Our second LARP

 

In the morning we started with more workshops connected with the topic of our youth exchange. One of our taks was to build a tower using only materials that we received. Each group had some obstacles that were making this task more difficult. For example in one group there were people who couldn't use one of their abilities: speaking, hearing, seeing or moving. Thanks to this we could understand better the difficulties faced by people with disabilities and also learn to cooperate.

Later it was time prepare for the next theater game. The plot was set in the middle ages so we needed to change the rooms and corridor into castle, forest and the village. It was a lot of fun! 

At the same time we were receiving info about our characters, their description and their tasks in the game. Everyone had time to prepare costumes that would change them into a knight, court lady, baker... and more.

Our game lasted around two hours and fortunately it ended happily for the kingdom:)  

Sharing traditions

 

The last day of October is celebrated in a lot of countries as Halloween. But is it the same in Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland?

Today we had a chance to discuss more about the traditions connected with Halloween and All Saint's Day in our countries. 

We discovered that we are not so different and we have similar customs.

In the evening we also had Halloween party and we could try snacks from Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania.

Going deeper into the topic

 

The main topic of our youth exchange is connected with social exclusion and the whole day was dedicated to this topic.

Before lunch we had a workshop during which we could answer the questions:

👉Has it ever happened in your life that you were not accepted by the group?

👉What are our feelings when we are accepted and when we are rejected?

👉Can we achieve more being a harmonious group than a group in which there are divisions and conflicts?

👉Why there are conflicts in groups?

Later we were thinking what should be done to solve the problem of social exclusion in our countries.

We can see social exclusion for example in the class when a new person has trouble with making contact with other people. To help them, we can start a conversation, ask them about their interests or organize integrational meetings with the class. - Polish group

People with disabilities are discriminated too. To solve this problem, we should not isolate them from us, if necessary, lend a helping hand. In addition, it is important to create a comfortable environment for them, for example: renovate elevators, install landing tracks near the stairs, provide suitable jobs, organize various creative activities. - Lithuanian group

People should cooperate together even when they are different nationalities, they don’t have same religion or they don’t have same skin color... One of methods that can help us with this problem is called snow ball method. - Slovak group

In the afternoon we participated in theater workshops and we were making decorations for our first theater game on the topic of social exclusion.

Visiting Zamość and Lublin

 

After breakfast we went to the conference room where we got divided into two teams. We got the information that during today's trip we will have some tasks to do. 

Each group received envelopes with the names 'Zamość' and 'Lublin' written on them. These are the names of the cities we were going to visit and play the city game there.

We arrived in Zamość after 12 am and our first task was to find the stairs to the Town Hall, where vice mayor of Zamość was going to meet with us. Both groups managed to find the stairs and we could say a few words about our project to the vice mayor. 

After that groups split and went to fulfill other tasks which were: go to the city walls to shoot with the cannon, take a group picture in the park, find the statue, and... go for lunch;)

We ate lunch together in Zamość and after that we went to Lublin to do another tasks. The most difficult one was to find 'czarcia łapa' (a devil's hand), because there are a few of them in Lublin. It is also the name of the legend connected with the city. 

All groups did their jobs very well and we could go back to Motycz Leśny for a dinner.

Our youth exchange has just started!

 

Yesterday we came to Motycz Leśny with a lot of expectations and fears regarding this project. At first, everyone was a bit shy but after the first activities we already felt that this 10 days meeting will be a great adventure!

Today we had a lot of fun activities that allowed us to know each other better. We played a lot of integration and teambuilding games and also learned how to juggle! 

All the activities were prepared in such way that we had the opportunity to talk with participants from all 3 countries, so we had to communicate in English. It was challenging but thanks to that we discovered it's not so difficult to understand each other, even if our mother tongues are so different.

Our youth exchange begins in one week

There is only one week left for the youth exchange. Meanwhile, let's see the video made during the preparatory visit:

Preparatory visit for the youth exchange

 

On 3-5.10.2021 a preparatory visit for the international youth exchange entitled 'LARP it Up' took place. In 3 weeks, young people from Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia will come to us to play theater together for 10 days. We will also talk about social exclusion and we will try to ensure that, apart from our group, other members of our local communities also talk about the problem of exclusion.

Group leaders and youth representatives participated in the preparatory visit. We discussed the division of responsibilities, proper securing of activities in the age of a pandemic and logistics aspects.

Preparatory meeting was really helpful, I learned a lot of things, and it will definitely be easier to work after two weeks when all students meet together. - says Kotryna, a young leader from Lithuania.

In the HEureka Generator group there will be students from our partner schools: Norwid Secondary School from Krasnystaw, Słowacki Elementary School from Małochwiej Duży and young members of our organization.