Guatemala votes for new president

Guatemala, one of the poorest nations in Latin America voted for a new President yesterday. The country is beset by gang violence and increased drug-trafficking operations on its territory.
It suffers the highest rate of child malnutrition in the region - half of all children under five are malnourished.


A record 7.3 million voters were registered to cast their ballots before polls closed at 18:00 (00:00 GMT) on Sunday and the first official results are expected in the coming hours.


Whoever wins will face the challenge of rising violence, much of which is attributed to local and Mexican gangs.
Mexican cartels have expanded operations into the Central American nation, which is an important transit point for drugs smuggled from South America to the US.

R.S.

for further information: bbc news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14872133

9/11 anniversary

Due to the anniversery of the terrorist attacs against the United States of America 10 years ago several ceremonies were held in order to remember 9/11 victims.

US President Barack Obama attended memorial ceremonies at the three sites where four airliners hijacked by al-Qaeda militants crashed: the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a Pennsylvania field.

In a speech hold by Mr Obama during a memorial concert at the Kennedy center in Washington, he told Americans they should honour those who died in the 9/11 attacks, but look to the future with "hearts full of hope". "We've known war and recession; passionate debates and political divides. We can never get back the lives that were lost on that day, or the Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the wars that followed.

"Yet today, it is worth remembering what has not changed," he said.
"Our character as a nation has not changed... Our belief in America, born of a timeless ideal that men and women should govern themselves; that all people are created equal, and deserve the same freedom to determine their own destiny - that belief, through test and trials, has only been strengthened."

Earlier in the day, a memorial to the 9/11 victims was unveiled at the site of the World Trade Center and the names of all victims were read in a 5 hour lasting ceremony, followed by a moment of silence.


R.S.

for further information: bbc-world news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14876950

Pirmokų stovykla "Didždvarietis"

Georgia

Labas Lietova, Siauliai. I am Manana Melkadze from Georgia a new EVS-volunteer at the Radijo Klubas.  I am a first year student at Tbilisi State University. Before, I studied Political Science at the same University. This year I've had to stop my studies for one year and I've decided to dedicate some time of my life  to volunteering. So here I am :)

Before I tell you about my first impressions of Lithuania and Siauliai I would like to write something about my country. 

As I've already written, I am from Georgia. This is a small country in the South Caucasus region with the population 4.2 million (UN, 2010).

Georgia is situated at the strategically important crossroads where Europe meets Asia. Georgia has a unique and ancient cultural heritage, and is famed for its traditions of hospitality and cuisine. The climate of Georgia is extremely diverse, considering the nation's small size. There are two main climatic zones, roughly separating Eastern and Western parts of the country. The climate as well as landscapes are quite opposite to Lithuanian ones. Well, in fact,  for these reasons I chose Lithuania for my EVS. I wanted to see something totally different from my country. :) 


Georgia's recorded history dates back more than 2500 years. Georgian, a South Caucasian language, unrelated to any outside the immediate region, is one of the oldest living languages in the world and has its own distinct alphabet. 

Over the centuries, Georgia was the object of rivalry between Persia, Turkey and Russia, before being eventually annexed by Russia in the 19th century.

Since emerging from the collapsing Soviet Union as an independent state in 1991 Georgia is a constitutional republic with a developing democracy and economy. The political situation in Georgia over the past 20 years has been very unstable. Unfortunately, we have had several civil and ethnic conflicts. Secessionists have  taken control of parts of Georgia's territories and they still retain control over them. But let us leave these sad things for politicians :) 

What I especially love in Georgia is its nature. Within 67 000 square kilometers the landscapes are extremely diverse and simply amazing from mountains to desert, from snow to palm trees. 
I guess it would be easier to show how wonderful the nature in Georgia is with photos :) At first I thought to find them on Google for this post, but then I decided to share something unique :) So to show mountains I'll use photos which are taken by my friend Levan Khutsishvili during our trip to mountains in Kazbegi. I think Levan takes really nice ones :)

Located in the Mtkvari River valley, Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is more than 1550 years old. In the early 4th century, Georgia became the second nation in the world to officially adopt Christianity. At this moment Tbilisi is a quite modern city with a lot of excitement and entertainment. 

The official language in Georgia is Georgian. Other local official language is Abkhazian. The majority of population consider themselves as Orthodox Christians. Muslims make up 9.9% of the population and are mainly found in the Adjara and Kvemo Kartli regions.

Well, here are the pics of Adjara. Adjara is the Autonomous Republic in Georgia. On the first photo you can see Batumi, largest city there. The second one is the photo of black sea (as you see it's not that black:)) in Kobuleti. 

Among the most popular sports in Georgia are football, rugby, wrestling and weightlifting. I'm not an expert in sports but in my opinion we are really good in rugby what I can't say about football :)) 

It's really hard to write in one post about everything, still I hope I could give you some interesting information about my country. If you are interested you can check these web-sites and find more information there :) 

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5253.htm#political 

http://georgia.travel/

http://www.aboutgeorgia.org/republic-of-georgia/

You can also find me on facebook or in Siauliai Didzdvaris Gymnasium at Radijo Klubas :) 

Manana Melkadze

Austria

As I‘ve already mentioned, I am from Austria. Maybe some people have heard about this quite small country because it was the home country of the composer Wolfgan Amadeus Mozart and the psychologist Freud, or probably some know it because of it‘s quite nice landscape.

Austria is a landlocked country of approximately 8.3 inhabitants in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Under the native Habsburg dynasty, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary. Nowadays it's a quite small country that is devided in 9 federal provinces.

The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.6 million, is Vienna.

Vienna has long been especially an important centre of musical innovation. 18th and 19th century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Nowadays it is friendly city with a rich cultural program, great architecture and some really great art, theater and music events.

The climate in Austria is quite similar to the Lithuanian one, because we usualy have cold and snowy winters and short, but warm summers. However, Austria has access to the Alps and some other mountanous region and many tourists visit the country during winter to do winter sports. In my opinion what makes Austria such an interesting country is the fact, that you have some really rural and natural regiones, nevertheless, there is always a modern and lively city not far away.

 The majority of the population speaks German (like I do) , which is also the country's official language. Other local official languages are Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.

At the end of the 20th century, about 74% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Catholicism has gradually declined in Austria over the past decades. As of January 2010, the percentage of catholics in Austria was 65.1%.

The most popular sports in Austria are Football (but we are defenitely not very good at it) and winter sports like alpine skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding.

Hopefully I could give you some information about Austria :) If you want to know more, knock on the door at Radijo Klubas and ask me personaly or write to me on facebook. :)

Rabea Schwarzmann

All about Me :)

As I am one of the 2 EVS-volunteers at Radijo Klubas I‘ve been asked to introduce me and my homecountry Austria and so I‘ll try to briefly introduce myself. :)





Well, my name is Rabea and I'm a 18-year old girl from Austria.
I tried to come to Lithuania without any expactations and now as I‘ve finally arrived in Siauliai everything is new for me. Although I know, that I‘ll live here for 9 month now, it still feels like I‘m just on vacation and will go home pretty soon. Without doubt these feelings will change quite fast if I get used to my current life in Siauliai and my tasks as a volunteer and maybe I‘ll start to realise after all that I chose to really live in a foreign country and going on a vacation is something totally different.

The main reasons for me why I wanted to take part in the Youth in Action programe and become a volunteer was becoming independant, meet new people, get to know a different culture and moreover find out what I really want to do with my life. Due to the fact that I‘ve just graduated and taken my A-levels, however, don‘t know yet what I want to study at the University next year, I needed a break to have the time to decide how I want to go on.

I'm really curious about how my EVS in Lithuania will turn out, but hopefully it will continue like it has started, because then I'll meet many friendly people who are eager to show me their home country (by the way, thank's a lot to all the students who've already helped us volunteers to feel like we really are at home in Lithuania now) and I'll have the opportunity to explore Lithuania and the neighboring countries and maybe even learn to understand and speak Lithuanian. :)

If you want to ask me something about me or my life in Austria or about anything else, you can find me either find me on facebook or just visit me in the Radijo Klubas. :)

Rabea Schwarzmann

ŠIAULIŲ DIENOS 775

Our first task as new EVS-volunteers at the Radijo Klubas was to visit the Šiauliu Dienos which took place at the first weekend of September, take some pictures and get to know the city. From our point of view the feast was a really colorful, interesting and simply amazing event which allowed us to see how many gracious, friendly and nice people live in this city. :)