Hi again!

It is almost two weeks that our lovely and sadly already former volunteers from Intergeneration Dialogue project started leaving Ukraine, but before we had time to say goodbye to them in “Home, sweet Home”, a chic caf? in Donetsk. 

Previously our volunteers had to overcome a series of individual challenging proofs within a street game that our staying volunteers and coordinators prepared to make them active before relaxing in the caf?. These proofs included asking for a postcard in post office, which was funny because it involved checking Russian language skills to survive to not very nice staff. We also made them pass a Spanish tongue twister, order some food in Ukrainian at Liverpool, take a picture with a dog and give random people a massage in Bulvar Pushkina. The situations were especially planned for those of our volunteers who had more difficulties to deal with them, so we had a very good time observing how they tried to overcome these funny moments.

Then we went to “Home, sweet home”, where coordinators, mentors, Russian teachers and friends of Debate Centre were already waiting for us. After a cooling, tasteful iced tea and a piece of cake, Axel, especially dressed for this cause in a fashionable suit, and Aija, the only Intergeneration Dialogue volunteer who will be with us during the summer, conducted a remarkable soir?e where our leaving volunteers had to show their talent. Some of them showed how good they were at speaking Russian, some of them sang and danced, or made a nice speech to thank for the moments and experience that are, unfortunately, already gone.

At the end of the meeting, coordinators gave presents to volunteers – commemorative t-shirts on surviving EVS in Ukraine, and to mentors. 

But life goes on, and last Monday our group of 6 new volunteers arrived from Poland. We will introduce them to you very soon.

Bye for now,

Jorge.