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).
SATAMA
