Hola a tothom,

Em dic Anton, tinc 18 anys d’Alemanya i soc voluntària a Fupar. Aquest curs he acabat l’escola i he escollit aquest projecte de voluntariat per aprendre més sobre la cultura espanyola i catalana, practicar parlar castellà, viure per primera vegada i fer experiències en l’àmbit del treball amb persones amb discapacitat.

He tingut l’honor d’escriure l’article d’aquesta setmana. Va començar el dilluns 25 de setembre amb el nostre primer joc de petanca. Coneixia la versió alemanya del joc, però les diferents regles aquí a Espanya van confondre una mica tots els voluntaris. No obstant això, vam fer rodar com ens va demanar el voluntari local que va dirigir tota la sessió, almenys quan vam esbrinar exactament què volia que féssim. La nova llengua encara és una lluita, però només fa dues setmanes que visc a Espanya. En general, l’ambient era molt bo i em va agradar jugar amb la resta de persones que hi havia, que ens van acollir molt bé.

Dimarts ens vam incorporar a l’entrenament de futbol de l’equip Fupar, on vam haver de dirigir uns exercicis, perquè ja no era el nostre primer entrenament amb ells. Tot i que va ser un repte inesperat compondre diferents tipus d’exercicis per escalfar sense preparar-se i haver d’explicar-ho en castellà, ho vam aconseguir amb l’ajuda de voluntaris locals i molts gestos. Però el millor del nostre projecte és que, tot i que no parlem perfectament el castellà, podem divertir-nos molt i conèixer la gent de l’equip només fent l’esport amb ells. No calen moltes paraules per divertir-se i portar-se bé mentre practiquem un esport junts.

Dimecres va ser el nostre primer “dia d’oficina”, on vam haver de trobar diferents coses per fer amb la gent de Fupar en el seu temps lliure, a part de l’esport. Vam pensar en projectes en l’àmbit de les arts i manualitats així com anar i crear esdeveniments. Mentrestant, dos de nosaltres vam córrer amb un petit grup, però ens vam tornar a unir més tard. Hem compartit unes quantes rialles intentant trobar les coses perfectes per fer sense conèixer realment la ciutat nosaltres mateixos, però al final hem trobat tota una llista de coses que ens vam posar d’acord i ens van encantar.

Dijous va ser un altre entrenament de futbol per a mi, que va ser força exigent perquè hauria d’haver dinat almenys 2 hores i mitja abans i aquell dia feia molta calor. Encara m’he divertit, realment hi ha un bon ambient durant aquests entrenaments. Pots veure com tothom està apassionat pel joc i tots volen ser-hi i divertir-se.

Divendres vam fer la segona sessió d’hoquei, on vam acompanyar el grup de jugadors de Fupar al camp d’hoquei pel nostre compte. Vaig aprendre a agafar el disc correctament, cosa que és molt més difícil del que esperava, però tenim prou mesos per practicar. Una cosa que també he notat és que a poc a poc anem creant un vincle amb els membres de l’equip. Tot i que de tant en tant tenim problemes de parla/comprensió, cada cop coneixem més aquestes persones.

Dissabte vam anar tres a un seminari a Barcelona, en castellà. Encara no parlem català, així que va ser una mica difícil escoltar i parar atenció durant tant de temps. Realment t’has de concentrar per entendre la gent que parla, però la gent d’allà era molt agradable fins i tot amb els problemes lingüístics. Va ser un plaer conèixer gent diferent, que també té una relació amb el voluntariat. I hi va haver menjar durant les dues pauses, que va ajudar a mantenir la moral alta.

Actualment, estic assegut al sofà del nostre apartament i escric sobre avui (diumenge). En aquest dia assolellat, vaig visitar Barcelona amb altres voluntaris i vam anar al Museu d’Història de Barcelona (l’accés al qual aquell dia era gratuït perquè és el primer diumenge de mes). Després d’això, vam passejar una mica pel barri i vam trobar una botiga alemanya de decoració nadalenca. Aquesta botiga encara té un estand al mercat de Nadal de la meva ciutat natal de Würzburg, que no m’esperava i va ser molt divertit de veure. Després, al final, vam assistir a una part d’un ofici de l’església espanyola que va ser una gran oportunitat per comparar les tradicions alemanyes i espanyoles (la principal diferència seria el tipus de música). Després hem tornat a Terrassa i això és el final de la meva setmana!

English version 🇬🇧

My name is Anton, i am 18 years old from.Germany and a volunteer at Fupar. I finished school this year and chose this volunteering project in order to learn more about the spanish and catalane culture, practice speaking spanish, to life on my own for the first time and make experiences in the field of working with people with disabilities.

I got the honor to write the article for this week. It started on Monday, the 25th of September with our first Game of Petanca. I knew the german version of the game, but the different rules here in Spain got all of the volunteers a bit confused. Nevertheless we threw the ball like the local volunteer leading the whole session told us to – at least when we understood what exactly he wanted us to do. The new language is still a struggle, but it has also been just two weeks since living in Spain. All in all the vibes were really good and I enjoyed playing with the other people there, who were really welcoming to us.

On Tuesday we joined the footballtraining of the team of Fupar, where we had to -due to it being not our first training with them anymore- lead some exercises and although it was an unexpected challenge to make up different kind of exercises to warm up without preparing and having it to explain in Spanish, we managed with the help of the local volunteers as well as a lot of gesturing. But the great thing with our project is that even though we do not speak perfect spanish, we can still have a lot of fun and get to know the single characters of the team just by playing their sports with them. It does not take a lot of words to have fun and get along when playing a sport together.

Wednesday was our first “office day”, where we had to come up with different things to do with the people of Fupar in their leasure-time apart from sports. We thought about projects in arts and crafts as well as going to and creating events. Two of us in the meantime went on a run with a small group, but joined us afterwards. We shared a few laughes trying to come up with the perfect things to do without really knowing the city ourselves, but in the end we found quite a list of things we could agree on and liked.

Thursday was another Footballtraining for me, which was quite tiering because I should have had my lunch at least 2,5 hours earlier and that day it was really hot, but I still had a lot of fun, it is really just a good atmosphere during those trainings, because you see how passionate everybody is about playing and that they all want to be there and have fun.

On Friday we had our second session of Hockey, where we accompanied the group of players from Fupar to the Hockey court on our own, which was like our first moment of real responsability and then we played firstly with them and after that with the other team of Fupar, which drained our energy with 30°C and no shadow on the pitch. I learned how to actually shoot the ball properly, which is a lot harder than I had expected, but at least we have enough months to practice. One thing I also noticed is that we are slowly building a connection to the people in the teams, even though having problems with speaking/understanding from time to time, we get to know their characters more and more and also engage more with them than on the first day, where I personally felt more like a visitor.

On Saturday three of us went to a seminar in Barcelona, which was fortunatly held in Castellano, after the people in charge found out, that the three of us do not speak Cataln yet. It was a bit challenging to listen anf pay attention this long when you really have to concentrate to understand the people talking and of course it was not the most thrilling thing to do compared to playing football or hockey, but the people there where really kind and even with the language problems from time to time it was nice getting to know different people, who also have a connection to volunteering. And there was food during the two breaks, which helped keeping the mood high.

Now I am sitting on the couch in our flat and writing about today – Sunday- where I visited Barcelona with a group of other volunteers to go into the Museum of Barcelonas history, which was free to access this day, because it is the first Sunday of the month. After that we walked around in the neighbourhood for a bit and tried to see more of Barcelona and stumbled upon a open German shop for christmas decorations, which has always a stand on the christmas market in my hometown Würzburg, which I did not expect, which was really funny to see. Then, after witnessing a part of a spanish church service, which was a great possibility to compare the german and spanish traditions (the main difference would be the type of music), we came back and now the week has come to an end.