Category: 12 Unna/Latina/Krzyżowa

Our EWOCA3-Workcamp 2017 ended on 31st of July 2017. On Sunday, our participants were very excited: The final presentation was coming up, and preparations had to be made. For the presentation we are expecting a high-level visit from IBB Dortmund.

We had a wonderful final presentation with true words, beautiful music and a tour of the working stations, where the youths could speak about their working processes.

In the evening we had a moving completion ceremony with candlelight, where everyone could tell the group what was important to him or her. Best Friends Photos were made (see our post regarding friendship), and soon will be exhibited on a photography wall at WERKSTATT-Berufskolleg Unna.

Afterwards, of course, there was a great party, we looked at pictures of the whole week in a slideshow and thanks to the farewell party, the final night surely was the shortest of all the short nights.

Then, on early monday morning, the Polish and Italian group were sent off with lots and lots of tears. Everyone will remember the camp as an unforgettable experience, the highs and lows, which we mastered together as a group.

On the Facebook page of Werkstatt Berufskollegs more pictures are published, as well as a video of the preparations for the final day.
We, as team leaders also hat fun!

A huge thank you for everyone, who made this possible: Kevin Ewe (school social worker of Werkstatt Berufskollegs and this years’ project coordinator and megaboss of ewoca³ partnership 12), Dieter Schulze (Director of Werkstatt Berufskollegs), Erasmus+, the tireless team of International Association for Education and Exchange in Dortmund – IBB, the partner organisations Fundacja Krzyżowa dla Porozumienia Europejskiego / Kreisau Foundation in Poland, Risorsa Europa in Latina, Italy and all our great team leaders: Markus Fleischer, Christiane Hähner, Daniele Nubile, Valerio Fornato, Agnieszka Zabrzewska and Sofie Koscholke. And of course all our fabulous participants from (more than) three countries!

We also want to very much thank Naturfreundehaus Ebberg for two weeks with the best food and great service. As beautiful traces of the camp, we leave a herb garden, our ewoca wall and the youth bench.

This post was published one week after the end of the ewoca³ camp by the team.

What do you think… What is the most important thing in ewoca³?

Work?

Free holidays?

NO! For us it’s friendship!!

You can ask us…. How this is even possible when you are from 3 diffrent countries… how you can communicate to make strong friendships?

Well it is very simple, if you really want to have good relationship with someone…. No problem! Just start talking, enjoy your time together and the most important: just have fun!

We can introduce you with some stories from people of diffrent countries like:

-Fabio & Gosia (DE & PL)

Q: How you feel starting new friendship?
A: This was difficult for me because it is hard to take new friendship for me.
Q: How do you feel when you spend time with your new friend?
A: I feel good because I have new friends and I like to work with them.
Q: Do you want to keep in touch with the people after the camp?
A: Yes, i love my new friends and I have new best friend here, for me it is really important to save this relationship.

-Ornella & Khadija (IT & DE)

Q: When did your friendship start? You remember this situation?
A: We are sharing the same room, we had chance to know each other better and to become good friends.
Q: What do you feel when you spend time with Khadija
A: I’m happy and I have a lot of fun!
Q: Do you want to keep in touch with she after the camp?
A: Yes we would like to communicate using Whatsapp.

-Wiktoria & Leon (PL & DE)

Q: How you feel starting new friendship?
A: At start all of us feel stress because of problem the with knowing each other but this obstacle will fast be broken.
Q: How do you feel when you spend time with your new friend?
A: I feel that everyone here is one big family. We know each other and we feel each other. We have fun in the work and also after work too.
Q: Do you want to keep in touch with the people after the camp?
A: Of course I would really like to keep in touch and I really want to do conversation in facebook.

We want to show you some more photos, because the german group has a tradition on ewoca³ camps: each person chooses someone from a different country to take a BEST FRIEND PICTURE with – this picture will be hung in the School in Werkstatt Berufskolleg Unna.   So here are some of them:

Now you can see taking new frienship never be impossible!!!

article written by Krystian (published 1 week after the camp)

The camp is approaching to the end…. It‘s already friday :((

Friday was for many of us a very long awaited day, especially by the male part of the group.

Why?

Signal Iduna Park! Borussia Dortmund Stadium!

But let‘s start from the beginning of the day, because in our camp the work is very important and this one is getting huge momentumm lately. All groups were under the pressure of time and each of them wanted to end their part of the project on time. But this didn‘t mean that everyone was working because they had to. Everyone works at what makes them happy, just as I´m now writing these articles for you!

After work we quickly went to lunch and at 13:30 we were standing by the cars ready to travel to Dortmund. Traveling in cars is a positive atmosphere because we sing every time! :)

14:20…. We arrived! Signal Iduna Park! A beautiful place for every football fan.

Each one of us wanted to go to the fan shop, but first we went to see the huge stadium.

In the beginning we got Borussia lanyards which for many of us will surely be a great souvenir.

We started the tour from the entrance zones where the fans go to the stands during the match. Then we quickly passed through the museum and we went to the area where the football players are used to walk and then we went straight to the media area through which they go to the locker room.

In the locker room each of us could take place of his favourite player and take a picture of him sitting under his photo.

Later we went to the pitch where we could sit on the bench and feel like real footballers.

And it was really the end of our tour of the stadium, a few moments later we had 25 minutes to shop in the fan shop and then to go to the city center of Dortmund.

Upon arriving at the Dortmund we got free time which most of us used to go to the shopping mall where they bought many clothes.

At 20:30 we got into the car and happily came back home to eat dinner and to go to sleep.

For more check here tomorrow!

Today´s article was written by Krystian

Dzien dobry! Thursday again! After breakfast, we all went to keep working because we were running out of time and we had only 3 days left to the final presentation. Some people of the garden group started building a bed garden,

the painting group unfortunately received bad news, in fact the director of the “Naturfreundehaus” centre told them that the drawing they have been working on many days will most probably be deleted and the rolling shutter will be repainted. Nonetheless, the group didn’t become demoralized and the group carried on and gave it their all.

So it was a hard-working morning. Moreover, meanwhile the youth council gathered to take some important decisions about the Friday’s trip to Dortmund and the farewell party. After lunch there was free time until evening. Some people decided to keep working on the bench for the garden and on the drawing

some to continue the painting on the shutter, some others to take a break and sleep or play ball games

In the evening instead, we had the Polish evening! It was great, we played a lot and had fun as much; we learnt many things about Poland, about its people, culture, geography and of course food.

So at the end I can say it was a beautiful day, we stayed together and worked together.

Today’s article was written by Stefano

It‘s Wednesday, so it was Suprise Day!

We all waited for that day and only the German group know what awaited us. No one really knew how to get dressed, where we are going. The only thing we knew was that we would spend the whole day there and a long journey awaiting us. In fact, the trip was long but most of us used that and slept to make up for the night‘s rest.

Signposts more and more advised where we really go and then we saw one who has dispelled any doubts. There was a „Movie Park“ on it.

Fear?

Satisfaction?

Excitement?

Each one of us felt something else in the heart.

We got out of the car. Quick exchange of experiences and the whole group moved to the cash to get tickets for all-day fun.

And finally! We got the tickets, we discussed the place of the check-in and moved into the world of toys for big children.

The fun in the park was fantastic, everyone talked about their experiences on different routes and encouraged others to go together with them.

A collection at 5 p.m., a quick exchange of words, a little complaining about the long queues for attractions and a quick return to play again since we set an hour to leave for 7 p.m.

Time has come to an end and we left the „Movie Park“ which will surely stay in our heads!

But that‘s not the end! We went to the restaurant for a typical German lunch, but because of the hour it was rather dinner for us.

When we are no longer hunger, happy we went home back, a quick shower and good night…

See you tomorrow!

This article was written by Krystian

The last week has already started and we are on Tuesday now!

The day started as usual: some people had breakfast, some took a shower, but of course we all met at 9:15 to do some energizers and to talk about the day. In particular this was not an ordinary day, in fact just 7 days ago we met each other for the first time. That’s why we did the MID-TERM EVALUATION,

in which we all could express how we felt about this first week, what could we do better in this last week and if we had some proposals. After this long and nice evaluation, we, of course, went back to work, everyone with their respective groups.

Furthermore, that morning the press came here to interview some “old” participants, or rather, the ones that have taken part also at the previous 2 exchanges in Latina (2015) and Krzyzowa (2016). The interviewer asked a lot of questions as “how are you?”, “which was the best moment in these three camps?” or “what have you learned from these three camps?”. Unfortunately that was a rainy day, but we kept working hard as we used to do, maybe even harder because the rain didn’t make things easy.

After the lunch break we decided to go to a covered swimming-pool. We all had fun there and enjoy the moment so much. In the evening, we had the “Italian Evening”. Given that the Italian group needed the kitchen to cook, we all went to the Werkstatt Berufskolleg in Unna where they prepared us a really savoury dinner with three kinds of pasta, lasagna, some Italian cheese and sausages and of course the “Tiramisù”, an Italian dessert made with coffee.

It was a beautiful night, I also prepared an Italian game in which two teams (Polish and German) should answer questions to win. So, that’s how the day went.

Today’s article was written by: Stefano

Ohh it‘s monday!!…

As always we started from eating breakfast, after that we had quick talk with our Team leaders and we went to work! It was a very rainy day, but we didn‘t surrender, we always moved forward to complete our goals.

 

Even though the work was important, friendship was the main thing for us. Everyone had always a smile on their faces even during bad days, because we loved each other 😃😂

Day by day our goal at work gets closer and the teamers are really proud of us, which motivates us more and more. After work and a hot shower – because someone said “ohhh i‘m stinky, i must take quick shower, wait for me please“- we went to eat lunch and…. Suprise!!! We had pizza and we took three pieces for each person ❤💞 The best meal for everyone 😂😝 After lunch… frisbee tournament! but oh no :( ….. It was still raining outside and we must change our plans. So our incredible leader Kevin had an idea: “let´s go to the industrial landscape park“. This place was very awesome for everyone but some people said „i‘m tired and i wanna go sleep“, but always whole group can‘t be in perfect mood. Visiting this place with torches was also interesting experience.

Around 23 o‘clock we went back to the cars and came back “home“. We arrived in Schwerte at 1 o‘clock, so we went sleep very late. In fact all of us were tired and went to sleep immediately, but with a smile on our faces.

Post written by Krystian

On saturday, as the previous days, we met in the meeting room to talk about our feelings and the program of the day. So the day started. One group continued the garden building putting stones on the ground to mark the field where the plants are going to be planted, cleaned the field and also removed a tree with the help of a van and then re-planted it on a different place. It required a hard group collaboration, in fact “everyone helps everybody“ was our motto; it was a collaboration that often made things easier and funnier. We kept getting to know each other and having fun together. The painting group kept designing their drawing that over time got more beautiful and colourful. It was a really tough day for everyone, because we put all the forces on our tasks. Of course during the project work we had litte breaks as the Youth Council and the Leaders had agreed the night before. After lunch Markus, the gardening expert, asked if someone wanted to come with him to get the wood that will be used for building the bench, so three italian guys (Carlo,Manuel and Stefano) helped him. They went to a little town near Schwerte, and took 5 big pieces of it. Meanwhile in Schwerte people participated at the sustainablity workshop that lasted almost one hour and half. The group got to know the 17 goals for sustainable development of the UN . After a break, the guys of the Youth Council gathered to prepare the “Olympic Games“ that required a lot of work due to the lack of time that they had. Unfortunately at the end we did not play these games due to some problems. Later in the evening the Polish and the Italian group played a game that consisted in guessing words in polish and italian while the german group prepared the german night for sunday. So, at the end, the day was not bad and we had fun.

On Sunday we had free time morning and before lunch some of us helped Marcus with the garden work and others just did what they were doing the previous days. After lunch one of the Leaders, (Christiane) unfortunately announced that she is leaving the camp as she has to prepare an exam for university. Later, in the afternoon, the people could choose what to do, so some people had free time, some made a workshop with Christiane about the Ruhr region and some others prefered to continue the project work with Markus. At 19.00, more or less, the german group led us to a wonderful place on the top of a hill where the city of Dortmund can be viewed. We liked that surprise and took a lot of pictures and selfies. The german group played a beautiful song in german and then, unfortunately, we had to come back to the Naturfreundehaus (House of friends of nature, where we stay)  because it started raining. Here in the evening we played a game made by the german group and had  lot of fun. In fact for some of us this was the one of the best days of this first week.

Today’s post was written by: Stefano.

“Hi again, it’s Krystian again. Friday was excellent! As usual, we woke up full of energy in the morning, waiting for new experiences and adventures. After the breakfast and group meeting in the morning, we pushed the garden work forward – we are the team that is working constantly and the garden is becoming more beautiful every day.

After work we went to the climbing garden in Wetter, including a huge injection of adrenaline! There are many routes – both easy and very difficult – so that everyone could find the perfect route for themselves. Everyone was having fun! Back in Schwerte at the and of the day, we were sitting around the campfire, singing, dancing, playing volleyball and having fun. The day was awesome!”

PS: Because of almost no internet in the nature lovers house, we can post some articles only now – sorry!

 

 

 


Here we are again – for the last time of these three years in the project. After getting to know each a bit closer other today (day 3), we’re back to work, back to nature. This year we are going to create a new garden and a new place for tools, with the help of Markus, one of our teamers. For this we formed groups: The first group is going to cut the trees that cover the earth from the sunrays, which is hard work, but some of our members are already used to it due to the experience from the last years. As you can see on the photos, everything is being cut by these strong and brave people. You can see the passion and dedication they put into their job. They work together, different as they are, but as friends. Group two is going to decorate the shed, the third group is building a bench. And the fourth group is us: the Media Group. Today’s post was written by: Stefano.