Youth work. Carefully consider teenagers' life

This week I'm trying to help with preparing some decorations (and decorating maybe) for Halloween at the youth center I voluntery work. But I think I went a little bit far with some of my ideas that now I realize that I should consider more carefully some situations and young people around me. The thing is that I do not know them well, so I can understand if anything troubles them why and what. I'm trying to say that you never know about bumping into other people's skeletons from their closet. Especially, when you're involved in working with some vulnerable teenagers around. I feel bad I do not speak Finnsh and can't approach them anyway in their native language. Because as Nelson Mandela said:

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

I want to talk from my heart and there must be another way to do it! That way is ART in my case. I can't help it. For me ART is more bearable than life and its disgusting true hard reality sometimes. There is a lot of dying and death in my old skrap art trials but this is my way to conquer personal pain and lost of beloved ones. I protest and mock over prosaic daily life by art. Also, I know I can't keep my black sense of humor inside. It is unfortunately, very often misunderstood.

To the second botom line of this entry:

On Monday (Oct, 26th) I painted some fakе styrofoam "gravestone" and then I think I went a little bit (a little bit!) far into tricky, weird, or spooky Halloween spirit, painting "see you soon" on it, when there are some quite young people sick enough with their difficult life and probably don't need such mocking over life anyway. I apologize if I offended anyone. I did not mean ti at all.

However, I painted something for the first time since 2 years and 3 months (july, 2013). I stoped any painting or drawing when I went to US. I couldn't. I lost all kind of inspiration. Back at home in august 2014 'til now I haven't done any sketch or something... until now. Strange... I feel I want to start painting as my hobby and passion again... 
Thanks, Turenki!

..~..:SNUFKIN:..~..

I love Snufkin. I found some personal similarities in his character. 

Here's my favorite except of conversation between Moomin and Snufkin from cartoon episodes:

- You're thinking about going away again, aren't you, Snufkin?

- Mhuumm...

- When are you leaving Snufkin?

- Oh, I haven't decided yet. 

- You know where you're going?

- No

- It must be fun... traveling...?

- YES MOST OF THE TIME.  

   IT'S THE BEST WAY OF MEETING NEW PEOPLE AND STILL BEING ON YOUR OWN.  

 

***

But Snufkin, how can you have "old friends" when periodically meet new people? 

 

AND:

 

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HE DOING IN THE SOUTH???  

 

I so highly admire to know the answer.  

 

 

FINNISH NATURE'S POETRY

Finland has the most unbearably beautiful nature's landscapes. It could be just a green lawn, berch trees in a row, or dirty pond reflecting the last rays of autumn sunshine. It is NATURE'S POETRY and I love poetry (yes, I almost always speak or write methaphorical. It always has to be abstract). 

I went for a walk around Turenki in the afternoon and I "read" some nice "poems" drinking valkoinen tee. It was a sweet short moment of happiness on my own. Maybe I can stay for a longer time here...?

SATAMA

 HITCHCOCK BIRDS

Понякога искам да се махна от "Системата" и "Обществото" и да живея в гората като езичник по законите на Майката Природа.

M.

HEL{L}SINKI !! ;)

HELL-SINKI-OUT OF BREATH. BECAUSE IT'S BREATHTAKING!

I visited Hel(l)sinki last Saturday!! I can't believe it I did. The feeling was like dreaming though still awaked. I felt somewhat stange, unsecure, little bit sad indeed. I'll tell why. Accidently passing by Helsingin yliopisto brought back some painful memories. About 5 years ago during my Bachelor studies I applied for Erasmus student exchange in the University of Helsinki. I badly wanted to study, to continue my university years or put it off until later time somehow. The same year 2011 I received my green card to USA. I had to think more pracmatic which means to consider what was best for my parents and our finacial status. 

So, I went to States to find a job, work, save, and hopefully get a chance to be in Finland by any other way (or next life). Hard, hard decision, ughhhh??????????????????????!@@##%$^%^&&**(&(*

But that's the true hard reality. End of the story. 

I am greatful now though moving from country to country might be harder than I've imagined. Adjusting is very difficult and complicating, switching your mind to another language, totaly independent state of people's mind and  culture, building new habits or some kind of routine in a changeable curcumstances is very very challenging, little bit scary, 'cause I'm not so experienced as I wish I were, but it definitely worths all the "troubles"! I am ready.

I do not feel sorry. Put even braver face and keep   ahead no matter what or how  it hurts. Because Here is the result 7 years later. Pictures talk a thousand words, right ;)

MY FAVORITE BOOK IN FINNISH SERIOUSLY! WHAT A GREAT LINE "Satan comes/ is coming or arrives to Moskow" - Сатаната идва в Москва.. Заглавието наистина си го бива хаха. И тая котка!! Страхотна е!

He must be Johan Ludvig Runeberg

The End. In the evening I watched my favorite Disney princess, Anastasia, and had some
hot tea after "the hel-l's-inki" trip. (Anastasia is everything else but "disney", but that's another story.)

Mallinkainen / Maлинкайнен / малинкайненски- "горно-малински"* работи...

We were on autumn camp in Mallinkainen, Janakkala from Mon, Oct 12 to Wed, 14. I had "Mallinkainen"butterflies in my stomach on Monday before the camp. It was my first camp with teenagers (doestn't matter they were 6 people only) as an adult, trying to supervise them or help with... whatever is told to do. 3 days, which passed like 3 seconds helped me actually to find out what's difficult in doing voluntary youth work.

It is difficult to follow strictly a time schedule and consider all teenagers needs and demands, when they are not very enthusiastic about some of the planned activities. It is difficult freely to decide what and how to do a certain task. It was also difficult, because we all (volunteers, youth leaders...) still do not know each other working style, pace, or personality. For the former reasons in fact Mallinkainen camp is a big step in achieving some basic knowledge about workshops and activities, or "know-how"/"know what" to do experience for my future participation in the project.

Additionally, I have to get used to being/working/living with another person, my work pather, Lisa. We are opposite in personalities, both come from very different background/culture/state of mind and behave/react differently/oppositely. Frankly speaking, I find it hard sometimes, challenging my feelings/hopes/goals/self-esteem maybe, but it's great, beacuse it is the only way to find out who still I am as a person and worker. Mallinkainen camp showed me that a lot of patience/ energy/open-mindness is needed for understanding other's point. I've learned to regard positively all the difficulties we might encounter in future. I just smile, forgive and forget, entirely wide open-minded. 
Live and let live.

I'm glad that all went well in general. I'm very thankful for the understanding, patience, attention, explanations to my incomplete/unclear questions, the time and respect I receive from (in alphabetical order) Anni, Kitta, Sanna ja Satu. They are my high professional teachers in life and work. Nyt ja Aina oikeasti.

It's great that we can talk for any changes, if  any issues occur can discuss, compromise and find common language. We speak different languages but there's always a way for common understanding. This is how we dealt about timing and lunch on Wed I think. So, I simply know: the more I practice the better I can manage in my future tasks (taking everything for pretty difficult and serious makes me very anxious, clumsy, and useless:/:/ Maybe I just have to be more relaxed, not nervous, so I can handle my time and tasks efficiently with no anxiety or any doubt).

Last, but not least - leirilaiset! Here is some piece of their art:

 

I don't know them well but I can say they are friendly, full of beans and crazy ideas and not shy. They also speak some English.

Thanks to Anni, who controlled them, they tried to pay attention on me for the international outdoor game "Get lost in the forest" ("get lost" mainly because of my unclear instructions or no instructions for someones. Oh, I will be more experienced and prepared next time!).

The second part of my activity was "find a friend in need and help". That is the tittle and my main idea. I know I didn't succeed maybe and I am perfectly fine with that. But I heard one of the boys told the girls where to find a missing part from their game and I felt so happy for 10 seconds. Yes, that was my hope! Thank you! Youngsters are not robots, they won't folow the intructions exactly the way they've been told to. I understand that and greatly appreciate the fact that they have participated in general. The greatest thing was that they actually collected Bulgarian letters and sorted the alphabet! There was just one letter missing, but it is totally fine! Bulgarian alphabet is too long anyway (he-he). Why do we need 30 letters and 36 phonetics? The rest - the maps I drew were for fun. I kept one for me as a nice memory from Mallinkainen Syksy 2015. 

(I don't know why everytime I post it it is up-side down !?! told you it's a tricky silly map!)


*I just played with the words in the tittle, because "malinkaisten or malllinkainen" resembles in sound "malina or malinski", my Bulgarian hometown (Gorna Malina).

Northern Lights! A night to remember!

 I'm not the most the most excited person in the world now! Indeed I can't /I don't feel the ground on my feet! I'm completely sweetly drown in the sky of the Northern Lights I saw tonight. 


From the moment when the lights showed themselves again more visibly brighter I was really like loosing the gravity. I was also scared a little bit. I don't know why. Didn't know what was happening because they vaguely had gone into a mist or foggy dim veils shyly hiding behind the trees and somehow slowly waving in the sky. 

Then the Lights suddenly appeared again and I felt like a kidnapped by aliens!! The Lights started moving and dancing, just a little bit glimmering and shining, twisting between light purple/lilac, some pink, electric yellow and white and then gray. I imagined them running around and chasing like very happy playful baby reindeers from a fairly tale. Yeah, I'm sure I saw some reindeers in the sky!

I was looking up up into the sky and felt somewhat scared of such an immense unpredictable nature beauty. Yeah, it's definitely enchanting fascinating experience. 

Hmmm, and it made me questioning about heaven. 

Should it be in the sky? 

* честит рожден ден, Ради! 7.10

International Teachers' Day, Oct.5th / Leppäkoski, Haukankallion koulu ja Leppäkosken koulu

I have just read that today is the World Teachers' Day
According to a Japanese proverb, "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher."
There’s truth in those words, as anyone who has ever had a great teacher will know!
October 5 is an International Teachers’ Day, a day to celebrate educators around the world. Teaching is incredibly difficult (and sometimes maybe thankless) work, yet it is just the world’s most important job I think. Teachers can and do change lives every day. They inspire generations of students to think, learn, create, and accomplish things they never believed they could do.
I am very grateful that I have the real opportunity to visit schools in Finland during my European Voluntary Service
 I want to say THANK YOU for your time, patience, attention, listning, and unredstanding to all the teachers I have met so far and will meet in future. This week I am in Leppäkoski, Haukankallion koulu ja Leppäkosken koulu.

On #WorldTeachersDay, hardworking teachers tell us what's wrong with public education. In one word, if you ask me: politicians.

#iwishmyteacherknew  I love that. Brilliant idea!!

#NelsonMandela "Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world"