hope that I will have there painting lessons.:)

The next day I and my host family went to art and cultural event.(Please don't ask me the name of this event. I don't remember). But there you can saw  national dances. and a lot of art objects ( paintings, woodcuts, handcrafts etc.) This day was amazing because I knew a small part of  Belgian culture. 

During my first day in Gemeente Heusden -Zolder I met everybody, but I had an  important problem with my memory  because  I need to remember so many names. Also I had  meetings with important peoples who explained me how works department. Here in the department everybody is nice, very friendly and  helpful.  All week I had meetings with people and doing the urgent things. Big thanks to my mentor Veronique who helped  me so much this week. Also, after work I was discovering the city, new places, people…

Next week I will start my dutch language lessons a new part of my EVS starts too. You will have news from me as soon as possible. But this is my first blog and my English skills is not so good. So don't expect from me long articles.