When at the beginning of May, entirely accidentally, I found on CIM's facebook fanpage an announcement related to polish-portuguese youth exchange
„Intercultural (con)Action – Youth Against Poverty and Marginalization through Arts and Non Formal Education”, I thought it was something for me. I'm an active person, I like, when something is happening around, I'm interested in photography, don't have any plans for holidays – these were the main reasons which decided about my immediate application as a candidate to take part in. How happy I was, when I got, after a veeeeeeeeeeeery long time – it felt like this that time- positive answer. This is it! I couldn't wait till I met all participants of the project and my life adventure began.
International exchange was taking place from 12th to 16th of July in Poznań and then, 17th to 24th of July in Olhao, Portugal.
Part I - Poznań
At the afternoon of 12th of July, I came, along with the others, to TPD Youth Hostel located in Drzymały street, where we were accomodated during our stay in Poznań. That was the place where we organized our welcoming meeting. We decided to refer to old polish tradition and we welcomed Portugueses with bread (not boasting about the fact it was my home made production) and salt. Guests had problems with understanding what we were about... A moment after, „pyry z gzikiem” (regional dish typical for Greater Poland made from potatoes, cottage cheese and cream), cutlets, broad bean and even (!) ginger breads had appeared on the table.
That day (and on other days as well) any of energizeers and international games weren't missing. At the beginning I was disappointed that only a small group of portuguese people was speaking English communicatively. Language barrier made getting to know with female part of the group impossible – unfortunately, girls didn't know English. Just language animation, which we'd implemented speaking and teaching each other polish and portuguese words, broke first „ice” in communication.
While stay in Poznań we had an opportunity to discover the city on ours own during the city game. We were divided into few mixed teams (polish-portuguese ones). Each team was supposed to do the biggest number of tasks co-made up by CIM Horyzonty and KARnet club. It was very amusing from time to time.
Apart from this, we organized intercultural meeting to get to know better our different cultures. Portuguese guests had a chance to taste delicious polish food, to sing, dance, swim in Rusałka Lake, to play football (it has to be admitted: sport's connecting people). The last day we spent in Poznań very active way, I'll remember for a long time. We went for bowling first and had much fun for an hour. Afterwards, we went to Dębiec district, where the lunch and the rest of activities of the day (brasilian jiu-jitsu and zumba) were already waiting for us. First of the trainings taught us few basic grips used, for example, to self defence (we had sooo much fun, it's enough to see the pics). Then zumba classes started. This kind of activity is very exhausting, although everybody took a liking of over one hour training with very energetic zumba instructor.
On Thursday, in early morning, we went for a veeeeeeeeeery long trip to Portugal. First, we got to Berlin's airport with the buses. Then, we flew from there to Lisbon ( for some people -including me- it was the first flight with a plane), where we were waiting around 5 hours for the flight to Faro. It was very late while our flight from Lisbon to Faro, but views we'd seen through plane windows at night were very beautiful instead. Around 1 a.m., very tired- what's noticeable in the pictures- we landed in Faro, from where we had only a„leapfrog” to Olhao.
Par II - Olhao
Portugal turned to be a very interesting country, very different than Poland. It was noticeable while admiring architecture of this country or talking to locals, who have totally different mentality (they are never in rush, „-Are you late for your train? -You'll take next one!”, siesta time is holy time). Portugueses tried hard to make stay in Portugal pleasant to us, on various ways. We were visiting the town, doing shopping on the local market. In the evening we went to the centre for a festivall (resembling a harvest one) presenting traditions connected with the region.
We also took a part in the trip to Faro (when we were impressed with architecture and scenic views) and trips to nearby islands, where we were admiring a purity of Atlantic Ocean waters and spending time on the beach, integrating with portuguese youngsters.
Of course, II part of the exchange, taking place in Portugal, brought up the topic of the project . We spreaded our knowledge about human rights, their overseeing in different countries, we were talking about activitity of young people, possibilities, about what we all need to live, about promotion of socialization of youngsters with fewer opportunities through using arts and non formal education. We'd seen the movies related to human rights and got a task from portuguese leaders. We were asked to record a video about human rights.
Interesting point of the program was our participation in street art activities. Portuguese friends invited to school young local dancers who taught us few dancehall choreographies. I must say I was very impressed with their suppleness and sense of rhytm. I was fascinated with local graffiti as well, which we passed by everytime we walked the streets. The technique of their creation is hard to discribe – it just has to be seen.
We took also part in portuguese version of city game. This time, rules and tasks were mapped out by EVS volunteers from MOJU association. Unfortunately my team came a cropper with a dance – we didn't pass this task.
How it's said – all good things come to an end. There came the day we had to pack our suitcases (some of them were heavy and we had to use shopping bags) and go back to Poland. On 24th of July, rich with new friendships and experiences, we came back to Poznań safe and sound in the evening. Above all, I thank polish leaders and polish group for a magnificent atmosphere during the project.
I'm very satisfied with taking part in this exchange. I met many interesting people from Poland and Portugal. I experienced a lot of wonderful moments which I won't forget for a long time for sure. I recommend participation in such projects everybody. It is very true when it's said that journeys like this teaches discipline, independence and how to act on our own. They help to achieve a skill of communiating with other people in foreign country, managing in various situations and different places. During the exchange we have a chance to get to know new country, and, essentialy, to get to know people, their habits, language and ways of free time hang outs.
With no doubts I can say that participation in this project was one of the best decisions of my life. I experienced a great adventure which I'll never forget!
Monika Andrzejczak, age 16