Super Volunteers Meeting 2
30. 09. – 3. 10. 2016
Instead of US giving a feed back for our event, we`ll just share the personal expresions of Aniol, Leticia and Maja, EVS volunteers in Balkan Youth Festival.
Their blog post can be found here – https://byfblog2016.wordpress.com/2016/10/11/the-change-is-in-you/
And here is what they shared about the event:
“Промяната е в Tеб / The Change is in You is the association established to give support to young people, who are open to broadening their horizons, striving towards making a change in the place of their residence with the knowledge they have gained from around the globe.
The three of us were lucky to have been invited to be a part of the event called Super Volunteers Meeting 2, which took place in Tryavna, from Sept 30th to Oct 03rd, the current year.
Once we arrived in Tryavna, we were waited by the project coordinator, called Margarita Simeonova, and one of the volunteers for the same organization, Matteo, from Italy. They drove us in Margarita’s car to the Park Hotel Panorama, located on the hill that overlooked the whole town. The view was amazing, especially from our rooms. What we could see was the outskirt of the nearby forest, with tall pine trees set in the line just right in front of our terrace. It stretched all along the line of the hotel wall. The windows of the room were looking at the east; thus, every morning we would be waken up by the first Sun beams slightly touching the curtains of our room, through the branches of the pine trees.
Soon enough, after a quick accommodation in the hotel, we began with the program. The volunteers we met there, alongside the coordinator, took us to the local club called Jubox, where we were told that we were about to play an interactive game called THE BIG GAME. The game was crafted by the Spanish volunteer called Damian Garcia. We were divided in four teams, competing for the “Big Gamer” award in 5 rounds full of questions, funny interactive games and absolutely unexpected surprises. The time we needed was minimum 2 hours. We enjoyed the game a lot, especially the competitive part.
The second day of our meeting with the volunteers, we played one more game in the morning. The game was called UPGRADED PRISON BALL. We were divided in 2 teams, each team having one ball. The two teams played against one another. They have to hit a member from another team with a ball. If they hit someone, he/she has to go to the prison of the team that had caught him/her. From the prison he/she has the chance to be freed by hitting someone from the opposite team and by sending him to prison. Every time the ball goes over the prison line only the prisoners can take it. The team that kills all the other teams wins. It was a great morning exercise for the body, requiring us to move, run, and teaching us about the team work, too.
Right after the game, we sat on the ground, in a circle. We had a talk about the Erasmus + and EVS programs. We asked questions to both Margarita, the coordinator, and to each other. We also took the opportunity to share our EVS experiences, alongside the experience of the youth exchanges, training courses, and such.
The rest of the time we spent in front of the hotel in the shade of the pine trees, playing a lot of energizing games. The three of us shared the game we had the chance to get familiar with during the festival in Sandanski, called THE IMPULSE game. The aim of the game is to hold each other’s hands while standing in a circle, and send the impulse by squeezing the hand of the person by our side, sending it throughout the whole circle, until it got to the person who started the impulse. The goal is to see how quickly we can send the impulse in the beginning, once we saw each other for the first time, and compare it after a few days of knowing each other. Often, after knowing each other more days, we send the impulse in a shorter time span. The same happened in Tryavna, too.
The afternoon was spent in the park near the Jubox club, where we played a lot of games, this time having the children from Tryavna included. We started the afternoon with the energizer called Tom and Jerry. At the beginning people are divided into couples, holding hands. There is one Jerry and one Tom. Tom’s goal is to touch Jerry. Jerry’s goal is to escape. It could do that by grabbing somebody from the couple’s hand. The moment Jerry grabs one person’s hand, the other person must be released ad they become the new Jerry. If Tom manages to touch Jerry, Tom turns into a Jerry and starts running in order to escape. The game was so interactive, so active and very funny. We noticed that the children enjoyed it a lot.
The next game was a Racing Game. First, we divided each other into teams, by making a line without speaking according to your height. Then we count the people “1, 2, 1, 2”. All the ones are one team. All the twos are another team. Once we made the teams, we had to be divided into couples within the team. The first couple starts and when it finishes the race, it has to go back running to the start, so that the next couple could start. During the whole race the couple has to carry an object (ball, stuffed toy). If the object falls, they must start from the beginning. The next couple can’t start the race before receiving the object.
1st part: The couple has to run with hands and legs tied by rope.
2nd part: One member of the couple is blind and the other one has to guide him in order to cross a field full of obstacles.
3rd part: The couple has to make the body-wheelbarrow
This racing game was the most welcomed by each and every one of the participants, especially the children.
The Game with the Tails was a very interesting game. The participants were again divided into two teams. Each member of the two teams has a small piece of fabric attached to the back part of his/her trousers. They are of different color – pink, for the team A, and black, for the team B. All of us have to run and catch the tail of the other team, while being careful to keep theirs safe. When someone catches your tail, you are eliminated from the game.
The same day, in the evening, we had a traditional dinner at Meraklii Mehana. We were welcomed with a buffet with traditional Bulgarian dishes, especially some typical for the Balkan region, e.g. homemade bread called „Питка“ with cheese and traditional spices, 3 types of „сач“ – meat or vegetables cooked on fire in a ceramic pot, a village salad, „Snejanka” salad, „Керемиди“ – ceramic pots with potatoes, mushrooms and cheese, grilled vegetables, mixed grill, water. We all enjoyed both the typical Bulgarian meals and one more opportunity to spend more time with each other, getting each other better.
Nine o’clock was reserved for the game created by Emmeline Gautheron and Marion Peron (France), called the Detective game (Living Cluedo). Participants are divided into six teams, which are brought into the Bastille (club “Jubox”), where they need to visit different places, communicate with cooks, prisoners, priests, judges, solve puzzles in order to get clues and reveal a story of a murder. The game was quite a difficult one, requiring a lot of focus, thinking, and a team work. Despite it not being that easy, we all enjoyed it immensely.
Oct 2nd was a day planned to be spent outdoors. We packed our bags, bought some food, and headed towards the train station to catch a bus towards the Dryanovo Monastery. The travel in the train was a very peculiar experience for Aniol, Bulgarian trains being completely different from the trains he is used to. We got off the train in the middle of nowhere, and had to follow a small path and then a village sandy road, until we reached the main road. There, after walking for less than five minutes, we crossed the bridge and reached the monastery. It was a quite beautiful place to set our feet in. We took some photos, enjoyed the view, saw wonderful frescoes and icons in the monastery, and headed towards the Bacho Kiro Cave. It was a half an hour tour through the cave, and quite a great experience to be inside. After visiting the cave, filled with the Bulgarian money in coins stuck to the inside walls of the cave (possibly put there for luck), we started climbing the mountain following the signs that led to the fortress. Soon, we reached the fortress, or the remnants of it to be precise, and while taking a rest there, we took advantage of playing more games.
The last night, after dinner we had a party in the hotel’s hall. This closure party had some games like Twister or Limbo and everyone had a lot of fun. Apart from having fun it was our last chance to enjoy of the company of our new friends.
The next morning, we woke up and everything was dissipated, the other volunteers had left, and in a few hours it was our turn. It was a strange feeling, on one side we were happy because we enjoyed a lot the experience, but on the other hand we were a little bit sad, because some of our recent friends were going to leave the country soon, and probably it was our last time together.”
Link to the video from SVM 2, HERE!
And here are some pictures:
Български
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