How did I ended in Denmark?
After traveling 7 months around my country with a friend and our van I really wanted to do one last thing before to settle done. The first of Junuary 2023 I spoke with my cousin about doing an ESC. He has done one in Germany 12 years ago and me I did one mission for two weeks 5 years earlier in Marocco and I loved the experience. I tried to do a long one but it wasn’t my time.
He thought maybe it was my time now to do one and also it was my last chance because I was turning 30 the same year. After this discussion, I took the decision to do some research and went to my last sending organization “Romans International”. One and half month later I find a place to Ranum Efterskole College in Denmark for one year! This time it was my time! And the best of it it’s that Danemark was my dream!
I am a social worker in France so work with teenager was perfect because even I am more used to work with people with mental disorder I had also worked a little with teenager and it’s just positive for me to see other things.
6 months later, the 1rst of August 2023, I was in Denmark! Now the mission could begin…
What is the project?
Before to explain my specific school I will explain what an Efterskole is. The efterskole is specific from Denmark and it’s really popular there. It is a boarding school for young teenagers between 14 to 18 years old. You have normal class and activities. It’s a year “off” from normal academic school. It’s not mandatory but almost all Danish student go in an Efterskole. Some exist for adult but most of them are for teenager. Some Efterskole are specialize in activities like theater, dance, football, gym… or some of them with a lot of different activities like Ranum.
What is special is that everybody live together. It’s to learn how to live in community with people who are different. Learn how to live without your family, to be responsible, to do laundry by yourself,… They have also chores like cooking, cleaning,…
Ranum Efterskole College is a school who welcome 500 students.
The school who offer a lot of activities like football, diving, sailing, surfing, ceramics, dancing, coral restauration, media, design, adventure, science, biology…
Also it’s a Danish international school. It means that a quarter of the student are international and also few teachers and volunteers.
The student have also the opportunity to travel all over the world through 3 different projects. 2 of them are about an activity they choose, it’s “the profil project”. They work 3 month about this activity and after they go to a country where they are doing this activity for one week. The third project is a “cultural project”. They choose the country where they want to go and for 3 months they do research about the culture and make a project. Example: they have a trip in Nepal and they need to find clothes and also make a class for a school that they are visiting. And they go to the country for two weeks.
Some international students come from different program, with AFS but also private.
Like 30 students are in a program we call “full host”. They don’t have host family but they stay all the time at school. When the school close for some weekends or holidays they go abroad with a teacher who is in charge and us, the volunteers.
My missions
I have different missions in the school, the main one is to be a teacher assistant.
I have different classes:
- Global perspective: It’s a class where they debates, search about what happen in the world, think and look for solution. They need to know what is an opinion, a value, a bias, a judgement,… It was very interesting because they all had a different perspective due to the fact that they come from completely different countries.
- “Green fingers”: The school has two donkeys, three alpacas, eight goats, six ducks and eight chicken. I help the teacher with the classes as feeding the animals, cleaning the shed of the animals, and gardening. Also I help to feed them on the weekend. It was amazing to work outside with the students even if in the winter it was really hard.
- French for 9 and 10 grades: I help the French teacher with the French class. As a nature speaker the students have the opportunities to hear the French pronunciation and also to discover the culture as a French. I had the opportunities to give some classes about different topic like: French singers or even “l’argot” a familiar language used by many French people. I will explain more about one project I make in “my personal project”. I really like sharing my culture and help them improve their french. At first they were scared to speak to me french but I tried everything to give them confidence and show tem that I will never judge them based on their fault or their accent. We were in a space of kindness and there were here to learn so it was more “please do mistake, I will be here to helping you”. But they have a really good level, I was impress.
I am helping with the full host student. I had the opportunity to visit Denmark some weekends and in Christmas I went to Estonia. We don’t organize the trips but we are a support for the teachers on the trips and also sometimes we can help for small things like for the new year’s eve I was responsible to find a restaurant in Talinn.
I am in charge of the AFS students. In the year, we have student who come to the school for a month. This year it was around 5 different times. They have the normal class but also some activities in school or out with us, the volunteers. They have also project to do for AFS for explaining their experience in Ranum. They come from different countries. We welcomed students from Italy, Argentina, India and Thailand.
I have duty work, one evening per week until 23h. In the duty, I had the opportunity to propose or join an activity like volley, badminton, “hygge evening” (the favorite Danish activity), karaoke,… This time is a good way to be with the students. It’s a big school so it’s difficult to know them all but the activities allow you to get to know them more and in a different way than studies.
During the year, the school propose to the student different events like the Christmas gala, make a Christmas market, the family weekend, the friends weekend, the harry potter weekend, the Easter hunt, the international evening, … As a volunteer we sometimes help for the organization or just help for everything they need. It’s always a nice moment.
The school often invite professionals for lectures or shows. We have the chance to have concerts by different singers from all over the world or people who speak about different subjects like drugs, sex, racism,… And people came to tell their own story, it was sometimes really strong testimonies.
I think it is a great opportunity for these students to have access to all of this and I am really lucky to experience this.
I had also the chance to be part of the profile subjects and the cultural subject. I learned how to dive!!! I passed my open water certificate and my advance certificate in Malta with the school.
I have been to Nepal for two weeks. The school has a friendship with a school there. We bring them clothes, toys,… The student from Ranum did class for the kids and some games. It was an extraordinary moment. We live for one night with the locals. We also visit an orphanage, visit some museum, religious monuments,… This trip was amazing and People were so welcoming. I learned a lot about their culture.
My last trip was in Island for geology. The landscape was incredible and it was a really nice group. We learn about volcano, fossil, we visited an ice cave, we saw a black beach (lava),…
My personal project
Like I said earlier I assist the French teacher. I did different classes but I will talk about one in particular. In France, this summer, there will be the Olympic and Paralympic games so I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about it in French class. For this event the Olympic committee did a poster. It’s a draw with a lot of different symbol. It represent all the discipline in Olympics and Paralympics.
The students of this class are really good at French so we could have a good and long conversation just in French. The students on this class are from different country: Spain, Mexico, Denmark and Usa. It was interesting to have different point of view.
First of all, I ask question about Olympics. I was surprise that must of them doesn’t really like it. One of him didn’t like it because of all the polemics about the Olympics and also for him it’s not ecologic. It was a really nice debate.
After we talk more about what represent initially the Olympics: togetherness, sport, gathering of all the countries and the differences,…
The most interesting was about the Paralympics. Just two of them knew what it was. So I decided to show some videos about Paralympic basket, Paralympic tennis, Paralympic athletics,… In the beginning one of him laugh about it and said that it was not possible but when they looked at it they were really surprised and impressed. I really like the fact they discovered new things and that they were open about it.
After that I showed them the poster and they needed to find the monuments and the French representations. They knew a lot of things but also learned a lot. This poster was really a good support to start the discussions.
They asked me a lot of questions, they were really interested. I show them a video about “la patrouille de France”. It’s the planes who are on the top in the right of the poster. “La patrouille de France” is the official acrobatic patrol of the French Air and Space Force army. We watched them on the 14 of July when it’s the French Independence Day. On the “champs-Elysées” we have a military parade where all the different type of army walk the road in front of the French president and other political representative from all over the world. And in the beginning of the parade “la patrouille de france” flight and paint the French flag in the sky. We finished with a game. I was to find the most sports as possible.
We had a really nice time together. I think they learned more about the French culture and also about Paralympics sport. They said that they will watch the Paralympics. I don’t know if they will really doing it but it’s a small victory for me because now they know that it’s exist and it is also a step to be more open-minded.
Conclusion
This volunteering really helped to know myself better and discovered what I wanted. Every experience allows you to know you better and much more when it’s far away your comfort zone, your family, your friends. Your fears and difficulties may appear so you learn how to accept them and go further. You experience magical things but also difficult things, it’s life and it’s why it’s beautiful and unforgettable.
The good things as ESC is that you are not alone. If you need help or just talk, you have people in your mission but also from your host and sending organization. I have also the chance to be with 4 amazing other volunteers. If you don’t work with other volunteers you will meet others from your trainings. It’s really nice to share and to be with people who live the same things as you.
I also met incredible people throughout my stay. They allowed me to grow and have great times. They will miss me a lot. I learned a lot from the students, they allowed me to have other perspectives on different themes. Especially with these young people who come from all over the world. I loved the exchanges and moments of sharing that we had together. I also liked being present when they had bad moments, fears, etc. This allowed us to create strong bonds and trust. Also help them to have more confident about themself and that it’s ok to do mistake or to be lost. Especially with language, we don’t care if it’s not perfect and if you have a big accent, the main thing is to make yourself understood and try. We will never judge you.
Also when you stay one year you have a lot of time to know the culture, the people and that what I wanted, it was perfect. Some colleagues who are friends now have really included me in their culture (exemple: I know all the culture traditions in christmas). One of the things I learn in this school was “follow the flow!”. A little difficult at first but now I am used to it. You grow faster and stronger. I learn a lot personally and professionally. It’s hard to understand because you need to live the experience so I will say one last thing: “Go for it!”
ESC Solidarity Projects 