November 12, 2013

In the Heart of the Sea

Hey,
so this last weekend we went to the island of La Gomera to do a workshop. We were going to make some games out of recycled material and then play with them with the people that had come to the workshop. Unfortunately no one came, so we took the chance to visit the island. During our visit we stumbled across a film site for the new movie "In the Heart of the Sea", they weren't filming here yet, but you could see a lot of the set already ready for filming now in the middle of November. You can see a lot of pictures from the set in this website: http://lagomera1.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/ron-howards-heart-of-sea-getting-ready.html

Since we didn't have the type of access to be able to get very good photos, here's our best one:

  
It looks like we, all of the sudden, landed in a different island :)

November 4, 2013

Life in Tenerife II

Hey there,
although it doesn't feel like, it's already been two months since I'm here in Tenerife, and it has been great! Lots of fun and lots of new people.
This month we had our on-arrival training here in La Laguna, and voluntaries who are here in the Canaray Islands, from all over Europe came to La Laguna. There were people from Germany, Holland, Austria, Poland, Italy, France, Hungary, Greece, Serbia and me from Portugal. This lasted a whole week, and we had a lot of fun, our trainers were Ana and Javi, both from main land Sapin, Andaluzia. they were great! Everything we had to know or learn about EVS they thought us through games or little competitions between groups. 


During this training we got the chance to exchange ideas and no bout the different projects in the islands. It was great, because we also got new ideas for our project and vice-versa. The interaction was just amazing and an experience that I will never forget.

In the mean time, after our training, we had to get back to our normal life of workshops. We started a new one in which we recycle old T-shrits into something different, like scarves, bracelets, etc. In our first workshop with clothes there were only 4 people, but it was great all the same. When there are smaller groups the interaction is different and more personal, with larger groups we can't always be sure that the people fully receive the information that we give. But no real worries, it is always good either with small or big groups :)


September 29, 2013

Life in Tenerife

In this blog I want to tell the story of a portuguese girl in the wonderful island of Tenerife. I applied for an EVS (European Voluntary Service), for those of you who don't know what it is, it is a programme financed by the EU, in with youth from all over Europe can participate. In my case me programme will last 9 months, but there are many other fantastic opportunities. For more information please feel free to look into my organizations website: www.islacreactiva.com :)

I arrived in Tenerife on the 31st of August and i was blow away by the beauty of the city of La Laguna, with it's very colorful streets and in worm-welcoming people. 

Since I've been here, I've already done so many great things, either in my project either on my free time. My project consists in organizing workshops about responsible consumption, saving and about how we can benefit from helping the environment. We organize workshops about how to do simple things, like making creams from aloe vera, soap from recycled olive oil, marmalades and how to make furniture with carton. 

The best part of these workshop is the interaction with the people, and the opportunity to learn the language, since you have to talk to the people, and they don't know any language besides spanish, but it's great. And also the look on peoples faces when you teach them the most simple things on how to save, or how to do things environment friendly, is always of surprise because they never imagined that the most simple things can make such a difference. 

And at the end always traditional photo with the participants for future memories :)





And not only do I have the opportunity to try to make a difference, but I also get to enjoy the island and all of its beauty: 


Bajamar:















Punta de Teno:















Punta de Hidalgo: