Visit to vegetable garden in winter

As you might remember volunteers of MOJU work not only with kids, but also we have a little vegetable garden in "Ecoteca". We experiment there, check our skills and hope for vegetables to grow.

Because of a lot of rains and holidays we didn't visit our land around one month. And wonder happened! After rainy weeks our plot became all green, wild plants which before were more or less exterminated growing everywhere. At the same time cucumbers, spinach and salsa were also bigger and much more than before.

We brought part of the harvest home and made a big salad with all of the harvest and avocado.

Visiting Lagos again!

Last weekend we visited Lagos and west cost of Algarve.
One can get to Lagos on train, but for other places we needed to rent a car, because most of beautiful natural locations doesn't have public transport connection.

Lagos is one of the most beautiful and most visited city in Algarve.
You can go from beach to beach through little caves between.

Variety of rocky views impressed me. In every coast point of Lagos I was discovering rare shore beauty.

Algarve is such a beautiful place, I wish to visit every natural wonder of it.

Trainings in Geres

From Outumn we started EVS arriving and mid-term trainings in Peneda-Gerês National Park  (Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês). More accurately in youth hostel - Pousada de Juventude do Gerês.

The nature of this park is amazing. Its making staying for training realy amazing, one can go walk around, see mountains. Really good place to relax and feel the north beauty of Portugal.

Important: How our new volunteers feel themselves coming to Olhao.

4 new volunteers from different countries came here to Olhao to work with kids. Our team becomming bigger again!

First days in new country with new people sure can put young person into stress. Thats why we wonder How does the new volunteer who recently arrived in the city feels. Also it will be nice to compare the impression in the beging of EVS and after some time.

So, further are first impressions of our volunteers:

Climate challange

Coming to the south Portugal we all expect to have warm sunny days. And its true! After -5C in Ukraine I came on 17th of January to Algarve, the warmest region in Portugal, and took off my light Autumn coat, having +23C. I remember that day very good - Hungarian volunteer Lisy met me just in t-shirt. I was feeling so good, warming myself on the sun. We had sun in winter almost every day and for the whole day. Having so much sun was like a paradise for me. We even based in the ocean in the super cold water.

BUT, not all days are so warm and there is no central heating inside houses. So, in winter, at daytime it's colder inside the buildings than outside. It's a problem, especially, when rooms are not on the  sun side. For me and Lisy it was hard to get used to coldness at home, so we used electric heaters a lot.

Yoga in the project

Our volonteers Inna and Lisy like yoga!

😊 💚 And happily now we started to have yoga in organisation - one sesion for kids and one for grown-ups a week. Its realy nice, because  we believe that yoga can help not only body, but also our mind.

Lets do yoga!!! 💪

Week of youth

From 15 till 19 of october we had youth of week.
For us it was really different week with a lot of events. We were celebrating the birthsday of our association MOJU, having sunset party with kids, helping in school with seminars and activity about neighborhood discrimination, having dinner all together with members of association.

 

Now we know more about Ukraine!!!

Last friday we had an oportunity to get to know Ukraine better.

Our monthly event "intercultural night" was presented by ukrainian volonteer Inna. We could try a lot of ukrainian national food and get some fresh look from insider personally. Also we had time to have a good conversation with all the volonteers, new and old. We had fun!!!

Do you know that Ukraine became independent not so long ago, in 1991?! Its a young country which tries to join EU and deal with armed attack of Russia on the east.

Know Olhão Part 5 Architecture

Know Olhão Part 5 

Architecture

Olhão is the largest fishing port of the Algarve.  In this small town you can see different type of architecture. From typical parish church (The Chapel of Senhor dos Aflitos and the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosári)….

…..to buildings covered with Azulejo ( а form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework).

Trip to Benagil

Trip to Benagil

Algarve offers many places to be explored!

This week we decided to visit Benagil. The Benagil caves are some of the most impressive sea caves in Europe.

Intercultural night! Meeting Spain!

Intercultural night! 

Meeting Spain!

This month our Spanish volunteer presented her country.

She introduced to us her country’s culture and nature through, traditional cuisine and she took time to presented her region.

Аfter the presentation, we were able to taste various traditional Spanish  dishes.

Limpar Portugal

Limpar Portugal
 World Clean-up Day 2018

Last Saturday was the World Clean-up Day so we went to “limpar Portugal”.

The kids happily helped us to clean part of the port, recycling what we found…

…this made them realise how important it is to not throw garbage to the ground!

Camping in Faro

Camping in Faro 

On the first week of September, we had the last camping days in Faro to say goodbye to the summer.

We build our camping tents in the Scouts’ field…

…where we also did a lot of games and activities, we even saw the moon with a telescope at night!

We also spent one day at the beach to relax and take in some sun rays before school starts.

The kids helped us to prepare lunches and dinners.

Best way to finish the summer!

Know Olhão Part 4 Islands

Know Olhão Part 4 

Islands

Olhão has an island fortress, accessible by ferry.

One of the islands is Ilha da Armona, which has a long and beautiful beach full of shells.

The other island is Ilha da Culatra, where we find a walk through the natural park’s nature.

While crossing the villages from the dock to the beaches, we pass through small typical island houses.

We spent half our summer enjoying these sunny islands!

Know Olhão Part 3 Market

Know Olhão Part 3 

Market

The two markets in downtown Olhao are one of the most famous places of the city. 

We can find fresh and cheap vegetables, fruits and fish. Besides all of this, we can also find homemade honey, cheese, etc.

On Saturday morning’s, they also set up a market around the old market’s buildings. Farmers from around Olhao come down to sell their products.

While we do our weekly shopping, we can have a very sweet breakfast!

Internships at MOJU

Internships at MOJU

During the month of August, the Mais Sucesso Project received two Social Worker internships. Let’s read their story…

My name is Anna De Bona, I`m 24 years old and I live in Muenster, Germany. There, I study social work and enjoy the life as a student.At the moment, I`m doing an internship at MOJU for my studies and travel around Algarve.The objective of this internship is to find my way through the whole world of Social Work and get to know the work with kids at this age. I am doing it in Portugal because I can imagine myself working abroad and also to gain experiences about this topic.

I am really happy and thankful to get the chance and hope I make the best out of it.

Hallihallöchen ihr lieben,

My name is Josi and I have the fortunate opportunity to be one of the newest members to this nice little EVS Family in Olhao. Originally, I am from Germany where I have just started to study Social work this last April. In this course of study it’s mandatory to finish an Internship in the Social Work field. Because my friend’s friend we got to know of the Mujo Mais Sucesso Project, which fits with what we were looking for and they were happy to take in new volunteers.

In Germany I am originally from Nürnberg, wich is in Frankonia a part of Bavaria (South of Germany / Oktoberfest ;)). Bavaria is known for its Beer culture. We even have our own Beer commandment which is called: Bayerisches Reinheitsgebot. Next to beer, the food is what I miss most from my home country (Bretzels and Bread). Especially,  good dark bread with a nice crust which is hard to come by outside of Germany… With those three B’s you cannot go wrong!!!

At home I am a very active person, I really like to be outside and find new adventures that want to be done. As a hobby, I have found climbing. Here in the Algarve with all of its cliffs along the coast there are such nice climbing spots. I hope to be able to try one of them before I go.

Since my start at MOJU, quite some time has already past. I started on the first of August and will finish on the 31^st. Sadly, since I only have a little time to get to know the way things work here, I will probably leave before I could completely integrate myself into the work. But I see the chances in this situation. I think it’s a great opportunity to be involved in this kind of organization; away from my home, to see the cultural differences, how things are handled, etc. Besides, I think a month is (also if short) enough time to fit in the position I work in. I am very excited to see what the next week will bring!

Liebe Grüße

Josi

Feira Medieval de Silves

Feira Medieval de Silves

Every year, there is a Medieval Festival in Silves…

… where we can find many stands representing XII century way of living.

Besides the festival, you can wonder around this historic city and the castle.

During the festival we had the chance to dress up and have a taste of that century.