The DNS Program

During our study weekend in November, we said farewell to our teammate, Milan, and we also learned more about the DNS program and what we'll be doing - which we ourselves had to research, work together and present. So I'm going to write an article summarising what I learnt (More like trying to recall what was presented. What kind of potential teacher doesn't take notes?), for those who are curious and wanting to know about what this program entails exactly.

Economy

I've touched upon this before in a previous post, but nevertheless I'll mention it again as it's an important core of the DNS program. Our team has our own economy separate from the school's. Save for our monthly 300dkk pocket money, the money we earn from our saving up period is put into the team economy and is shared amongst us evenly through monthly budgets. We have different monthly budgets that covers our transport, food, accommodation etc, as well as the program itself. For instance, next year, some of the money we earn will go towards purchasing buses for our trip to Africa. We have, so far, two economists on our team - Mykolas J who keeps track of our income and Ausrine who keeps a record of our expenses; we have to make sure to keep any receipts and produce them to Ausrine. The economy will remain like this for the duration of the next four years.

Saving up

This is the period that I'm currently in and will end in September 2015 when we start preparing our trip to Africa. We have saving up periods for a few months every year and as the name suggests, it's a period of time where we find a job, work and earn money for our team economy. Where we work and what we do is up to us, and it doesn't matter if we all don't earn the same amount as together we are responsible for collecting the funds and spending it in accordance with the programme; we all have the same budgets. Those who are regular readers of my blog posts may know that I am currently working at a school in order to earn money for my team.

Africa Preparations

Starting from September 2015, our preparations for the trip to Africa will be underway. It's during this time that we'll be: planning an itinerary, studying African cultures and traditions and the continent itself, looking into what we want to investigate whilst we are there and how we want to bring it to the public, learning Portuguese, purchasing buses, converting them into "homes" and learning how to repair them, and getting our visas and vaccinations. A lot of these preparations we can do prior to date we start, such as learning Portuguese for example. After two months of preparations, we'll then be heading to Africa.

Fighting With the Poor

When people usually think of somebody that is poor, they probably imagine somebody that is impoverished, homeless and without a penny to their name; somebody that struggles to survive by begging or they may think of those African children suffering on the tv adverts. Of course, it's certainly correct to say that such people are poor, but we debated whether uneducated people are also poor and whether those with mental disabilities are poor. One definition of the word poor describes a pitiable person - someone that deserves our pity and perhaps help. During the presentation, I think we all had mixed feelings on what makes somebody poor. In any case, we need to be empathetic with those we deem poor in order to fight with them to make changes/improvements in their lives and their communities.

Bringing "It" to the Public

This is what I had to present to the team along with Honza and Amy, and it was a struggle to find out what "IT" exactly is, as the different students we askef from other teams had different ideas on what "IT" is. Some answered that it is the "experience and the ideas" and one vaguely answered that it is the "problems". After much thinking and debating, we concluded that whatever "IT" is, it should be something that we find appropriate and important to share with anybody that we can reach out to. Whatever message we want to bring to the public is something we'll (hopefully) agree on before we start our investigations in Africa. Hopefully, we'll present a different angle about Africa - something that's new and unknown to the mass public; perhaps we'll uncover important information that is otherwise being buried under an abundance of donation adverts. I hope we'll do something mind blowing, eye opening, thought provoking and informative enough that we can raise consciousness and convince people to be more compassionate towards their fellow human beings.

European Field of Practice

During our second year, we'll choose and agree (a tedious and difficult task to carry out so I hear) upon a destination in Europe to live, work and study for 6 months. We'll be trying to balance a life of cultural understanding, work, studies and engaging with local people and carrying out investigations - much like what our trip to Africa will entail I guess. Although this time, obviously, we'll be learning about and understanding society in Europe and the problems people here face.

Studies

Throughout the DNS program, the majority of our time will be spent studying of course! There are many topics that the DNS program covers and some of the ones I recall (perhaps I'll edit it in due time to put down a full list. I really should take notes!) are: global politics, art, philosophy, history, languages, natural sciences and pedagogy. There'll be exams throughout the years too. Also there is a point system in which we get points for every essay we write, for every presentation we do, investigations we carry out etc, and we need to accumulate these points and get a certain amount (I think 5400?), before we pass and earn our bachelor degree.

So that's about the gist of this program. Our presentations were more thorough, but this was just to give the curious reader a summary. Soon, hopefully, I'll be able to add our 10 second videos that introduce each key area.

If this article piques your interest and you want to find out more, then visit the DNS website. We're still wanting people to join our 2015 team in September by the way, so if this is something that you may want to be apart of and experience, then get in touch and attend a prep weekend. Or feel free to drop by and say hi!

Hitchhiking to Nordjylland

Before starting this new job, I was tasked with writing a letter to the headmaster - Gerda - at Nordjylland-Dagskolen, giving some details about myself. She was away for a couple of days and so I stayed at Tvind longer than anticipated. I took it easy and hung out with Diana (twisted Dee) a lot, and I also practiced a nice Romanian Gypsy song called Ederlezi along with Louis, Lucie and Laura. 2014 team had officially started their program so a "trial" was put on for them which was cool.

After a couple of days, Gerda had gotten back to us and said I was perfect for the job and it was decided that I would leave the following day, by way of the thumb! I was feeling pretty confident hitchhiking alone and prepared for the journey with Michael's help. Once I was told some hotspot locations, I wrote them down on cardboard, said my farewells to some of the 2014 lot and Mika, and off I trekked to Ulfborg.

My bag was slightly lighter than last time as I opted to leave behind my sleeping bag and mat (as well as a few clothes l left at Puning 5 for the clothes container), although in hindsight it probably wasn't the wisest decision. Still, it was easier for me to walk without becoming too exhausted which was nice seeing as it was about a 4km trek to my first hotspot. By time I reached a shop to purchase a cool drink, my feet already felt sore and blistered. I wasn't wearing the most suitable footwear it turned out, but I stubbornly refused myself to change into my sandals on the grounds that the shoes I was wearing were heavy and I didn't want my bag to become encumbered. Silly me.

Luckily, Camilla saw me and pulled over before I reached the hotspot. She offered to drive me just outside of Holstebro which I was grateful for! She stopped off beside some traffic lights before turning off and continuing her own journey. This was it. I was finally alone and in unfamiliar territory now. I saw what I thought was a pretty good spot to stand with my cardboard to Viborg in one hand, thumb out on the other with a big grin on my face, making sure to make eye contact with every driver that went past, lest they don't have sympathy for this poor stranded soul. The grin eventually turned into a frown as the umpteenth driver went past, quickly averting from my pitiful stare at them. A couple thought it would be oh-so-hilarious to slow down and drive off as I approached them. Wankers! 

My feet were now even more sore as I stood in feigned hope for somebody to stop. About an hour and half later, someone finally did! An old man offered to drive me, although not to Viborg unfortunately, but a little closer he said. Sod it I thought. This hotspot of mine clearly wasn't hot. Just a mere spot that everybody ignores. I jumped in his van and after almost 15 mins of silence, save for the obvious questions that every driver is bound to ask, he let me out in the middle of nowhere, but it's a main road to Viborg. Well, it was road 16 so it would do I thought. 

Once again I painfully stood with patience as vehicle after vehicle paid me no mind until a middle aged lady stopped and she put her window down and said something in Danish. "Er, Engelsk?" I asked. She then said to me in quite good English, "Do you like heavy metal music?" I think hell yeah was my answer to her. "Good. Get in then." 

She too was unable to drive me all the way to Viborg but offered to drive me at least 15km closer. It was a pleasant albeit brief drive with her. Her music taste is pretty cool and she has a good outlook in life for someone with a neurological disorder. She laughed and said she has electrical superpowers as she pointed at the battery pack that had been surgically inserted into her torso. She can't work so she enjoys her time going to gigs. 

True to her word, she dropped me off roughly 15km up the road. I stood only for a couple of minutes before the next person stopped and said he could take me to Viborg. Finally! This young chap was pretty cool too. His names Ben and he told me some stories of his travels with his girlfriend and his work on dairy farms. He told me that he often picks up hitchhikers as he finds that they are always interesting to converse with. Swell guy! He took me just outside of Viborg near a large roundabout. As soon as I got out, said goodbye, got my next cardboard ready, a car pulled over and I was offered a lift. To Aalborg too! Finally, lady luck was bestowing upon me her good fortune it seemed!

This gracious driver is a logistics person in the Danish military. He was built like a brick shithouse and was quite stern. Nach, he spoke of the recent conflicts happening around the world and stated bleakly that we are due another world war. He then quoted Einstein after I said it'll be our last: "I know not with what weapons world war III will be fought, but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones." He then went on to talk about bunkers and cannibalism. The topics are all related, believe me. 

Once we finally reached Aalborg, he dropped me off at what he thought was a good strategic place to hitch a ride. It wasn't . Quite the contrary actually. I was still in the city, near the start of the E45 motorway and no could really pull over. Well, they didn't want to anyway. I tried walking to other nearby places where maybe someone would stop, but to no avail. Lady luck was bedding another man now - the promiscuous mare! 

A few hours went by and I was now having to sit as I found it too agonising to stand on my feet. I must've looked like a tramp sitting on the pavement with my hat on the floor, holding up a tatty bit of cardboard. I did get some looks from pedestrians. No one tossed me their change though! Tired, in pain and hungry I thought fuck waiting around any longer for a ride and texted Michael saying I may have to use public transport for the remainder of the journey. Wait just 30 more minutes he texted back with optimism. You can do it! So begrudgingly, I got up and limped to the middle of the road to try my luck. 

The sun was starting to set so I had to give up. I really was struggling to stand too. As so off I limped to find a bus/train station. I found a bus stop which is the next best thing I suppose. I asked some old man where I could get a train to Frederikshavn. Luckily, the next bus could take me to the nearest station. Awesome. I had to stand on the bus which was a struggle as I tried not to fall on the floor whilst trying to balance my sore feet into a comfortable position. The old man from the bus stand informed me when to get off and pointed out the station to me. I thanked him and slowly hobbled across the road to the station.

I paid 100dkk for a train ticket and got myself a much needed snack and drink too. I decided to have a look at my feet once I sat and waited for the next train. I had three big blisters on the bottom of each foot and redness all over. I rummaged through my trusty little first aid kit for a needle to do some surgery on my feet. I finally stopped being a stubborn tit and opted to swap my shoes for my sandals. It only took me all sodding day when the damage had already been done!

I had to wait 45mins or so for the train bound for Frederikshavn arrived. I was relieved to have a nice comfortable chair to sit on for the duration of my journey which took over an hour. I talked with Gerda on the phone once I got off the train and she arranged for Jonna to come and pick me up which was nice. On the way, she told me a little about the place that I would now be living at and working. It was about 10pm when by time I finally arrived at Nordjylland-Dagskolen. So much for it only going to take me 4 or 5 hours. Pfft!

Jonna had cooked some food earlier and said I could heat up the leftovers. I gratefully took her up on this offer and soon stuffed my mouth with pasta and mince. Delicious. There were problems with the student - Rasmas - who I'd be sharing a house with and so for my first night, I had to sleep in the staff house. I didn't mind. I was so tired I could've slept anywhere to be honest. Well, maybe not since I left my sleeping bag with Nadina. Yeah, I think it'll be a good idea to bring it everywhere from now on. Just in case I can't get to my destination sometime. Hitchhiking is a cool experience and all, but it relies on the goodwill of strangers of which there aren't enough of it seems.

To be continued soon.

Olympics at Tvind and 1st Study Weekend

We had arrived at Tvind during a busy time - the Olympics! It's an annual event at Tvind where different schools around Denmark come to participate and compete in a variety of sports and games. Having arrived fairly late in the evening before the games commenced, I chilled out and had an early night after speaking with some fellow students.

Because so many people were attending (I think around 600 someone said), a canvas gazebo had been set up for everyone to eat in. I had not initially been aware of this and had proceeded to have breakfast in the common hall before someone informed me about the gazebo besides the large kitchen; I must've been half asleep still to not have noticed!

After eating and drinking some coffee, I was told I would be helping with food production so off I went to the large kitchen. Burgers was on the menu and so I helped Romas and Annelies cut up some tomatoes then, like a production line, we prepared the burgers. It was very reminiscent of when I once worked in McDonalds, except here it was pretty fun and wasn't stressful. No managers there being power hungry twats to boot. Our goal up until afternoon was to make around 1000 burgers.

After we had finished, I decided to have a wander around with Gaile and perhaps participate in something. Although I'm not into sports as I don't find competitiveness appealing at all, axe throwing seemed like fun so I opted to have a go. And another. Then another. Damn, guess I succumbed to the human nature of competing!

After a few attempts of trying to knock some logs over with axes (only getting a measly 5 points!), Dariush asked if I could take over writing names and points down, so I obliged. After about 30 minutes or so, someone else took over and I after visiting the OL committee, I was tasked with litter picking. Fortunately, I bumped into Annelies who kindly offered to help and we got it done fairly quick!

I had a little time left before going back to food production at 5pm, so I watched a few people wall climb, then it was back to work. Loads of pizzas had been ordered as well as Chinese food, and we had been tasked with serving them. As soon as we prepared everything and the food arrived, people quickly came flocking! The pizzas were gone in no time. I then helped the others serve up some Chinese food, tucking into some myself.

After dinner, the first day of the olympics was over and as it was also our (DNS 2015) first study weekend, we had a meeting. It was good to finally see the team together. Since working in Munster, some more people had enrolled and I was finally introduced to them: Two Mykolas's, Kristiana, Migle, Janne and Milan (whom we had already been introduced to via skype some weeks back). After getting properly introduced to one another, Michael told us what the plans were for the rest of the weekend and then for the rest of the evening, I just hung out with various different people.

The following day I was once again tasked with helping out with food production and burgers was still on the menu, so 'twas a day of preparing another thousand or so them. At least I got to have first dibs on the burgers! I was going to take part in the marathon in the afternoon, but due to heavy rainfall, it got cancelled and so the day was cut slightly short than planned. 

Spirits were still high though as the closing ceremony commenced in the sports hall. Some music was being played and there were also good dance performances just before the headmaster announced the results. Tvind didn't do too well if I remmber correctly, but no mood was dampered as everyone seemed to really enjoy the couple of days. I missed out on a lot of it, but from the photos and a video I have seen, the atmosphere was really good! It's good that Tvind is accepting enough to host many "troubled" children there and let them participate in whatever they desire. I'd wager not many places would be so daring! 

So olympics was now over leaving us to get on with our study weekend. Michael went more in depth about our team economy and showed us how to fill out out our economy sheets. We also discussed issues we had in Munster and then we were told what jobs we would be doing. I would be going to work in a school in Nordjylland which was exciting to hear! This sounded much more up my street. 

Hitchhiking From Munster to Billund

If I got a quid for every time someone here said the word "super", I'd be super rich by now! Sorry, I got lost in an entirely irrelevant train of thought as I just overheard a conversation where someone uttered the word super. Again. Super interesting and super cool. It's said quite frequently here in tvind! Anyway, onwards with typing about me leaving Munster and my first hitchhiking experience.

So after Michael's departure back to tvind, taking with him all enthusiasm, optimism and just an overall positive vibe, we were back to our reluctant selves as more issues arose. I'd rather not go into details and turn this into yet another moan about work and our manager, so I'll just say the last straw came when Antonio and myself had a very heated argument that had escalated far too quickly for me to remember what was exactly shouted amidst all the profanities. I no longer wanted to stay, period, and for Antonio the feeling was mutual. Same for Honza too.

So it was time to leave and our only option was to hitchhike back to Denmark at least and maybe use public transport once we get close enough to tvind. Honza suggested we write several locations on different cardboards (pictures further down), so drivers could see straight away where we wanted to go. We decided that the key locations to hitch rides to were: Bremen, Hamburg, Flensburg, Kolding and then Holstebro - if things go accordingly anyway. I suspect that hitchhikers destinations are always subject to change depending on the drivers who stop to pick us up. After spending our last day preparing, planning, relaxing and packing, we had an early night as we were going to leave fairly early.

We left Puning 5 at around 7:30 so we could catch a bus to Munster then another one to the outskirts of Munster. Unfortunately, the second bus didn't quite take us where we wanted to be dropped off and thus we had to walk a few kilometres, which was exhausting as I had two bags with me and the large backpack on my back was straining my shoulder and neck muscles. I was relieved once we arrived at our desired petrol station on the (A1?) highway and got bought us both a cup of latte. Now it was time to play the patient waiting game.

For my first experience, it wasn't going particularly well; we kept being rejected by everyone that we asked for a lift off of, and after an hour or so of crossing my fingers in anticipation of the next person we asked, I became exasperated. After about an hour and half of being constantly declined of getting a lift, Honza came running to me with a smile upon his face. "Finally, we got a ride!" A man who drives a transport van had approached Honza offering a ride and was luckily heading to Bremen himself. We didn't converse with our driver much so it wasn't a particularly exciting ride, but I didn't care. After what seemed an eternity of waiting, it was nice to finally be out of the vicinity of Munster. Honza got a map up on his phone and he agreed to drop us off at a gas station on a highway close to Bremen.

Once again, we played the waiting game. I got my ukulele out as we sat with our cardboard sign stating we wanted to go to Hamburg. This time we waited for around an hour before two blokes around our age offered a lift and conveniently to Hamburg as that's where they were heading themselves. These guys were a lot more talkative than our previous driver and their company car was more comfortable to boot. They are work colleagues who travel around and build stages for concerts which sounds like a pretty cool job. After the driver dropped off his colleague in the city, he generously took us about another 15km north of Hamburg to another gas station on the highway for which we were very grateful for!

There was a cafe at this stop, so we opted for a quick refreshment and ate some lunch we had packed before sitting with our sign to Flensburg. Although I was getting some looks and smiles as I played my ukulele in hope that it would better our chances of getting approached by someone, none did. Eventually though, a Danish guy in military uniform approached us and asked where we were heading. I told him that although our next planned stop was at Flensburg, we would rather skip that place and cross the border into Denmark and he could perhaps drop us off close to Kolding. As it happened, they were heading 20 kilometres south from Kolding and although they are not allowed to pick up hitchhikers, "Fuck it. It's no problem," he said, which was delightful to hear! So we walked over to his military jeep, met with his comrade and off we went.

As a bloke who is anti-military, I was somewhat weary of riding with these two fellas, but I was just very grateful for a long ride that would mean us being a lot closer to our final destination. As I mentioned before, plans change and for the better in this case! And as it turned out, they were NATO soldiers which is the lesser of the two evils I suppose. Unlike the army, they don't just go into a war zone all guns blazing but rather try for a diplomatic approach first - from what I gathered anyway. Our driver was very talkative and him and Honza talked a lot about the current conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and politics in general. I mostly abstained from engaging in their conversations lest I let slip something that would offend our courteous and charitable drivers, who even gave me a cigarette, and they sling us out. There's a time and place for such debates and being on the highway on a tiresome journey, for me, was not it. Though, it was certainly interesting to hear his opinions. I remember the driver (also the guy mostly talking), talked of how he would eventually like to leave and pursue a job in protecting wildlife as he very much likes nature. All the best to the guy! 

We also found ourselves in somewhat funny situation 10 kilometres after we crossed the German/Danish border: there was a random police check going on and they signalled even us over (not so weird apparently, as this military jeep was a German one) to a stop amongst other cars. All went well and then our NATO driver said, "Thank fuck they didn't have sniffer dogs on them because of what we've got in our bags, we'd be in big trouble." Curiously, I asked him what he had in his bag that would be problematic for them. "Bags of weed," he replied with a sigh of relief and then laughter. Thank fuck indeed!

True to their word, they dropped us off about 20 kilometres from Kolding. They even gave us a parting cigarette! We said our farewells and off they went leaving us at a somewhat desolate gas station; very few vehicles seemed to be passing through this stop which left us rather pessimistic. The sun was starting to set by then and Honza was certain that no one was going to want to pick up two blokes in the evening. After waiting for quite sometime, it started to look like he was right and we had to either go on separately or find shelter and stay the night; both weren't too enticing for me, but I was ready to hitch hike alone if need be. I felt like a pro already!

Fortunately for us though, a middle aged Danish bloke offered us a ride after seeing us sitting and waiting for so long. He was heading to Billund and offered to drop us off at the airport. I then called Michael and asked if we could use public transport from Billund to Ulfborg and he said he'd pick us up instead. Awesome! This guy seemed quite nationalistic in his views but was pleasant to converse with. As Billund is the place from whence Lego was first produced, he gave us tidbits of information regarding Lego. None important enough for me to remember except that Lego is now currently the most profitable, erm, toy? Manufacture? Product? Whatever.

So we got off at the airport and thanked our driver for taking us there. We were very hungry after a long journey without eating much, thus we opted to get something to eat at the cafe in the airport. After eating much bloating meal, we waited for about an hour before Michael arrived and to take us, finally, to tvind.

For my first time hitchhiking, it was overall a good experience. Sure, waiting to be approached can be tedious and being declined a ride for the umpteenth time can be exasperating, but once you finally get into a strangers vehicle, one thinks that there are still many good charitable people out there that'll go the extra mile for a stranded man that just wants to get somewhere, and you can't help but smile and be pleased. Media has caused a mass hysteria regarding hitchhiking and often when a story is told of hitchhiking, you can bet your arse it'll be a negative one. Many a malleable person is now weary of stopping to pick up a stranger in fear of being raped or mugged (although, strangely, most are fine with getting in a taxi and taxi drivers certainly have no problems?!). So like most other anecdotes of hitchhiking (not stories that tabloids are likely to publish), this one too is a positive one. I look forward to many more hitchhiking experiences. It's super cool!

Arrival in Tvind, Work and Dumpster Diving

Any nervousness or excitement I may have felt for my journey to tvind was quelled by tiredness. Yet again, my flight was 7:30 in the morning and that meant getting up at 1:30 to catch a coach to Heathrow aiport at 3:00am. I'm a person who finds it nigh on impossible to sleep while in transit, so I alleviated my boredom by listening to music and thinking about what lies ahead for me.

 Fortunately, I had no problems at the airport as I've flown enough times now to know what's acceptable and not acceptable to bring on a flight; `twas a breeze! I had a little time before boarding the plane so wanted to grab a cup of coffee or tea or something. Unfortunately, I only had some Euro coins on me and no sodding place accepts coins - only notes. So I sat down, cursing the stupid fucking system that allows shopkeepers to hand out change but then not accept them. Couldn't even exchange the bloody things! 

Flying was enjoyable as always. I always seem to get the window seat and like to look down at the land below. Viewing the agricultural fields and cities from around 30,000ft is, I find, breathtaking. I felt like a giant observing an ant colony. 

Billund airport is relatively small, and it took very little time to grab my backpack and wait outside for the bus to take me to Give train station. Not having any knowledge of Danish trains or the Danish language left me confused so I asked some lady for help, and she obliged. I only had Danish kroner notes and the ticket machines do not accept notes. If only they accepted Euro coins, eh! The kind lady offered to pay by card, but after rummaging through her bag, she found that she did not have it on her. She spoke to the driver and he told me to hop on board anyway. So luckily, I managed to hitch a ride on the train for free! The train journey was rather pleasant and the interior of the carriage was better than a 1st class carriage in England! After about an hour on the luxurious (and free) train to Holstebro, I hopped on another (not free) train to Ulfborg where Romas came and picked me up and drove us to the school.

It felt good to be back, although it was really quiet compared to my last visit; many students were out of the school working or travelling I guess. Michael came and met us in the common hall and we had a brief conversation before I was shown to my room. After having travelled quite a bit of distance, I fancied a cool shower and then relaxed for a bit before unpacking some of my stuff. It wasn't long before I started helping out with chores though!

During dinner, I reacquainted with Gaile who is also part of the 2015 team. It was good seeing and speaking with her again. Later that day, I also got introduced to another team member - Dariush - with whom I would share a room with during my stay at the school.

Life at tvind consists of doing a lot of work and thus during my stay, I was given the tasks of cutting grass, trimming the hedges, cleaning carpets and also doing general cleaning. I think I mentioned in a previous blog post that everybody at the school helps to maintain the place. Much like any job in general, we work after breakfast and finish at 5pm, where I used the free time to socialise and/or practice playing my ukulele. One evening, some of us went to paradise (the name of our little camp/bonfire site) to play our instruments and sing songs.

There's an activity that some students like to do in the evening and that's dumpster diving. I was interested in trying it myself so one evening I opted to join, as did Gaile. We drove to Ulfborg and stopped off at a couple of locations that usually wield good results for the divers. This time we were also quite fortunate. The shop's workers had chucked out perfectly good fruits, chocolate milk (we obtained maybe around 20 cartons of the stuff!), pastries and various other foodstuff. I ate a freshly dumped chocolate croissant and it tasted delicious - tasted no different than buying one from the shop. It's astonishing to see just how much perfectly good food gets wasted just because of the seemingly arbitrary date of expiry. Ah well, free food for us I guess.

Of course, since I was new there and partaking in the saving up period, Michael and Romas discussed what we would be doing and how the common economy works. They also informed me that I would be hitchhiking to Munster, Germany where I would work. Having no experience hitchhiking before, I admit I was quite nervous. I had assumed before that I would be hitchhiking with Honza, but since he wouldn't be arriving for another few days and they wanted me to go pronto, I would be going by myself.

Lady luck was on my side once again as a chap called Erwin - a friend of Annelies ( another 2015 DNSer), offered to drive me to Munster as its kinda on the way back to his home in Netherlands. Gladly, I accepted and breathed a sigh of relief. Although I know I am delaying the inevitable...

So I had one more days stay at the school and Dariush suggested that our team do something in the evening. We decided that the four of us (myself, Dariush, Gaile and Michael. Annelies went to Legoland) go down the beach for the sunset. It was a pleasant evening and we discussed various topics and hypothetical questions like how would we achieve world peace ( I would turn the world against me much like Lelouch from Code Geass ending), and also talked a bit about ourselves and our motivations, whilst drinking tea and eating cake.

The following morning was spent packing my stuff and relaxing. Us 2015 DNSers sat in the common hall and talked for a bit before saying our farewells and good lucks to one another. We departed at around 11am I think and what should have been about a 6 hour journey ended up being about a 9 hour journey due to a lot of traffic at the Danish/German border. We did stop a couple of times too!

DNS - A New Opportunity

For the first time since my voluntary work in India with Restless development last year, I once again have some sense of direction in my life - for the next four years at least! I have decided to take the opportunity to enroll at the DNS (Det Nodvendige Seminarium - which in English is translated as The Necessary Teacher Training College) school in Denmark. 

As the name implies, it's a college that trains its students in pedagogy although it does so in an alternative way. In conventional colleges and universities, there is a clear hierarchy; a distinction between students, teachers, presidents and so on. Of course, most of the studying is done in classrooms with lectures about specific topics, depending on what course you chose. These academic buildings have employees which take care of the cooking, cleaning, maintenance, gardening etc. I know I'm stating the obvious here, but I want to clarify the differences between these conventional schools and the alternative school I'm enrolling in.

 For starters, TVIND is not funded by the state. Rather, it is paid for by students, teachers and some certain individuals who live there with special needs. They have what they call a common economy and students, during their time on the course, have a number of months where they have a "saving up period," in which they go to work somewhere (in some city in Europe or at the school itself), earn the amount that is needed, and then the money they earn is put in to this common economy and distributed evenly amongst the team. The money covers everything in the school such as food, drink, heating and accommodation, as well as other expenses on the program itself such as transportation, rent etc. We do get our own pocket money from it too. I doubt everyone would like this system as the money they earn is not strictly theirs, but I endorse it. I like the fact that as long as you contribute something in the team, you get something out of it. There is no mentality of working harder than somebody else and deserving more for doing so. Ergo, you can not value or put a price on how hard somebody is working. As long as they are doing something, then they are entitled to eat well, drink and sleep comfortably the same as everybody else. Again, I know this economy isn't something that everybody would find agreeable, but I think it's partly due to the fact that we've come so accustomed to spending lavishly on wants rather than needs to satisfy our greed. Advertisements don't help.

Anyway,  another difference is a lack of hierarchy. Sure, there are headmasters that are in charge and there are teachers. But it really isn't noticeable. Students and teachers alike dress so casually and form friendships. Two of the evenings spent at the preparatory weekend there, we sat around a campfire singing songs, smoking shisha and talking with one another informally. And on my last evening, we debated about homophobia and other topics in the common hall. If Michal and Romas didn't clarify they are teachers, I wouldn't have been none the wiser. There really is a sense of equality there; they don't just advocate it, but they live it. And further evidence of this is the fact that everybody does their bit to maintain the place. Every morning after breakfast, everyone unanimously agrees to a task to carry out and spend roughly 45 minutes getting on it with it; it is the students who do most of the cleaning, the gardening, the painting and decorating, the cooking etc. Romas would probably hate me saying this, but in a sense, it really does feel like a commune. One whose community spends a lot of time travelling and studying though! 

Which brings me to the final notable differences: There's a lot of travelling involved. Sure, school teachers and lecturers do organise little field trips for their students, but for DNS students, it's like going on very long field trips! And what I find to be really exciting is the fact that we get to buy, refurbish and drive our own bus through Europe to African countries including the Sahara desert! So essentially, we'll be living in a bus that we stripped and built, then driving it ourselves to African communities to study, learn and live amongst. And that's just the first year! From what I learned from the prep weekend, it is us students that are in charge of our own studies  and how we go about them, and I suppose the teachers are, in a sense, more like facilitators who help, organise and challenge us, whilst keeping us motivated too.  

I'm not sure if I will become a teacher after I finish the course as I seem to never set anything in stone. For now, I can definitely say that I'm looking forward to the experience on what this course has to offer. I like to consider myself as a humanist and a humanitarian and would like to think one day, I will take up activism to try and make a positive change for the world, and this course really does seem to cater for such people (definitely not hippies, haha!).  Spending a few days at the school for the preparatory weekend was the first real step and now all I have got to do is save up for enrollment fee. Hopefully, I shall be flying back out there by August the latest and be part of the 2015 team. 

I just want to add, my dear reader, that if this program sounds like something that would interest you, then here's a link to the DNS website -  http://www.dns-tvind.dk/ You can find out much more information about the school itself and its program, and you can also apply from there (and maybe you can be part of my team!).