Ara portem aquí la meitat del període de voluntariat, més de cinc mesos, i per fi estic començant a acomodar-me una mica i a acostumar-me a tot. Tanmateix, això no vol dir que no estic fent coses noves, més aviat al contrari.

En el meu treball voluntari a LaFACT Fupar hi ha hagut grans canvis, ja que fa un parell de setmanes vam començar amb un nou horari. Abans només treballàvem unes hores a la tarda cada dia, amb activitats de lleure per a persones amb discapacitat intel·lectual, que era molt poca feina. Però ara també treballem als matins, al Centre Ocupacional de Fupar, on acompanyem la gent en la seva feina i activitats durant el dia. Vaig amb un grup a una escola on ajuden els infants a l’hort, i també els acompanyen en la seva feina a Fupar on envasen productes per a diferents proveïdors. De moment les meves altres activitats són futbol, ​​bàsquet, cuina, hoquei herba, “Grup d’amics”. M’agrada molt el voluntariat que estic fent. La gent és súper simpàtica i ara que treballem més els coneixem millor i ens sentim més part de l’associació.

Quan no estic treballant, passen moltes coses. Normalment fem alguna cosa entre els voluntaris els caps de setmana, i aquí hi ha molts esdeveniments culturals. En comparació amb Suècia, hi ha moltes coses als carrers. Hi ha colles de batucades tocant, colles de correfocs (una mena d’espectacle de foc), correbars (“bar-race”, anant entre diferents bars amb una colla de batucades), cercavila dels Reis Mags, en la qual hem participat amb Fupar, Carnaval. -setmana, festival de Jazz i no sé què més que no he mencionat. Sempre passa alguna cosa!

I sempre vull fer alguna cosa, provar coses noves i prendre tantes possibilitats com pugui. L’altra setmana vaig fer una cosa totalment nova que no m’imaginaria fent abans. Estava amb dos voluntaris més en un bar/cafeteria i semblava que hi havia un micròfon obert. Vaig pensar per a mi mateix que volia pujar i fer alguna cosa, així que vaig escriure alguna cosa ràpidament al moment i vaig pujar i vaig llegir el meu escrit. Sempre he estat una de les persones més tímides de l’escola i em van costar les exposicions orals, però alguna cosa ha canviat perquè això m’ha agradat molt i vull tornar a fer-ho!

Una altra novetat que estic fent és tocar en grup de batucada, un tipus de percussió amb dansa. Toco la bateria i la batucada em semblava una cosa divertida dins del mateix camp. Em vaig incorporar a un grup al novembre i m’agradava assajar cada setmana. I fa només una setmana, en el moment d’escriure això, em vaig incorporar a una colla de castellers, la torre humana típica de Catalunya. Aquí a Terrassa hi ha una colla de castellers per a la universitat a la qual vaig anar amb dos voluntaris més i van ser súper acollidors. Sembla el lloc perfecte per conèixer gent local, una cosa que tinc ganes de fer des que vaig venir aquí, però una mica de banda perquè som molts voluntaris europeus fent coses junts. I com que parlen català entre ells és un bon lloc per aprendre, ja que m’interessa aprendre-lo a més del castellà.

Crec que estic començant a ser una mica jo novament. Em veig més relaxat i obert, cosa que m’alegro. El desenvolupament personal és un aspecte que vull treballar durant aquesta experiència i crec que alguna cosa està passant.

Dit això, espero amb moltes ganes la propera meitat del voluntariat. La primera part va passar ràpid, cosa que no m’estressa com pensava, i centrant-me en el que ara ha de donar la segona.

English version 🇬🇧

Now we have been here for half of the volunteering-period, more than five months, and I am finally starting to get somewhat settled down and used to everything. However, that does not mean that I’m not doing new stuff, rather the opposite.

At my volunteer work at LaFACT Fupar there have been big changes as we began with a new schedule a couple of weeks ago. Earlier we only worked a few hours in the afternoon every day, with leisure activities for people with intellectual disabilities, which was very little work. But now we also work in the mornings, at the Occupational Center of Fupar, where we accompany the people for their work and activities during the day. I am going with a group to a school where they help the children in the vegetable garden, and also accompany them in their work at Fupar where they package products for different providers. For the moment my other activities are football, basketball, cooking, field hockey, “Group of friends”. I really like the volunteering that I’m doing. The people are supernice and now that we work more we get to know them better and feel more like a part of the association.

When I’m not working there are a lot of things happening. We usually do something between the volunteers on the weekends, and there are a lot of cultural events here. Compared to Sweden there is a lot of stuff happening in the streets. There are batucada groups playing, groups of correfocs (a kind of fire show), correbars (“bar-race”, going between different bars with a batucada group), parade for the Three Wise Men, in which we participated with Fupar, Carnival-week, Jazz festival and I don’t know what more that I did not mention. There is always something happening!

And I always want to do something, try new things and take as many possibilities as I can. The other week I did something totally new that I would not imagine myself doing before. I was with two other volunteers at a bar/café and it appeared to be an open-mic there. I thought to myself that I wanted to go up and do something, so I wrote down something quickly on the spot and went up and did stand-up. I’ve always been one of the more shy people in school and found the oral presentations hard, but something has changed because this I really enjoyed and want to redo!

Another new thing I am doing is to play in a batucada group, a type of percussion with dance. I play the drumset and the batucada seemed like something fun within the same field. I joined a group in November and enjoy rehearsing every week. And just a week ago, at the moment of writing this, I joined a group of castellers, the human-tower which is typical for Catalonia. There is a castellers group for the university here in Terrassa which I went to with two other volunteers and they were super welcoming. It seems like the perfect place to meet local people, something that I’ve been wanting to do since I came here but kind of put to the side since we are a lot of European volunteers doing stuff together. And since they speak Catalan with each other it is a good place to learn, as I am interested in learning it besides Spanish.

I think I am starting to become somewhat of a new me. I see myself more relaxed and open, which I am happy for. Personal development is one aspect I want to work on during this experience and I think something is happening.

With this said I am looking forward to the next half of the volunteering. The first half passed by fast, which doesn’t stress me as I thought it would, and focusing on what the second one now has to give.