Colindres – Anna Leth
I still clearly remember an episode from one of the first days here in Colindres. I was on my way to work, and it was raining. Something it apparently does a lot here in Cantabria, and which i had no idea about when i packed my luggage back in Copenhagen. I had no rain jacket, so i was half running, trying to cover my head with my arms, when a woman started speaking to me from a terrace five meters up. I had no idea what she said, and at first she seemed kind of mad. In the end she threw down an umbrella to me.
–
–
These kind of experiences has continually happened for me. Once i forgot my favorite jacket somewhere in Colindres and later it appeared at my frontdoor. Another time i missed the bus to the airport, and ran in to a restaurant to borrow a phone to call a taxi. Instead they borrowed me a car and a driver. These stories are some of the best picture i have of how i, as a girl from a city like Copenhagen, feel enriched to have had the experience of living in a little heart warm community with 7000 inhabitants like Colindres.
–
–
The experience have also been tough. I didn’t speak spanish when i came here, and almost nobody speaks english. I have always been kind of naive, and i was surprised about how hard i was for me to learn. Especially surprised about how shy i was to begin to talk. Sometimes you have the right word in your head, you’ve heard it a thousand times before, and when it comes out of your mouth it is just – wrong. But the language learning process is weird thing. You go for months collecting information, without speaking, until one magic day when you have your first spanish conversation, and that day changes everything. (this day also requires that you demand your perfectionistic self and the right gramma-rules to go to hell – and a couple of beers)
–
–
Working with children has been lovely. Especially i have enjoyed working with small kids in the kindergarden. I the beginning of the project, when i didn’t speak spanish at all, i figured out that i could easily speak danish to the little ones when we played games. If my body language and the tone in my voice was clear, everything would work out pretty well. Pretty well – until the point were a crying three-year old girl ran over to me, telling me everything about what happened to her with her way to bright voice. Complety impossible to understand. Maybe even if she had spoken to me in danish.
–
–
People here are different. They talk more, they talk louder, they talk more aggressive. I thought that the lady with the umbrella was mad at me, until she gave me the umbrella. It took some time to understand, but now i really respect the attitude of the people here. They don’t sugar-code things but they are very kind people. And the love Colindres. They take care of the town, they make activities, they sit in the one of the many restaurants or bars around here. Many of the young people lives right now in one of the bigger cities as Santander or Bilbao to go to university, but many of them have made it clear to me that in a few years they wanna go back to Colindres to live.
–
–
If you’re from the city, and you think party is an almost non-exiting think i small towns, you will be proven wrong here in the north of Spain. I was. But here it is not only the young people who party, but the children, the adults and the elderly people as well. Almost every weekend, especially in the summer there are different local themed parties here in Colindres, Laredo, Santoña or another town nearby. It normally begins in the early afternoon and continues evening and night. It often includes people dressing up last weekend for example as middle-aged people in Laredo at the party or some weeks ago when some people had made beautiful sculptures of flowers, and they walked proudly in a parade through the town.
–
–
And they definitely have something to be proud of. Sometimes it is raining, yes – but rain eguals a green landscape, and the nature here is absolutely stunning. There is green hills or mountains everywhere, and when sun is shining i can’t think of a more beautiful place to be.
–
–
–
–
Thank you to the people of Colindres who have showed me their culture and letted me in.
–
–
–
–
–
In the kindergarden “Ludoteca”:
–
–
The beach of Colindres “Playa El Regatón”:
–
–
The sculptures of flowers in Laredo “Batalla de Flores”
–
–
Hiking in Santoña – the route is called “El Faro del Caballo”
ities with Hungarian food too. Spanish people like to say that they are drinking a lot…well I think it is not true. Here usually if you ask for a beer it is only 0,25l not 0,5l and they do not drink strong drinks! The wines are great, viva la Rioja!!! But they like to mix it, red wine with coca-cola, called calimotcho. Sometimes they look at me strange when I take just wine…My dad is always telling me if I am drinking alcohol I need to eat as well. I told him that he does not have to worry I came to the right place because of the pinchos. 😛
All the people here are friendly and smiling like I know them all my life. I started working in the kindergarten “Ludoteca” and the kids are wonderful, full of energy. Working with kids was not my dream job for an EVS. I imagined myself in a youth organization office, on a computer desk; but I came to work with children and I found in them great teachers and a reason to smile. They taught me more about the foreign language than many books; they taught me to see the simplicity of life through their eyes. That made me think of how working with kids gives us an amazing feeling of freedom. And that is inspiring, to feel so free of judgment and not being afraid of it.
I am very happy since for me the voluntary service is not just a job. It’s not about “what you want to be when you grow up” but “who” you want to be. I send out strong hugs from Colindres, Spain! 🙂
When you live as a volunteer every day is unpredictable and new, anything can happen so you learn how to react fast and improvise. But don’t think it’s a boring life – actually it’s a lot of fun and always full of adventure and stories to tell. Especially if you are lucky enough to have such awesome roommates like I do. We are like a family and we found a way to make it work in our flat, basically the key word for our daily life is compromising so that in the end everyone is happy.
and well organized Youth Service including kindergarten as well as Youth center, offering the kids and teenagers uncountable possibilities, furthermore sports center, local football club, rowing club, dancing school, harbor, countless supermarkets, plenty of cafés, bars and restaurants as well as almost always quite a number of people in the streets. It is the unique contrast between it’s small size and consequently village-character – that you know all the streets like the back of your hands, that you reach almost everything in not more than just a few minutes walking.. – but at the same time it’s energetic character, really intensive social life and diversity of opportunities which fascinates me. Additionally it also offers beautiful landscapes, a lot of parks and nature as well as a really short distance to the sea.
Colindres Youth Way 2014/16 