If I could, I'd do it again! - my EVS

"FREEDOM!"

(I have been trying to get my thoughts together for nearly an hour now. It's been a bit more than a year since I returned from Scotland where I did 12 months of EVS and every time I need to summarize what it was like I'm struck with the awesomeness of it all - including problems and hard times. So here it goes.)

When explaining my EVS the short way I can say that it took place in Scotland, in a city near Edinburgh, in a organization (Firefly Arts) that delivered drama and film workshops for young people, including some with learning difficulties. I was a drama workshop leader but also worked in the office (paperwork, educational seminars etc), promoted EVS in the local schools, worked with LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bi- and Transsexual union) youth and did some other youth work policy stuff. 

Before I flew over to Scotland I knew I was to have two other volunteers with me (from Greece and Azerbaijan) but (unfortunately) the European Commission only funded one spot so I became the very first EVS volunteer for Firefly. Previous plans for us to live in Livingston (where my HO is situated) in a house for three people were not possible anymore so they found me a flat in Edinburgh which is about 30 km away from Livingston. That meant at least 1-hour long bus rides to work and back home. Sometimes it took longer as the traffic was horrendous. Sometimes I got lucky and took a car with my boss :) 

I did enjoy living in Edinburgh though. Livingston itself was not a pleasant place as a city whereas Auld Reekie (as they call Edinburgh) is THE city for me. I started to love the place the minute I got there. My flat was situated in the centre, about 10 minute walk from the ancient Castle! That was the main plus of the flat though. 

As I was the only volunteer for some time in my organization I shared the flat with people outside of EVS world (which was a welcoming change of all the volunteering but made it also hard to explain what exactly am I doing there and from time to time made feel extremely lonely). During my 12-month stay I had 2 Polish, 1 Italian, 1 American, 2 Australians and a Dutch person sharing the place. Some of them were lovely and others were... rather difficult. In the end I was the only girl and not trying to be rude, but boys are SO messy. I had pretty intense times with a flat mate about cleaning up, cooking, terrible techno music, loud parties at 3AM during week, obnoxious visitors and so on.

The flat itself was okay with some quirks I got use to pretty quickly. I had a tiny room at first and changed into a bigger one later. I had some furniture (a creaky small bed, a table and a chair, built in cupboard), but had to buy sheets, a new proper pillow, some carpets and other stuff to make it more comfortable. The first night I woke up to some kind of noise which turned out to be a mouse (and it's hungry family) who lived under my floorboard and had come outside for a quick snack of my delicious Estonian chocolate. Mice were a constant problem during the year as 1) it was a old house with some cracks in the floor and walls, 2) we lived above a pub, 3) the food trash left out by my rude flat mates (well, just the one person). Also, the flat got quite chilly during winter time as most UK's old house windows are single-framed and let wind through. Oh well, didn't mind that so much as the climate is much much softer than in Estonia. The third negative side of the flat was the lack of common space - the kitchen was a tiny corner without a table and we didn't have a living room - a designated corner in a corridor was occupied by this huge out-of-tune piano and a tiny rickety couch. So we all ate our meals in our own rooms which was quite lonely. Ah, and the view out of my window was the wall of a church (I heard organs playing every Sunday at 10am) and a beer garden of sorts that belonged to the down-stairs pub (live football matches & its fans on most weekends).

All in all though, the living conditions were alright - I mean, I wasn't expecting anything grand anyway and for me the location was already like a blessing. I did spend most of my time at work or in the city too.

A funny thing about the workplace was that it used to be a tractor shed and was pretty old and shabby. Luckily the staff in it and youngsters that came to do their workshops were absolutely great making it feel like some sort of hub of happiness and laughter. Firefly works in the most poorest areas of Scotland and Livingston, as said above, is rather ugly town. It happened so that the council was building a new house, a culture centre in Livingston, and Firefly was to have office and performance space there. Unluckily for me they postponed the deadline several times and so my last day at work was the moving day where I packed and unpacked all things to the new office but never had the chance to actually sit in the much brighter, warmer rooms. 

Despite all of this, the experience of the year was fantastic - I can't describe it so that you could feel the speciality of it. I think it's not even necessary as you will make your own fantastic memories and experiences. How I see a successful EVS experience is as follows: people are the essence of this service. There can be many little or big problems with things, but when the relations with people (your colleagues, your fellow volunteers, the locals, your clients etc) are good then everything is much much better (of course, problems occur with people as well but that is natural). Then, it is also important to be as unexpectant and unpretentious as possible. Try to have wondrous eyes and try to blend in. It is your responsibility to understand the culture you've arrived to and it is your honour to present your own culture to the people you meet.

Oh, and enjoy :)

Hannele, EVS volunteer in 2008-2009