Summary of Fri 21.10. & Sat 22.10.

Friday

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.

Feeling about the camp

Hello everybody, it's Steisy, Dimitar and Teodora (BG). First of all the whole camp was wonderful and we wouldn't change anything if we could and also the nicest thing was the ceremony with the bracelets. We were trying to be nice and cool with everyone so we think that that's the main thing. We had some difficulties with the language but everything else was fine. :)

Summary of mon 17.10. & tue 18.10.

Monday

On Monday we had a day trip to Tampere. First we separated into two groups. One group went shopping and the other to walk a tour in Tampere. After that we went to eat to Rax -buffet. We walked from Rax to Tampere theatre where we had a guided tour as we had in Helsinki too. People seemed to like the tour even though everyone was a little bit tired. After the visit in the theatre we switched the groups so everyone got to see Tampere and go shopping. As leaders we thought that the day was just in right place in the program. It divided the camp nicely. The first two days we were accustoming to the system and after the day trip we could start really focusing on working.

Tuesday

First workshop of the day was cooking intercultural food at local restaurant premises. Participants were separated in three groups and groups made pea soup, korvapuusti (Finnish cinnamon bun) and baklava. In the afternoon the workshop was about making comedy on stage. People made short sketches in groups. Evening workshop was called ”first steps in classical & jazz ballet”. There participants could make a dance performance in groups. Most of the performances were wonderful if you think in how short time were they made.

On Tuesday there was also a little dissatisfaction episode with some of the participants. We leaders had tightened the rule about the permission to go out to have some fresh air. Before the participants had a permission to do that whenever they wanted, but now it’s possible only in one long break of the day and after that only with a leader. We tried to explain the situation that we have a responsibility of all the participants so if they are out on their own and something happens, it’s leaders fault. After a moment of discussion we all got in balance with the situation. This little episode was once again a good lesson for us as leaders. We have been very nice leaders and we have given a lot of more free time to the participants that they have usually had in this kind of projects and now we recognize that it might be more easy or reasonable to be a little more ”bossing” leader. Still we think that it is important to show participants that we trust them, that we want to treat them as responsible people. Once again, the middle road would be the best - we are still discovering it! But discovering yourself and your ways of acting never ends. :)

What did we learn about our countries?

Emilia, Finland

What I learned most about Bulgaria as Finnish young was the culture in Bulgaria. We have many differences with the society and the model of the family between Finland and Bulgaria. For example, grandparents belong to the nuclear family or are very important part of the family in Bulgaria. They aren’t often so nearly in the everyday life in Finland.

We cooked Bulgarian food and I tasted first time baklava which is a Bulgarian dessert. They eat baklava at Christmas time and I can see why. Baklava was very delicious and festal dessert. There are big sales in Bulgaria under the other international celebrity, Eastern. They also solemnize Grandmas day there. I’m not sure if it is like Mothers’ day in Finland or not, I have to ask. Anyway, I didn’t know about the tradition of Marteniza before. It was very interesting and beautiful tradition!

I heard the national hymn and language. Actually, I also learned couple words in Bulgarian. I can’t remember every word anymore but at least I would recognize the language if I heard Bulgarian. We danced their folkdances. I didn’t know how popular folkdances are there.

The theatre styles are different. Both traditional and modern theatre is more artistic in Bulgaria. The style of Finland is often entertainment, like summer theatres. Bulgarians told there are coniferous trees on mountains; we have these everywhere. I noticed they use more perfumes and make-ups in Bulgaria than in Finland. And ketchup is more popular too, some guys put ketchup almost to every food!

Can Finnish person learn anything about Finland? Or does everyone know everything about the home country? Of course not! I surprised because everyone didn’t know Finland for Nokia! I have always thought it’s one of the famous things which from people know Finland. The other interesting surprise was difference with shops. There are different shops in Bulgaria than in Finland. I have supposed that big Swedish companies (for example H&M and KappAhl) are over the world!

What else… At least I learned to dance cicapo. It is nice because I didn’t choose the course of old dances in the upper secondary school. It was like our own old dances with our international group.

Elena, Bulgaria

I learned that Finland have lots of woods,bricks and mountains.I learnt what is the traditional food and I really enjoyed it.I learnt how in Finland dance at their home.I learnt the system of finnish school. Now I know more for the Bulgarian Nestinarstvo and practice more rachenitsa. I learnt that Finnish are really great friends.

Summary of sat 15.10. & sun 16.10.

Saturday

The working actually started today. In the first workshop we learned about Finnish theatrical acting and directing styles and in the second workshop we learned about Bulgarian theatrical acting and directing styles. Those workshops showed instantly at the beginning differences and similarities in participating countries style to make theatre, especially the different tradition in visual and psychological theatre. In the evening we learned about each other’s folk dance traditions and got to try both Finnish and Bulgarian folk dances.

The whole day was a little bit unsure for everyone as they tried to find their place, and we all started to go through how this whole program and camp works. At least we all learned a lot of new things during the day.

Sunday

Sunday was a bit (too) relaxed day. We had a couple of more little breaks because the two workshops didn’t take the whole time that was planned for them. That meant that the participants got more free time. Youngsters themselves were excited about that, but we leaders realized that if there’s too much free time, people get lazy and don’t do their work passionated.

That was an important lesson for us as leaders. Even though one of our goals was to put more free time in the program that participants can have ”quality time” together (what they specially asked for), it didn’t work in practice like we thought it would. The time at the camp becomes more like holiday to participants and they forget that they still need to work hard on this camp too, even though our program is not that strict. Luckily we can try different variations of doing things at this camp, so we haven’t lost anything yet.

Today is the day!

Hello, it’s Lari and Mekku here again.

Wow. We came to theatre at 8 a.m. this morning. Just exactly 12 hours later than we leave the building yesterday. We were at the theatre the whole day preparing Bulgarians arrival, which is today! Oh dear, it sounds so surreal! But at the same time we have talked about that we’re not nervous about the coming week. We just have a good, peaceful feeling about this project now, still. We are ready to welcome our friends from Bulgaria to Loimaa! :)

The project has gone ahead quite smoothly so far. Participants have prepared their workshops actively and they have also been lovely conscientious writing blog posts about topics they’ve chosen. The communication between both participating countries have worked well too. We had an idea to have a Skype-meeting at some point, but it didn’t happen. And actually we think it’s not a bad thing. Maybe now the reunion will be more powerful when we haven’t seen each other live since last year.

What have we learned so far as facilitators/ leaders? We have noticed that it’s not a big deal if absolutely every little thing we planned haven’t been put in practice. On the other hand we have seen that there are really a lot of practical things that have to be solved before the camp. And that we have to solve them. But we have done well.

Now we’re just preparing to that that we can’t be prepared for everything that’s going to happen during the week. We’re learning to face every situation with approval whatever kind of the situation will be. We will enjoy every moment and we hope that all participants can do so too.

Possible problems & how to solve them

Hello! We are Annika and Michelle from Finland.

In the beginning of the camp some people might struggle with shyness. We think that the ice breaking games will help a lot and of course when we get to know each other better it’s easier to communicate.
There could be some situations where we have language barrier problems. For example when we explain rules etc. We will use google translation to understand each other.

Thoughts about the project

Hello!

We are Milena and Ilia (from Bulgaria) and we are so excited for the project.
We can exchange experience and we are so glad about that. Also we are so happy that we can communicate through Facebook cause it's easier than e-mails and in that way we are improving our English. From the whole project we expect to get useful skills for both our work and life. Our common work - Bulgarian and Finns gives us only great experience.