VOLUNTEER’S GUIDE Credits in tortosa DRAWINGS: Jordi Castells Pruñonosa PHOTOS: Cecile Thevenot FINANCED BY: Youth In Action Program Visibility activity of a European Voluntary Service INTRODUCTION INDEX This guide provides some practicalinformation about Spain, Catalonia and Tortosa, as well as some cultural updates , to make the stay of an EVS volunteer in Tortosa easier or to help you to decide whether to make your EVS here! You can also find some useful tips, notes and usefulweb addresses for more information about the Introduction region and the city. At the end of your EVS project, you'll be able to add a bit of your experience in it! If you want to add some notes, use this space, and if you think it could YouthIn be useful to future volunteers, send us your notes! Action Spain Catalonia Terresdel'Ebre Tortosa Dictionary This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 1 2 YOUTHINACTION Youthexchanges Youth Exchanges aim to gather young Erasmus, Socrates, Leonardo, Grundvig … sounds to you something else than old people from two or more countries, famous people? offering them the opportunity: m to discuss different topics, Youth In Action is another program of theEuropean Union , that aims to develop no m to have contact with other cultures formal educationand volunteering opportunities for youngsters. The program runs and other countries, around 5 actions open to youngsters between 13 and 30 years old and to youth m to learn more about themselves and workers. others, m to explore similarities and Of these actions, obre't'ebre offers 4 of them: European Volunteering Service, differences among their cultures... Youth Exchanges, Youth Initiatives and Youth training or seminars. The exchanges can be bi-, tri- or multi- YouthExchange 2010: Greenmovements lateral (number of countries involved), forourblueplanet,bonds'earth last from 6 to 21 days and involve the You can learn more about this program in the European Commission website: active participation of 16 to 60 young http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/programme/index_en.htm people, aged between 13 and 25 years old. European Volunteering Service (EVS) If you are reading this guide, you might already know what EVS is, but a short Youthiniciatives explanation is always useful. These are projects created and managed by a group of young people (at least 4 EVS is an opportunity given to young people between 16 and 30 years old to: young people from 15 to 30 years old) who m experience a good time in another country during a period of 2 weeks till one year; present a new idea to develop in their local m participate in solidarity activities environment, as an answer to their needs m learn new languages and interests. They are innovating and m get new friends creative projects of solidarity, with an mdiscover other cultures impact on their local community, in which m learn new things in a different way … young people participate actively as Withaccommodation,food,insurance, members, not only in their neighbourhood linguistictrainingpaidfor. or municipality, but in a wider society: the UmranfromTurkey world. inEVSinTortosa.2009 EVSinvolvesaSendingOrganization(SO), Have a look at our website aHostingOrganization(HO),oneorseveralvolunteers,andsometimesa www.obretebre.org to know the different CoordinatingOrganization(CO). youth initiatives we supported! YouthIniciative Teaterofmigration.2009-2010 Obre't'ebre is an official sending, hosting and coordinating organization of EVS projects. The hosting projects coordinated by obre't'ebre are posted in www.obretebre.org 3 4 CULTURALNOTES_ Spain Spanish culture (architecture, language, religion, ...) Is influenced by pre-Roman Let’sbreakafewmyths cultures, mainly Celts and Iberians; but population_46,9 millions aboutSpain: also by the Roman and Arabic civilizations. currency_ Euro (166,3860 pesetas) Every community has got its own culture. m SpanishmenareNOT Spanish feast days_ m January 1st : New Year alltorerosandwomendo Spanishhours_ m January6th :KingsDay NOTalldanceflamenco! m th There is a basic schedule that people 40 daysafterCarnival m Spanishgastronomyis st should be aware if they don’t want to get m May1 :WorkDay NOTlimitedtotapas, th stuck desperately searching for open m August15 :SaintAugustDay paellaandsangria! st restaurants or stores. m November1 :AllSaintsDay m ASpanishdayisNOT th To review: m December6 :SaintImmaculadaConceptionDay aminimumofwork,A th 7 AM - 11 AM: Breakfast time m December8 :ConstitutionDay longsiestaandparties th 11 AM - 1:30 PM: Cafes and restaurants m December25 :ChristmasDay allnightlong! may be closed. 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM: Stores and businesses close and you better go to have lunch 3:30PM-5:30PM:Toolate,ifyouwanttoeat,gotosomeAmericanstylechain. Youcan'tshopsoyoumightaswellgotoamuseumorjusttakeanap. 5:30 PM- 8:30 PM: You can shop or have a walk, but sorry, it is too early for dinner! 8:30 PM - ...: Stores start to close. Eat, drink and attend a cultural event. On Sundays and holidays everything may be closed. When planning trips to museums or visit administrative office, check the schedule; often they are closed on a certain day of the week. GEOGRAPHY_ Spain is located in south-western Europe. Its mainland is bordered to the South and East by the Mediterranean Sea; to the North by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the Northwest and West by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. The surface of Spain covers 85% of the Iberian Peninsula, which it shares with Portugal. Africa is less than 15 km South of the Strait of Gibraltar, which is British, by the way! A broad central plateau slopes to the South and East, crossed by a series of mountain Politics_ ranges and river valleys. Off Spain's East coast in the Mediterranean are the Balearic Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a Islands, the largest of which is Majorca. 97 km West of Morocco are the Canary constitutional monarchy, composed of 17 autonomous communities and two Islands. Its highest peaks are Teide (3,718 m), on the island of Tenerife; Mulhacén autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla) with varying degrees of autonomy. (3,478 m), in Granada; and Aneto (3,404 m), in the Pyrenees. The coasts have very diverse outlines, as they belong to different climatic systems and are surrounded by 5 different seas and oceans. 6 Culture_ There is a variety of cultural elements depending on which autonomous comunity, but CATALONIA also on wich region. We will try to present a few of them: Forexample,Castellers areoneofthemainmanifestationsoftheNorthandCentre Population_7,504,881 inhabitants ofCatalonia.Theactivityconsistsinconstructinghumantowersbycompetingteams ofcollescastelleres. Capital_Barcelona (1.621.537 inhabitants) Thesardana is the most characteristic Catalan popular dance, other groups also geography and climate_ practiceBall de bastons. The jota (in process of beeing declared dance of national Catalonia is Spain’s most North-easterly autonomous region. Separated from France by interest in Catalonia) in the Southern part is sometimes accompanied by a group of the Pyrenees, it covers 32.000 sq km, with 580 km of Mediterranean coastline. It is musicians singing arondalla (improvised song). composed by 4 provinces: Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona. This area is characterised by a Mediterranean climate, with many hours of sunshine, Musically theHavaneres are also characteristic in the marine localities of the Costa mild and windy in winter, warm in summer and moderate temperature and rains in Brava especially during summer months when these songs are sung outdoors autumn and spring. Its lands present different kind of relief: from the coast to the accompanied by acremat (hot rum). As opposed to other parts of Spain, flamenco is not high mountains, there are many protected natural zones such as Natural park of popular here, but rather therumba catalana is a more prevalent dance style. Aigüestortes, Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, and of course the two naturals parks that surround Tortosa... In the greater celebrations other elements of the Catalan popular culture are usually present: the parades ofgegants (giants) and correfocs (devils and firecrackers, likein politics_ the covers’ photo). TheStatuteofAutonomyof Cataloniaisthefundamental Many villages of Catalonia, and especially in Terres de l'Ebre, organize the corre-bous organiclaw,secondonlytothe during their annual celebrations of their patron saint. They run with cows in the streets SpanishConstitutionfrom or they play with them in a bullring with obstacles. They say that they don’t want to kill whichtheStatuteoriginates. or hurt the animals. It is different from the corridas, that will be banned in 2012! ItestablishesthatCataloniaisorganized politicallythroughtheGeneralitatdeCatalunya, In addition to the traditional local Catalan culture, there are other traditions from conformedbytheParliament,thePresidencyofthe other parts of Spain or the world, as a result of human migration. Generalitat,theGovernmentorExecutive Councilandtheotherinstitutionscreatedby Catalanfeastdays_ TheParliament.TheGeneralitatholdsexclusive m June24th :SaintJoanDay jurisdictioninculture,environment, m September11th :NationalCataloniaDay communications,Transportation,commerce,publicsafetyandlocalgovernment,and m December26th :SaintEsteveDay sharesjurisdictionwiththeSpanishgovernmentineducation,healthandjustice.