What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

 

When we compare the life rhythm between Lithuania and Belgium, it seems that it’s quite similar: We live fast, we work hard, people are more strict and they’re not so open minded as people from the south.

There are some funny differences, which makes us to laugh all the time. We’re still trying to decide what we like more: the things in our countries or in Portugal?J

1.    Feel like an alienJ.

When you cross the streets in our countries, nobody cares about you, but here in Portugal, sometimes we feel that we’re from a different planet. Some of the people are whistling, some are staring like we painted our face with a green color, some of them are shouting or they act like people would act to cats (kks,kkkss). But it’s funny! The main rules – don’t make any eye contact, don’t look back, just go straightJ

 

2.    Rain.

We never thought that we would hate rain that much. In Belgium and Lithuania it’s raining a lot. So you would think that you don’t need an umbrella in south. But unfortunately we were wrong. The last few weeks we had a lot of rain. And actually it’s funny to see how the mood of Portuguese people changes beacause of that. In Lithuania and Belgium we’re also sad when it’s raining, but still we keep on doing what we planned. What about people from Portugal? They cancel a lot of things because of the rain. Apart from that, the Algarve truly has a lot of sunshine. It gives us very good emotions when we see the sun shining through the windows while waking up. And we can easily say that the weather makes people be and look happy. And that’s how people act most of the time. We are so jealous about that!

3.    Lunch time.

Oooh, this is the thing we really love. In our countries the lunch time is normally from 12h till13h in the afternoon, but here people have their lunch from 13h till 15h. Can you believe this?J Because of that, we can do so many things during the lunch time (making a good lunch, washing the rooms and still we have time left for a short siesta!) 

4.    Throw your watch away.

When we plan to meet with someone, we always have funny situations. They say: “ Let’s meet around 9p.m., please” Don’t forget that around 9 means that it’s more or less at 9:45. When you meet at 9 in our countries, it means that you come 10-15 minutes before, but here if you see that you’re going to be late to a meeting, you don’t need to feel stressy, because if it’s only 10minutes, you will be the first one who is coming! J

 

5.    Good afternoon or good evening?

In Lithuania and Belgium we say good evening when it’s 17.00h. In Portugal they say good afternoon till 20.00h or even later.

 

CONCLUSION: These are a few of the main cultural differences between us and them seen from our point of view. But however, we love them;)

 

Smell the coffee

Here we’re again with a new story for you! 8 weeks have already past and it’s unbelievable how time goes by so fast. Time flies!

The first weeks were the hardest ones for sure: new places, new people, a new place to work... Our first week of working in MOJU was hard. Although the people were (are ) very friendly and they wanted to communicate, to know who we are. We couldn’t communicate with all of them,  just with those who can speak English. But little by little we can easily say that we’re improving. More and more we’re learning the skills how to communicate non verbal. We’re learning portuguese words and now we can construct short sentences. For sure, this makes us feel more comfortable.

A short overview of a normal week day:

At 8.45 our alarm clock goes off. Most of the time Ginvile wakes up first and then I followJ. After this hard part of the day, we take breakfast together, we clean, we prepare and around 9.50 we go to MOJU. Sometimes we’re to early, so than we go to a place, next to MOJU, where we can drink a coffee (‘café com leite’). After that we start with preparing English lessons for the children or we have Portuguese lessons ourselves. After, we go around 13.00 to the apartment to prepare our lunch. We have a break till 15.00, so there’s also time left for a little nap sometimesJ. At 15.00 we go back to MOJU and we work till 19.00 or 20.00 with the children. When we finish our work, we hurry to the gym for Body Combat, Zumba, GAP… and after an intensive hour of sporting we make dinner together. Some evenings we have to go shopping and others we go for a drink, we go out or we just chill in our apartment in front of the TV. So you can easily say that we’re living a peaceful life, but we don’t complainJ

 

Let's start :)

Olá a todos,

A couple of months ago, we started to search for an EVS-project.  After checking many different projects, we applied for one project in Portugal (Olhão). The organization received many applications from volunteers who wanted to work in this project, but we were the lucky ones.

Many people will ask: Why do you want to become a volunteer? The answer to this question will vary from person to person. We wanted to become volunteers because we want to gain satisfaction by helping others.  We also want to make a difference so the locals will remember us. Going abroad will also give us the opportunity to know a different way of life and to meet new people. And we think it can change our lives. So while we help others, we also help ourselves. And of course we can build up our CV with it.

In our society, many people only putting their effort into something when they can gain money, but we think that a smile of appreciation can have more meaning and impact on us.

The organization calls MOJU (Associação Movimento Juvenil em Olhão). Their vision is ‘me and you’. It means that everybody has an equal voice. MOJU is a youth association that works at local level, is non-profit making, and independent of all political, syndicalism or religious affiliation. The aims of the Association are: encourage active youth participation in society; develop activities (inter) cultural, educational, social, sportive, recreational and environmental aimed at overall development of young people in Olhão’s municipality; promote discussion and dissemination of information about the needs and aspirations of Olhão’s municipality youth.

The project started on the first of October. During our first week we went to Alcoutim (Portugal), because MOJU had organized a youth exchange over there that called ‘Shake your body’. For us it was a great opportunity to meet new people from different countries and to get some experience.

On the 7^th of October, we went back to Olhão to start our volunteer project. During this week MOJU had their 5^th year anniversary, and because of that they organized activities for 5 days. On the first day there was an exposition of photos, called “Exemplos”. The exposition took place in a nice bar called Catita & Companhia. There was a nice atmosphere with nice Brazilian music. We felt comfortable, cozy and we enjoyed. On the second day there was a performance of M90 Rock band and DJ Mike Moon. The singer of the band is a member of MOJU. The music was nice to listen and to dance, although there weren’t many people. On day 3 we went to a hip hop performance. The place was full of people, who were interested to see a show of young people. There were many groups of youngsters who showed their talents and the audience was very noisy and energetic! On the 4^th day, we had the opportunity to go to the theatre. It was a little bit funny for us, because we don’t understand the Portuguese language yet. But however, we liked the fact that they involved the audience. On the last day of the anniversary, the members of MOJU had a nice dinner at a traditional place in Olhão. We had a lovely dinner and we’ve celebrate like we never did before ;)