Movie about our project.

Here is the link to our movie. Enjoy watching!

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Happening in Rokitno

We, the participants of the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project called "Do you agree?"  could do something for the local community.  So we planned a happening at the library in Rokitno.

It was an extraordinary time for all of us. We spent the whole day to prepare for this meeting. The whole event was made for the youngest residents of the surrounding villages and their parents. We were so impressed how many children came to us.

We started our show with magic tricks. The whole team of magicians did a great job. They showed how objects can disappear and let the children do some tricks.

The next point of the program was the theater. Participants played a story about the turnip. They had great costumes and the acting was masterly.

Later children learned how to make origami or played some sports games.

We finished this meeting with limbo dance.

The biggest difficulty during this event was the language barrier because all our guests didn’t speak English but it wasn’t big problem with communication because Polish participants were translators.

Everyone was very happy during this event. We could do something good and we did it very well.

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Heal the Hell

One of my favourite activities during a youth exchange was LARP – Live action role playing, a game similar to a drama play, where the players are being given a character, the direct or indirect connections with other characters and the starting point. There are no lines, no exact scenario, everything must happen accordingly to the character, connections and tasks, which can be individual or not. The whole game is supervised by a Game Master, a person that prepares the plot and who has the power to help players with the mechanics of the game.

The LARP I played during Do you agree? project in Poland was called Club 27. The time for preparation was short, there was a workshop before the game where our organizer explained us what it is and the basic rules and we had up to 3 hours from the moment we got our characters to the point where the game started. It was played on a single level of the building, with 3 different spaces: the Hell, the Earth and the Heaven. Decoration and background music were decided conforming to each space.

They say the first rock legend taken by The Devil was Elvis Presley, The King. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Whinehouse are just a few names that followed Elvis, much younger, all dying at the age of 27 in weird circumstances. That’s how they all ended in Hell, after signing the pact with the Devil, giving their soul in change for money and fame. They’re now spending their eternities surrounded by Satan, her daughter and Azazel, still taking advantage of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll in the Underworld, until the rumour spreads, that Satan wants to bring more people in Hell, new singers such as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. Because bad music would have made eternity even more unbearable, a group forms plotting against the Devil and the new artists trying to escape and change things, whilst Elvis behaves unbelievably mysterious, the only one who can actually visit Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth everyone seems to have fun at a music festival, crowded with fans, volunteers, drug dealers, Jesus in disguise and artists, including the ones mentioned above, wanted by the Devil but hated by the Hell. God sends Jesus with the archangel Michal in Hell to bring people from there, whose punishments have ended, and to replace these people with other ones from Earth.

On Earth there is this Blessed Child, a woman whose touch they say could kill the Devil, ending the dictature and placing Elvis as the new ruler. While both Jesus and Elvis are looking for the same girl, she’s well hidden through the beer cans and crazy fans at the music festival on Earth.

One of the people Jesus resurrects for the sake of good old music is Jim Morrison, ex singer in The Doors. But at the end of His journey, Satan makes a bet with Him and she wins. So Jesus can never go back to Hell again, but can pass His powers to other people in order to save the other good ones from under the terror of Satan. At this moment unfortunately, a crazy fan kills Justin Bieber and the games stops, after approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Conforming to the participants that shared their opinions with the organizer the following day, the pluses of the game were: food at all corners, enough time to prepare, not knowing the characters before gave a sense of new, and the minuses: no wine in Hell, didn’t last enough, tasks were in some cases vague and difficult to understand, God complained of having too much power.

In my opinion, this is one of the most interesting ways of learning new verbal and non-verbal communication skills and gaining cognitive abilities. It’s certainly the most interesting game I took part in until now and I’m looking forward to play another LARP as soon as possible. It was an interactive form of non-formal education where we learnt a lot of new things while having a lot of fun, seeing Justin Bieber dying at the end, when we closed our eyes and heard that there are just 2 more hours left of the year 2017, so let’s clean the Congress Room and Let the Feast Begin.

Short conclusion? #Erasmus+GoingMad. Or to Hell? I guess we’ll all see in the pictures.

With love from your Romanian participant,

Georgiana Carcea

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My experience about Oxford Debate

As a participant of one of the Erasmus+ KA1 project "Do you agree?" that take place in Motycz Leśny, Lublin in Poland I had the chance to take part to an Oxford Debate. What I want to share from my experience is that it was all new to me, also the things that I learnt.

First of all, for some of us speaking in public is worst then dying which is a proven fact and I had to be the first speaker, the one who break the ice. My fears was that I will forget my speech and that I will freeze in a middle of 30 people watching me and waiting for me to say something but that did not happened so from this I became more confident a little more brave.

Secondly, I was in the proposition team and I had to work with another 2 people. We had to create arguments which was a good experience for the team work and we developed some problem solving skills because we had some different ideas about what we should talk about.

To conclude, it was a interesting, fun and new experience for me which helped me to overcome my fear of public speaking. 

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The first Oxford debate in my life

On the 4th day of our Erasmus+ project Do you agree we took part in an 'official styled debate'. Six volunteers were divided into two teams and were given specific roles - the one who had to introduce a thesis, the one who had to come up with arguments and the one who had to sum everything up.

The thesis for this debate was pretty difficult - "We can raise human embryos in pigs." Team for the proposition had to find as many arguments for the answer "Yes, we can.", the other one for the opposition had to prove the thesis is wrong and that we can't raise humans in pigs.

Round 1:

Each speaker had a certain amount of time for their speach. During this phase, the audience can ask questions which can or cannot be accepted by the person who is speaking. We heard about biological things such as what fertilization is or why there is a danger because of chemicals, and also about the ethical ones.

Round 2:

Now it is a turn of the audience. Whoever wants to add something to support either the proposition or the opposition can come and share their ideas. The only rule is that if we had a speaker to support the proposition team, the next one have to be someone to support the opposition, and vice versa. If there is no support at all or only for one team, this round ends.

Round 3:

The audience can now ask questions, directly to a specific person or to the whole team. One of the most interesting questions in this case were "Wouldn't it be a kind of cannibalism to use pigs for raising babies and to eat them at the same time?" and "If we used this method, the population would grow faster. Is that really what we need nowadays?"

After these three rounds, the audience decides (with secret votes) which team wins and who the best speaker is. For this debate we surprisignly had a draw - 14:14, both teams won.

As I was the person who had to come up with arguments that we can use pigs for this purpose, it was an amazing experience and even though I was stressed during my speech, I'm glad I volunteered to take part in this debate. It was the first Oxford debate in my life and I enjoyed every second of it. I would like to thank the organizers for the opportunity I had.

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