Wikke van Stam (Holland)

Placement: Eid Volunteer Central, Nordfjordeid, Eid
Arrived in August 2005 for 12 months

Why are you a volunteer?

I wanted to stop my study for a while and see something of the world. Being a volunteer is a good opportunity to do that. You really live and work in another place in the world and you get to know another culture.

 

Why did you choose Norway?

I wanted to go to a country with a nice nature and high mountains. Norway is a country I hadn't been before, but people who have been here were very positive about it.

What do you do?

I work in the volunteer central, the upper secondary school and in the winter in a ski/shooting-centre. I do a lot of different things there. In the volunteer central I work for example at a little children meeting, help to keep the website updated and at a nittinggroup for refugees. In the school I help for example in the cantina and in the gym classes. In the ski centre I can for example work at the children's ski area or help to prepare the cross-country tracks.

What is bad about being a volunteer?

I do miss my friends and family sometimes. At moments it can be pretty lonely. But I think I am lucky that I'm not the only volunteer here, so there's always somebody to talk to.

Three typical norwegian things?

Woollen underwear.

Snow in September!

Saying ‘ja' and breathing in at the same time.

What was your first phrase in Norwegian?

Ein øl…femti kroner…takk…værsågod. (The first weekend I was here I worked at the bar in a rockfestival and I sold a lot of beer.)

Your best norwegian experience?

There are a lot of great experiences! Like climing to the top of a mountain and see the hole fjordarea ..wow! Or go fishing and have to take up a lot of crabs and a shark. Meeting new people every day is also super. It are just all the new experiences which I wouldn't have had if I stayed in Nederland that make being in Norway so great.

 

 

Your favorite norwegian food?

I do not know much local food, because I cook myself and in the supermarkets are a lot of the same products as in the Netherlands …but at celebrations they always have a sort of chocolate-cake. Very good!

 

If you had three optional things to do, what would you do?

Going to the north and see the Lofoten when the midnight sun is there.

Making a big ski trip in the mountains here.

Speaking and understanding Norwegian totally.

The most important phrases in your job:

What? Kva?

Takk, vær så god (when I'm selling food in the cantina)

Ikkje i dag (if I'm playing with the kids and they try to exhaust me J )