My travel diary: With Tandem out and about

Bärnau: Tandem autumn meeting, 20.9.-22.9.2023

Just three days after my arrival in Regensburg, I took part in my first business trip with Tandem. Every September, the colleagues from the German and Czech Tandem offices meet at the planning meeting to discuss their projects and plans for the coming year. This time, the meeting took place in the small, picturesque town Bärnau. Bärnau is located in the German-Czech border region and is known for its button factory and button museum. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit these places as the programme was pretty tight. However, we were given an exciting guided tour of the Bärnau-Tachov History Park – an open-air museum. Among other things, we learnt how people built houses out of wood and stone in the Middle Ages. We were also able to try our hand at transporting stones from the quarry to the building site using a wheelbarrow. That was quite exhausting. It was easy to imagine how strenuous it was for people back then to spend hours working with their hands to build a house.

During the meeting, I got to know all my colleagues from both Tandem offices.

Klingenthal: Advanced language animation training, 18.10.-22.10.2023

In mid-October, the focus was once again on a small town in the German-Czech border region. This could be seen from the bilingual headlines in the restaurant and incoming orange messages – sometimes “Welcome to Germany” and a few metres further on “Vítejte v Česku (Welcome to the Czech Republic)”. No other place could have been more suitable for this meeting. The language animators from the Czech Republic and Germany met here to complete an advanced training course on language animation. As a volunteer, I had the task of taking photos of the events. But that was not so easy, because at the moments when the best pictures would have been taken, I was completely immersed in the language animations and the general events. In my experience, that’s what language animation is all about: breaking down the language barrier, having fun and forgetting about time! 🙂

Munich: On-arrival seminar for volunteers in Germany, 6.11. – 12.11.2023

25 different countries, 25 volunteers, 25 life stories: This is what our on-arrival seminar looked like. The aim of this seminar was to get to know the other volunteers who, like me, are doing voluntary service across Germany through the European Solidarity Corps. A really varied programme was prepared for us. We took part in various workshops on topics such as solidarity and individual and European values. There was also plenty of free time so that we could discover Munich and enjoy it to the full. During the day, we visited places worth seeing such as Marienplatz and the Olympic Park. In the evenings, we took advantage of Munich’s great club scene and visited a disco club and a club with rock music.

At a seminar, we made posters with pictures and texts to depict our homeland. I experienced one very emotional moment when I saw the poster of a volunteer from Russia on which he described his home in St. Petersburg as a home in the middle of nowhere, because Russia under Putin’s regime is for him no longer his home. A volunteer from Belarus expressed something similar with her poster, depicting Belarus as a country where there is no more freedom of expression because of the autocratic regime.

I was particularly touched by the way these two volunteers from Russia and Belarus showed their disapproval of the war in Ukraine and their solidarity and friendship with two volunteers from Ukraine. It reminded me of my grandfather, who once said when I was little: “Človek nakoniec vyhrá” (Man will win in the end) – in the sense of humanity and love.

This week in Munich turned out to be seven great days with great people that I will carry in my heart for a long time.

Berlin: German-Czech Youth Meeting, 23.11.-26.11.2023

Have you ever been to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? I have, at the German-Czech Youth Meeting at the end of November 2024 in Berlin. The youth hostel where we stayed looked like the wizard school from Harry Potter. The only difference was that it did not offer magic lessons, but various workshops for young people from Germany and the Czech Republic – for example podcast, dancing or sustainable cosmetics. There were also themed discussions on the mobility of the future or LGBTQ and gender identity. On Saturday evening, three different city tours were offered, during which the city guides reported on their personal stories. They were a refugee from Syria, a former alcoholic and a former homeless person. Despite their difficult life stories, they have managed to find a way out and lead fairly happy lives.

Waldmünchen: Ahoj.info video seminar, 15.3.-17.3.2024

“Our world of the future” – that was the name of the event that I spent months preparing together with Isabelle, the second volunteer in the ahoj.info project, and other Tandem colleagues.

At the seminar, young people from Germany and the Czech Republic used a variety of discussions, colourful collages and short films to express their ideas about how they imagine the world in the future. In their short films, they presented interesting ideas, for example about robots that will drink coffee in the future, just like we do it today. In the evening, we could sit together in a cosy atmosphere and round off the day together.

Rybníky: Spring Tandem meeting, 20.3.-21.3.2024

Just like half a year ago at the autumn Tandem meeting, almost all colleagues from the German and Czech Tandem offices gathered together to reflect the past year and discuss ongoing projects. And I really could not believe that half a year of my voluntary service had already passed!

I’ll write more about my next travels with Tandem later. The next blog post will be about making friends in a new city, so stay tuned! 🙂