On Friday, we just focused on the performance. There was quite a lot to rehearse, but in our opinion, we managed everything well and got the work done in time. (Good management and dramaturgical skills from leaders!) The performance itself was a great success – especially the opening! The atmosphere was really holding the ceiling a bit above the usual level!
In the evening bead ceremony, many people were anxious but relieved to hear that Saturday would be the last ceremony. The excitement and climax was starting to break down slowly, and even though it was lovely to think that the “hard work” was over, it also meant that the camp was coming close to an end. We’d better check that there are a lot of beads available for Saturday night.
Saturday
In the morning, the workshop was outside in the nature. It included questions about nature and grilling sausages and corn on a bonfire. The only unfortunate thing was that it was one of the coldest days during the whole week, and many people were freezing. Luckily, nobody got sick! Everybody warmed up properly in the afternoon.
The afternoon General reflection session wasn’t very well received because people were tired of being outside and fresh air, and also because they didn’t understand what the session exactly was about and why we wanted to run such a thing. (They didn’t quite understand our idea of cooking their own youth exchange…) But, on the other hand, maybe it felt a bit odd to the participants, because they did evaluate the camp all the time, day by day, on their personal journals, own photos and during discussive Youthpass sessions. In that sense, we could have made this grand evaluation session much better – it would have needed just much more planning! Next time, we want to make an evaluation session where you have so much fun you don’t even notice that you are evaluating and reflecting! New challenges for leaders! Still, we can congratulate ourselves that we really have made reflection and evaluation such an integral part of the project.
The evening party was our own Talent, pizza and snacks. The end of the evening/beginning of the night was the last bead ceremony, which took two hours, and which made everybody emotional. Nobody was complaining the time that the session took. It was somehow a magical holy moment, where we all cried out together the feelings of the last night. Apparently, everybody was grateful of the time being together, and they all wanted to thank each other.
Because we cried together, it made our hearts lighter and easier to accept that life had to go on after the camp too. The session helped everybody to smile in the morning when the Bulgarians left. Sadness is part of leaving, but we think the young people are grateful of having an opportunity to meet each other and having shared the last 10 days together. And the leaders can think that we kept our promise – we all really met in Finland. Dreams can come true.
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