ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: youth exchange
Venue: Struga, Scout Camp, North Macedonia
Youth exchange dates: 16—25 August 2023
National team: 4 participants (aged 18-25) + 1 group leader (18+)
APV (Advance Planning Visit, attended by the group leaders): Struga, North Macedonia, 17—20 July.
Please read the info-pack.
Hosting organisation: Zdruzenie izvidnicki odred Mirko Mileski Kichevo
Project report:
Activities of Czech team
We framed all of our activities by communication. We focused on different kinds of communication – verbal or diverse types of nonverbal communication, because we were in multicultural project, that was about inclusion.
The program started with energizers. First energizer was called Animals in the rhythm. People chose an animal for them, we were sitting in two circles and making a rhythm. Point of this game was to remember the animals and coordinate talking with clapping. (The rhythm was getting faster and faster during the game, but it also was fun, so the participants got energized.)
Second energizer was about finding out some new things about our group, let’s call it Switching chairs, because that was the point. Everyone in big circle had his/her own chair, except of one person. That person said some sentence which was true about him/her. And everyone who was true about it too, switched their chair.
After energizers we split people into groups with (again) activity based on nonverbal communication. People had sticky notes with tiny pictures on their backs and they had to find their groups (it was nice to see, that some people helped other groups with that). That was preparation for game called: Trains, outdoor game about trust and cooperation: every group makes a human train, which means, that people are holding (=having hands on shoulders) the one, who is standing in front of them. The first person, locomotive, is blinded. The groups have to cooperate and let the trains travel in some area. The “wagons” of the trains can’t verbally communicate. There is a person, who gives instructions to the trains (for example: go faster or go to some place – showing just to the wagons). The groups should have same number of members, because after every round, the locomotive is becoming last wagon, so everybody tries the blinded position. This activity was followed by break and reflection, where we discussed difficulties or funny moments and participants brainstormed about the main point of this game – how can we communicate in such a specific situation, what is tricky and what can help.
Final games clothing our program about communication were two drawing (in 2 variations) – to show people distortion in communication.
Final game called Electricity – to make people feel connected by touch. The end was again about reflection and framing of the topic – what we wanted to show (that communication is something very specific, sometimes can be confusing, but can also be very inclusive, because is present in every human interaction.
We also played a lot of games from other participating countries, and it was a lot of fun. We also learned few national dances (from Spain, Croatia), how to orient in space (German activity). We had also o lot of activities including walking around Struga doing a lot of tasks, for example talking to strangers and locals and trying to learn their language, to get recipe on some local food, sing local song on public place, trying to switch something for something more valuable from at least 4 people and cleaning local surroundings from trash. While we were collecting trash, some local people and also tourists joined us and they helped us with cleaning as well. The kindest thing was, when people from beach bar came to us and they gave few of us cans of iced tea. (Vojtěch Pražák)
