Testimony from our trainees about the first day of their Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Norway:

 
 “I have really enjoyed it so far, the hiking was great but exhausting, I’ve never done anything like this before so it’s going to be a great experience for me and it will look great on my CV.”

Shelby Taylor, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee.

“I have nice time when I come to Norway I meet so nice people. I really enjoyed seeing the farm. The farm is so good, I like to work with them I am so happy.”

Samiy Fesahya, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee.

“My opinion so far about Norway is excellent, we got introduced to the people who live and work on the farm and everyone was really polite and welcoming. Today we went on a 10 miles hike or thereabouts, it was exhausting but I really enjoyed it. The walk was amazing and the views were fantastic. I’ve never before seen or experienced anything quite like this. I am really looking forward to starting work on Monday and getting busy, I want to show and prove to the people on the farm I can work hard.”

Owen Reece, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee.

11th May, Solborg, Norway

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Gaining Through Training

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

Testimony from Steven Birdsall about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Link (Altamura, Italy):

I have lived the whole of my life in a modern town, for this reason I wondered if the cultural aspect of Italy would appeal to me. By the end of my first night I wondered why I ever doubted the place !!

 
I arrived at around 8pm. Within the hour I was out with a large group of volunteers and mentors in Altamura centre. The first sights were unusual but spectacular nevertheless. Sitting pretty next to the main square was perhaps the biggest and most beautiful cathedral I have ever come across. Judging by the 100’s of people taking photos I guess it must be slightly famous ! On the night there were 100’s of people celebrating on the square, with a band playing in the middle and fireworks going off close by. I have a strong feeling they all knew I had just arrived a short time ago 🙂

 
In my spare time ( aside from TRYING to get a tan ) I have explored 2 cities – Bari and Matera. Bari was a brilliant experience, however I have to say Matera is on another planet !! When I first arrived in Matera I was thinking “ Seems like a nice place, nothing special “ Was fair to say I couldn’t be more wrong; It was beautiful. Some of the sights are truly breathtaking ! We had a walk around the city and the guys took me to this huge balcony. And beyond that was without doubt the best view my eyes have ever seen ! The villages down below with winding roads going in and out of the little streets that were barely 10 – 15 metres long. And beyond the streets you looked onto the hills and the sunset which made it look 10 times better than it actually was ! It’s fair to say I’m happy I’m doing most of my work in Matera.

 
I’m staying in a fairly spacious flat in Altamura, barely a 5 minute walk from all the major shops and also the office. I live with 3 other guys and a girl who sleeps in a separate room. I enjoy all their company, we eat and do things together and it makes the experience so much more enjoyable when you can get along on a positive note with the people you live with. We spend a lot of time talking about our lives and what it is like in our own countries as well as what we are planning on doing with ourselves once our stray in Italy is over.

 
I have to say though aside from the beautiful cities, the cheap food and drink, and the interesting culture there is nothing I have enjoyed more than the work. My work so far has been based on children. My first activity was working in Matera up in the hills. The children were on a adventure with the teacher and I was there to help the teacher with her activities. It doesn’t seem like much but when you are talking to the children it feels like you’re one of them, sharing the same jokes and taking the mickey out of each other’s football teams ( None of them knew who Middlesbrough were though haha ) At the end they all wanted a photo with me, and now just looking at that photo puts a huge smile on my face, knowing that I put the smiles on their faces that day.

 
Shortly afterwards I arrived at my first school in Altamura where I was to help out in a lesson teaching 4-5 year old children English. It was therefore a little surprising when I got to the class to discover there was only 3 children in the lesson !! Consequences of the Italian recession I guess. We were going through basic topics, such as colours, months of the years and numbers. It was fascinating watching them learning these things, going from not being able to pronounce a certain word to memorising the word and saying it to perfection.

 
The 2 days after that consisted of 2 schools in Matera in which I was a guest in 4 different classes. On the first day I was in 3 different classes, all of which the children were around 13-14 years old. They seemed really interested at having an English guy in the class ( They too were learning English ) And I must have had around 382949394 different questions fired at me that morning. Half of them were based around football though, which isn’t too bad at all ! This was perhaps my favourite day so far. The children were so kind, full of manners and respect, but also funny and interesting at the same time. At the end of the classes they all wanted photos with me and were asking if I was to come back to the school again ! And even some of the girls and boys were asking me to put my Facebook name on the blackboard. The several friend requests at the end of the day were no surprise !

 
The second class I was in were a little younger ( 11-12 ) However I was amazed by how intelligent they were, and how far they had come in their English speaking skills. They were asking me questions in a way that any fluent English speaking person would ask them. They were the loudest out of the groups, but in a good way ! When I asked one of the children which football team he supported he said Juventus and asked me if I supported them. My reply was “ Noooooooooooooo “ Instantly around 2 / 3’s of the class jumped up out of their seats and started clapping their hands and cheering. I guess football is quite popular amongst these children ?

 
On the day of writing this testimony I have been here for exactly 2 weeks to the hour. It is fair to say this is an experience that is changing my life. In the future part of my plans is to hopefully work with children, and help those who are in need of it. Being able to interact with these children, help them learn and to make them smile is something I am very proud of. I only have 12 days left here but hopefully these next 12 days – along with the 14 I have been here for – turn into one of the best months of my life !

I would also like to thank the guys at Everything Is Possible ( especially Aurelie and Godfrey ) for giving me this opportunity. It is not something every person has the chance to do, and I’m glad I was lucky enough to receive this chance. This is a brilliant experience for me and holds many stories for me to tell when I get back to England. I will be celebrating my 21st birthday on the 24th May ( 6 days before I leave ) and I can safely say this is the best present I have received in my life !!

Steven Birdsall, Leonardo Da Vinci trainee.

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Gaining Through Training

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

We’re very excited to present to you the 1st episode of a comic book we are creating about our current Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility application Empowered From Within : ”Eva’s Leonardo project in Aruba”
To be continued!

 
Supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Union.

Testimony from Andrew Ritchie, Everything Is Possible trainee, about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Aruba.

“This is the life”, I tell myself while on a small, tropical, desert island clearing pooh from my hairy little ass!
My early morning commute by bicycle to volunteer at the Arikok National Park is comparable to cycling towards an over-sized hand-dryer, but I wouldn’t like to imagine how this windy little country would feel without that strong breeze.

I help the Park Rangers with their daily chores. Beach clear-ups, general upkeep of the surrounding area and as much as I do appreciate advice on poisonous plants I do, however feel that we could work a little on our timing with such issues now that my face resembles a ruptured scrotum. Everything my venom-smeared little fingers touched that day became a hideous mass of rash and swelling. After an ill timed toilet break I took on the appearance of a porn-star Popeye!

My afternoons are spent volunteering at the Donkey Sanctuary where I’m kept amused by 64 cheeky little fellows Hell-bent on making life difficult, getting in my way and commandeering the wheelbarrow. I am getting pretty good at giving the speech to tourists about our work here and exactly how a guy from Scotland wound up in Aruba with possibly the coolest job on Earth. You could say I can talk the hind-legs off a donkey -sorry-!

The apartment I’m living in for the next six months is owned by Deseree, the woman who runs the Sanctuary. It’s perfect! I have lived in a variety of conditions during my travels but I have to say that this is the best set up by far. It’s my own little house with everything I need and I do find my cooking/cleaning skills improving dramatically.

Overall I am a very happy man here even though the visa people are trying their best (by not trying at all) to make it difficult to extend my stay here. I’ve had painkillers work faster than these people and I honestly think if I took some of our donkeys, stuck a tie on them and put them in that office they would not do any worse than those employed right now. The words ‘get your ass in gear’ have never seemed more appropriate!

On one of my days off I strolled down to one of the many great beaches that surround this Caribbean island and got talking with an old local about island life and the donkeys of Aruba:

“These days its all cars,cars,cars. Cars bumping into each-other , people getting hurt..I remember not so long ago when it was all donkeys. Donkeys,donkeys, donkeys. Everywhere donkeys and what happens when a donkey bumps into another donkey? You get more damned donkeys”!

Andrew Ritchie, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Empowered From Within

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

Testimony from Marcus Hylton about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project:

It was my first time in Italy and I had no idea of what it would be like. I had a faint idea of the Italian language which was only a few words. The first day when I arrived in Italy I was shocked by the weather, I thought that it would be a bit hotter than it really was. Although the weather was not bitterly cold like England my home of residence I could still feel the chilly breezes. One of the attractions that took my mind when I first saw it was the city of Sassi this is in the region of Matera which is twenty kilometers away from where I was staying, Altamura. Sassi was a old city which was made of limestone and held up to 50 thousand people also this city was where the film The Passion Of The Christ was filmed. Also in my first week I visited a old church high in the mountains of Matera where a cave was used as a church by the monks that came from Greece, so that they could have a place of worship for their religious beliefs which Christianity. In this cave they told me about the first story of Genisis which is recorded in any bible they had to come from Greece to Italy due to the laws that were in place back in the middle ages. I found the whole city of Matera a very interesting city and also historical.

Also in my first week of my Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project I was doing some work in a school in Matera helping out children when doing orienteering skills. These children that I worked with were very lively and willing to learn and interested in many things, this was a primary school where the children were around the age of twelve years old. During my first week in Altamura where I was staying I visited Matera again to give a presentation about Youth In Action and the Everything’s Possible to a group of high school teenagers who were interested in going abroad and travelling through Youth In Action to gain a different experiences and to get to know about different lifestyle and cultures. I found that this was very interesting in my first week in Italy.

Marcus Hylton, Leonardo Da Vinci trainee

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Gaining Through Training

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

”I’ll be leaving very early tomorrow morning and there’s so much to say about the past 2 months, so many experiences had, connections made and so much learned. It’s weird to think that I’ll be back in my bed within 24 hours, I’ll be sad to leave this amazing place and all these incredible people behind, but I’ll never forget them or my time here.”

The 20th December marks the abolition of slavery. It is a significant event celebrated all around Réunion with a three day annual festival (starting on the 17th) leading up to the anniversary itself. In Saint-Joseph the first night of the festivities was to be opened with a procession – hundreds of people gathered in the city centre as Maloya drummers warmed their animal skin instruments over a wheelbarrow-fire until they reach the right resonance. A young boy in a colourful costume; bright yellow satin trousers and a red strap around his waist, waits patiently, nearby his dance group of all ages are talking quietly. Unlit torches are handed out to the participants, one is shoved into my hand but I pass it onto a friend, wanting to take pictures. The sun passes the horizon and suddenly everything springs into action, the drums start beating, the dancers start to dance, torches are lit. We form a loose line and move down the street, baton twirlers executing moves in time, acrobats travelling with flips and rolls illuminated by a sea of flickering lights. The procession eventually leads us to a large field where a stage has been erected, stalls selling drinks and hot snacks surround the perimeter. A Maloya band is introduced, my friend shouts in my ear to tell me that they are very famous on the island, made evident by the cheers and claps around us as a very small, very old man walks out in front of the microphone, his band in tow. The audience erupt into song with the band, it seems like everyone knows the lyrics. Children and adults dance alike with smiling faces and there’s a general feeling of community and connection around me, I remember feeling privileged to be a part of that moment.

Fin’s Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility : abolition of slavery celebration

My first Christmas away from my family and home was made less lonely by the Mission Locale staff. We celebrated the season together by taking a sea tour along the shore of the island aboard a small fishing boat; the trip was great for the first 15 minutes as we glided under sun along the choppy Indian Ocean with the craggy island coastal cliffs to port and endless waves to starboard, but then my stomach started to churn – I’d never been on such a tiny ship out in the ocean before and waves of nausea washed over me stronger and stronger as we bobbed up and down against the tide, each tiny movement of the current amplified because of the boat’s small size, the bow rising and falling in rhythm on the waves… I  stepped onto dry land an hour and a half later, pale-faced and empty-stomached, not a very enjoyable experience!

The Mission Locale Young Committee celebrated together with a beach party involving lots of swimming and home-made food, where I was invited for another celebration with Fred (director of Mission Locale Saint-Jo) who kindly offered me to join him and his family for dinner two days before Christmas. We ate delicious local Chinese/Creole fusion food home-cooked by his wife and played Pictionary (in French), which my team somehow managed to win despite having the English person handicap.

The 24th and 25th themselves were spent with colleague Raphael and family at his brother’s home inland from Saint-Joseph. It is traditional to eat dinner and exchange presents on Christmas Eve in Réunion, and so we feasted on trout roe, roasted goat and sautéed potatoes on the 24th and let off fireworks and lit sparklers after finishing our chocolate cake with coconut ice cream dessert. One of the fireworks misfired and shot towards me as I was taking a long exposure photograph; I dived into the bushes and managed to escape with just muddy knees. We exchanged gifts and left for a neighbourhood Christmas party where dozens of people living in the area had gathered to eat and celebrate the festivities together, a band played covers of western 70’s rock hits mixed in with local music and later the audience participated in Maloya/Sega karaoke with live instrumentals, Raphael even got up on stage to sing a number.

The New Year was celebrated at Grand Anse, a popular beach near the city. Hundreds of Reunnionaise had had the same idea and the shore was crowded with BBQs and marquees, loudspeakers playing tropical music and groups of dancing people. We ran into the sea as the clocks struck midnight and drank champagne in the water as fireworks exploded all around us.

It’s been an exciting final month in Rèunion, I’ve been alone since the departure of Aurélie and have been speaking exclusively in French (with the exception of teaching English lessons and Skype calls home), and as a result my language has improved quickly. I’m finally getting past the point of asking whoever it is I’m speaking with to repeat themselves every sentence and conversation is flowing more smoothly. It’s a rewarding feeling to be able to successfully communicate in a different language, one that makes all the challenges of learning worthwhile.

I’ll be leaving very early tomorrow morning and there’s so much to say about the past 2 months, so many experiences had, connections made and so much learned. It’s weird to think that I’ll be back in my bed within 24 hours, I’ll be sad to leave this amazing place and all these incredible people behind, but I’ll never forget them or my time here.

For more pictures, visit Fin’s Tumblr : http://leonardoreunion.tumblr.com

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project part of Gaining Through Training
and supported by ECORYS UK
and the Lifelong Learning Programme
of the European Commission.

“Hello, my name is Chris, I’m 18 and I came from Mirfield. I did a Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Norway (2weeks). In Norway I did a lot of work: I milk cow, chopped wood, made bread, cleaned cow sheds. I liked milking cows and cleaning cow sheds  and having a fight with the poo.

There was nothing to do at night, so we had to make our own entertainment, like playing Uno, card games.

We have days off like the weekends, so went bowling, mounting climbing, bike rides.It was a lot of fun.

I wish I can go back out there and have fun in the farm again. I miss working out there and the people I met.

Norway was a lot of fun reccomended to other people.

Now I am back I have a job at a community center because of this experience.”

Chris B. short term Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility Trainee.

Click here to discover the project.

Leonardo Da Vinci project part of Gaining  Through Training
and supported by ECORYS UK
and the Lifelong Learning Programme
of the European Commission.

My name is Luke Fisher and I have just returned from a 4 months Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in the north of Sweden. The project was based in an organisation called IDEUM in which I worked in the carpentry and metal workshop. Before I went as preparation to a taster day and I completed an induction in carpentry in Bradford with my sending organisation.

While I was there we worked on everything from rest cabins for the mountains and ski runs and outdoor BBQ’s to prayer benches for a physiotherapist. Prior to this project I had only done wood work in school so it was quite different to anything I had done before. I was trained how to use all the different tools around the workshop and aloud freedom to make mistakes and learn from experience. One of their sayings was ‘you learn from your mistakes’ another phrase you will hear allot in north Sweden is ‘fika time’ but that just means coffee break (unless you speak Italian).

Lunches where a communal time of the day where everyone sat together around a big table and had a chat. It was a great time to get to know everyone who is working in the building even if you don’t work with them.

In your free time there was allot to do as you are surrounded by snow or ice. During the winter most activities are more extreme like skiing or snowboarding and snowmobiles and ice hockey (which is bigger than football over there!) to skeet shooting and ice fishing all of which I tried while I was there. The organisation also put on activates like visiting a new town or to go watch an ice hockey game and team building games which help you get to know the other volunteers. But if that wasn’t enough you can always go to them and ask to do an activity and they will sort it for you, like me and a group wanted to go visit a town for the weekend and stay in a hostel so they gave us a car and said ‘enjoy, just don’t enjoy it too much as we need the car back in one piece’.

The night life is very different, the village is about the same size as the village I live in, in England but where we have 8 pubs in our town they have 1. It is very expensive to go to the pub so most people drink at home then go to the pub a couple of hours before closing just to meet people and arrange to go back to someone’s house for a party.

The people in Sweden in general especially the youth of the population can speak English as they get allot of English tv and video games, but I found they are very shy and don’t often like to speak English (unless they are drunk then they will speak to you for hours!) but all in all I found them very friendly and welcoming being welcomed into many people’s houses weather it was for a party or just to go and chat with their family and eat tea with them.

I think from this project I have become a lot more confident which is in no small part down to my carpentry mentor who was very encouraging and always very helpful. I have also learnt a lot of skills in carpentry and I am trained to use all the heavy machinery from the workshop thanks to this Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility. I also feel more ready for work as before I went I was on benefits for over 6 months and didn’t really want to work but now I feel like I am ready to work and allot more confident that I could get a job I desire not just something to pay the bills.

Luke Fisher, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee.

Click here to discover the project.

Leonardo Da vinci Mobility project part of Gaining  Through Training
and supported by ECORYS UK
and the Lifelong Learning Programme
of the European Commission.

Bonjour! After a 14 hour overnight flight from London Heathrow, with a change in Mauritius, we landed into the airport in St. Denis, the capital city of French island and our Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility home for the next few weeks, Ile de la Réunion!

Very tired but very happy to have arrived, we stepped off the plane into the mid-day 30 degree heat and were greeted warmly by Philomène, our contact here for Mission Locale – the charity we will be working for during our stay. The journey wasn’t over yet; a two hour drive taking us to our hostel in the southern city of St. Pierre followed. We skirted by the sea along a coastal road, mountains of indefinite height towered over us from inland, their peaks obscured by thick clouds. We pass deep ravines coated in green foliage, forests composed of trees we’ve never seen before, men selling exotic, multi-coloured fruit stacked in piles by the roadside.

We make a quick stop for food by a busy beach, white sand and turquoise blue crystal clear water, a marina filled with well-kept boats, hundreds of holiday goers eating in a plethora of restaurants.

One of the things that first strikes you about Reunion is its multi-cultured-ness and variety of religion, and more so, the mingling and mixing of those religions and cultures. People from many different backgrounds have settled on the island and live together with little segregation. Indians, Africans, Malagasy, Chinese, Europeans, Christians, Muslims and Hindus alike have all made this place their home and it’s common here to see families and groups of friends made up from a mixture of all the above.

We awoke early after a welcome night’s rest at our hostel Pension Ognard and gathered our things to move to our accommodation for the next two weeks. The hostel we had originally planned to stay at was full due to the touristic season, and by a stroke of luck, Mr. Ognard, the owner, offered us two spare rooms in his home in the nearby city of St. Joseph. The house was wonderful; we didn’t expect to live in such luxury – a garden surrounding a swimming pool, our own bathroom and rooms with two very big beds.

On Monday we were introduced to Mission Locale South for the first time, everyone here at the office has received us with a warm welcome and we’re already feeling at home. We have to give special credit to Philomène for being such a fantastic host, she has guided us through our first days here with incredible patience, taking us to places, introducing us to her culture, and she always manages to do everything with enthusiasm and a smile on her face.

The Mission Locale charity has 5 branches all around Réunion and works with young people in difficult circumstances, helping to arrange opportunities to work, to volunteer locally and abroad, to get involved in various activities and to give them a space where they feel free to follow their pursuits.

Before our arrival there was a major concern about how useful we would be, especially for Fin with his limited French. The previous two volunteers felt that their time here wasn’t as fruitful as they would have liked, and there were worries that we would face the same problems. We soon realised that our fears were ungrounded; there are many opportunities to do something good here – from English lessons, multimedia workshops, designing and creating promotional posters and videos, to helping to write CV’s in English.

On Thursday we worked with Mission Locale at a huge event, AKS (Alon Koz Santé – Let’s Talk about Health) at St. Joseph’s School of Sport and Culture, attended by various charities and organizations and with over 700 young participants from local schools.

Stands were erected to promote healthy diet, sexual health awareness, drug and alcohol responsibility, road safety and more. A mass-scale Zumba took place in the auditorium, tournaments were held for a new sport named Franc Balle, taekwondo black belts sparred, drumming Maloya acrobats showed off for the crowd, a theatre group performed a play about responsible living. Aurélie’s role was to present the Leonardo organization to potential trainees; Fin spent the day taking photographs of everything (almost literally) for use in promotional material.

Our weekend included a difficult 7 hour hike to the 2600m top of one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Piton de la Fournaise. We hiked uphill following white dots painted on rocks over the wrinkled and furrowed lava flows from the previous years; the last eruption was only 10 months ago. A sign in three languages told hikers not to stray from the marked path, as vaults created by lava could be hidden under a thin layer of unstable ground. We reached the summit safely, (except for being a little sweaty and sunburned) to find an incredible view of the volcanic crater and the surrounding caldera.

It’s the end of our first week here in Réunion and we’ve already fallen in love with this island. We’re feeling very optimistic about the work we’re doing and the weeks to come, our only concern is that there isn’t enough time to do everything!

Aurelie and Fin, short term Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility Trainees.

 
Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project part of Gaining Through Training
and supported by ECORYS UK
and the Lifelong Learning Programme
of the European Commission.