Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Training course
Venue: Lapua & Seinäjoki, Finland
Dates: 13 – 20 August 2018
Participants: Jana Kohoutová, Pavla Vaňková
Please read the info-pack.
Hosting organisation: Lapuan kaupunki – City of Lapua – Youth Department
Participating countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Finland
Project report:
When you think about Finland you always imagine a cold place with snow.. But sometimes things are not what we think, a beam of light enter through our windows. Here it is, the Sun, the warmth.
It’s summer morning in Lapua. While everyone else is asleep, participants from „Youth are the voice“ training course are coming downstairs to have a breakfast. They meet, greet and the first shy conversation are about to begin. They are not familiar with the names of the participants yet. But that’s going to change in a while. After arrival to the Youth house, the amazing organizers let them play some games to get to know each other. Everything feels so natural, so after few minutes there they are, running in circles and shouting the names of people. It’s not only about the names. Eye color is such an important thing to know something about a person, so they look each other deep into their eyes and make a line according to brightness of the color. Some speed dating dialogues are following and right after that, they go upstairs to have a delicious lunch. With full stomach, a mission can take place – to be exact, The MISSION UNLIKELY. Such a strong team as their group has no problem with that. With what they have a problem is agreeing on a strategy for The apple game. 25 minutes of sweat and boiling blood is followed by reaching their goal – to move 48 apples, 2 lemons and 2 eggs in 15 minutes or less. They need reflection after that to relieve the pressure, so they can continue with discussion about specific social media in small groups. The day is finished with an activity that really invites people to get out of their comfort zone – Night of adventures. They post about their experiences in the Facebook group of the event, and go to sleep with the feeling, that they will never forget the training course in Lapua.
It was the start of an amazing adventure for 24 participant from 12 different countries.
Every morning, on awaking, there was a song „Do you remember?“. And… „Dou you remember what happened yesterday?“ Asked the learning hat every morning on their heads. When the music stopped play and the learning hat was on their head, they had to answer the question.
What is the problem in communication nowadays?
Theatre had the answer, how various communication noises can change the whole essence of the message. After a small energizer they were more relax for unexpected thousand years journey to ancient Greece and Rome. With the help of Greek and Roman phylosophers they start to understand better some words such as rhethoric and persuation. Teamwork, brainstorming, effort. The moment they were waiting for came: what are they suppose to do in media labs? At last, they had the answer, another journey to the past. Dictatorships, racism, human rights. What would it be if social media in USA, South Africa, India or Chile was as it is now, how will people of the political movements in those countries would have used it? Their week challenge started.
Friday morning began an hour later than usual. Early in the morning, the brave survivors of the Intercultural Evening had the opportunity to show their talent for dance with “A dança do quadrado” from Brazil. It‘s very recommended dance if you have really special needs to look like an idiot and laugh to the others idiots around you.
After this, the Erasmus + project was presented. Everyone moved as quickly as possible, but HURRICANE made victims and they had the privilege to answer a question about E+.
Later, during the visit of Seinäjoki. Seinäjoki is a town near Lapua, they had the opportunity to know more about the local University, the local practices and 4H Seinäjoki organization.
In the afternoon, walking around the city, they visited Seinäjoki: the library, the church and the theater.
Finally, the Seinäjoki day ends with karaoke at the Galaxie Pub.
Usefull workshop about photography – Lorenzo introduces the complete basics of taking a good picture. Horizontal is saying the story. Vertical is just a statement. Iso is important and so is the composition. To transform the theory into the practice the participants put themselfe into the position of a model and then a photographer. Suddenly everything seems more and more clear.
After so much emotions it’s ideal to do something nice and comforting – they got into the bus and saw the countryside changing. In a while, they saw the iconic lake with red water and a few wooden buildings. One of them was sauna! In the middle of forest, amazing!
After this special relax, they kill their hunger with pancakes made on fire and some sausages.
Do you know what is the „FAKE NEWS“ and “CRAAP“ model? After this TC, they know.. It is kind of a checklist which enables people to find out if news on social media, newspaper, tv… are real or not.
And that’s it, dear friends. I’m not surprised, that another Erasmus+ project on which EYCB sent participants was super cool. Because it’s EYCB, it’s Erasmus+ and it could be also your new life story… J
Jana Kohoutová
Inspired by accounts of (Simona Schennach, Emili Pavel, Marina Hintze, Alžbeta Baldovská, Laura Jurado Ropero)
