Date: 12-18 November 2012
Venue: Nurri, Sardinia, Italy
Pax: Petra Němcová, Jan Vacek
Programme and action: Youth in Action programme, action 4.3. training course
Report:
Partnership Building Activity is a project supported by the Youth in Action programme, focused on creating ties of partnership between participating organisations. The goal is to get to one another, and during the Youth in Action programme, experience the opportunities this programme offers. Thanks to this activity, partners have an opportunity to socialize themselves, share their thoughts and develop them during the work on the project, which is another important goal.
The journey to our venue was eventful. We met our Slovakian colleagues at the airport in Vienna and travelled together. All went well until we arrived to Rome. Once we arrived to Rome, an aviation personnel strike started. Most flights were either cancelled or significantly delayed. Our flight was domestic, delayed for 2 hours. We were given an advice from an Italian woman never to take domestic flights departing from Rome. A good piece of advice for the next time, perhaps?
We met other participants in Cagliari, since the plan was that we would travel to Nurri together in one bus. Nurri is a small village in hills, about on hour’s drive from Cagliari. Our hotel was about 30 minutes from there, located in a valley. Our delay was further prolonged in Cagliari when we found out that the airport staff in Rome loaded wrong baggage in our plane. Only baggage which was checked-in at Rome airport arrived correctly. Filling out the lost baggage form was also an experience worth noting. Eventually, none of us had our bags when we left for Nurri.
The main topic pf the project was the problem of unemployment in the young generation. We had multiple discussions regarding this matter, both in groups and during seminars. We also used our creativity, which was easy to implement during this project. We created various collages, where we used pieces of paper, scissors, glue sticks and magazines given to us by the organizers. We were to pick pictures which best represent our idea unemployment in the young generation. Some gave an insight into how this manifests in their city or county, other took more personal approach. There were many ideas. We also had brainstorming sessions followed by panel discussions and created many presentations in our groups.
Our experience of the first days was unfortunately hampered by the fact that we had no idea where our baggage was and we only had one set of clothes for who knew for how many days? A dreadful thought.
Day by day, we were sieging the Cagliari airport staff with a bombardment of phone calls, trying to solve this situation. Fortunately, our bags arrived in Wednesday afternoon and we could finally change our clothes.
The activities were interesting. A new approach for solving know problems provided me with an influx of inspiration and a new point of view. It could be said that some stereotypes were definitely broken.
Participants came from Portugal, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Romania, Czechia and Italy. All participants were friendly and we experienced lots of fun, hiking trips and brakes provided an opportunity to socialize. Even the mixed rooms turned out to be a good idea.
The food was delicious. Breakfast was buffet-style, where we could choose from various jams, butter, cheese, ham, Nutella and apple-filled croissants. A bit unexpected was the fact that we had pasta for both lunch and dinner. It was always a bit different (different type of pasta or sauce), but it was pasta nonetheless. Sometimes we had a two-course meal, such as pasta and chicken with vegetables. The biggest surprise for me was the combination of pasta and french fries. There was always some fruit to be had.
Although the hotel was surrounded by a beautiful scenery – a valley with a vast lake in the middle – eventually, this view became sort of boring. The hotel was not a part of the village itself, there were no shops, no people. It was a bit of a pity; we did not get an opportunity to experience the local cultural. On the other hand, we had to rely on one another. This increased our mutual sympathy and pulled us together.
The weather was favourable to us as well and although winter Sardinia is known to be a rainy one, we only had a single shower during our stay. The weather was in fact quite stereotypical; fresh mornings, hot noons, windy afternoons and calm evenings.
Our last night took place in the capital of Sardinia, Cagliari. TDM 2000 prepared a street event for us. Multiple activities took place in shops and clubs that evening, painting in a bike store, book reading in restaurants and live music in the streets are some examples. We also wad an Italian dinner. It took about 4 hours. Firstly we had a cold platter of prosciutto and assortment of cheese, followed by two types of pasta and a steak with fries. We also tried a traditionally prepared horse meat steaks – quickly roasted edges and raw inside.
All in all, I would rate this project positively. I believe we were successful in at least on of our projects which we created in Nurri during our stay. Perhaps we will see each other on a different project next year.
18.11.2012, Petra Němcová
