Maxi

Maxi (january 2008-November 2008)-Germany

Dear future volunteer of Mó de Vida!

You seem to be interested to know more about EVS at this place…well, I can tell you a little bit of what I, a former EVS from the far away Germany, experienced there during ten months…

In January 2008 I finally arrived in Lisbon’s airport after some troubles with the Agency, that didn`t accept my application at first in September, where I was picked up by two collegues, Nuno and Carlos. Behind me was the German highschool, and now I wanted to experience something different before studying.

Mó de Vida is situated in Almada, a town south of the river Tejo. On its northern side is Lisbon which you can reach by boat. The place of Mó is consisting of the shop and some space for activities in a big house which belongs to the local cooperative. I basically was in the shop during the opening hours, 2 to 8 p.m. weekdays and 2 to 7p.m. Saturday. January was a time where everybody saved the money they spent for Christmas and activities outside hadn’t started yet. So I learned some Portuguese with Eugenia, a friend of Mó. She was a good teacher who spoke to me in all kind of languages together, English, French, German, Portuguese, sometimes all in one sentence…It was good, because here in Almada aren’t a lot of people who speak English…

Then, spring came, my Portuguese improved, acticities like ‘pausa justa’ (coffee breaks with fair coffee and tea and cookies and cakes which I liked to bake in my freakish oven…) or stands with products and information started, and my French collegue Delphine arrived.

Now, the four of us worked in the shop and prepared the activities, other volunteers helped us in rush times. The shop had to be decorated, new products with prices to be put in place, things for the activities to be packed or unpacked, registrated, costumers to be informed…things which happens in a shop. Then of course, we went to different places where the stands or pausas found place and tried to inform people about fair trade and social economy. There also were films and debates (for example with a Brasilian farmer and school classes visiting Mó) or other activities in relation with social economy and they are organizing projects of ethical tourism.

Mó de Vida is a really interesting project, because they think beyond all the common “fair trade”, and also try to change their own habbits first. So they are for example a cooperative like the fair trade farmers overseas the work with. It is not only about making trade fair and selling a lot of these products to feel good or make profit. It is more an idea of a way of life, a social economy, fair trade is only a mean to improve these relationships between people and their way of live. So it was important to make people think about their habits and create responsible consumers, who for example also buy local products from Portugal or products from a cooperative in Brasil which hasn`t the money yet for an official fair trade label yet.

As the fair trade movement is recent in Portugal, few people know it and so, you can really can take part in discussing ideas and explaining it to people becomes a challenge.

It is a place where you can learn a lot and also share your ideas while sitting around a table and drinking a cup of tea (we drank a lot of very tasty fair trade tea during some times in winter when the shop is freezing… ).

Delphine and I started soon to prepare some things on our own, like some activities with children.

I have to admit that I found it a bit difficult in the beginning to find tasks for me on my own as I was used to be sad what to do and to be productive. But then, I really liked that we were given all the space we needed, we could do whatever we wanted. So, we wrote two plays about fair trade and performed it as a theatre of shadows and then, had a debate or painted something on a big map of the world. Or we created a card game about trade and information material. These bricolations were things I really liked .

In the end of my EVS, we also started to form a `Banco de Tempo` (=Timebank) within our organization. There you have a group of people (everybody can be a member), and within this group, you exchange services. What counts is the time you take to do it, and you can offer whatever you are able to do. I take your dog out for an hour of walking and get an hour of French lesson from Delphine, for example. It was really interesting to see how this concept of a direct exchange on a basis of equality could fit in the idea of Mó, and to really see some volunteers being interested and also taking part in the organization of the group and some activities of Mó. (You have to know, that Pragal is a place, where many old people live and everything happens very very slowly (in the eyes of a German girl) if it ever happens…, but well, that`s their way of life). We informed ourselves about the topic on our own, organized information material and evenings, a blog and inaugaugurated our agency with a group of members just before my EVS finished.

Well, this was a little bit of what I have done at work during this time…

But you will see, you can do so many other things there! The work there was not only a `work` or my colleagues only my ´colleagues`. They were more like a big family, and I think I always could talk to someone if I had a problem about work or personal. If we had an idea, they were more excited about it then us and just let us do our thing, supporting us if we asked them to. I liked this free space and that they just accepted every contribution we made. I also had the feeling that I always was accepted like I am, they never tried to change me or had huge expectations of what I should bring as measurable results, but gave the space to develop own ideas and see what I could contribute.

Then, this question of what I have learned through this year…I don´t really know how to put it in words, because it is so much…

Well, and of course I learned to adapt to another way of life and to think in another language...

I think I got more independent, more selfconscious. I know now that I can start all over on a new place on my own and make myself feel at home everywhere. I know that I can choose what I want to do in my future and take all the responsibilities myself. I feel more free and am able to decide to do things because it feels right for me to do them and not only because I am expected to do so. I learned that it is not all only about being productive and successfull, but about what I think if I look back on my life. I learned to form my own opinion about things and then live according to it and not to change them , because maybe someone else only then accepts you. I got in contact with different ideas of society, of alternative ways to have relationships to each other on an international or regional level. This was really interesting for my personal developpment and I believe that I am now thinking also about the results of my actions on a global level and the responsibility I have. But I no longer want to change the whole world into a “good place”. I rather realized, that the only thing I can change is myself, starting with my way of thinking, and that what I see as a good way is perhaps not good for other people. The best thing to do is to accept each other like we are without jugding it that fast.

Before and during the year, I was very unsure about what to study later. Now, I know that whatever I decide, I can make with it somehting I can feel good. I can learn something wherever I am and everything can be usefull in a way, if not for my career, then for me personally. And not everything has to have an imediate, mesurable result. Before, I was used to be sad what to do, to be productive. There, I learned to take the initiative, to inform myself, developp own ideas of what I can do and to organize how I can do it and then just start to act.

I also saw that I am a product of the education of the society/country I live in, so some things I think, are typically “German”. But then, we are all equal in many things, especially in Europe and can learn from each other and in the end decide which costums we like. But I also know now, that there is no such thing as “normal” or “Portguese” or “German”, every person has its own way to do things.

In the end, this place was my home with my friends and my “Mó family”. I miss them all and I hope to return soon!

I wish you all the good for your application and all I can say that you are really lucky if you become a volunteer there!!