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[meinswansea]

Moin Moin! There’s been so much going on during the last few weeks that I completely missed to post something about it. Here we go.

In December, Nina had her 20th birthday. One of the younger church members invited us to go to a bar in the evening, so we had some fun. As we went home, we passed by the maritime quarter that looks quite different at night.

Obviously, we thought about going to a Christmas market. The one in Swansea wasn’t exactly big, so we went to Cardiff to see what was going on there and to have some fun.

At the local Lego store, you could build your own characters.

That’s the market hall in Cardiff.

Nina decided we should go to Ikea, and the only way I could survive that was being silly.

That’s the main railway station.

My sister came to visit me for Christmas. It was very interesting to see the different traditions here, even though it’s pretty similar to how we celebrate in Germany, all in all. Some of the food is different, but we still found some gingerbread. The main day was the 25th, and a member of the church had invited us for dinner. The food was great and I really enjoyed the meal. Sadly, I had a bad cold for two days after that, so my sister explored Mumbles on her own. But the weather was very nice after that, and we had a lovely walk through the city.

The next day, we went to Cardiff. Somebody had built a replica of the moon, and my sister wanted to see that. The exhibition was close to the bay in Cardiff, so it was very nice to see that as well. We went through the famous arcades, but most stores had already closed when we were there.

Just after my sister’s departure, another volunteer arrived and stayed with us for a few days. The weather was quite incredible, and we had a really nice walk along the coast.

By the time the sun started to set, we had reached the third bay on our walk. We decided to stay and to see the sunset.

So... after that, the half-term break was over and we started to work again. Everything is still pretty much the same, but we don’t go to the carers&toddlers group anymore. Instead, we visit a day care centre every week and have a chat with the people that go there. Last week, there was an assembly of all the young people that belong to the United Reformed Church. It was interesting to participate, but at the same time rather exhausting because there was a lot to do. Right after that, there was a TfG conference. All the volunteers met and we had the opportunity to talk, play music and reflect on our time so far. I enjoyed that and I think it was helpful.

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For the first proper holidays I had a fellow volunteer came to visit me. We travelled to Brecon, Hay-on-Wye and Rhossili Bay.

Brecon is a small town on the northern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. It’s one of the three National Parks of Wales and just north of Swansea. We spent our time there walking through the town…

...and along the Honddu which flows through Brecon. (In Welsh, Brecon is called Aberhonddu.)

The next day, we went to Hay. It’s also a village on the edge of the National Park, but rather on the north-eastern top. We went to four or five bookstores, but there were still some we hadn’t seen. I found all these stores pretty impressive, because they looked rather small from the outside, but when you entered and explored them, you could see how big they actually were.

I can definitively recommend this village to anybody who likes reading. All the books are a lot cheaper than in conventional bookstores, and the atmosphere is great.

The last day, we took the bus from Swansea and went to Rhossili Bay, a part of the coast of the Gower Peninsula. It is very impressive, I think pictures can describe it best.

This island is called Worm’s Head and it’s similar to the lighthouse in Mumbles: you can only go there during low tide.

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A few days ago, a fellow volunteer and her friend visited me. One day, we went to the beach. The weather was lovely and we spent some time just sitting there and enjoying the sunshine, like quite a lot of people did.

On the 5th November, we celebrated the Guy Fawkes night. The Swansea city council had organised some fireworks on the beach. A lot of people went to see them, and even though the fireworks themselves weren’t very spectacular, it was nice to go to the beach at night.

Last Friday, Nina and I went to the Uplands, a quarter in Swansea near to the university. We had a little walk and discovered a small park with a lake.

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Now that I’ve been here for almost two months, I think I can say something about the work I am doing here. The most frequent group I participate in is the playgroup. It’s for children between two or three years. My colleagues and me play with the children, they get something to eat and we sing some songs. I have never worked with that age group before, so it’s very interesting to see how these tiny persons already have a personality and can be so different from each other. This group takes place three times a week.

A somewhat similar group is the Tuesday Club. The children joining it are split into two groups: one for five to sevens years olds and one for ten to twelve years olds. I joined the first one and am quite happy with that. The children always have a lot of energy and have unusual or special ideas and they don’t mind sharing them. One boy once made all of the grown-ups laugh when he asked: ‘How does God fly? Does he have a jetpack or wings?’ This term, our topic is David. The group leader reads or retells a story about him and we somehow illustrate it. When we heard about the story of David and Goliath, for example, the group leader had invited a very tall man from the parish. He lay down onto a big piece of paper and the children drew his contours onto it. They did the same thing with the smallest boy of the group. A week later, we coloured these drawings. The following week we made some friendship bracelets because we talked about David and Jonathan. After these activities we play some games and pray.

On a Tuesday, there’s also the Musical Memories Choir. It’s mainly elderly people or those with dementia who join in. Two nice ladies lead it and they either play the songs on the piano or use a playback version. I always see it as an opportunity to learn some new songs and it’s just fun to sing with other people.

Then, there is Time to Meet which is less of a group and rather a time frame for people with learning disabilities to get to know each other, have a nice chat, eat and drink something or do some handicrafts. The last two times Nina and I went there we talked mainly to the carers which I found very interesting.

The only group I do not really look forward to is the Youth Club. It doesn’t take place in our church but in the community centre. There are children and young teenagers between eleven and 14 years. They can do arts and crafts, play a ball game or chat. I always feel like they can entertain themselves pretty well and they don’t need Nina or me to be around, so I’m not really sure about this group yet.

The group that always marks the end of my week is Unity in Diversity which is for asylum seekers and refugees. I would guess that the average age is around 25 to 30 years, but there are also children and some older people in that group. There are some opportunities to play something, it’s to chat and have a meal. After that, there are two English classes they can attend: one for beginners and an intermediate one. Quite some volunteers help with that group.

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Quite a lot has happened since I wrote my last post. For four days, I’ve been to a conference in an activity centre near Birmingham. I met some other volunteers from Germany and a few new ones, including young people from Korea, Hungary, the United States and Uganda. The conference was mainly about getting to know the other volunteers, so we had a lot of free time. We still had some sessions where we learned about cultural differences and settling in. All in all, it was a lot of fun.

Last weekend, I went to London to meet some of my fellow volunteers and a friend from school who studies in London now. Even though I had a rather spontaneous sleepover the second night, I really enjoyed seeing my friends again. On Saturday, we even went to see the Tower Bridge.

The next day which I spent with a school friend we had a Harry Potter tour through London to see all the places that inspired JK Rowling. Before it started, we had a few minutes left so we went into a very close M&M’s shop. I didn’t really like it - too commercialised -, but there was one very funny thing to see.

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On Saturday, Mary picked us up and we drove to Mumbles. It’s near Swansea. See for yourself:

At the top right corner you can see Swansea. At the bottom you can see the piece of land stretching into the water: That’s Mumbles. As Mumbles and Swansea are on the opposite sides of Swansea Bay, you can see Swansea when you’re in Mumbles. (Even though it’s pretty far away.)

On the very far end of the headland, there’s a lighthouse. Sadly, you can’t enter it, but we walked around it once.

The landscape was lovely.

Here you can see a one-man-plane. I don’t know what the man had in mind: He flew around the lighthouse once or twice and left.

I took this picture with the lighthouse at my back. So on the far right, you can see parts of Mumbles and on the left there’s a car park. If you would go further along the coast from that point, you would get to Gower. I have already been told that the best beaches are found there, so Nina and I will probably go there at some point.

In this picture, you can see how far the water gets. The funny thing about the lighthouse is that it’s on an island - at high tide. That means you can only actually walk there when the water is low enough. When Nina and I went to the house, the water was rising.

That’s what it looked when we were about to go there.

And this is the view only 40 minutes later, when we were on safe grounds again. You can’t really see it, but the lighthouse is already cut off.

I took this picture five minutes later than the previous one.

Yesterday (on Sunday), we went to buy some stuff with our bikes. On our way, we crossed the River Tawe.

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On Thursday, Nina and I went to the city centre.

I thought that it would be nice sharing this with you. The signs says: ‘This is the amount of recyclable materials thrown away in the UK every 20 seconds. Swansea is now #InTheLoop, let’s wave goodbye to waste.’

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Today was the first time I attended a service here in Swansea. My first impression: There is more praying and less liturgical singing. After the morning service, Mary and Cynthia, a very nice lady who worked as a primary teacher before she retired, had lunch with Nina and me at the Manselton Hotel. We went to the evening service as well. It took place in a Methodist church just a few streets away. Apparently, this service is a cooperation between the Methodist church and Christ Well, the united reformed church where I volunteer. This is what it loos like:

Yesterday Nina and I had a day off, so we went to the city center. We visited the beach again, but saw other things along the way.

I took several pictures of the port, but from this view you can see the mountain (Mary called it a hill) in the background. It’s astonishing how you can just walk down a street, around a corner and then have a wonderful view onto the mountains that surround Swansea. On the other side there’s the sea. (Just as wonderful.)

(The second picture is from Wednesday, but I somehow failed to put it in the first post.)

Then there’s the city itself. It’s dominated by small, more or less similar houses that are either nestling up against each other or the mountains.

On our way to the beach we stumbled across some very interesting stairs:

(I think we need these everywhere.)

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This is what the river Tawe looked like when it rained:

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Aloa, this is me reporting from Swansea (Wales). I will do a voluntary service for a year. My placement is a reformed church in a quarter called Manselton. My tasks are not yet completely clear as I still have to get to know the different groups and activities in this community.

I arrived yesterday (2nd September) with my sister who helped me with my luggage as it took me 14 hours to get here by train. (Please stay away from planes, everybody.) I met my fellow volunteer Nina, who is also from Germany, Adella, my supervisor, Mary, a very nice lady that seems to know about everyone in Manselton, and Carol, who appears to be the secretary of this parish.

Today, we had a little walk around the area to get to know the most important places here. Afterwards, Nina and I helped serving food and washing dishes for an event called ‘time to meet’ where people with learning disabilities can come together to have a chat and do some handicrafts. Later that day, Nina, my sister and I walked to the beach. There were several smaller showers. One surprised us as we were walking along the river Tawe. (By the way: In Welsh, Swansea is called Abertawe.)

Just a few minutes later, the sun came out again, so we had this wonderful view.

From there, it was only a short walk to the beach which was almost completely empty. Thus, it was a very nice view as well.

There wasn’t any further work waiting for us, so we spent the evening with walking home and having a nice dinner.