My EVS in Andalusia

Hello family, friends and other dear folk,

I m finally getting myself to start this blog…in English, considering that a majority oft the people I know do not take hold of he German language.

This blog is public, so for the ones who dont know me: My name is Deborah, 18, from Germany and I am spending 10 months as an EVS volunteer in Andalucía, Spain.

First, may I present you the place where I arrived almost 2 weeks ago:

Purchena!...doesn´t ring a bell with you? Well, it will do from now on.

„Pequinita Purchenita“, as I call it jokingly, is an endearing wee white village in the mountains somewhere between Granada and Almería. It is not too far situated from the Sierra Nevada (highest peak about 3500m of altitude) and has merely got 2000 inhabitants.

To be honest, it ist he kind of place where you could hide in case of a zombie apocalypse. They would hardly find you.

However, this should not be our final opinion at all. Because we know, and I have been told here again, that it is the people who give life to a village…who make it outstanding through their commitment and dedication. And about that, I am willing to tell you, wanting to tell you and waiting to tell you in upcoming parts oft he blog.

For now, I will continue with more general things.

The heart of Purchena is a rather insconspicious „Plaza“ with the library, a music school and the townhall. My spacious, shared flat (2nd floor) with roof terrace and enchanting view over Purchena, valley and mountains is in a lane just around the corner. Like in Río de Janeiro, a „Christ the redeemer“-statue rises up about the town. It is situated next to a tiny chapel on the hill of the old „alcazár“ (muslim castle).

My flatmate and covolunteer Renata is a lovely girl from Poland. She arrived the same week as I did, unlike the two other Turkish volunteers who arrived 8 months ago and will leave around Christmas. Renata and I both have a passion for funny videos and Downton Abbey which we enjoy watching together weekly now.

Everyday, we get to know a bit more of our tasks, including work with children and people of all ages, from 1 year olds to infinite age. There is bits and bobs of everything: One day a week, we help in the crèche/ nursery („guardería“), on other days we give language classes, theatre-, art-, drawing-, newspaper-, yoga-, and any kind of other workshops, literature clubs, maintaining the local facebook page and other websites…a list to be continued…

Creativity is everything! Coming up with new ideas and promoting them well is what it´s all about.

We have already been on a couple of discovering tours, are participating in a cooking course, went to the local pub and to a concert and tried making our own Spanish tortilla... but it will still take loads of time to get to know the people and surroundings. Till now, the sun has been shining every day, hopefully the good weather wont cease for a while. But...living next to a library gives us thousands of options for cold mountain winter days….