#wxp

A surprise double book adaptation underwhelms.

I woke up later than I had this whole week, and I took my time getting ready. After all, I didn’t have to hurry today. During breakfast, me and my grandmother discussed what we were gonna do today. She would have visitors coming over in the afternoon, so we could go to the ringsteken in the morning. Which we did.

We went into the city by bike, then had to walk for a bit. Once we arrived, a big field covered in sand was placed where there’s usually a square or a park of some sort. Several horses were there, along with their riders. The riders were wearing all the same: a white suit of some sort, along with an orange sash. The horses didn’t have any dresses on (they didn’t even have saddles), but they had all sorts of cute bows, crowns and other decoration in their mane and tail.

The sport itself, ringsteken, began. There was a small ring hanging in the air. The goal of the competitors was to get a lance through that ring. Then they’d get a point. The person with the most points would win a prize.

I also took some pictures. This was the best (action) shot!

My grandma and I had watched this for about an hour, when around 12:00 we were getting hungry. So we went to one of my grandmas favourite shops, where they sell books and office supplies, but also serve coffee and other food. We first drank some coffee, then shopped around there and then ate something. I bought a notebook that can also be used to write music in it! My grandma also gave me a comic, as thanks for staying the week.

I also wanted to thank her, so I asked her what present would make her happy. She said that yellow tulips would, so we went to the florist. Except they were closed, so I couldn’t really give her a present.

Then we went home. I worked a little on my report and greeted the guests that were coming over.

And soon it was night. I ate dinner, put on my pajama and went to sleep. I’d be going home tomorrow.. Feels kind of strange...

Today was a lot of fun. I also feel like I have learned a little bit today (since I didn’t really know what ringsteken was before this week).

My next goal is to get home safe, take some time off and then work on the report.

This is also my last post on this blog, since now my journey is officially over.

Have a nice (rest of your) day!

I woke up earlier than usual, so I decided to watch some youtube videos before getting out of bed. Then I got dressed, ate breakfast, etc.

I left the house a little earlier than usual, and since I walked at the same speed as usual, I also arrived at 8:25 instead of 8:30. The people at the reception didn’t mind though, so they gave me my transciever and keys and headed towards the desks. There I greeted everyone. Then the morning meeting began. There were a few people discussing if they should get some food today, instead of eating regular lunch. Then they asked me, and I agreed: after a while bread with peanutbutter gets pretty boring, and if they want to get fries, sure why not?

At the meeting, I was told I would help with the clothing bank the whole morning. The clothing bank was organised by an organisation outside of the AZC, but they’d be happy if I could offer them my help. So I did.

I had to wait a little, so they could set everything up. I took this time to try and think of some questions for the interview, without much success. I guessed I could make some up later. I really wanted to get this interview out of the way today, so maybe I could think of some questions during lunch..? Anyways, Once the clothing bank started (around 10:00), I started having more and more fun doing it. It was fun watching everyone shop. The women there told me that I could pick something too, if I wanted, but I was already guilt tripping when I thought about it, so I let that slide. I helped there until about 12:15, when I heard that the lunch had arrived. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fries (like they said they would get), but they had brought different kinds of sandwiches. The lunch was fun. Everyone seemed cheerful.

After lunch, I got back to the clothing bank. It was a lot busier now, and I had to help some customers as well. I even went to the rooms of the refugees two times, because they didn’t have a fitting room at the clothing bank, so they would just try on everything in their rooms. I just had to sit there and make sure they would bring everything back.

Everything was fun and went well, until I suddenly a voice came through the receiver.

“Guys; there’s a guy here with a knife.”

My heartbeat sped up, but I knew I couldn’t help. Even if I could, I’d probably just mess it up. All of the staff members were trained to deal with such situations. I wasn’t. Plus it was on the 4th floor, while I was on the ground floor. So I just continued with my work and hoped no one would get stabbed or hurt.

I could hear what was happening through the transciever. I eventually heard that the police were being called, and that the issue was solved without anyone getting stabbed. I was glad: the clothing bank was about to end and I wouldn’t really know what to do if they wouldn’t have solved it in time.

Shortly after me and the women of the clothing bank closed it and cleaned everything up, another meeting was about to start(around 14:20). It was the longest overdracht this week, since everyone needed to know what happened (including details). Turns out that the guy really had a specific target (one of the staff members), and had even threatened him with sayings such as “I’ll kill you!”. There was a very tense atmosphere. Several staff members also asked me if I was okay, and if I still felt safe. I thought that was really nice! I told them that the message scared me for a moment, but I knew I was safe so I didn’t panic or anything.

After that, I didn’t really have time for the interview. Even I was still shocked, and no one was in the mood for an interview. So instead, one of the staff members said that a few students from the Roosevelt academy would be coming over to help with some activities outside, and that I could help them. Which I did

Four girls arrived. I introduced myself to them, and helped them out with checking on the children and keeping them entertained. I helped with ropeskipping, for example. I also helped a few kids with rollerskating and with pushing the swing. It was a lot of fun, and for a second I felt like a 7-year-old again (during my round of ropeskipping. Pretty much every child that was ropeskipping with us wanted me to have a go as well, so I did).

Five minutes before I had planned to leave, two staff members came up to me and asked if I really felt safe here and if I still felt good. It was really nice of them to ask that. I said that I really did, but that the only thing I didn’t feel good about was that I didn’t do that interview yet because of all the stuff happening. They understood, smiled, and told me that I could go if I wanted. But I didn’t, so I stayed 10 extra minutes playing with the kids before heading home

Once I got home, I told my grandma what had happened. I also called my mom to tell her, and messaged my friend in Germany to tell her what had happened as well. I was too tired to really do or think of anything, so I just put on my pajama and went to sleep.

Today was definetly the most eventful out of all of them! I think it was especially ironic, since the staff members had constantly been telling me how quiet everything was in the AZC and that nothing was really happening.

My next goal is to get that interview done, with the same reasons as yesterday.

Have a nice (rest of your) day!

I woke up tired. Yesterday was quite a busy day, so I hope I can take it easy today. I also found an old notebook in my bag yesterday evening, so that means that, if I get bored, I can at least doodle a bit.

I got dressed, ate breakfast and went on my 5 minute walk.

I arrived exactly at 8:30 at the reception. I got my keys and transceiver, then went to the meeting room to say hello to everyone and meet some new people. There I heard that I would be helping at the crèche today, which would open at 9:15 o’clock. I thought it would be fun, since I really like children.

Once the meeting ended, I went to the crèche. No one seemed to be there, except for a woman. She told me that she works there, that she set the whole crèche up and that she was glad someone finally showed up to help her. I could see the disapointment in her eyes when I told her that it was a one time thing, but she was happy that she could have my help at least for today. We waited for like 3/4th of an hour, before finally a mother showed up with her child. It was a little girl, who seemed to be very shy. Her mother left, and we tried playing with her. At first she liked it: all the attention was on her. But she got more and more bored, since there were no other children to play with. We tried everything: cooking with the toy stove (the girl could say “banana”, and she wasn’t afraid to show that), coloring in the colouring books (I ended up liking it more than the child, I coloured a dolphin!) and we even let her go outside on the tricycle. When I was about to give up trying to entertain her, another kid showed up along with his brother. Although the brother was actually too old for the crèche (he was 7, while the crèche was for children aged 2 to 4), he could stay a while to keep the two other children company.

Then more children arrived: two girls and two boys. One of the boys was too old as well (he was 5 years old), but he was the friend of the other older boy, so the woman told them that they had to leave if they got too wild or too rough (which they eventually did. They had to leave immediately).

The more children arrived, the more fun it got. Some of the kids were playing with toy cars, others were colouring (one even started drawing on me!), and two girls were fighting over a doll.

The last one made me a bit sad: the woman said that they were fighting over the doll because there was only one. There were a lot of toys for boys, but only a few for the girls.

Some of the drawings the children made on my hands.

After a while, some parents came to pick up their children. Yet not every parent did so, so we all went to the hallway where all the rooms were where the refugees stayed. There one of the refugees offered to bring the kids back home. We happily obliged, then went back to the crèche to clean up. In total, I stayed at the crèche until 12:00 o’clock. Then a quick walk through the hallways of the AZC to check if there weren’t any lost children from the crèche there, which there weren’t.

Then I went to the meeting room for lunch and another ‘overdracht’. Then everyone went back to their desks, and I got out my notebook and doodled a bit. I know, not the best or the most productive thing to do, but I didn’t really feel like doing anything else. Then one of the people in the rooms offered to take a walk through the AZC (the same staff member as yesterday), and I walked alongside her. No cute kids offering ice cream this time, unfortunately, but it was still fun to do something else than sitting there and drawing in my notebook.

Once we came back, we heard that there were two rooms that needed cleaning: two refugees had left the AZC, and they might have left some of their stuff in the rooms by accident. So we got some trashbags and rubber gloves, then went to the rooms. The first room was locked and no one was inside, so we couldn’t ask someone which locker and bed belonged to the refugee that had already left. The second room, however, did have someone inside, so we asked him which locker and bed belonged to the refugee that was gone, and we cleaned up his locker and around his bed. We actually had to break open a padlock before we could open the locker, but we managed. There were a few things that seemed like it could be useful, so we went to ask some other staff members. They concluded that they wouldn’t be able to use it, so we threw everything in the trash.

Then we went back to that room to get all of the stuff from COA (such as the bedsheets), then took it to the cleaning room.

Then I was sitting at the desk again, drawing in my small notebook until it was about 4 o’clock. The last half an hour I spend in the recreation room, playing table football and shuffleboard with some kids and two staff members. I may have gotten a bit too competitive with the football, because I could hear myself swearing under my breath. I just hope the kids didn’t pick any of that up (although I think I did hear one of them say a swearword as well... whoops!)

Then I went home. I was tired, but happy. I like working with children, and I did that a lot today.!

In the evening, I watched some series and made a blogpost from what happened yesterday. Afterwards I was too tired to think of questions to ask for the interview. I hope the questions from the example interview will do, because I can’t really think of any others right now.

I liked this day more than yesterday. Although taking a notebook with me was a good idea, I should’ve thought of questions instead of just making random drawings in my notebook.

My next goal is to get the interview done. It has become more of a burden now, and the longer I wait, the heavier that burden will feel.

Have a nice (rest of your) day!

My first day went way better than expected!

Now I know I can tell something about how I came to Zeeland and such, but to be honest, it’s pretty boring. I got inside the car (with my family), then drove for about 3 hours and then we arrived. And I could list all of the music I listened to during the trip, but I don’t really remember anyways.

Sooo lets just do a time skip instead, to Monday morning.

I woke up early, around 5 AM. Not that I was supposed to, I just couldn't really fall back asleep again. Probably the nerves. So I grabbed my phone and listened to some calming music before getting out of bed at around 7:30 AM. I changed clothing, ate breakfast and those sorts of things, then went off to the AZC!

It was a 5 minute walk, and there were only a few different passages. It was so easy even I couldn't get lost! 

I arrived at 8:30. I went to the reception, where I got my keys and a transceiver. There were a few people already standing outside, smoking. I introduced myself to the people I didn't know there, and made some small talk. Then we headed inside to the meeting room, where I met more people. Then we (the whole team and I) discussed what had happened during the weekend and what needed to be done for today/the week.

This is one of those transceivers. There are several buttons on it, but I used the volume button the most.

During the discussion, I heard that the AZC is closed on Kings day, aka my work experience got a whole day shorter all of a sudden: 4 days instead of 5. I hope it'll be enough..

 Then everyone headed to their desks. One of the people there explained a bit about the AZC and what happens there. He told me quite a lot, I don't remember much of it (sorry!). I do, however, remember that there were over 30 different nationalities staying in the AZC. EXCLUDING the Dutch staff-members!

At 10:00, I could watch at the help desk. This is where the refugees/asylum seekers could get help or information. There was, for example, someone who wanted to check if they had received their money of that week. There were also several people who wanted to have a train ticket, so they could go to an appointment they had in another city. It was very quiet though. That’s why the help desk closed a quarter of an hour earlier than usual (it closed at 11:45 instead of 12:00).

Then I had to wait. I couldn't log into the computers, because I didn't have an account (and creating one would take over 2 days), and I didn't have internet on my phone, so I got bored after a little while. Luckily, at one point one of the staff members took me with her to search for a woman. Apparently she did something wrong and a staff member needed to tell her the consequences of her actions. However, she already had an appointment on that day, so I didn't get to see the conversation (yet?).

At 12:25, one of the best parts of the day started: LUNCH! I had 2 slices of bread and a bottle of water. Nothing special, really. Everyone gathered in the meeting room (the same as where everyone met this morning), and told each other stories and jokes. This lasted until 13:15, when everyone went back to checking their mail (except for me, I went back to being bored). Luckily, about half an hour later, was what the staff calls the ‘overdracht’. It’s basically when more staff members arrive, and they get to know what happened during the weekend and the morning. Sooo I met a few more people!

At 14:15, it was back to boredom again, although this time it didn't last as long as before. I got to see a solicitation, from an ex-refugee. He would really like to help with either keeping the children company, or fixing everyone's bikes. However, neither were an option. But the team worked out a solution, so I hope that it will work out for him. 

Shortly after, we went on a small hunt: apparently a refugee had a doctors appointment, but didn’t show up. Turns out, he was ‘outside’, as we were told by other refugees. This could mean a lot though: he could be at the terrain in front of the building, he could be in the city, or he could even be in another city! So we gave up our hunt and went back to the desks. Luckily for me, one of the staff members asked me to join her on a walk throughout the whole building! I happily obliged and strolled through the hallways, hoping to find a way out of boredom. It did help, especially since a really cute small girl (I think she was 4 or 4 years old) offered us ice cream. After it was done, it was 16:30 already! Time to go back to grandma's house!

I was really tired afterwards, so I took the evening to watch some series and go to bed a little earlier than usual. Guess I can make the interview questions tomorrow evening..

Although there were a lot of moments where I got really bored, I did enjoy everything I did, and it was a lot of fun getting to know how it works at the AZC and meeting the people there.

My next goal is to get to know everyone's names (although I’m not sure if I’ll also mention them here. Privacy and stuff, y’know.), and do more work and other fun stuff at the AZC!

Have a nice (rest of your) day!