Category: P2 Buchholz/Kiev/Roedekro

The next day of our project begins with another trip – to Hadersleben.

The town is small, but there are interesting things to see nonetheless. We walk through the old town to the harbour. It is quiet, and the contemplative athmosphere of the city is all around us. At the harbour, there is a super-modern building, a CultureCafe, where students can not just drink a coffee, but also work with modern technology.

Everything is super-modern, everything is perfect for learning. This is especially impressive for the youths from Ukraine, that there is something like this in such a small town. In Ukraine there are very few of such modern learning centres. Some go for a walk into the town, others sit down near a small lake. Around midday, we all get back, where work on the boat is waiting for us. After working, and after the trip it is nice to relax. So we drive to the beach, where we can lie in the sun, or play sports like volleyball.

In the evening something special is prepared for us. We want to dance! So there is Disco, but not any old disco, we have a theme for the evening. The theme is Circus!!!

Everyone dresses like a circus artist. And we have everything. There is an athlete, a gymnast, next to that a monkey is jumping around, a witch show tricks and metamorphosis, we have a flea circus and snake charming!

Everyone introduces themselves, which is very funny. And then dancing, dancing, dancing!!! Suddenly there is a theatre of shadows: The play of light makes the enormous shadows dance on the trees, everything under a star-lit sky! Like a fairy tale!

The night promised us shooting stars, and we were waiting for them. And even though everyone is tired after such a long day, we are preparing wishes and hope that we will manage to send our wishes to space during a shooting star! In the beginning everyone is laughing, and every shooting star is accompanied by a yahoo of joy. But slowly, everyone is getting into their own thoughts, and the starry night is the best possible background.

Today after more than a week we drive to the city. Only one week out in nature – and you are already quite used to it and not used to city life anymore. We take the car to the city. There is a great mood, so the drive is becoming a “disco”: everyone is dancing and singing in the cars. After an hour we reach Ribe, one of the oldest cities in Denmark. First we visit the Ribe Viking Centre.

This is an open air museum. It looks like a Viking Village, even with its inhabitants. Everything is made quite authentically, the buildings are furnished the same way as the Viking settlements once were. From the beginning, the museum is very impressive.

You get the feeling of really being on a time travel and diving into the life of the real Vikings. The people (the “inhabitants” of the village) wear authentic clothes, they make fire, do their housework, cook, sell jewelry – as if there were no tourists around. Everything, even the smell, brings back the athmosphere of Viking times.

We go for a walk and enjoy. Heiko tells us inifinetely interesting stories, which every time open the window of history for us.

In the afternoon we visit the city centre. At first, the old town looks quite similar to all other European historic city centres, but after a while, we realise that this city is very special. A special cozyness is in the air. The buildings are small and look very comfortable. It seems that each tasteful building is unique, but all have a common style.

Tired, but impressed we get back home. Yes, our circus tent has become our home, we we feel at home.

The participants from Germany wanted to taste the typically Ukrainian food. And so the Ukrainian participants baked “Nalystnyky”, as they are called in Ukrainian. Enjoy your meal, and have a tasty evening!

This was a really great day!

The weather report said it will rain in the afternoon. Thus, right after breakfast, we began to work. The work on the boat continues. Everyone is industrious and motivated.

The rain starts, but we are in a good mood and the rainy weather can’t change that. We are meeting in the tent, where, during the rain, it is especially cozy. We have the idea to play a game. Everyone says an achievable wish, a simple one (to get a song from someone as a present) or an interesting one, even a crazy one (for example going to Canada). We mix the slips with the wishes, everyone takes one, and had to fulfill the wish on the slip. Everyone is thrilled!

During dinner one wish is fulfilled: We all have to speak English all evening.

An evening without a campfire can also be interesting. The participants meet in a room to watch videos. Wladimir Finger tells us about the activities of the organisation DJU – German Youth in Ukraine – and shows a couple of videos from the Ukrainian project. We also watch the video about the project Euro-Viking, which everyone thinks is quite fascinating. Then we are looking a series about Vikings, which shows they everyday life very well.

After that Heiko Theel tells us about the things we have seen in the film, how the Vikings lived, and also which parts of the film were incorrect. A little bit more for our backpack, which already is quite full with knowledge about the Vikings!

Then we talk in the light of the candles, we wish one another a good night, until the next interesting day!

One more day on the Viking boat. The dark blue sea below the boat, the sunny sky above us, the nice crew, diving with lots of interest into the world of the Vikings – how could it be any better?

The excited participants say:

“I thought it was very nice, that the weather was so warm, and we had a lot of fun together, sang a lot of songs, sailed a lot. It simply was great, one can repeat this quite often.”

– Marvin K.

“Today we have reached half-time for our project and early in the morning, we began our journey on the Viking boat. Everyone had their own task. For me it was holding the bracing. It was not the most complicated task, yesterday it was more complicated to row. During our adventure I understood how complicated it must have been for the Vikings to overcome the distance, not just with wind and rain, but also on a sunny day. To enjoy our break and have lunch, we found a nice place on the Baltic Sea. Heiko, thank you for the tasty meal! After we came back, we moved our boat to the trailer. Now I am having dinner and am writing this blog. I can say for sure, that today was really interesting and super! Perhaps tonight I will dream of Viking times…”

– Anastasia M., UA

“Sailing in the boat was great, and combined with the bombastic weather, it was a super weekend.”

– Veronika K., D. 

“Today was a day with enough time to think about everything important, to enjoy the sea and nature, and show one’s strengths.”

– A. Awdeeva, UA

“Sailing was super! The weather was nice and warm, and the people on the boat simply were extremely funny.”

– Katya K., D.

“Two days with two Viking boats on daytrips, seeing porpoises, and on each boat being and acting as a crew. Rowing in a common rhythm is not easy with a group that is not experienced together. But we did it and could even set sail.

With a good athmosphere and some songs like “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” we had two wonderful days.”

-Daniel R., D.

“Fog. Sunrays. Silence. The smell of the sea.We arrived at the seaside. Our boat is ready for sailing. Our team is complete and we are waiting for the order.

Rhythm of rowing. This is a special state of mind. You are on the water, but you feel safe. You don’t feel the time, you don’t have any troubles, only rowing, only movement. You feel the water and you feel nature. We are together with the water, we are a part of the sea. We are all in the same boat, and we have a common goal. Everything we do effects all of us. This was a special day, which one will remember for the rest of ones life.”

– Lena S., UA.

 

“I already had the pleasure to sail with Haiko, so it wasn’t hard for me to find my place on the boat. My task was setting and retrieving the sail. The weather was great, we had wind for sailing, and so rowing wasn’t that exhausting. We used rowing mainly for manouvering and the final sprint.”

– Louis B., D.

Friday. We are the participants of the ewoca³ camp and we want to tell you the following:

Do you want to know about a new kind of work? Come to us! Today, for example, we built the Viking boat, we did filling, and we learned quite well how to do it right.

Do you want to hear a great presentation on building boats over time? Come to us? Heiko Theel told us about it yesterday, in the nice athmosphere of sunset.

Do you want to dive into a time of learning, laughing and high spirits? Come to us! Here the day starts with a smile and joy for nature and it ends with singing at the camp fire under the eternal stars.

Time is flying fast. We live in a circus tent, learn, get much closer, and don’t even notice that one week of the project is nearly over already.

Saturday was really a very special day, as the youths had the opportunity to feel like a Viking for themselves.

Today we sailed and rowed. The sun was shining, the wind was helping. The experienced team members told us how to do it right, and we all learned with lots of fun. The day was over quickly, as everything pleasant speeds up time. The real adventure!

 

Rowing all day is exhausting and you get hungry. After the yummy dinner, everyone is looking forward to the camp fire and conversations, and games, and a great time together!

 

 

Personalities

This is Flo, he is a strong and experienced rower.

 

This is Alex, he is very funny.

 

Thursday brought new interesting experiences to the participants of the ewoca³ camp.

In the morning, they had to do a little bit of work, but the work was not difficult, but funny and interesting. They erected tents on the area of the camp and refurbished the sandbox. In between they used a car and an open trailer to transport materials. This was a lot of fun for the youths!

At noon, after the tasty lunch, there was a history seminar, where Christian Löwenstrom told them some things about the Knivsberg, and also with respect to the history of Denmark in the 20th Century. The youths learned a lot of interesting things, paged through the tragic sides of the history of the World War, and discussed about the topic of democracy, where everyone could voice their own opinion.

In the afternoon they went to the beach together. It was great to relax a bit after the work. The brave ones also swam in the Baltic Sea, but the water was still very cool. After that, they all played volleyball, and enjoyed the great view.In the evening, they all met at the camp fire and listened to the beautiful sounds of the guitar, which very well fit sunset and its dreamy atmosphere.

The third day immediately began with work. The sun was shining, and inspired the youths to look for new activities. After breakfast, a couple of groups were formed, dealing with the different tasks.

One group worked on the boat, that is the Viking boat. The second group did some work on the Knivsberg grounds, that is refurbish a sand box, the third group dealt with preparing a presentation on Viking history.

A boy from Ukraine, Sergej Jewteev, prepared a presentation. It dealt with the history of the Vikings and the countries of the Kievan Rus and their connections.A part of the participants are from Ukraine, which history is also connected with the rich history of the Vikings. The team members talked about the project Euro-Viking, and we watched the video about this.

This was quite and intensive day with lots of new information. Now, it is evening, and the young Viking successors are looking forward to the camp fire.

3rd August 2015

Yesterday was Monday, a special day for youths from Germany and Ukraine coming to Denmark to take part in the ewoca³ project. Everyone is young, active, motivated and excited for new experiences and collaboration, and, of course, they want to make new friends.

They have a home for the next two weeks at the youth farm Knivsberg. They actually sleep in a circus tent, which they had to erect for themselves.

They are spending all their time in beautiful nature, where it is green and the wind blows. Already on the first evening, the youths made their first camp fire, and made music with rings, bottles and their surroundings. A nice start under the stars!

4th August 2015

The second day of the project began with a good sunny mood. The participants began to get to know one another, first they talked with the team members about goals and expectations for the project, then they actively played together in a funny way. The games make everyone happy and bring the possibility to get to know one another.

Fresh air makes hungry. After a yummy meal, the participants talked with each other, specifically, how and when they heard about the viking project for the first time, and what they already knew about viking history.

After a short break, after lunch, we went on a small hike to a small peninsula, not far from our camp grounds.

After the hike it began to rain, and we met in the dining hall for games, and we had a joyful evening with pantomime.