De Hoge Rielen is youth center for recreation and non-formal education in a huge forest. It is a domain that welcomes more than 3000 young people and others. Most of our guests are scouts and schools, than sportsmen, families and businessmen. Here they find pure nature with a lot of rabbits, squirrels and vocal birds, wild herbs and a lot of trees that flatter your lungs. I keep saying the place has special aroma for your body and your soul. You can get your desired accommodation: in pavilions (for 8 or up to 100 people), camping grounds, hostel. You can eat delicious balanced meals in the restaurant, rent a bicycle (you will need it because the place is endless), enjoy workshops with guides or without them, have barbecue in several green places under the sky...Visit website http://www.dehogerielen.be/de-hoge-rielen or like facebook page https://www.facebook.com/deHogeRielen?fref=ts to find more about de Hoge Rielen.
The nearest bigger city is Turnhout (35 min. by bicycle or 15 min. by bus), well known city is Antwerp (1/2 h by train) and the capital Brussels is 1,5 h away by train.
My role in the organization is to help when and where they need me: sometimes in the restaurant, info service, but usually I do the workshops: cooking with herbs, the rope course, survival in nature, treasure hunting, creative painting on paper or tablets, exploring the animals, water and plants of the nature, using compass, maps...Our workshops are very detailed and organized, educative but in the same time adventurous and funny. During the summer there is a special program on Wednesday evenings with various topics: dancing, singing, competing in the tricycle race, kubb game, enjoying the rock concert.
While doing voluntary work in de Hoge Rielen, I don`t feel that I am working, it`s more like long holiday in nature where it`s a pleasure to organize activities for kids. Besides that, I learn a lot here. I am very focused on learning skills from my superior colleagues because I find them important for my profession as a teacher. I see here that teachers, trainers, leaders respect personality of children very much and do it very spontaneous and natural. Maybe that is why the kids are very smart and independent and they will be happy to speak English with you.
The first language in this Flemish part of Belgium is Dutch but every generation speaks English good enough for any kind of conversation. When I hear them speaking in Dutch I hardly understand some words similar to English but I put a lot of hope in my Dutch lessons. Children usually come from Belgium and Netherlands, they speak almost the same language. Last week we had “European school” here and I had initiative in the workshop with them because they all speak English besides other European languages. It was really good to feel integrated into Belgian system of education.
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