On-arrival and mid-term EVS trainings

According to the EVS project, every volunteer that stays up to six months in another country has the right and obligation to take part in an on-arrival training session. Also, a mid-term training is organized for volunteers that stay for more than six months. So far, I’ve had both of them. :)

EVS sign on the streets of Malaga 

Toledo train station 

Hostel in Toledo

Two weeks upon my arrival in June, I had a great chance to visit Toledo - a medieval city in the province of Castilla la Mancha. The city is really like a fairytale land.

When I stepped into the train station I immediately felt like I was in another world, the world of princesses and kingdoms and the only thing I lacked was a castle.

But, like in Disney stories, princesses and princes of noble heart; in this case 25 volunteers, got their own castle.

I lived in a castle during the 5 days of this on-arrival training. Very motivational, don’t you think? You wake up, and when you look down from your window you can see the river Tajo, and the city in the distance. You feel kinda special, you really feel like ''the king of the volunteering world'' and you feel like what you are doing makes sense. After the first two weeks of my EVS project, I could feel that what I am doing is great and that I am not alone on my way. 

On-arrival training is mostly introductory. We got to know more about the project itself, we shared our own stories (short but useful ones), had an opportunity to meet people from Europe and beyond - Australia and the Philippines and learned a lot from our trainers as well.

During the training we found out more about different learning styles, since learning during an EVS project is one of the project’s main goals. So, learning how to learn from your colleagues, friends and people with whom you live, is a process of crucial importance for your project. Not only have we learned that, but we also had Spanish language classes, a tour around the city, games and much more. After five days of the training I had motivation to conquer the world. 

Toledo was the first journey I had on my EVS experience. Four months and hundreds of adventures later, I received my ticket for another, equally exciting training. This time, it took place in Andalucía, in the south of Spain, in the village near Malaga, called Mollina. The locals say that this is the most famous and the most international village in the whole Spain. It is mostly because the CEULAJ, which is a Euro – Latino American center for Youth, which hosts various international and national trainings almost every week.

The Cathedral in Malaga

This time, like many other times, it hosted a group of volunteers that is half-way through its volunteering journey in Spain. It was organized by the Spanish National Agency and the CEULAJ center, and it lasted for five days. The second training was more about evaluating the projects and sharing all 50 participants’ stories (which were now very inspiring). One part of the training was dedicated to promoting the EVS project to young people from Malaga and motivating them to experience this fantastic opportunity we have.

The trainers did their best to motivate us and inspire us to try and get the most from the last months of our respective projects and Andalucía did its best to make us love this country even more.

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