Finding luck by coincidence

The first two months with Johann William, Otto-Oskar, Anet-Erika and Janne Lisette are over.

I started my one year long adventure on the 4th September with the flight from Frankfurt to Tallinn and looking back on it have been managing quite well since, considering how little I was actually prepared.

I am living in Võru, a relatively small town in the south of Estonia located at the shore of the beautiful lake Tamula. The city was established in 1784, according to the wish of the Russian Empress Catherine II and is home to about 12,000 people. What is characteristic about Võru is the simplicity of its street system, which can be compared to the rectangular composition of a chequerboard. This made it very easy when I arrived to not get lost and orientate myself. Võru is part of Võrumaa which is the county located furthest south and for Estonian standards has relatively warm summers and cold winters. Very disappointingly in the south of Estonia usually the temperatures in winter are lower than in the north near the sea but there is less snow. However as I recently found out this lets the lake freeze so people are even able to drive on it with their cars! Võru is divided into four parts; Võrukivi in the North, Nöörima which comprises the city center, Võrusoo and the last part which I am most excited to explore over the next weeks Kubja. Kubja mostly consists of woodland and hiking or cross-country skiing trails leading through it but a lovely spa and hotel are also located here in the middle of the forest.

Weirdly you can find the local hospital here too, in the middle of nowhere, not even the locals know why it was built there. When talking about Võru and its history one has to mention Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald the author of the Estonian national “Kalevipoeg” who lived here from 1833 to 1877 working as a doctor. Today a street, a park and a museum dedicated to him hold his name and there is a statue of him in the park. Folklore is a big part of the practiced culture and there is a big Folklore festival in the town annually. As there isn’t that much going on in Võru especially during the winter time mostly elderly people or families with younger children live here. When one has graduated from college most people move away to bigger cities like Tartu which is one hour away and is a real university city. This has made it quite hard to get to know locals of my age. I have traveled to Tartu and other cities myself a few times now and the transport system here consists of buses.

Disproving my expectations the buses are very punctual and sometimes even early. The rail system isn’t really developed, there is a train line that leads through Võru but it is only used for the transportation of goods. In bigger cities like Tallinn there are obviously trams etc. and in the north there are some train lines for passenger trains. In general Võru offers the option of a quiet country life surrounded by beautiful nature but also all kinds of shops are in walking distance and it even has a small shopping center. Another reason why people even in winter travel to Võru are the many secondhand shops spread around the city center.

My project is the Lasteaed Punamüstike and the group Okaskera rühm. The youngest children in my group just turned four in September and the oldest turned five last week. Children in Estonia go to kindergarten from the ages 1,5-7, which has the effect that people usually have children at a relatively young age, because they don’t have to take time of work for long. The opening times of the kindergarten are also very convenient for families where both parents work full time or for single parents; it is open from 7 am to 7 pm each day, I work from 9 am to 1 pm have a 2 hour break because the kids sleep after lunch and then go back for about two hours. The opening hours also explain how it is possible for there to be four kindergartens in Võru center and at least two including mine with 11 groups, each group providing the possibility of hosting 24 kids.

The Okaskera rühm has 20 children playing and two teachers, one teacher helper plus me as a volunteer working in it. Twice a week the children have sports, music and swimming lessons, there are special teachers and rooms for each lesson and in the cellar of the kindergarten there is even a small swimming pool. So far my project has got better each week. At the beginning it was difficult for me to find my place, I don’t think I have found it now but I’m very optimistic that I am on a good way to finding it and fully settling in. The last volunteer only left on the 1st September so there wasn’t much time for the kids or the teachers to prepare themselves for someone new, which at the beginning from my point of view slowed down this process additionally. However I do feel like both sides are quite happy with how it has been going so far. Until now I haven’t had any real responsibilities; I have helped wherever help was needed or played with the kids, this has been fine until now but not very challenging.

What I am hoping for in the next few weeks is that I get given more responsibilities and can contribute to the topics being talked about. For example the last few weeks we have been concentrating on vegetables and fruits and now probably birds will be the next thing being talked about. Of course besides this the kids are learning some letters, colors and the numbers, this is quite practical for me as I learn with and from them. Otherwise it is relatively difficult to explain what has been happening in my project without going into too much detail, I hope the added photos will give you an idea of what the kindergarten looks like and what we have been up to.

I takes me 15 minutes maximum to get to work, I live in a two room flat near the lake together with the only other volunteer in Võru. The girl I am living with is called Carla and she is also from Germany, we get on really well. At first as we have both told each other now we weren’t sure whether we would get on as we are very different, but the situation we are in has connected us and we already have quite a strong bond. The first three weeks I lived in a different flat nearer to my kindergarten, Carla’s kindergarten was still looking for a second volunteer who would have moved in with her, but as they weren’t able to find anyone and it is cheaper to rent one flat instead of two I moved. I wasn’t too sorry to leave the old flat; the first days I was living with a pet rat in the room next to me which moved out after I addressed this to my tutor.

Another thing that was weird about the flat was that in the bathroom there was no wash basin so I was washing my teeth in the bath (you’ll be surprised how quickly one gets used to new situations). When the washing machine was on it felt like the windows were going to shatter as the whole flat started shaking and additionally at the weekends I was living with the landlord’s daughter and her boyfriend, for them I was just the volunteer after the one before and before the next. Otherwise the flat was fine and I must say it was probably in better condition than the one I am living in now, however where I am living now feels a lot more comfortable and homely. One thing both flats have in common is that they are part of buildings that are like panel constructions, in Germany these are associated with the DDR, mostly found in bigger cities and inhabited by people with a lower income.

As my tutor Tiia explained to me the evening I arrived, here they are also remains of the Soviet Union and as Estonia’s history is relatively young still many of these buildings are even found in the countryside and not in any kind related to financial statues. Luckily Võru is also known for its special wooden architecture so there is a good mixture here. Speaking of Estonia’s history; in the Estonian language one can see many remains of the influence of the medieval and early modern ages when the country was ruled by Germans. At the beginning I was surprised how many words there are which are similar to the correspondent German word. This was very helpful to be able to get started. I have had three language lessons and have been trying to absorb as much as possible in the kindergarten. However learning a new language is of course always difficult especially if it isn’t related to your mother tongue in anyway except for some words. What has definitely changed to when I arrived is that I now recognize the sound/melody of the language and it doesn’t sound so alien anymore. I am looking forward to becoming part of the small portion of 1.5 million people who speak Estonian.

During the week after work, besides language lessons it is generally quite difficult to find activities to do especially outside. I have joined a dance group which trains three times a week and I am really enjoying the training and slowly getting to know the other girls. The typical Estonian isn’t very open, Estonians need their time to get to know you but when they open up to you then they do it wholeheartedly, so my plan is to not expect too much of making friends quickly but making friends for life. Besides dancing my flat mate and I go to the gym together a few times a week too and we both enjoy going for walks along the lake although it’s getting a bit too cold for this (we had snow last week!!!). At the weekend the options are usually have a relaxed weekend in Võru and going for a stroll along the lake or meeting up with other volunteers. Because Carla and I were on two different on-arrival trainings we have got to know quite a lot of other volunteers and are looking forward to visiting them where they are living and showing them around Võru.

The title of this blog post is “Finding luck by coincidence”, this is the title of the book I had to design on my on-arrival training describing what I imagine/would like my year in Estonia to be like. I never choose Estonia or my project consciously it just kind of happened and I hope at the end of this year there will be happiness and the result of complete happiness is luck. This might sound idolized but happiness can exist in many different forms. I want to look back on this year and not say “oh I regret I didn’t do that” or “I should have done this”, I want to have taken chances, battled challenges and developed/grown.