The Manual

Last couple of words. Our project is about to end at the end of December. We have had fun. The whole project has been lovely and we hope that this is just beginning.

We leaders have made a MANUAL which has written by using comments that we have heard and read from participants.
You can find the Manual here.

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. :)

Communicating with foreign language

Alona:

Speaking on English language was feel different, when you must try to speak right. But it feels also nice and of course there was own challenges. Why it was different, because in normal life I don't use the English language during the day all the time, but in the camp you just must to speak it all the time every days. It was good solution that we speak English all the time, because it made own language skills more stronger. Actually it felt awesome!

About challenges: Yes, there were challenges. For example when i tried to explain something difficult thing for somebody, when it was hard to explain even in own language. Or then when you try to understand or tell something, Also was hard to explain something for other person in english, when it don't understand you and you try your best. At least, challenges were nice, because you was learned something over theme.

Bertta:

English is easy language for me so it felt easy to talk it but I still was scared to talk it. Of course there was challenges because either of us don't speak english as mother language. Example if I didn't know what some word was in english then I just explained it somehow with moves or something else. Easy was communicating with Bulgarians because actually they didn't care if I said something wrong. And that's why communicating went so well but of course there were parts that we didn't know what they meant. With translating everything went great if someone needed it then he said that he need that. I think we did pretty good job with english.

- Alona & Bertta (FIN)

Summary of Wed 19.10. & thu 20.10.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we started with Bulgarian workshop Voice/Movement on stage. For the Finnish participants, the approach to own body and voice was somehow new and therefore a good lesson. This sort of basic actor’s skills training would be most welcome to our daily routines, as well.

The second workshop was Smartphones in the Shadow of Nokia, where the participants made performances out of smartphones’ disadvantages and took pictures on a certain theme outside.

In the evening we learned about the interesting tradition of to martenitzas, traditional Bulgarian handycraft, and we all wear one self-made martenitza now in our wrists.

We tried to make the fresh air available for everybody, once it became an issue – and it’s true, we need it. The morning-shake up was outside, and the organized breaks outside worked quite fine.  It was a tough decision to make, but we didn’t have an option. The lesson learned was that this should have been solved before the camp.

Thursday

The day started with Voice acting/dubbing workshop. The three girls had done a great job and they kept the business tightly together.

We wanted to say thank you to the elder people’s centre, which made food for us everyday. We put together some Bulgarian and Finnish dances and National hymns, and performed to elder people in the afternoon. The showstoppers were of course traditional Bulgarian outwear and music, which the audience hadn’t seen or heard before. But Finlandia hymn also warmed everybody’s hearts and eyes. Cultural awareness was definitely spread to an audience who otherwise wouldn't have been able to experience it.

In the evening it was time to start putting bits and pieces of the workshops together, and make them as one entire show for the public. We rehearsed our most-loved opening, which was brought to us by the Bulgarian actor teacher, Dimitar. We leaders learned a lot about running the Youthpass sessions! The confidence, and the good practices were gained towards the end of the week. This is our first time to run Youthpass, and thinking of this, I think we can put a smile on our face.