Welcome,
first of all I apologize for my English.
This is my first article I will share, but sadly it does not deal with my Voluntary. It is about our preparation.
Every volunteer has to participate on 25 "seminar-days", in which he/she learns and discusses with other volunteers. Last week I had my first 6 "seminar-days" with 22 other Volunteers, who will mainly go to Israel. Few others will go to Denmark and Poland.
So what did we learn? There was a topic we talked about each day. --If you don't want to read about every day in detail, scroll down--.
Sunday was the day of the arrival. After an 8-hour-journey from Mainz to Teterow by car, me and three volunteers I took with arrived...and the first question: "Is it possible to watch football and if yes, where?". After we managed this problem while the other volunteers arrived, the rest of the day had been used for getting known to each other by simple games.
Monday we talked a lot about organizational things and a lot of questions had been answered, for example:
"With whom we will live together?"--> It is possible that we will live together with Volunteers from other countries like France or Brasil.
"Who will be our direct contact person?"--> The Red Cross cooperates with an organization called IVA, which will take responsibility for us.
"How expensive is living in Israel?"--> Expensive....
"How to manage being available on the phone"--> It es relatively cheap to buy an casual flatrate.
And much more questions: If you have some..ask me:)
We also talked about general things we should know before we make our voluntary. We had been reminded, that an IJFD is not about us, it is about the patients. We are not the persons who will save the whole world, we are there to support the nurses and that, we should always remember.
In the evening we spend much time together. Some people (including me) thought football is more important then social contact, which is right, but in the end we all played volleyball together.
Tuesday was the most interesting day, because we learned how to work with patients. This day was very practical, because we had to do many exercises. So we learned some fundamental things which will be very helpful in Israel.
In the evening a few people made a hike but quickly stopped, because the mosquitos are everywhere. Really. Everywhere. Like always me and three other man stayed in our room and watched football and play volleyball.
On wednesday in the morning we talked about the health care. What happens, if we hurt us or we become ill? Who pays what? What should we know about the car system in Israel. General important informations. The afternoon we went to a "climbing-high-course" (I do not know the englisch translation and google could not help me), to challenge our limits....For me it was not challenging because I love climbing but it was a good alternation to sitting all day long on a chair. After that we had the opportunity to go to a sea but....football....and volleyball....
On thursday we talked about intercultural aspects. We played an interesting game , where two groups should prepare a new culture, with own greetings, own habits and own language. Then the one group visited the fictive culture of the other group. The idea behind it was to realize how complicated and challenging it could be going into a new culture and adapt. The most time the "immigrant group" looked like a helpless group of children, because they didn't understand the others and didn't knew what to do. After this experiment we came to the result, that it is very important being respectful but also cautious. First you should observe, then you should adapt. This was an effective way for us to realize, that many things will be very different in Israel and we should know how manage embarrassing situations. And again in the evening we watched football...how diversified.
On friday morning a man from Schwerin arrived. He has an own Karate school and teached us basics in self defense. That was pretty cool and interessting, because we learned how to manage physical attacks very simple. After we went to the lunch with a lood of bleedings and wounds, Britta arrived and talked about cultural aspects again.
I should remain, that I do not remember everything and it is possible, that some things happend on another time. Any time in this week we talked about stress and how to manage it, about motivation and live struggles and much more....
In the evening on friday we made barbecue together and i made a bit music with my trumpet. After that we watched football and played...right...billiard.
On staturday morning we resumed the week and played our last game. Everbody had to put a a (plastic) plate on his back and everyone had to write something about that person on his plate. I hope you understand what i mean ;). After a tearful good bye we drove 8 hours back to Mainz.
--In this week I really realzed, that I will go to Israel in two month. You always talk about it with friends and explain to your famaly but now this becomes serious. On one hand the seminar made me more afraid of what is coming, but on the other hand it gave me more safety, because many things had been answered and now I know, that I am in good hands.
It was also very good to get known to the other volunteers. With some of them I wrote before, but it was interesting to see what kind of person he/she really is. And also the others I did not write with before. It was funny to see how different the types are, and it was even good to see how tolerant everbody is. This made me sure, that our collocation won't fail.
I must say, that I expected more specific topics about Israel like a crash course "Nogoes in Israel" or "basic knowledge in language" but in the end I have to admit, that I had a great week , I get known to interessting people and now more excited to go to Israel.
Best regards,
Samuel Kern
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