Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson





Monday, July 25, 2011

A journey to Sweden: Какие же эти шведы на самом деле...

A journey to Sweden: Какие же эти шведы на самом деле...: "Перед отъездом в Швецию знакомые все удивлялись почему все таки именно в эту страну. Но до приезда сюда в эту холодную страну я и сама нич..."

Какие же эти шведы на самом деле...



Перед отъездом в Швецию знакомые все удивлялись почему все таки именно в эту страну. Но до приезда сюда в эту холодную страну я и сама ничего не знала ни о стране и культуре и ни о самих шведах. Первые впечатления были не передаваемые. Въезжая в маленький студенческий городок Лунд на поезде сразу чувствовалась гармония и спокойствие во всем. Европейцы как многие наслышаны холодный народ. Да, и у меня было много переживаний смогу ли я, простая девушка из Кыргызстана, найти общий язык с ними.  Шведы холодные на первый взгляд, но а на самом деле они оказались очень простыми в общении, доброжелательными, приветливыми, гуманными а порой чересчур наивными людьми. Этим ли можно объяснить открытость страны к принятию беженцев из постконфликтных стран по сравнению с другими европейскими странами. Скандинавия поражала меня особой атмосферой. Порой кажется что я попала в какуюто сказку. Старинные замки, красные деревянные домики, каменные дороги, и необычайное количество цветов повсюду. Говорят, Кыргызстан славится своей природой. Но хотелось бы и у нас люди научились любить ее, заботиться и охранять. Если и Вы окажетесь в Швеции, то и Вы заметите как шведы в буквальном смысле помешаны на экологии. Магазины забиты продуктами с пометкой «экологический», которые в свою очередь стоят дороже обычных. Недавно моя подруга Ханна, которая является ярким примером,  решила поехать домой на велосипеде. Если учесть что ехать она должна 2 дня без остановки, это подвиг. Мы много с ней говорили о влиянии человечества на природу. Как и Ханна многие шведы выбирают поезд вместо самолета, велосипед вместо крутой машины. Хотя я думаю при желании они могут позволить себе иметь несколько машин. Я прихожу в восторг когда вижу пожилых людей энергично ездиющих на велосипеде. И невольно вспоминаю свою бабушку, которая часто жалуется на боли в спине, в ногах. Конечно же не многие шведы вырастили 5 детей, и хлопотали по дому как моя бабушка, но все таки надо отдать дань шведам за их активный здоровый образ жизни. Немного пожив здесь и я невольно стала посещать спортзал, бегать по вечерам по парку. Может поэтому, большинство шведок такие стройные и красивые. Занятия в спортивном зале могут посещять как парни так и девушки. Да да, это гендерный баланс на бытовом уровне. Говоря о гендерном балансе, Швеция одна из самых продвинутых стран в этом вопросе. Только здесь Вы можете увидеть отцов на декрете, гуляющих одних с колясками. На рождество мы пошли в гости к дочери моей хозяйки по кварите. В то время как ее дочь была занята приемом гостей, ее муж был занят приготовлением всего ужина. На мое удивление после вкусного ужина он как ни в чем не бывало убрал стол и начал мыть посуду. Вы подумаете, что я приувеличиваю, но нет, это равноправная Швеция. Конечно, мне долго пришлось привыкать ко всему, потому что это противоречило всем кыргызским традициям и нашим патриархальным обычаям. Но думаю, во всем должен быть баланс.  Плавно переходя к шведским традициям, один друг волонтер как то сказал: «Мы, шведы, гордимся тем, что ничем не гордимся!» .  Национальную одежду и все типично шведское Вы можете найти только в сувенирном магазине. Современные шведы не зациклены на традициях, и с удовольствием перенимают всего по чуть чуть с других стран в своей культуре. Здесь Вы можете найти тайскую, итальянскую, французкую, японскую кухню, но и с трудом Вы не найдете национальную шведскую кухню. Мне посчастливилось гостить своих подруг из команды Юз оф Ош из Кыргызстане здесь в своем городе. Какого же было их разочерование когда везде куда мы ходили им подавали булочки с корицей «канельбулар» со словами попробуйте шведскую традиционную сладость. «И это все?» прочитала я в их выражениях лицах. Но зато им понравилось пить чай во время «фика». По нашему кофе брейк. А чай вместо кофе, потому что шведский заварной кофе очень горький и невкусный. Но шведы души в нем не чают.


Провожая подруг обратно стало грустно на душе. Втайне я им завидовала, так как они полетят домой к родителям и близким, а по дороге Ош – Бишкек их будут приветствовать родные горы. Но вот и я уже считаю дни до своего отъезда в Кыргызстан. Несомненно этот год в Швеции был полон новых окрытий и знакомств. Надеюсь применить свой шведский опыт у себя дома. И знаю, что я сюда еще вернусь.


Monday, July 4, 2011

Counting last days in Sweden...

I can't believe my EVS volunteering year has passed so quickly. Sweden has become my home now. I will miss my colleagues at Tamam, my friends at Komvux, my bike, Ceit, and my room and my privacy. There were lots of funny and sad moments during this year. But I am going to remember only the best days. I am sitting in the office and counting days before my departure. I have to bye lots of presents to my family, to finish the reports and start packing. .. 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Movies from Kyrgyzstan were shown in the cinema of Lund, Sweden.


Tamam presented documentary movies from Kyrgyzstan at Kino in Lund between the dates 23rd of May till 6th of June 2011. Three prize winning social documentaries from Kyrgyzstan named “Almaz”, “Long distance Love”, “Manas birth as a premonition” has been shown three Mondays in a row.

Around 60 young people came to see and enjoyed the films during the festival.  At the beginning of each session a representative of Tamam, an EVS volunteer from Kyrgyzstan, was welcoming the guests and making a brief introduction of the movie and the project in general. Afterwards the audience had a chance to ask the question from the residents of the country.  


In the first movie about a life story  of Kyrgyz boy Almaz was depicted. The story about the family values, education and life of indigenous people in Kyrgyzstan fascinated the audience and they couldn’t stand asking questions and giving comments. “Watching the film I started thinking how we, Swedish youngsters, take for granted the family relationships and the privileges we have here. You could see how the families in Kyrgyzstan are attached to each other”, reflected Isabel Sundberg, youth ombudsmen of Lund.

The second movie has showed very crucial problem of young people as unemployment and labour migration to Russia. Long distance love between a young family couple that had to be apart and support the family and get means to live in Moscow was finally reunited. A family from Kyrgyzstan that lives in Sweden for 5 years already was invited to Kino. After the movie Gulshan, a mother of 2 children, told she could remember her home country, but felt unhappy to see in what difficult conditions still people live. “I am happy to be in Sweden with my family and know that my children are not going to come across those problems” she told.

“Manas birth as a premonition” is a documentary that could depict current life of Kyrgyzstan people in the connection with their old epic Manas. The story was full of interesting interviews of the Kyrgyz all over the world, their destinies and attitude to the situation in the country. “It was a good chance for me to get to know about unknown Kyrgyzstan.  My sister in law has been to Bishkek (capital city) several times and helped poor people. It is a good way to attract people’s attention to that region” shared with us Lise Dakl.

Of course there were obstacles that made it harder to carry out the project. Tamam has concluded that next occasions they have to work harder on reaching young people. The  festival time coincided with the end of the academic year of youngsters in Lund. So, many have left to their homes and others were busy with exams.
Nevertheless, the project was a success among the audience. Because, it gave another perspective of life of youth in the other part of the world, depicting their priorities, problems and peculiarities. Moreover, it was educational for local residents to know about Central Asian region due to the current political and economic situation due to the increasing number of refugees coming to Sweden from there.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Skitrip to Gnosjö!

If you saw a messy group of loud arabic speaking girls and guys with huge backpacks and lots of "Willies" paper bags running after the train, this was Tamam junior volunteers going to a 4 day skitrip to Gnosjö. 22 people with the leaders from Lund and Uppsala city arrived to a small, quiet, but lovely place in the south of Sweden on Wednesday afternoon. 

We decided to stay at one of the local and quite centrall churches. There wouldn't be any other perfect place to stay for this trip, because it has large, well furnished rooms, with huge kitchen and gym hall for our indoor activities. I couldn't help catching strange surprised looks of residents in of a small city, because they saw such a "multicultural" group at once for the first time I suppose.
The aim of the trip was first of all to give our lovely teenager participants opportunity to try out skiing. Second objective was to bring along volunteers and participants from both Tamam Lund and Uppsala for teambuilding and strengthening communication.
After a couple of get-to-know-each other games participants seemed to find a common language. Finally we arrived to Isaberg, a skiing place, on the mini van which could barely move. Oh yes, if you saw 5 guys pushing the mini van up the road...this was us again. Everyone seemed so excited. We saw a big hill and happy families that were equipped with skies.  But as more  people stood in a queue for getting shoes and helmets as less our kids seemed enthusiastic. After last efforts to get the equipments on, some participants refused skiing. Others barely could stand on the skies...they slowly and carefully moved after the leaders.

First morning team came back to the church disappointed at some point, because most of them could ride. In the evening we fried hamburgers and together had long evenings full of games and music.
Next day, those who could ski went to Isaberg, and others went to a hill for pulka. Although it might seem not as exciting as skiing, participants were screaming with joy on their way down the hill.


The days past so quickly. It was so nice to see how participants became very close to each other. They were dancing Arabic, Palestinian, Afghan dances. Two wonderful junior leaders Jesse and Afnan were guiding responsibly others.
The last day, participants were given a task to plan next joint trip. There was an interesting sport schedule suggested by first team.Others designed their trips to Stockholm, Göteborg, going fishing and etc.
 There is a big hope that this plans will not just stay on papers... and our participants will make their plans come true.
After another 2,5 hours in the trains we arrived back home. Lund sweet Lund! 

Sunday, February 13, 2011

More about Swedes...

I not long time ago became a member in a facebook group for Kyrgyz and Swedish friendship. this is an article of an unknown author about Sweds. Decided that it would be interesting for me and my friends to read in future...
'' A Swede is tall, blonde, blue-eyed and wears a woolly hat in the winter. By nature he is shy reserved, serious, and industrious and finds it hard to laugh at himself. He is also a creature of habit and every morning gets up at 5.30 to give himself enough time to read the morning newspaper before going to work. Since work does not usually start until 8 o clock, this can only imply that a Swede is also a slow reader.

Apart from himself ,his chief interests are money, his job, his home, ice-hockey and his family(in that order). He also loves animals-especially dogs-and spend hours cycling through the town, dragging a huge and ferocious Alsatian behind him on a leash.



A Swede is usually punctual, honest, reliable, clean, has his own teeth and is law abiding. Evidence of the latter is particularly noticeable at pedestrian crossings. No matter what the weather is like, a Swede would rather get soaked to the skin than cross an empty street when a red light was showing.

Similarly, he always wears a seat belt, never drinks and drives, always has a television licence, usually hands in his tax return on time, invariably has a plastic bag in his pocket when he walks his dog and never has a bath after 10 o'clock.

A Swede is also very cautious and rarely does anything on impulse (except perhaps sneeze). To him, all decisions are a matter of life and death. Take a simple matter like buying cheese, for example. A Swede may try at least ten different sorts of cheeses before finally deciding to buy twenty grams of Brie. It is this same sense of caution that prevents him from plunging into marriage straight away. Instead, he lives with a women first, has one or two children, then-if all seems well- asks her to marry him.With reference to marriage, a Swede is quite unlike most European men. Anything a housewife can do, he can do better- from cooking to sewing on buttons. In fact, everything in the home (apart from breast feeding) is shared.

A Swede also likes to think he is well-informed and spends hours finding out all he can about such things as nuclear power, the Third World pollution, South Africa the sexual habits of the centipede, etc. while at the same time paying little attention to unimportant matters - such as the name of his neighbours or whether certain types of beer should be banned or not.



Most Swedes are fanatics when it comes to keeping fit and regularly spend their weekends running through the nearest forest or cycling for hours in the cellar on a bicycle fixed to the floor. With his health in mind, he has also given up smoking, sugar, drinking coffee in the evenings, going to bed after 10 o'clock and mixing with strangers.

But perhaps the greatest thing about a Swede is his sense of equality-of everyone being the same as everyone else. To help this, most Swedes have the same surnames- Svensson, Nilsson, Persson- earn the same amount of money after tax, have the same taste in furniture, dress alike, think alike, drive a Volvo and go to Mallorca in the summer.

A Swede also refuses to admit that he is prejudiced in any way. To him, all foreigners are just the same as Swedes and although he doesn’t actually have any Yugoslavian, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Italian, Finnish or Czechoslovakian friends himself, he is certain there are very little difference between them and Swedes-apart from their names, their customs, the way they grow vegetables in the kitchen, the fact that they carry knives, rob banks, live on social security, pinch their jobs, breed like rabbits, beat their wives and speak Swedish like someone with a gobstopper in his mouth.Finally, a Swede loves the sun, hates queuing, gets a kick out of being first on the bus, detests winter, enjoys sex, cant stand gypsies, believes what the National Social Board of Health and Welfare tells him, doesn’t believe in god, worships Ingemar Stenmark, only gets drunk when he drinks, is patriotic (wears Swedish flag underpants) visits the off-licence twice a week, visits his parents at Christmas, goes to English classes and ,inevitable, is deeply offended by an article such as this one ''.

Friday, February 11, 2011

A journey to Sweden: Internation in the Nation!

A journey to Sweden: Internation in the Nation!: "Yesterday, I have been to the great party organized within the project 'Internationen' of Tamam. The purpose of the project is to make meeti..."

Internation in the Nation!

Yesterday, I have been to the great party organized within the project "Internationen" of Tamam. The purpose of the project is to make meeting places for immigrants and Swedish young people and open up a student associates called "Nations" for non-students. Nation is not a place for some specific nationality, as I first imagined. Originally each Nation represented one swedish city such as Malmö, Lund, Goteborg, residents of which could live and study in that specific nation. But now each nation is open to all the students, and this student association gives place in it's corridor, organize events for only member students. "Internationen" project also aims to open up the nations for people other than students in Lund.
"We plan to form discussion groups , where members can share their ideas concerning next events, and be in touch with new friends "  said Karin, the coordinator of "Internationen" project, and vice president of Tamam.

The party took place in "Kristianstad Nation". When I entered the room I could see many people whom I know, and those whom I never met before. Everyone was talking with each other, everyone was eager to meet new people and friends. The evening was full of very funny games- contests between the tables. It could be easily seen how members of tables felt a team and found a common language very fast.
 "I love "Internationen", because we can meet friends, play games and have nice meals" shared Afnan, a Palestinian active participant.
I could see Swedish people, who were very open and sociable. I could see Arabs, Palestinians, Americans, Russians, Ukrainians, Australians, Indians, Chinese, Germans, British, and many other nationalities sitting together and sharing their personal issues. Some of them are exchange students, some came because of the political situation in their own country, some have Swedish sambo (couples in Sweden,that officially live together).
Indeed I am really full of excitement and impressions of the possibility to get to know such a nice and different people at one place. 

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A journey to Sweden: YAhooooo

A journey to Sweden: YAhooooo: "Spring semester!!! I have to say yes! because almost halv of my Volunteer Service has past,and I can say I even didn't notice how it happene..."

YAhooooo

Spring semester!!!
I have to say yes! because almost halv of my Volunteer Service has past,and I can say I even didn't notice how it happened. It past very quickly but definitely full of great emotions, unforgetable moments together with lovely Tamam and non Tamam people ;) .
First of all I started and successfully continuing my Swedish courses at Komvux. Certainly I have progressed a lot since november, because now i can understand the conversation and even answer with half of my sign language. I can't stop wondering how nice and modern the facilities at Komvux are. Although it is a governmental place, not private, the library is cool, the program, computers,and teachers are very competent! That's how each government should promote their language, by supplying all the facilities first. Moreover, they keep motivating students with different stipends provided by government for excellent ones, to make them finish the institute quicker and find a job....
Inspite at christmas break Lund was a bit empty, because all the students had gone to their families, I managed to have a good rest. 
Now I am dying but want the spring come sooner, miss the sun...
Hope, the coming semester will be even more exciting!!!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Tamam organized educational camp for junior volunteers..

On 27-28th of November Tamam organized educational camp for the 12 new junior volunteers at Looma. The idea of the camp was to recruit volunteers among the young participants, so that they could organize activities for newly arrived immigrants and refugee kids themselves. Together with "old" juniors Afnan, Hind, Jessy and others Tamam lund group planned the program and made efforts to recruit new members.

Participants of the camp had real fun, and they couldn't stop surprising us with their ideas and creativity. The programm was a good combination of education and fun team building activities. First day consisted of introduction part with "get to know each other" games, and some theoretical part.
At the beginning juniors got introduced by drawing  each other without looking and presenting a partner before the audience. Then they have filled out "christmas" wishing tree with their expectations and wishes for the tree.


Participants wrote their wishes on the "Christmas tree" for the camp,but our Santa Claus name was Christoffer!

Volunteers of Tamam held a mini lecture on how to be a volunteer and what are the benefits for being a volunteer. It was interesting for us to see how young participants eagerly were discussing the topic.
The second part of the day was devoted to teambuilding games which were organized by Johanna. I could observe how new juniour volunteers started being a good team, trying to help each other. I think the funniest game was the task on building highest tower with newspapers...


And the evening was successfully concluded by "MAFIA" game and a good movie-pop-corn time...









We won!!! Hurrrraaaa!!!!


3 teams are planning activities...
After working in teams everyone was to listen to each others presentation

Second day of the camp was not less important. Morning started with boys shouting and making noise deliberatly to waken the girls... After a good breakfast I together with Josefine, Christoffer held a workshop on planning junior volunteers activity...
While we were gathering things and cleaning the rooms, we could hear participants sitting and discussing the issues that Hind had prepared about transit house kids. It was so amazing how these children took very serious all the given tasks. so hopefully, junior volunteers will start a good job. Good luck!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Hei, its snowing and raining outside... Don't want to take even my nose out.. hihi

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween with English Cafe...














Yesterday Seda and I organized a Halloween Party within an English Cafe for immigrant children and adults. The idea of the event was to introduce Halloween, it's origin, and ways of celebrating in different countries. First of all it needs to be appointed that international volunteers were very active. We came earlier than usual and started decorating the place with ghosts and bats everywhere. Pumpkin was of a special attention this day. candles with spiders added more horror atmosphere to the place.


Lundagård Conditori and ICA shop supported us with fika and fruits. There were more than usuall participants. What is more pleasing that,many of them wore some costume, which shows they were getting prepared for the event. The event started with an opening presentation of American volunteer Erica. She together with her friend told about the origin of the Halloween, and what they usually do in America on this day. Later, participants played several funny games. Other part of the party was dedicated for dances. 

A journey to Sweden: Tamam Membership recruiting day!

A journey to Sweden: Tamam Membership recruiting day!: "We organized membership recruiting day for Tamam in 30th of October. Thanks to God, the weather was excellent, in comparison to other rainy ..."

Tamam Membership recruiting day!

We organized membership recruiting day for Tamam in 30th of October. Thanks to God, the weather was excellent, in comparison to other rainy and dull days. Lund group members gathered children in the main squire in Lund and organized TAmam informational corner. CHildren were playing different games with volunteers. And other volunteers were busy with distributing and attracting people to become a member of an organization.
We are recruiting Tamam members to support activities with children. There are different options to support us:
1) To become a support member, with 100 SEK fee per a year,
2) To buy a T-shirt for 100 SEK for a member (120 SEK for a non member), or Hoody for 200 SEK (250 SEK for a non members).
In general we did a good job that day. We could recruit more than 60 members for Tamam!

Week 44th

Hello everyone!
This week, called week 44,is a holiday for schoolchildren. Which means Tamam organizes many extra activities for migrant children, so that they don't just sit at home.
Here is the schedule for this week:
1st of November- we go to Gymnasium to play Handball, volleyball etc.
2nd of November- Halloween Party with English Cafe
3rd of November- we go Ice Skating
4th of November- we go to the excursion to Skryllagården,where we can enjoy the nature and animals.
5th of November- we go to Circus!

Great plans, but it also means we have to work hard!!!

International party in TAMAM

Tamam celebrated an international party. The best thing I like in Swedish parties that, if the costumes are needed, all take it serious, and disguise in different costumes. In the party everyone had to represent one country. I represented Kyrgyzstan of course. Others were from India, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Greece, Germany, Sweden, China, Saudi Arabia, and others. The atmosphere was really great. We could play games on guessing the stereotypes of each country, taking place on the floor according to the world map placement.
Thank you for the organizators, Alice and Caroline in particular.
Photos will be later...

Sunday, October 24, 2010

moi grustnie vechera

Vot i nastupili te dni, kogda neznaesh kuda devat sebya ot grusti i toski po domu... ochen grustno, slezi nakativayut prosto tak, i govorish sebe, net, pochemu, ti je zarubejom, ti je tak sama etogo hotela... da, no inogda daje v samih razviitih stranah, daje s samimi drujelyubnimi lyudmi, mojet bit tak odinoko, chto hochetsya vit' ot toski.
da, no ya znayu chto eto proidet i zavtra ya nachnu eshe odin ponedelnik, s eshe odnogo rabochego sobraniya...
hochu uvidet rodnih, hochu pogovorit s druzyami, hochu uvidet lyubimogo, i poluchit noviy zaryad energiyi dlya togo chtobi projit god v etoi holodnoi strane.hot zdes i zdorovayutsya s rasprostertimi obyatiyami, eto vsego lish vejlivie znaki vnimaniya i nichego bolee...
hotya eto toje opit... znayu, chto cherez god budu smeyatsya vspominaya eti dni, i navernyaka budu pomnit tolko luchshee. no hochetsya chtobi zapomnilsya i etot den.
proshel mesyac s lishnim s teh por kak ya zdes. mesyac proletel, no v toje vremya takoe chuvstvo budto ya uje zdes davno. ya ochen otkritaya, legko idu na kontakt s drugimi lyudmi. ved zdes bez etogo kachestva nikak. rasskazivayu pro svoyu stranu, obichai, tradiciyi, neredko udivlayaya ih. Nadeyus, ya ostavlyu horoshee vpechatlenie o svoei strane... i nashih lyudyah...
nu vot, vrode viskazalas
mojno idti spat.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

kyrgyz plov in Sweden!

Each monday Tamam members have Monday lunch together in the Tamam kitchen. And every monday different volunteers cook something for all of the members. This monday was my turn. Of course, you guessed what I cooked! I am a southern girl and first thing we represent from our cuisine is Plov. It seems very simple to cook, but the whole process was very hectic. Because I had no idea if Swedish people would like it, or would it be the same plov that I cook in Kyrgyzstan. I bought yellow carrots, which I found in only one place in the market. I used beef, and the Uzgen rice that my future mother in law gave me in Osh.
To be honest the idea of making boorsoks and tokoch in the shared apartment was not the best. Imagine, me making dough, and frying it in lots of oil. The smell of oil was within all the apartment in the Sunday evening, when i was getting prepared for Monday. Thanks to God, Ceit has a good sense of humour. So, she wasn't angry at all, but instead she laughed and made a joke of my mass in the kitchen and moreover took pictures of it.









so, my menu was the following:
-plov as a main dish
- `shakarap´ salad from tomatoes and cucumber
- boorsok, and tokoch, instead of bread
-apple pie, for the dessert

I started with kyrgyz folklore music, so that everyone could feel the atmosphere of kyrgyz culture and food. then we discussed it for a while, and after presentation of plov, everyone enjoyed it very much.
Tamaginar tatuu bolsun!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Nostalgie...

It started raining. Sad music on my computer... Missing home...