Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Youth Exchange
Venue: Będzin, Poland
YE Dates: 4-11 November
APV Dates: 10-12 October 2017
Participants: Gustav Kavale, Dominik Hrabě, Iva Koblížková, Aneta Havránková, Vincenc Novák, Denisa Želinská, Michaela Lešková, Veronika Pindrochová
Group leaders: Jan Neugebauer (GL) Jan Koblížek (GL)
Please read the info-pack & daily programme
Participating countries: Czech Republic, Turkey, Poland
Hosting organisation: Stowarzyszenie Dobre Ręce
Project report:
On the 4.11. of November we were heading to Będzin in Poland for the project called Sea of History. Each of us came from the different part of the Czech (or Slovak) republic and most of us did not know each other before the project. So we had to learn a bit about the other members of the group. Before we arrived to Będzin we’ve learned that none of our towns except Prague has a metro, that none of us knows exactly what we are supposed to do there and other interesting facts.
In the evening we were accommodated in the hotel Sportowa Dolina. We were the first team to arrive there. The hotel looked good and the fact that it did not have a swimming pool as was written on its web page was trumped by the table with sweets in the hallway. Later in the evening Polish and Turkish team arrived. Some of us met them in front of the hotel. Others, who did not want to step outside of their rooms met them in the next morning.
The first day consisted mostly of integration games, where we got to know each other a bit better, but after a few of them a part of us stopped playing these games and created a language learning group. These activities created by ourselves continued through the week. While the official program consisted of visiting interesting places in Bedzin, Kraków, making a mural painting, planting trees… On top of this we were discussing politics, culture of our countries we were dancing, singing traditional songs and many other things. The official program was fine, but I think that the activities we created by ourselves were more important and interesting. We have discovered differences between Turkish nationalism and Czech cynicism to any such thing, Polish closure and Turkish openness. We were able to find and tolerate these differences on our own, during our activities beyond the program of the project. During official activities we were learning tolerance, but not the actual differences we were supposed to tolerate.
In the end, we have made a lot of new friends from different (and our own) countries. And we have also learned a lot about the different cultures of our three nations. I think that we will never forget the time spent in Będzin.
Jan Koblížek
