My ESC Month in Viljandi – October Summary by Denisa

My name is Denisa and currently I am a volunteer in VANT in Viljandi, southern Estonia. My and my „co-volunteer’s“ tasks during our working hours are both, to keep an eye on youngsters spending their free time in youth centre and if they are up to, to hang out with them, play games of their choice or just talk to them, what was their day like.

Since we both as volunteers are considered members of VANT’s staff, we got a chance and space to organize an event of our own. The choice that we made for the first time, to test the waters as people say, was a movie night, which took place in seminary room. Beforehand the best idea, how to decide the film, which is going to be watched, was to start a poll on Instagram, where young people, who follow youth centre on social media could vote, which one of the three movies, we agreed on (based on small „internet research“ that we have done in advance – to find a suitable movie for age range we chose) they have found the best in their opinion. „Participants“ of such poll were movies Gifted, Wonder and Storm Boy.

Storm Boy was the winner, so we brought chairs to make the seminary room cozier for the event, brought pop corn and fruit as refreshment and essentially tried for the first time, what it is like to organize an event for children, even though it was just a few of them. Other event that took place and I was part of was cooking class (I participated in cooking class of other volunteer as well, where we prepared Georgian national dish called Haçapuri).

Since being Slovak means to be fed by mainly meat-, potato- and sauerkraut-based food, I thought that youngsters would appreciate someting sweet way more, so I came up with Slovak recipe called Slivkové gule (Plum dumplings). Collectively, we prepared one dough, but then each kid formed dumplings filled with plum of their own. I presented my country a bit more to them, while working on a dough and we listened to Slovak today’s hits as well.

Overall I reflect on my experience working in such youth centre as positive and enriching one, even though I have never tried such job before. I am looking forward to be part of new VANT’s events and see how this entire adventure broadens my horizon!

My ESC Month in Viljandi – October Summary by Ilia

My name is Ilia and October was my first full month at Viljandi Youth Center, and I am really happy about how it went. It was full of new experiences, fun moments, and chances to share my culture and learn new things.

My first activity in the youth center was about my country, Georgia. I wanted to show other people where I come from and tell them more about my culture. I printed some pictures and information about Georgia and put them on our information board, so everyone could see them. I also translated everything into Estonian, so all young people could understand. There were photos, facts, and also information about our traditional food. I felt really proud to show a part of my country to others.

Later, I joined a cooking class with Merlin, where we cooked Adjarian Khachapuri, a famous Georgian dish. It is bread with cheese and egg inside, and it was really delicious. The young people liked it a lot, and it made me happy to share something from my culture. It was also fun to cook together and talk about Georgian food.

After that, I wanted to do an activity that connects to what I love, movies. Together with my co-volunteer Denisa, we organized a movie night. We watched Storm Boy, a really nice movie about friendship and caring for animals. The kids liked it, and we also talked about the message of the movie. It was nice to see that they enjoyed it and understood the meaning.

When I look back, I feel very good about my first month at Viljandi Youth Center. I had the chance to show my culture, cook my traditional food, and organize my first activity. I met many great people and learned a lot from them.

I feel proud of what I did and excited for the next months. I want to keep doing more activities, learn more about Estonian culture, and continue sharing my own culture with others.