The previous 7 days I attended my first camp organized by Maailmanvaihto Ry, my first one being a CIMO camp, the official camp for EVS volunteers. A couple of fellow EVSers from Hungary ,Romania and Georgia along with me were invited to help around for the preparation of food for the incoming wave of EVS/ICYE people from all around the world.
So, Georgia, Macedonia, Romania and Hungary + our main person in charge from Finland preparing Finnish ( meat -free!) traditional meals 🙂
You would be surprised that food CAN be tasty without any meat!
All of the volunteers and camp instructors resided in a villa situated in
Antaverkan Leirija Kurssikeskus Villa
Antaverkka,Ylöjärvi which is about 15 kilometers from Tampere. A wonderful villa surrounded by marvelous forests which are abundant of mushrooms, blueberries and wild strawberries! It was such a pleasure to pick some of the goodies that Nature had to offer.
A bush of blueberries just across the villa.
The villa was right next to one of the biggest lakes in Finland, a lake called Näsijärvi. If you are sport junkies ,you could swim your way up to Tampere. No way Jose! 🙂
Näsijärvi
During this camp I discovered the sole difference between the ICYE/EVS volunteers. NOTE: The difference is that the EVS volunteers get their expenses covered by EU funds, while ICYE volunteers need to cover their own expenses.
Some of them came from third world countries… it must have been hard for them. But, ICYE fees depend from the country you live in. There isn’t a “universal” fee you need to pay in order to participate.
But it’s voluntarism, that’s what counts. Kind of made me think that I’m quite lucky to be an EVSer.
The people I’ve met… were the coolest bunch of people. Coming from places like India, Taiwan, Hungary, Uganda,Estonia,Austria,Germany,Russia,Turkey,Italy,Estonia,Romania,Georgia, Japan and Mexico.
It’s just amazing how you can attach to people.. even though you are from a totally different part of the world.
I must admit, I have a love/hate thing for camps. You just meet wonderful people and after some time they are all off to their job positions. Ugh!
The camp had very creative ENERGIZER games that were very useful for introduction. One of my favorites was when we had to shout each others names in a high/low pitch tone, and then hum each others names. There were many games that were supposed to shake our sleepy heads 🙂 They worked 😛
Another useful thing for this camp was that we had Finnish language lessons during the whole week.
Pidätko giga puddi[ng]?! ^_^ ( You know what I mean, *winks to the EVS/ICYE peepz*)
During camp we had some free time which was used for SAUNA, of course. In the camp there was a gorgeous sauna ( RANTA SAUNA i.e BEACH SAUNA) on the coast of Näsijärvi.
Skinny dipping with my boys into the cold lake ,after a hardcore session of sauna. Proper sauna experience!
Näsijärvi coast
- Monet – like lillies in Näsijärvi
- Ranta Sauna – front view
During free time,we played a game called MÖLKKY, the game traces back to the old times in Karelia, where a similar game was played. Basically, it’s played by throwing a wooden pin on other wooden pins numbered from 1 – 12. The first player needs to disperse the pins from 1 – 12. And then the others need to hit the pin with the biggest number. In the mean time someone wrote down the numbers that the players hit.
The one with the most points wins the game. It is addicting!
MÖLKKY
Since there were a lot of countries, country nights were introduced into the schedule. Literally, we stuffed ourselves with Taiwanese brown sugar jelly drinks, Mozart chocolates from Austria, chocolates from Germany, candies from Japan & Taiwan, delicacies ( like pöttyös ) from Hungary , tea from Turkey and much much more! I wonder if someone gained weight in this camp :))
But it was edifying as well! For instance, I learned that if it weren’t for Indians, we wouldn’t be able to count! Or, thanks to Hungarians we now have TV!
It was freaky as well when the Buso monsters ( traditional spring holiday in Hungary) raided the presentation of the team of Hungary. It was HILARIOUS.
On a side note, we learned some Hungarian ( tzekeje, tzinege, tzinege! 😉 ) children song , which I always whistle like crazy..
Some dancing, as well! We learned a folklore dance from Estonia ( Tanssi Klapadu?) which I can’t get out of my head for some reason. To top it all off, we ended it with learning how to belly dance. Kiitos, Ebru!
Myself, I have tortured the volunteers with the “Пајдушкото”, which strangely resembled Riverdance dances or tap dance from Ireland , so I’ve been told(?!) XD
Kudos for the ones that actually learned the dance!!! 😀
Finland, our host represented their country by a play.
TITLE: A TYPICAL EVENING IN A SHARED APARTMENT IN HELSINKI.
I tell you, Finns are crazy. We were ROFL!
Buso monster!
Mozart chocolate from Austria
Taiwanese brown sugar jelly drink
Next up were the Finnish Olympics!!! There were a set of games, where we tried to conquer the Finnish way of doing things.
The disciplines were:
SAAPPAANHEITTO – THROWING THE BOOT
In this discipline contestants needed to throw the boot as far as they can. Each team member had 2 shots, the team that threw the boot the longest won.
EUKONKANTO – CARRYING THE WIFE
Actuall, this is a sport in Finland! Yes, we carried the “wives”. :):):) In this discipline contestants needed to carry each member of the team across the line 5 m away.
HUMALAJOUKSU – DRUNK RUNNING
This discipline was absolutely ridiculous 😀 Contestants needed to lower their forehead on a stick and make 6 circles around it with their heads down. You think it’s easy? Try it! You will be dizzy like never before. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
LÖYLYNHEITTO – THROWING THE LÖYLY
Löyly was a bit complicated to translate in Finnish, so I don’t know the exact meaning.
In this discipline contestants had two buckets of water, one full and one empty. They used empty cups and fill them with water. After that they threw the water in the empty bucket, which was about 2 m away. The winner was the team that had the biggest quantity of water.
The following day we raided Tampere. 🙂 What a beautiful city!! A strangely warm day I must say. There, we went to the Tampere city library, a building shaped like a peacock, was it? Correct me if I’m wrong.
I knew the church in Tampere before so I had to see it. It’s a great piece of architecture. The church name is Alexander’s church. There, I just went in and stumbled across on a Finnish mass, as unbelievable as it seems! It was so calm, for a moment I felt the true spirit of Lutheranism.
Alexander’s church
During the last couple of days, our contact persons and work mentors came to visit us.
As the camp the days were coming to an end.. we had a lot of free time at our hands. So, the camp appearance was a bit altered ( I tell yo once again, wasn’t me!) 🙂
One morning we discovered that Muumintrolls have joined us in the kitchen, and the daily schedule miraculously changed!
Hmm..
Just fun!
Muumintrolls were in the kitchen. 
changes spin the world around! =P
The camp was coming to an end, it lasted 10 days, though I had to leave at the 7th day due to work arrangements. This camp is one of the best camps I have ever attended.
I will miss the card nights ( CHING CHONG BING! – TAIWAN | MERDA – ITALY | MAGAREC,KOMAREC – MACEDONIA – cards speaking the same language 😉 ), the nights near the sauna bridge,the awkward conversations, the awkward Hungarian jokes of the type : “Like a cottage cheese under your foreskin”, which made Hungarian laugh like crazy, but didn’t make sense to us, haha.
But most of all, I will miss my people. All of you, each and every one of you!
I would like to thank Maailmanvaihto for this camp, the camp instructors, language teachers,support persons, the kind people of Tampere and the kitchen team, of course, without whom we would starve! I will never forget you.
Hyvää hauskaa in your work places!
SPECIAL THANKS TO MY EVS/ICYE PEOPLE:
Shivdeep – India | Karoly – Romania | Cissy – Uganda | Anita – Austria | Viktor – Hungary
Domala – India | Miguel – Mexico | An Chieh – Taiwan | Marili – Estonia | Vera – Germany
Vadim – Russia | Yi Wen – Taiwan | Mizuku – Japan | Krisztina – Hungary | Antonia – Germany
Szilvia – Hungary | Ebru – Turkey | Elisabetta – Italy | Mariam – Georgia | Elisabeth – Austria
Judit – Hungary
Good luck, and see you soon!!!
finnishchronicles 