I am glad that I was finally able to take part in the arrival training that took place in Braga from 14th to 19th June 2016. To me, it was not an arrival training. Instead, it was a good-bye training as it occured two weeks before I return to Bali, Indonesia. Four participants repsenting Indonesia and Turkey were sent by SYnergia to this training. We were welcomed by one of the trainers in front of the hotel. Having had some rest, we went to the meeting room and met other participants from all over Portugal. Most of them were from Italy. The rest were from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, England, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland and Ukraine. The first session was commenced at 18:30 on that day. We played some games in order to know one another. It was followed by dinner and we came back to the meeting room at 21:30 for a short briefing as to what programmes we expected to do in the following days. On the first day, I decided to go to bed earlier and some participants went to the city centre of Braga.
We started the second day at 09:30 after breakfast. As the yesterday’s introduction was not sufficient to remember all participants’s names, we had more ice breaker activities for one hour and in the afternoon, we were given a task to present our projects in each organization through a drawing. Before having dinner, we were divided into some groups for reflection session. The aim of this session was to discuss what we found interesting, what we did not like and what we wanted to change. The results of this session were then reported to one of the trainers for further action.
After the dinner, we went back to the meeting room for the taste of Portugal by five senses. To me, this was the most interesting session because the trainers introduced Portugal in a different way. We were blindfolded and all lights were turned off. We sat in a circle and each trainer came gave us something to feel, touch, smell and taste. Before the session ended, a video about Portugal was played for us.
On the third day, we mainly discussed cultural differences and how to deal with them. The first session was called welcome to Albatros island. The goal of this session was to confront the participants with new things, behaviour, culture, and experiences. Some participants found this game a bit offensive as it was against their cultures. The intercultural learning session was proceeded with the Abigale Story. Again, we were divided into smaller groups and discussed the worst characters.
After the coffee break, the participants were given two sessions of rights and responsibilities of EVS. Each group was presented with two study cases of EVS participants in the past and the solution to each case had to be presented in a creative way for example role play etc.
On the fourth day, we had a city tour and visited two most famous buildings in Braga; they were Bom Jesus do Monte and Santuario do Sameiro. After the visit, we were divided into groups again and were given a city challenge.
On the fifth day, the trainers talked about youth pass and some compentencies we would acquire during our evs period in Portugal. The day was closed with a farewell party in a restaurant. We had Arroz de Pato (Portuguese Duck Rice) and Bacalhau (Cod fish).
On the last day, we gathered in the meeting room for the last time, sat in a circle and gave a word of encouragement to one another before bidding farewell.
Jerry Conney Otey – Indonesia