Short Stories from the YEE office in Prague

The first YEE office was based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It later moved to Utrech in the Netherlands and finally to Prague, Czech Republic in 1998.

The General Secretary, Main Coordinator and two EVS volunteers work from an urban eco center called Toulcův dvůr. They are joined by the office cat Knedlík.

Pictured above: Jesus, Gosia (former EVS and Main Coordinator), Natasha, Knedlik the cat, Mercedes and Jess.

Mercedes (General Secretary and former EVS volunteer)

One of the first things you get to know when you join the YEE team is the office cooking tradition. The tradition is very simple. Each of the office members chooses a day of the week when she or he will arrange lunch. That includes to search for a recipe, shop or harvest the food, cook and clean the dishes.

All our dishes are vegetarian and we try to have a varied diet using as many local products as possible. Last year, we decided to create a blog containing our best office recipes. We want to inspire other teams to follow this healthy and enjoyable practice.

There have been many different employees and volunteers in YEE office. Some of them were very skilled cooks, other, let's say, were more creative. Thanks to all these shared meals, we had the chance to spend many hours together sharing our life experiences and our home countries' recipes.

 Jesus (EVS volunteer)

I started my EVS in April 2013. In the early Spring I decided to grow some vegetables on the windowsill, because I am interested in urban gardening. Maggie, the previous secretary general, was skeptical. She did not believe that some veggies could grow in a juice cartoon.

The veggies grew and many people stopped by to see them. Many of them kids. Maggie was astonished.

One day in the morning some of the pots disappeared and the people in the office were sad. But I was not. Whoever took the veggies did it because they were interested in them - it was the propose of having them on the windowsill to promote gardening.

Later I had a small yard in Toulcuv Dvur where I could grow more veggies: tomatoes, green peas, lettuce, zucchini and paprika.

Throughout the summer I went to water my plants, it was a wonderful moment of the day because I usually went during the sunset when the landscape and weather were beautiful. But there was also more mosquitoes which were terribly aggressive, this i did not like but I handled it.

The zucchini were huge and we were eating them once a week in the office thoughout the whole of summer. I remember how big some of them were! The green peas were a present to my girlfriend who loves them. I kept the tomatoes, lettuce and paprika for my dinner!

Natasha (Main coordinator)

I love when our small office team goes for trips together. It is great to spend time together outside of the office and not staring at the computer. We have some traditional trips, like Water monitoring day. Every autumn we go to check the state of water in a river outside of Prague. The EVS volunteers prepare the trip and the kits for measuring the water. We also have common trips to the projects in Czech Republic or in some other country. It is a lot of fun to talk about anything we want on the train. We also never fail to get into some funny story when we travel together - but then we have something to remember and laugh about.

Jess (EVS volunteer)

A smal tour:

The YEE office is small. Somehow we fit four people and a cat in here. Postcards line the walls from Paris, Maribor, Budapest, Lviv and countless other cities from across Europe. A matryoshka doll from Russia sits next to an empty box of Lithuanian biscuits. Boxes of old fabric and waste materials are saved for future upcycling workshops. Archives include YEE magazine published in the 1980s.

We work wall to wall, simply turning our chairs around into the middle to have a team meeting. We joke about how small the office is but it is worth it to be in Toulcův dvůr. The eco center has horses, baby goats and cherry trees. I really like the bee hives. Recently Natasha and I went for an afternoon walk and were invited to help catch the bunnies from their outdoor run. In the summer we eat outside on the picnic benches, surrounded by families and visitors. The cat is free to live outdoors and has a charmed life. When he fancies it, he rocks up for some cat food or attention. We take turns to clean the office each week and monitor our energy consumption. Our kettle is the worse kettle I've ever seen, it must be older than me! Fortunately I rarely drink tea. YEE makes do with what it has. This is an NGO office and it certainly feels like one, but I really enjoy working here.