Youssri: You’re listening to the VIEWS News Podcast – The Big Thing, part four.
VO1 Hello, and welcome to this podcast series dedicated to Erasmus+ project “The Big Thing”. This series is brought to you by some of the Belgian participants in the project, who is represented by VIEWS International. VIEWS International is an international association that operates as a network of organizations in 23 countries. Our projects aim to promote mobility and independence of young people with a visual impairment. It is also a team of young Europeans, visually impaired or sighted, who are actively involved in specific projects at the European level. Our objectives are to facilitate the meetings between young European people, majority of whom are visually impaired, to optimize the chances of these young people to be integrated in the social, private and professional life as autonomously as possible, and to develop a spirit of solidarity and democracy specific to European culture. In this series of episodes, we will be giving you a closer look at the Erasmus+ project “The Big Thing”, which involves the Spanish association Arkhe as leading organization and supported by Views International and Zavod ODTIZ from Slovenia.
Youssri: Hello everyone and welcome to the Views News Podcast, The Big Thing, part four. By the time you do listen to this, you’ve already had probably a lot of turkey or any other thing with Christmas and did celebrate with your friends and people the new year.
Jay: I will have fish.
Youssri: You will have fish?
Jay: Yeah.
Youssri: But, but, but, but, but we are not here to talk about our Christmas menu. We are here to talk about “The Big Thing” and actually the second part of that project, right?
Ditmar: Yeah, about the second part of the international experiences we had.
Youssri: So, to just maybe to give you an idea who is like here in this room, we’re basically the people that did edit the podcast, not everything, but part of the story that the people from Slovenia, Belgium and Spain were living when they participated in this one. My name is Youssri.
Ditmar: I’m Ditmar
Jay: And I’m Jay.
Youssri: Exactly. Guys, so everybody could hear a little bit of Slovenia already. We’re not going to talk about this today. The national trainings are also covered, but what was it like, Spain? We left with a plane and that was already quite a journey on its own, right?
Ditmar: Yeah, it really was. Our flight got delayed and the flight of the Slovenian team, who would travel in Spain with us together, also delayed. And then the people in the airport are not used to put like six wheelchairs on a plane. So it took them, I think, around six hours to get all the wheelchairs together. So it was quite late when we arrived.
Jay: Yeah, actually, we spent like six hours in the McDonald’s and we arrived around 4AM into dormitory.
Youssri: We broke the world record of staying in the McDonald’s. But, you know, it was waiting, but then when we saw our friends arriving – or hear, in our case – we just did enjoy seeing them again. Because this is the cool thing about the training. You spent week in another country, then in another. So your friends or the acquaintances that do become your friends do become very familiar. Then we just all went to bed, we were very tired. When we arrived at the dormitory, that was again just like getting used to the environment. And at the same time, getting one of the last workshops, I guess, from our actual trainers, because the task at hand was very clear, it was our time to shine. We had to prepare workshops in different groups, and we got some preparation time before, online, so we had to create our own groups, national or international, we could decide that. And then there was the moment of just being there at the location, preparing, and then everybody had his or her moment in his or her group, right?
Ditmar: There was still some preparation time left there, there was also time to get used to each other again. And there was also one workshop who was still left in hand of the original trainers. But for all the rest of the time that we spent in Toledo was for the participants to shine.
Youssri: Yeah, Yeah, maybe it helps the listener of this podcast to understand how many workshops we had, and also what the titles were. And maybe we can show you a small fragment, just so that you get a bit of the atmosphere.
Jay: Yeah, we had in total of six workshops.
Youssri: The first workshop was from your group. I think I’m going to ask Ditmar to explain what the workshop was about, because then we can see it from his point of view when he was in your group.
Ditmar, the workshop of Jay, what was it about? From how I experienced, we had to divide ourselves in groups and we had to come up with a specific situation to invent an event that was unaccessible – like we had to make it as inaccessible as possible and then you-
Youssri: yeah, then you had to look for the solution how to make it very accessible, I suppose
Ditmar: Yeah, then we had to take in the end this event and make it as accessible as possible to see how different you can take on the same event.
Youssri: And how many hours did you spend doing this?
Jay: It was around one hour and 30 minutes. We also had some feedback times at the end of the workshop and all the activity.
Youssri: The next one, because we have quite some workshops.
Ditmar: The next one was from the trainers itself, dealing with ambiguity.
Youssri: Okay and what was that one about?
Ditmar: It was a very interesting one. Yeah. So we entered the room and we were waiting for Viki and Daniele to arrive but they did not immediately show up and there were also toys, Lego and balloons spread around the room, but they did not show up, so everybody started slowly to play with them.
Youssri: Jay, you you were like so happy, right?
Jay: me, I am a child, so when I saw a when I saw the Lego I was like wow there’s Lego and then like I took like some stuffed animals like plushies and playing around it and touching everyone what they were doing, and it was really really really amazing. I really loved this activity.
Youssri: Yeah, and people were also taking pictures with some funny spider glasses and then some weird things to put on your head or I mean it was it was very funny – but that brings me back to the question guys like what was the main goal?
Ditmar: It turned out that they did sent a message before we entered.
Jay: It just said that the rules of the workshop are explore, touch…
Youssri: Yeah, it was just a fun way to mingle and to connect closer as a group and then before we knew it there was lunch and what happened in the afternoon?
Ditmar: in the afternoon we had the workshop of Galnike and Tana on expect the unexpected
Youssri: Expect the unexpected – and what was that, did they make it happen that you were really experiencing the title, expect the unexpected?
Jay: Yes i’d say yes.
Youssri: They used two different elements in the sense that first, you got the complete freedom, you got complete control of what you wanted to do, eh? We were allowed to really write the story together, because I think that’s what we did, right? It was a sort of story that we wrote. And then once you did that, you came up with an accomplishment. But it was out of your will, out of your creativity. And then there was like the second part with Nike. She was like asort of general. We felt like we were in the army. I think we should go and listen to that for a moment. –
Nike [environmental recording] One, a two, one, a two, hey! More energy, I need to feel more. Come on, yeah. Even Marija is doing better than you.
Ditmar, are you here? Yes, then do squats and now for your punishment – I hope you’re ready – for your punishment we will do a group hug for nine seconds. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Youssri: That was intense, guys, right?
Jay: That was intense.
Ditmar: Yeah, it was crazy. I could like it because it was her doing it.
Youssri: Yeah, she was a girl with a lot of humor, and she could turn things around that even when she gave you like a direct order you were just in the end like flabbergasted. Three more to go?
Ditmar: Yes.
Jay: Next one is “trust the people, trust the process”.
Ditmar: I remember the warming up was a joke from Ibrahim. After the joke we were divided in groups of bears and we were given some plasticine and an emotion or a feeling. One person got the emotion I had to describe without saying the emotion or feeling to what it was about and the other one had to build something with the plasticine.
Youssri: Jay, what did you make?
Jay: Me, I made a pregnant woman because the emotion was expectation. So for me, yeah.
Youssri: So you want to expect a child in the near future?
Jay: Yeah.
Youssri: Oh, it’s so cute.
[Environmental recording]
P1: Okay, it’s an emotion. Emotion. Connected with Halloween.
P2: Okay, afraid or scared?
P1: Yes, and the emotion is… What is the emotion?
P2: Afraid, being afraid or scared? Yes. Less than 10 minutes it will be made. I think we are ready.
P3: [Laughs] You did your job.
Jay: Now we have the fifth workshop. If I remember correctly, was made by Ditmar, Youssri, Anna, and Kinga. Who would want to explain what was it?
Ditmar: So the title was Responsibility versus Control.
Youssri: Yeah, and it consisted of two parts. The first part was that people were divided in pairs, all staying on a line in front of each other, and basically you had to convince the person to come to your side of the line. They have to do that with all kinds of arguments or, I don’t know, any convenient way, maybe begging or something, I don’t know. Many different results, one of them was even a sort of 18 plus result, but we’re not going to dive too deep into this one. But yeah, it was funny to see how people were creative in that one. And then the second part was like a statement game. And that was a cool one, because they could decide if they were agreeing, disagreeing or somewhere in the middle with a situation we threw at them. For example, a blind person should not or should have kids.
P1: The next statement, People with disabilities should not have children.
Youssri: And then they were like, well, let’s say nine more.
Jay: Last part, I think we can listen to it.
Youssri: Yeah, sure, because that was like celebrating the end of the workshop with something creative.
[environmental recording] Three, two, one, go!
♪ In the mountains the sun is shining ♪ ♪ In the mountains the sun is shining ♪
♪ In the mountains the sun is shining ♪ ♪ In the mountains we have fun ♪ – Thank
you very much.
P1: Can you can you usually do it in Slovenian yourself?
[Singing in Slovenian]
Youssri: And then the last one last workshop was one of the people from Spain, all the deaf people together, and I think they did they did a marvelous job – what was the title guys?
Jay: Safe versus brave space
Youssri: And I think that’s like covering the title very well because at some point we were confronted with questions of the things we did in the past. For example, what was one of the questions?
Ditmar: “Have you ever experienced bullying?”
Youssri: Yeah. That was a tough one. And the cool thing was that also people could really like express themselves without feeling that there was a problem. There was like really, they created the safe space and people could open up and then to make it a bit lighter. At some point, we were doing some drama. So we did represent certain statements that we got on a paper, but in a funny theatre play amongst ourselves. So it was a sort of private thing. And yeah, special thanks also to the interpreters for translating all of that, because that was that was in every workshop a challenge for them, I guess, but they did it so well. We should also still mention that it was in Toledo. Is it a city?
Ditmar: It is a city with a lot of mountains so there were a lot of stairs in the city
Youssri: We were like stranded in a sort of castle in Toledo and it took us a bit of time when we were in the in the city but then we also were able to have a lovely experience for example we went clubbing, Jay
Jay: We went to a club, yes!
Youssri: And there was Halloween going on as well so it was funny to see lots of people in the street dressed like – I don’t know – witches and all these kind of things and then like just go to a party as well when we had a free time – but guys the weather was something else: Ditmar?
Ditmar: I went with our volunteer Carmen and Youssri and Anna to the shop to get some drinks and food for the evening. And when we started to walk, it was a little bit raining, quite OK. And when we were five minutes on our way, it started to drash, and it was very, very, very bad weather. It was terrible. And by the time we came to the shop, we were completely soaked. And Youssri was having quite some fun with it.
Youssri Yeah. I was basically the optimistic, happy person that was dancing and singing and everybody hated me for that.
Ditmar: I was mad.
Youssri: yeah, you were really mad [laughs].
Jay: Hey, you still come back with food and drinks or…? Mission completion!
Youssri: Yeah, it was fun. It was fun.
Ditmar: But my clothes had to dry for three more days.
Jay: Your shoes? Your shoes even!
That was funny to see him like that. Guys, we also have a little bit of a kind of Surprise at this end of the podcast we First we’re going to listen to Carlos who’s one of the interpreters. We got we got a moment with him, we could interview him and I think it’s really worth it to listen to, like how you become an interpreter what it feels like, what the experiences are, so there we go
Carlos: I used to work at an organization and I used to be a designated interpreter. That means you pretty much go with the same person every time. Sometimes it can look like a good idea, being diplomatic or sometimes it’s not. Probably you come to an agreement with these things, with the people you were working with. And I was working with this senior gentleman, who had a very informal and funny shits and giggles way of talking. And he told me, “Please tone me down.” “Make me sound formal.” He was asking for that. I mean funny, but not… I mean, I know I’m too much. I’m very old, I cannot change, so you just tone me down. So I say okay, but unless something like that is requested or agreed upon, I just try to be as faithful as I can. With my own limitations, as a person, as an interpreter, or with the situation. You can make accents with some language, yeah. I can tell if somebody’s from the east, from Valencia or the north or the south, Andalusia, in Spain, by the way they sign and by the word choices that they make. There are levels of awareness of what it means to work, not only with interpreters but with deaf people. Some events and some projects or some conferences, they hire sign language interpreters because they look good. It’s a sad reality, but it is. I mean, you go somewhere and see somebody who’s signing, “oh, this is accessible.” But they don’t put that much effort into feeding you information or they don’t know whether deaf people are attending or they don’t reach out to deaf people. Sometimes we are… I felt sometimes like a banner.
Youssri: And then, yeah, we were able to talk with Nick and his story, for me, was really touching one. Didmar, can you explain a bit more about that? Nick is a guy from Slovenia. He uses a wheelchair and he needs to use it because of an accident he had earlier, but I think he can explain more of that himself.
Nik: So my name is Nik Špolj Ardežijot. I come from the Slovenian team Zavod ODTIZ. I came with other participants to the training, the big thing here in Toledo. Regarding my disability, I had an accident when I was 17 years old. I jumped in the coastal city of Slovenia, Portoros, where I lived, I jumped from the pier into the water, into the sea, and unfortunately I broke my neck in the C5 and C6 vertebrae, in the neck, and since then I am a quadriplegic. That means that I cannot move my legs and well, also not my fingers. Back then I was attending the you know the like a common high school without any kind of profession when you finish it, but then in 2016 I went to the University of Ljubljana in the capital city of Slovenia where I Enrolled into the electrical engineering course and now I’m currently finishing my master’s degree and planning to get a job. I met one of the founder girls in Zavod ODTIZ, Mia, and she said, “Hey Nik, would you go on this kind of projects, youth projects, they’re really nice, you meet a lot of different people, young people, you hang out, you also do some work.” And I said, “Yeah, why not?” I mean, of course. I was a little bit afraid at first because traveling with an electric wheelchair is a new world of problems that it brings. So I had to think about a lot of things, how to fold the wheelchair, how to travel, who is going to go with me, because I cannot take care of my own, because I cannot move my fingers and I cannot walk. So the thing is that it is tiring for me even if I’m sitting down, you know on the wheelchair, people sometimes think “yeah, but you’re sitting down how can you be tired”, and the fact is that you’re often times more tired than if you would be walking. I like that we are staying in the castle It’s the first time that I’m like sleeping in a castle and it’s really nice. The view in Toledo is one of the best ones that I had with all the scenery, with all the old buildings and the nature.
Youssri: The last interview we had or like the last statement of the international group, it’s one of the Spanish group and it’s a remarkable man, it’s a remarkable guy, can you tell us a bit more about him? Yeah, his name is Alberto and as you mentioned is from the Spanish group.
He’s a partially deaf person, so he’s able to a little bit here also thanks to his phone – he’s using an app that transcribes what people vocally say into text. He can read the text and because of that he’s able to understand what’s going on around him.
Alberto: Nice to be here today. My name is Alberto. I am 31 years old. I am deaf, but with children’s hearing, so I guess I am deaf or hard of hearing, however you would want to call it. I think I started losing my hearing at 5 years old because that’s when my teachers and my family started to notice it. When I got 7, I guess I received the official diagnosis. I got my hearing aids. Yeah, I use a phone to transcribe what people say. It is a transcription app that is called live transcribe. It’s made by Google. So it’s really helpful. A serviceable platform is really cool to be able to meet people with different disabilities, and I think it’s even more important for deaf people because deaf people are usually more isolated from other communities. We are usually in our own world, despite the opportunity to see other world, the blind people’s world, the fault of people who have disability mobility or use wheelchairs. And that’s not something that deaf people usually have it opportunity to do.
Youssri: Anything else you guys want to share with the people?
Youssri: You’re both breathing so we have two sentences for sure. I love this.
Ditmar: Okay, I can say that I’m very thankful to be in this project. I’ve learned a lot of things about accessibility about people’s point of view to be impaired, in a way, about becoming a trainer and taking responsibility in these cases, about working with a group. I’ve learned a lot of things, but I’m very thankful for it.
Jay: Yeah, for me, it’s a bit the same. I have learned really a lot. I have learned to put myself to more out there to dare more to communicate better with other people and to handle better situations like in group because it was not really my strength. So yeah it was really nice and it was nice to meet new people as well because we were not only with the people that we already met. And yeah, overall it was really cool. I loved it.
Youssri: And with that, I think we can close the last podcast of The Big Thing – part four. I want to thank you both not only for being interviewed today, but you did put a lot of work in this podcast and it was a pleasure to do this we wish everybody happy holidays.
♪ We wish you a merry Christmas we wish you a merry Christmas we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year ♪
Youssri: And i think we can finish the podcast now.
Youssri: ho ho ho i was asked by Santa Claus to read you a couple of things concerning credits. We would like to thank Or Bodill for the voiceover, the VIEWS International team for the feedback there in their offices and of course Ditmar, Jay and Youssri for editing, mixing and mastering this podcast. And we should not forget each and every one of you that did allow us to interview you because without you, this podcast wasn’t a success. From the entire VIEWS International team, we’re wishing you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And now, Rudolph, it’s time to go! We still need to give lots of children Christmas presents.
VO1: Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
[Environmental recording]
[The group of participants sings]
[Airplane landing, people applauding]
Ditmar: How long are we waiting already one two three four four hours and a half.
Anna: You saved my life my battery
Ditmar: At least your phone has energy, I’m not sure about yourself.
Ditmar: Hi Nik, how are you doing?
Nik: I’m okay, hello, buonasera. Buenos dias. Buenas noches.
Jay: How was your flight?
P1: It was okay, but you were waiting for us for how long?
Ditmar: Four hours, five hours? Almost five.
P3: Ditmar, hi! Nice to see you again
Ditmar: Nice to see you, how are you doing?
P3: Yeah, a little bit tired, like I was the other time.
Ibrahim: It’s too early in the evening. Yes!
Ditmar: No, it’s early in the morning. Nice! It’s super early in the morning.
P3: Your hair is longer. Yes, it is. Let’s see that. Woo!
Ditmar: How are you doing?
P3: I’m good.