Meanwhile, in the camp

Meanwhile, before packing the office for moving to Stockholm, we had the Active summercamp in Fredrikstad, Norway. As everyone was there, I'm not going to write a long introduction, but describing what the volunteers did (and what I liked doing):

Our preparations began before the event, in Örebro, thinking out performances, making costumes by Janika, taking stuff etc. On the spot, we started by compiling the anti-tobacco boardgame boxes. First days there was the Active Congress and we assisted with coffee breaks and technical stuff.


Hope that the outcome of the Congress was successful. It was interesting to listen and watch, but on some point - when it was discussed what we are going to eat next time - I made a calculation, if there is a congress every two years, then there are 5 congresses in 10 years. The congress lasted about three days. So it means total of 15 days in 10 years. And if, say, half of it is spent on minor details and technicalities, is it really 7 days in 10 years to discuss the important issues by all the people who fly there and back 5 times? Hope I'm wrong :)

Just to clear it up, it wasn't all about the food, that was just one small episode what made me thinking. And the girl who brought it up, she shouldn't give up, but maybe she can realize it not as an "inner circle"-thing about our own private eating habits but as a public project about animal rights what Active can support. In my opinion, if it's good, why not.




Besides the congress we had the Board performance, directed by Sanja, and our Office performance, what we were scared of... but managed to complete. At least it was very funny to do for us :P Also there was the All Rights project meeting for 2 days, and meanwhile Janika was busy with different tasks, making the video + waking for 7:30 to assist the team with the breakfast arrangements. In the end we had the Active shop and carrying the tables.




On the downside, by the end of the camp, I have an impression that other people's work is not always valued.

For example, if we had set up our outlets, someone dropped random stuff for their performance on the table on our shop items. Without saying anything. And as we were standing on the chairs and hanging up sign for Active shop, behind us the beamer was started and directed to us with presentation for some next performance. Without saying anything. As we were invisible, only people's own goal mattered. There were more examples.

Seem as small things, cultural difference maybe, but for me these are examples of egoistic behaviour, even if people themselves doesn't notice it. So from my point of view, Active people are doing well on alcohol issues but the peace and friendship parts can be improved.




Anyway, the camp itself was good, and thanks to the organisers because it's never easy to make something of this size to happen and satisfy all the tastes and needs of people of such different backgrounds.

Generally, it was good to see all the people, people who you have just talked over the internet, people you have heard of, old and new friends. Hope to be on the next camps in Latvia and Iceland. And then I'll have more time to meet the people and not so tired :)

Alari

Dear Alena, Tadas and Eliina!

In the summercamp I felt like I am giving the reins to the next volunteer crew in the office. So this is my letter to you.

There's 6 days left to work in the Active office and I will leave Sweden at least for some time. So what would I like to say to you?

First. Work in Active office does not equal with Active summercamp through all the year. It's work and it's office. Of course in more tolerant and friendly surrounding than usually, doing the things that you used to do in your free time before. That's why it feels great.

It is very important to set your goals for the year and to keep them in a visible place. You have the opportunity to do much and to make a change - fresh new ideas are always needed. So think for a while, why did you come and prioritise the things that you want to prioritise. It could be writing an extra project on the topic you like, working with some region you want or having your own campaign. Volunteer can do as much as volunteer is capable to do. You should do something that you would be proud of in the end of the year. The plan is needed, because it is very easy to fall into the routine, to be comfortabe and to do only the things that are needed to do.

Then a second thing...you can live in Stockholm - that means a lot of different opportunities to spend your spare time - they even teach Swahili language there for example. Take most of it (not from Swahili, but Stockholm).

One thing that you need, is patience. Even if it seems that Active people are communicating in facebook really much, you will definitly end up waiting for emails that you need answers to and for the end of the year you would do rather anything, but emailing. If you actually meet the people with who you are doing your project, you want to do everything with them and you definitly do not say a sentence "you can send it by email or we can discuss it via email". I know it sounds strange now, but you will see. It's one of the most annoying things  to wait for an email from what your work is depending from.

What you will definitely learn, is how to set goals, make a plan, motivate yourself and to actually finish the planned thing. This kind of work teaches you loads of self dicipline, as you can plan your work time on your own, as well as the activities after work will be new for you. You get more realistic view to the life and will definitly have more control over your life in the end of the year.

A lot of things seem to be more simple and possible.

A year abroad is not always easy and it is never what you expect from it to be.

So go for it!

Janika

Getting ready and excited

It is 22nd of July today and Active's Congress and Camp will start on 31st.
We have been having a lot of meetings lately, some of them were long and serious, others short and funny, most of them were very creative but all of them had the same topic - Congress, camp and celebration(3C)!
As you all know, I guess, Active will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary on this year's Congress. The celebration will take place on 2nd of August.
It is very interesting that 02nd of August is also celebration day for my country. In 1903 they had the Ilinden Uprising on 02nd of August and that was the day when Macedonia was liberated from the Ottoman Empire. So this is a day of celebration because the brave people stood up for themselves and fought for their lifes in order to have a free country.
When I see it this way, it actually reminds me on Active. On this day, 20 years ago, some brave people gethered and decided to stand up for their ideas, to fight for their rights by creating an organization which will be different and will offer possibilities for more people to choose how to live their life.

So YES, we will have a fancy celebration. Imortant people will be part of it, such as Robert Medelin (former DG Sanco), Tamsin Rose (public health lobbyist) and a lot of former presidents, board members, members of Active/EGTYF that together with all of our Congerss and Camp participants will express the meaning of Active.

We are getting very excited in the office about the following 3C week. Today we were printing the Congress voting cards, using 2 laminating machines, which both were very hungry so they ate our paper. But tomorrow we will finish them and it is very nice that we hear the word "finished" very often now.. since our tasks for the 3C week are finishing.. =)
But that also means that my life here in Örebro and work in the office is finished. I will leave right after the 3C week. =( It is still very hard to believe!!!
That also means that Active's time in the office in Örebro is also finished. But it will start again in a very nice place in Stockholm. =)
That also means that whatever we do, will be finished in some time... so we should use the best out of it and enjoy in every moment.
I think I am and I hope you are too!

Lot of hugs,
Sanja

Örebro in summer

As the office is on holidays for this week, the weather is very warm and fine in Örebro, so meanwhile you can watch some "tourist pictures" - how our hometown looked like in one evening :)

LOT of bicycles everywhere, we also have our work-ones.

Kind of central square, growded by people daytime.

Tourists, and the castle - it's kind of the main symbol of Örebro, used on postcards, T-shirts etc.

Nice small waterfalls, my personal favorites :)

In the background, a statue of some old Swedish king. Yes, Sweden is a kingdom.

Some non-environmental stuff floating in the river.

Bridges, boats, parks and water everywhere.

Monument for the guy with cassete-player.

Museum part of town, they sell souvenirs, books etc there. Also openair-events are held next to it.

Our home-shop :)

Alari

The last "Swedish course"

After 15 years of non-stop school times I could not even imagine that I would enjoy studying. That's why I made a break. So, when I came to Sweden, I could not imagine that one of my favorite things here (next to the football trainings of course) could be sitting in the class and learning Swedish. The more suprising is that I have actually learnt some.

The classes were interesting due to very interational group that we had, people from Australia, Russia, South Africa and so on and also the teacher was from Brazil.

So, on Saturday we had our last meeting at the caffe owned by one of the students, Valda and we were having good time with the Swedish language...

My and Sanja's life is much more emptier without the class. On Monday we were already missing the homework:)

Janika

Central station for EVS in Active

Since I was actively encouraged to blog about EVS, I will give it a try.
I was an EVS volunteer myself in 2004/2005 so I guess I know how it feels to volunteer in Active office. Since then - I have experienced 19 volunteers in Active office and we are going to welcome 3 more from September 2010.

How does it look like to be mentor for the volunteers?

First, they arrive and they know very little about Active office work, about the town and the life here. We go through Active's basic idea so we all know what we are working for, we are getting used to each other, the volunteers are usually "thrown to water" to learn how to swim by writing some application for a seminar or a campaign. The first days may look pretty empty or like "too little to do", but with the deadlines for applications - everything starts rolling. Seminars, reports, buying tickets, coordinating arrivals, departures, helping with visa, writing some more applications, going to Active seminars, meeting our members. That's what we do. And the time flows and all of a sudden I look into the callendar and I see that there is only two months left with these people who were strangers (most of the time) to me and then became collegues, we've found the ways to work together, to talk, to joke (or not) about certain things, to trust each other in work, to count on each other. And then they leave (most of the time) the town and go their way. Sometimes still involved in Active and sometimes not caring for Active at all.

I will not reveal anythinig new by writing that each volunteer is very different from the others. There is no template. And that is why there is no template for dealing with them either.

Some people like to come to the office early, some prefer sleeping longer in the mornings and work long in the evening, some love writnig projects, some prefer reading information for Newsletter, some like getting very clear instructions and detailed orders, some like getting just a first spark and then they do their thing. Some are here for the social part of the organisation, some come for being in Sweden and some want to fight for what Active believes in. And of course - all the combinations of the three.

It's very rarely easy to say bye bye. The only part that makes it a bit easier is knowing that there will be new volunteers coming. Full of ideas. Full of expectations. Full of motivation. And that I have the responsibility and honour to introduce them into this work and world and make it interesting for them. At the same time, it is up to each and everyone what they will take from here and how they experience the time in our office.

I learn every year. From some I learn to "take it easy", from some I learn structure, from some I learn about other countries, from some I learn how to go for one's dreams, from some I learn to reflect on things I have never been thinking of and from all of them I learn about relations between poeple.

To host EVS volunteers is incredibly enriching experience that gives me a lot in life. And the memories carry me further.

And I think I will blog here more often bringing some more concrete examples of our life here. If the volunteers let me in of course ;-)

Kristina

Black sheep has started rolling

YES, finally our new campaign in Active has had it's first activity. This weekend (10th - 14th June) we had the first Black sheep seminar!
8 people from 8 different European countries came in the Active office in Örebro on thursday. Some of them made it on time, others missed some trains, but at the end of the day everyone was happy to be here and to talk with the old Active friends.

The seminar started on friday where we had a guest lecturer - Helena Wannberg to tell us something about Alcohol in families.

After that Maik Duennbier had the rest of the day to talk about the Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention of the Right of the Child and it's connection to alcohol issues.





Since we had a hard working day, we went to the famous Active restorant - Karishma and had a nice and spicy dinner, that was followed by a long talking walk for some people and watching a football match infront of the TV for others.


The next day was very interesting. We had our sessions together with 30 people from UNF, so we got a lot of information about their project FAKE FREE and talked a lot about the impression of alcohol, people's expectations and reactions about it. In the afternoon we had a nice walk in the town with the intention to notice how big is the media influence of alcohol around us, and the conclusion was that only for a 15 min walk, we had a lot of materials.
The rest of the day was covered by our guest lecturers Linnea Forsberg, talking about the project "Skåll for barnen" and Anja Karinsdotter, presenting the project "Vit Jul". A variety of ideas were flowing in our heads, so we decided, in order to keep the creativity alive and the energy visable, we will have Olympic games in the evening. =)
Me and Anja were leading the "show" and we divided all participants, considering the place they come from, in 5 groups from 5 different regions in the world (Europe 1, Europe 2, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Sweden). They all had to invent a game that will present their region, so we had 5 teams that were competing in playng 5 different games. It was very exciting, the team spirit was all around, we were surrounded by a lot of energy and weird looks from the people that were passing by us. But we didn't care, we had fun!
I can only say that night was looooong, especially for the domino players who ended their game around 03:30h in the morning.

Just like that, the last working day had come. On the agenda we had to do a lot of work focused only on our Black sheep activities in future, but we had to add some more materials, so we worked, and talked, and planed, but it wasn't enough. We had lunch on the roof of our building, and than again, discussions and ideas all around, but nope, still not enough. We had dinner out in a nice restorant that we couldn't decide if it was greek or turkish... untill at the end the people that worked there told us it was 60% turkish and 40% greek.. =) So after the dinner and a lot of laughs, jokes and information about the incredibly smart boy Marco from Macedonia, we ended up in the office again, where we worked untill 00:00h. Yes, it was midnight, and we still had the laptops opened, trying to get the google wave right, a lot of creative names and slogans were written all around the white board, while others were trying to make some pictures on the wall, from the light of the projektor. It looked something like this...

But that is all part of our connection to Active. Eventhough we were exhausted at the end, we stayed until the morning, talking, watching movies, laughing and saying "Good bye and see you soon in Norway". It was a weekend to remember. Seing the motivation of this great group of people to work together, to make some change for the world they live in was amazing. I can't wait to go to our next meeting in Norway and to follow every activity that will be organised under the name of Black sheep campaign! =)

Sanja

The seminar is coming

And the last few days we have been quite busy for us, making final preparations - travels, accommodation, speakers and synchronizing with Fake Free schedule.

The seminar is so popular, that a participant was even asking last week something about this line: Is the seminar starting tomorrow? ;)

For me, it was a pleasure to communicate with people from all over the Europe during the arrangements, and I hope this weekend will have a good outcome for the plans and thing to do in the next few months. And to see all these people in real life now.


Alari

Introducing Active and European Volunteer Service in our Swedish course

Just few hours after arriving from Iceland, during the lunch break on Monday, we were talking with Sanja about our Swedsih course.

Sanja: "And you know, on Wednesday we have this talking lesson with all the Swedish groups."
Me: "mhm"
Sanja: "So, Margareta asked me that could I talk about Active...would you also want to talk with me?"
Me: "mhm of course...how was your weekend anyw....WAIT...You mean like that we are the performers, 1,5 hour in front of the people and talking in Swedish all this time ???
Sanja: "Yes."
Me: "HMMM...Ok. I have already some ideas:) Alari stands there with the flag and we cover him with the stickers"

So, on Wednesday we went to our language class half an hour before the class starts. and15 minutes of it we were trying to hang up the Active flag - we were successfully pulling down one curtain holder during this progress and almost destroyed some flowers during the progress. In the end we used successfully the combiantion of coat racks and TV + "Content matters" booklets to ensure all construction. We had prepared a small test with multiply answer choices. So, we created 2 teams which started answering questions based on the facts from the "Content matters" booklet. Teams used their logical thinking and got successfully 5-6 correct answers from 8. As an award, they got the same booklets with information.After the small test, Sanja presented Active, our vision and aims - that ended up with a lot of questions by the listeners, they were especially interested in our EVS project, so we explained them also how is it possible to become an EVS voluneer, that they could consider participating in this project in the future.

After Sanja's presentation came Janika's. The one had a lot of photos, some text and loads of Active spirit. We finished the evening with the "Global hangover" movie and gave out any kind of materials about Active.

It was somehow strange to be in front of the class and talk in Swedish, but it was fun.
Alari commented Sanja's presentation like this: "She was talking like a real Swedish person." Maybe the reason of the comment was that Alari was sitting there 1,5 hours, understanding almost nothing, but maybe not.

Anyways, thank You Margareta for this opportunity:)

Janika

Getting sunburned in Iceland

I left my Örebro home on the 14th of May, having a great work task: to go to Iceland for 2 weeks. I was perfectly aware of that there are 3-hour direct flights from Stockholm in comfortable huge planes (the ones with the personal movie screen:)), but this was not my way.

After discovering that there's going a ferry to Iceland, it seemed to be quite crazy thing to do, so I did it.
Most of the conversations on this topic were like this:
Me: "I am going to Iceland."
Person: "ooh great, from where do you fly?"
Me: "I take a ferry from Denmark."
Person: "Wow, ferry, there are ferries going to Iceland?"
Me: "Yes."
Person: "Ok, how long it takes?"
Me: "3 days."
Person: "THREEE DAYS??? ARE YOU CRAZY??? I could never be in a ferry for 3 days."

Before the first this kind of reaction I even didn't consider my plan as something crazy, rather as a great and unique experience. So I went to my trip to see, how it is in reality.

So, instead of few hours in a train and 3 hours in a plane, I did it in the old-fashioned way and my trip consisted of following parts:

• 5 hours train trip with 2 trains and one bus to Copenhagen; meeting a nice woman from italy, who hast the PHd degree, living in Sweden in my hometown and going to meet her boyfriend in Copenhagen
• One day wondering around in Copenhagen - that happened to be a lot bigger town than I expected
• Evening with my former band-mate Anna-Liisa, talking about our plans and both doing some work
• Morning trip to Esbjerg, meeting 2 German backpackers in the train, travelling together to the port
• Being surprised in the port, as we needed to pass the sign "No entry, violators will be given to the police", walk around in some strange area, check in a small container and wait in another one
• Meeting nice Danish girl and getting a new friend
• Spending 2 days, seeing only one island during that time - having time to think and watch the sea, including an amazing concert in the evening by a one guy and guitar
• Spending 8 hours in Faeroe Islands, using each hour as much as possible, leaving the islands with a lot of photos and memories and with a CD by local musician
• Going back to my "home"-ferry, everything is familiar :)
• Sailing 2 hours through Faeroes, probably one of the most beautiful places in the world
• Morning with the Iceland - yep, we arrived!
• Taking a rental car and driving whole day through the emptiness of Iceland - it is really SO empty???
• Tuesday evening 11 p.m - Reykjavik, here we are!
• Realising that the trip was one of the greatest I have had in my life:)

So, trip was good. But what did I do in Iceland...

From Faeroe Islands, 3 Swedish volunteers joined me during the ferry-trip. They had been volunteering on Faros for last 5 months and we went to visit our three member organisations in Iceland. As the situation in Iceland organisations is quite similar to the situation of the our member organisation in Faeroe Islands about three years ago and the situation started going better due to the work done by the volunteers in Faeroe Islands, then who would be better people to give advice to the organisation in Iceland.

We arrived 11pm to Reykjavik, that was surprisingly huge place compared everything that we had seen during our 10-hours trip in Iceland. 8 am we were already sitting in the meeting in some nice hotel conference room. The meeting was in Icelandic and we were told "just to look good on the photos". I could understand that they have a project in Iceland, where parents in schools have groups that try to do some prevention work that their children would not drink or use drugs. Next to looking good on the photos, we had also our breakfast:) Anyways.

The first real meeting for us was in the evening. Before that we had no idea, what’s happening in the Icelandic organisations. The meeting made us feeling really good about Icelandic youth, as they have few, but very motivated young people, who were ready to do everything and who were very interested in organising activities. During next days we gave the Icelandic organisation information about what is Active and what kind of opportunities they have, why they should look to Active web-page. We gave information about the EVS program and about all the further activities in Active.

I had the feeling, that with this visit, the local club got more motivation and the feeling of belonging to the international organisation, which hopefully gives them motivation to grow into bigger and stronger organisation. 3 Swedish people left after the first week, but I stayed for another one.

Next to the meetings and writing several applications, I became friends quite fast with all the members in Iceland youth organisation. So I was driving with them on a motorbike (I was on the backseat) and I had a tour in Reykjavik that you could never book from tourist office; we were climbing an Esja mountain; cooking hamburgers every evening - I already miss those:); biking Reykjavik (and discovering that they have a white sand beach, very warm weather - yep I almost got sunburned and also some trees); doing the golden cirle tour and having an Eurovision party:) They are these kind of people with who its easy to communicate for me and I really enjoyed their company. In general, Reykjavik is a very fun town, full of tourists with the super waterproof hiking gare while locals walk in t-shirts:)

I am missing Irises enthusiasm and interest to do any kind of crazy sport and activities; Gusti' s personality and this small smile and how he was playing with a small dog and of course his motorbike driving skills and of course Elva, to whose place I moved in for about a week, even if She had seen me only for 2 meetings before that - we had fun evenings with playstation 2 (even if in the first evening I tried to learn the movements and buttons of this control thing) and days with her child and some duck cartoons that melody I still remember (I guess we watched those more than the child :)). And the muffins:)

Anyways. It's good to have a job that doesn't feel like a job. Where you can travel and meet great people. And it's great to travel with some aim and meeting the local people and getting new friends. I have more than one reason to go back to Iceland.

And yes, the volcano has stopped the activity and no, all the Iceland is not under the ash.

:)

Janika

A Conference and a proper dеfense!

Last weekend (07 - 09 may) I was attending a Conference in Budapest. The topic was "Alcohol and youth" and it was organized by APYN. I was representing Active there.

At first it was a great feeling to go to a Conference and to meet 8 other people that are representing some of the member organizations of Active. That lead to having 9 people from the same umbrella organization, among a total number of 21 participants to the Conference.

We had a lot of discussions, presentations, workshops, as to any other event. Personally I think that it could have been better if we focused a bit more on specific issue and work on it, than just to talk about more problems that are concerning us and finish with our ideas of what we personally, our organizations and our governments should do. But anyway, maybe they have a long term plan of activities and this was just a beginning. At least we had fun.



What was more fascinating for me was the possibility and the running of the discussions.

One thing that is famous about Active people is that we talk. YES we talk a lot and that is good! We always want to express our opinion, which very often is different than the opinion of the majority. And that was noticeable also on the Conference, even though all organizations there had similar goals.


Especially on the last discussion, we had one guy that was presenting the work of his organization in Budapest that was offering help to addicted people to make them feel better, hoping it will lead to lowering the amount of drugs they are using. In the same time, while talking about addictions, he compared the coffee with alcohol and other drugs. After his presentation was over and the time for questions and comments came, I could see the hands only from the people of Active. It felt good! We all started commenting and expressing our totally different opinions. The other participants were being quite, while the guy who was presenting started to feel uncomfortable. Suddenly the prep team interrupted our discussion and didn’t allow us to ask any more questions or add comments. “We don’t have any more time” was their answer, but right after that, one of them had a short speech when he explained that sometimes we can be very critical, but no body should get offended because we live in an open society and we have the right to express our opinion.

My reaction was What?!?! Should we be sorry if we have different opinions?! Should we be quiet?! No! It is our personal obligation to stand up and say out loud what we think. How are we going to change something, if we don’t have other perspective?!

One famous philosopher, Karl Popper once said

“You can never learn something from a person that only agrees with you!”

I use this sentence very often and I agree with him.. =)

However, I enjoyed the discussions. I liked the thing that people from Active were on the same thought and I hope we managed to influence other people as well.

And YES, we had fun!


Sanja

WELCOME!

This is our new blog :) And we are the current volunteer staff at Active office in Örebro: Janika, Sanja and Alari. Here you'll find updates about our activities and what's on our minds :)

Örebro is a nice town in the middle of the Sweden, some hundred kilometers from Stockholm to the west. And mostly from here we will post about what we do and think and on volunteer life.

Active is a youth organisation gathering young people from all over Europe to promote (and not limited to) sobriety, friendship and peace, as our full name says. We're here at the office to help it make happen, taking care of the daily administration tasks, organising events and campaigns.

Of course, we're not all alone in this office, as we have our boss here, also known as Kristina, the one who keeps the things together. As in the heart she is a good person, we'll expect "guest postings" from her also to give the blog some other perspective.

Here are some pictures of us, so you'll know whom are you dealing with:

Sanja from the sunny Macedonia on the left, Alari from the cold Estonia on the right and the Swedish spring in the background.

Janika, who is kind of a senior volunteer now, and therefore she'll have her own separate picture looking wise. We have a strict hierarchy here on these matters (or not :)

Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of Kristina, who is out of office again but we promise she'll get back here and the picture shall be published.

So stay tuned, we'll try to hold the blog updated as often as we can and have something to share with you =)


Alari