Bye bye Amsterdam

First of many photos I took in A'dam

So, this is my last blog from Amsterdam and I will dedicate it only to this one and only city, who felt like home to me from the first day I arrived.

Amsterdam wasn’t my first choice for exchange program, it was Porto. Mostly because I prefer warm and sunny weather. I was supposed to go there with my friend, but when I got accepted to Amsterdam, I came all by myself. And I am happy it turned out this way. I met so many people that I’ve never met before in such a short time. Some of them will stay in my life and my memories for ever, some of them won’t. I am grateful for everyone I met and everything I had chance to experience and learn since I’m here. Living here really broadened my horizons and this is just what I needed personally and professionally. The whole exchange experience will help me so much with my work in the future, because I had a chance to get to know better so many cultures, ethnics and religions, that I got rid of most of my prejudices. And this is exactly what all social workers should do. Give a chance to every service user to tell his life story, listen to him carefully, respect him and make him feel special because everyone deserves a chance to be treated the same as every other person and everyone has a right to know that he or she is an expert in his/hers life and he/she has all the power over life, we just have to help them realize that and empower them in every possible way.

Slovenia is very different than Netherlands, as far as I had a chance to know this country. People here are much more open for ‘different’ as Slovenians are. I will try to bring some of that spirit back home, and I will try to start a change, because everyone deserves a chance, our whole system has to start moving somewhere and we definitely need some more diversity in our small endearing country.

It is a human heart that matters, not skin color, religion, ethnics, gender etc. Underneath, we are all the same. That is a thing to remember, and I think after this 5 months in Amsterdam, I will follow that rule, wherever I go.

                            A short clip of a bike tour through Amsterdam

One more thing about Amsterdam I would like to say is, I fell in love with this city the first day, and until the end, I admired the beauty of this city every single day. I can’t get used to these amazing views on canals, cute tall houses, boats, water, and nature everywhere. I have tons of pictures of canals, but I still stop and photograph more, because each and every one of them is special and I want to look at them forever. Cheesy, but true J

Ice skating

Is it true that ice skating here in Amsterdam is like riding a bike? Everyone does it and if you come here, you have to do it like you have to rent or buy a bike. Well, for me neither biking nor ice skating is everyday thing to do in Slovenia. As I said in one of my blogs before, I don’t use my bike for over 4 years now and about ice skating, I’ve only done it once. 2 years ago. So when we decided to go to Museumplein and try our ice skating skills, I was prepared for the worse. Falling down, crashing into people, into fence in order to stop myself and so on. But, I have to say, after 10 minutes, we were all pretty good. Well, as good as we could be. We didn’t hold hands anymore, and we were able to turn without stopping and then just changing the direction on the spot. Now we turned while ice skating, isn’t that awesome? And of course, when I got too self-confident about it, I found myself going towards group of small kids coming closer and closer very fast and I couldn’t do anything else but freeze. I or should I say they managed to avoid me, expect one little boy who bumped straight into me. I managed to catch him so he didn’t fall, and then I kept on moving because I still didn’t know how to stop exactly. The main thing is, we were both fine, no one fell down. Overall it was a great experience and I wanted to do it again, but I didn’t find time when I came back to Amsterdam after Christmas holidays.

We managed to do one picture with everyone standing still. success! 

I am sorry I wasn’t here when all the canals were frozen and people were ice skating all over Amsterdam. Then I would have more space to learn how to stop without bumping into fence or little kids.  But I found a very beautiful video about the winter in 2012, when canals were frozen again after 15 years. It is so lovely to see how many people joined this amazing, for some, one time in a life time experience. 

PRIMARK, heaven for shoppers, hell for workers

I think I can speak in the name of most girls I know who have been to Primark that this is heaven in shopping world. I had never been there until I came to Amsterdam, because we don’t have it Slovenia. I’ve heard stories about it, such as Primark is the place you have to visit if you’re a shopping maniac like I am. I can’t help it, but shopping really does make me happy. Besides food, it is the best therapy ever. So I had to go there and see this shopping paradise. I will not deny it, I loved it. Nice clothes, cheap prices, huge choice of colors, designs, shoes, cosmetics, just everything you want. But then I also heard a reason why the prices there are so low. It shocked me, because I have to admit I didn’t even think about that. The reason why, is that people who are making these clothes don’t get a lot money for their work. As a matter of fact, some don’t even get the minimum and some of them are children. After I heard that, I wanted to make sure if this is true and I found interesting clip, which says the truth about Primark. I won’t have a chance to go to Primark again very soon, but when I do, I think I will rethink my decision of going there and buy clothes, that are made by people who are working so hard for unfair paycheck, just so we can enjoy ourselves in buying cheap clothes. It would just feel wrong.  

Truth about Primark - An article from a British newspaper, Dailymail

Shopping will still of course remain my passion and therapy but I think there are many places where I can shop and in once not support unfair working conditions of people who are actually helping us to look and feel good. 

Project 'Meet a muslim person'

We had a field trip with our class that included a visit to mosque. I have been to mosque already, but just for a short time and we didn't talk to anyone. This time, we had a chance to talk to a imam, a Muslim religious leader. 

I have to admit, that I didn't know a lot about Islam before and I am not proud of that. I also had some prejudices in my mind before I came in Amsterdam, because I was also under mpact of massive media image that is shown to us. I never had Muslim friends, the only contact I had was a friend from my parents, from Egypt. 

Imam we were talking to in Amsterdam, really helped me to get a clearer picture about Islam and Muslim people. It was so nice listening to him, when he was talking about what their religion is about. Things a remembered the most were: ' There is only one language spoken all over the world, and that is a smile, kindness and love.' 'We are all brothers and sisters, we have the same father and mother. Doesn't matter who they are; Muslims, Christians, Jews, we share our love and goodness to everyone.' 

That really made me think how wrong a non-muslim thinking about muslims is. The only goal they have is to share love and happiness to everyone. Their religion is nothing about hurting others. But of course, like everywhere, there are some individuals who interpretate the message wrong and start theri own groups, which are not what Islam is about. And only these people come in the news. That's why a lot of people have completely wrong image about Islam and until they won't open their minds a little, nothing will change. No one ever puts in the news how Muslim man helped someone. That's why I decided to share a video clip I found on YouTube, about three young Muslim guys, who decide to share kindness in New York, to show people the true purpose of their religion. 

In NewYork, 3 muslim guys started a project with a name 'Meet a muslim person'. The reason for this was to stop Islamophobia and show people that not all Muslims are terrorists like a lot of people think because of image massive media created. Their goal was to share love, kindness and joy to others. 

These 3 boys insipired other muslim people over the world to start the same project in different cities. For now mostly in USA, but there was also the same project in Germany. Reactions of people were very nice, treated with respect towards muslim people, exepct of some rare islamophobic reactions that are hard to avoid. I think their project and message was very clear, brave and insipiring and they are already changing the mind of the society. Slowly, but at least it started. 

Community Oudezijds 100

I would like to dedicate this blog to a Christian community Oudezijds 100, which offers to help people on the fringe of society in the city of Amsterdam. Their doors are open for everyone who needs help in one point of life, when they feel lonely, helpless or when all this leads to homelessness, addictions, weak social network and financial difficulties.

They work together as a big family, so everyone gets something and gives something back to the community. They cook together, clean, go on holidays, babysit, learn how to pray, handle money, establish social contacts etc.  Even if people think they just hit rock bottom and they have nothing to give, there is always something in what they can participate so they can start feeling alive and useful. They give help and they receive help.

There are people living in this community who made a vow that they will carry the daily responsibility for the life of the broader community in all aspects. They made a commitment to each other on the basis of their calling to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the city of Amsterdam.  Big parts of Oudezijds 100 are also volunteers, who are not paid for their job in this community. They work as social workers, doctors, coordinators of technical services and supervisors of residents and they don’t want to do it for the money but because their work is something they believe in and something they want to share.

Besides 10 people who made a vow together to take care of community, ‘members’ come and go all the time. Ones who need help usually stay for 6 months or one year and then they can start living on their own again. If this is not the case, they of course don’t throw them out, but they keep helping them to put their life back on track so they can start living independently again.

During the visit, I was very interested if they accept also people who are not Christian and the answer was yes. Their religion plays a very big role in their lives, and they showed us it is not focused only on people with the same belief, but on everyone who is in need of help. They only said that, if you didn’t make a vow as they did, they don’t think you can be as committed as they are, because they feel they have been called from Jesus to do this work on Earth.  As much as I heard that day, I have to say these are people with a very big heart, where religion plays a very big role and is a guide in their everyday life. I personally think also people who don’t have such a strong faith can be prepared to help others and dedicate a life or part of their life to others who need help.

I respect people who decide not to judge and are willing to listen and accept anyone, no matter what race, religion, ethnics or gender a person is. We need more of that, because our world is becoming more full of prejudices and I think it can happen to anyone that in one point of life you have nowhere to go, on noone to rely on and people like Oudezijds 100 Community are worth more than we can ever imagine in that moment. 

Prostitution in Slovenia: Decriminalised but still stigmatized

In the year 2003, prostitution in Slovenia was decriminalized, which means it is not seen as a criminal act anymore, but people still can’t register it as working industry. They have civil rights and it is a free act of individual, but only for persons who actually do the work. Pimp is still seen as a criminal and so are other people who encourage women and men to work as prostitutes.  So whoever works as a sex worker doesn’t have to pay taxes, they can keep all their money for themselves because their field of work is not registered as a work line.  By the latest non-official findings we can say that this industry makes 40 – 50 million euros per year.

The most common type of prostitution is ‘housing’ prostitution and prostitution in night bars and clubs. Women who would reveal themselves on the streets are very rare. The amount you have to pay for half an hour is between 50 and 150 euros. It depends on age, looks and experiences of sex worker. The easiest way to get in contact with them is by using big phone books and web sites made especially for that. By the research made in 2003, there was around 3000 prostitutes in Slovenia, 600 of them were students. The most common reason why they decide to start with this is because they need more money. There are mostly women who do this kind of work, average age from 18 – 55. It is also known, that prostitution in Slovenia is on a higher level, which means women often work as escorts for home or foreign business men, with extra payment for sex. There is also a lot of prostitution in hotels and ‘closed' bars and parties.  So overall, it is happening behind closed doors, not out on the open, where everyone can see them. There is still very big stigma about sex workers, despite removing this area out of criminal acts. Some professionals think, and I agree with it, that stigma against them is still existing because it was known as illegal and criminal for such a long time, that it’s going to take a while until people realize, this is also work and it shouldn’t be seen as ‘wrong’ forever.

I thought that most girls who are working as prostitutes in Slovenia are immigrants, but as the research from EU states, this is not the case. Around 30% of them are from different countries, mostly Ukraine, Czech and Poland, others are Slovenian. Average amount of immigrants working as prostitutes in other countries from European Union is 60% out of all registered sex workers. In Slovenia, there are three big cities which are more known for people working this kind of job. Two of them are in north-east, where in the past, there was a lot of bordellos, which are now by law forbidden.

On the internet I found an interesting interview with a girl, who is a student and working as sex worker for 6 years now. She was the first girl in Slovenia who was brave enough to step in front of camera, reveal her identity and answer a lot of questions about prostitution and her own experience with it. To summarize all important information she gave to the reporter: She started at the age of 14, because she needed money for books, paying school, food. When the interview was made, she had 20 years old, a child and a partner, but still working as a sex worker. She also had a husband before, but it didn’t work out. She says neither husband nor partner disagree with her job. Her record was 24 clients in 8 hours, which means 1200 euros if she charged 50 euros per client. In the interview she says, she has a plan to stop doing this at the end of the year, now for real.

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzWBK5aWW50

There is also a movie called Slovenka (Slovenian girl), which talks about a Slovenian girl, who studies in Ljubljana (the capital), while in secret working as a prostitute. It is actually very similar to the real life story of a girl who gave public interview about it. And the movie is definitely worth watching it. It shows the real picture of life of some students, who start doing this so they can afford paying for their studies and basic needs a human being has to satisfy. 

Movie trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/withoutabox/vi2807169561?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Paris - the city of superdiversity

I spent a weekend in Paris with my flat mates, so I had a chance to experience and observe superdiversity. I can absolutely confirm that there is A LOT of people from so many different ethnics, religions, race, nationalities,… In these three days, I took a moment from time to time and just watch people crossing the street, walking by, talking to each other, hurrying somewhere, so just observing different people passing by, without them even noticing me. It is amazing how many different cultures there are in one big city. It is actually a world in one city, as it is said in an article about Superdiversity, written by Steven Vertovec. Everyone is mixed together and it looks like they are doing great. We of course didn’t have time to dig deeper into social construction and relations between people, but as I saw, everyone is accepted there. At least on the outside. I don’t know how are the close relations between people, and if they hang out more with their own ethnics, race, religion, but as we were walking true the city and saw some ‘very different’ people, only we were turning around and looking at them. Everyone else just passed, like they are used to literally everything. This could also mean, that people are living one past another, so they are being very impersonal to strangers, not looking at them, not saying hello or give a small smile as a greeting. Maybe that’s a thing that happens in such big cities as Paris is. Since I am living in Amsterdam, I didn’t get this feeling at all. The city is smaller, which I like, people are friendlier, speaking better English, not so impersonal and more willing to help. I also noticed that Paris is very unfriendly to disabled people. There is no way for people who are on a wheelchair to go to metro. There is a lot of stairs everywhere you go  on a metro, long hallways to come from one track to another and no elevator or ramp for people who can’t walk. So they have to take a bus or some other transportation, otherwise they just can’t go from one destination to another.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed our weekend trip and I enjoyed Paris. It is a beautiful city, with a lot of people, a lot of tourists, and a lot of nice places to visit. It is a little too big for me personally, because I am used to very small cities and countryside, but I will never be sorry that I visited it. Maybe I even come back so I can experience the love and romantic atmosphere Paris is known about, because I couldn’t actually do that in a package with 4 other girls now. J

Paris - the city of love and romance, they say