EVS Musikado : EVS Seminaire

Salut! This is Marta and Rui again and we are back with more news from our EVS experience in France. It is with pleasure that we describe here our unique and unforgettable experience in the seminar for EVS volunteers, which occurred in the past October, in the region of Angoulême.

From Brioude to Angoulême it is a long journey… We caught the first train in Brioude at 9h15 and only arrived to Angoulême at about 17h30! We changed trains three times… However, we must admit that all of it was totally worth it.

After we arrived to Angoulême, we had to catch a bus and then catch a ride by car with some of the staff from the place we were going to stay at: Le Chambon. Along the way was created a cheerful environment by the volunteers, who immediately started to meet each other. And finally, we arrived to our destination… Le Chambon is an absolutely lovely place, which excels for its beautiful green view, with a river decorating the landscape, so as cows and horses. The contact with nature is special and makes you connect emotionally to that place even more profoundly.

This place was, indeed, a heavenly location, but it would mean nothing to us if our trainers didn’t receive us as well as they did. There were three of them: João, Julie and Hélen – and we also leave here our thanks for their wonderful support. They wanted us, the volunteers, to enjoy that experience as much as we could and that only would be possible if we started to know ourselves and others. So, they introduced us to activities that boosted self-development, energy and the sharing of life perspectives. This was very enriching, since that all together there were 14 volunteers, ages ranging from 18 to 29, some already with master degrees, others with no degree at all. Oh, not to mention the incredible diversity of nationalities (Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, Austrian, German, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian and even Azerbaijanis). At the end of the five days we spent there, we shared contacts, ideas, solutions and friendship. For a better understanding of our fun experience in Le Chambon, Rui made a video about it which we are going to post here, along with some pictures.

In conclusion, we would just like to say that everyone should have the opportunity to live an experience like this. We were able to prove that stereotypes are nothing in a society that would profit tremendously if it simply shared different ideas and cultures, especially in a so diversified European Union of which we are all part of. Through this way, we fulfilled the primary goal of EVS: MAINTAIN PEACE. Sharing is, in fact, loving, mes amis… Au revoir!