„Choose the right decision” – waiting for this occasion so long, but it was worth it.
“Choose the right decision” is an international youth exchange involving young people and leaders from three countries: France, Spain and Poland. An exchange occurred in Bydgoszcz from 23rd of June till 1st of July. It has been realized thanks to the “Youth in Action” program and with the help of the “Wiatrak” Foundation and especially Meia, thanks to her huge support we succesfully got through the difficulties and nuances of the application and the final report.
Our main accommodation was in Kuyavian–Pomeranian Center of Ecological Education in Myślęcinek park. Here we were sleeping, eating and here were carried out most of our workshops. Surely, we also had some expenditures. To some of them we can include visitation in Archeological Museum in Biskupin. There we saw how people lived 2000 years ago. Coming back to these times, we have produced self-manufactured jewelry with wire, we have been doing archery, we have ridden on horses, but the biggest interest aroused by lesson of dishes production from clay. Newly made works were carefully packed and were taken with us. The going by narrow–gauge train and then visiting its museum in Venice finished the tour in this day.
Another interesting event was staying at the scout's camp in Pólko nearby Zalew Koronowski. Inorder to make it more extraordinary we were sleeping in tents. However, the trip to Pólko was not so easy… We have had “destroyed” bus, and the rest of travel was made by foot. Finally in scout's camp we have obtained our tents and camp-beds, then we've done a workshop focusing on “building a tower”. At the end of the day the bonfire and singing songs till morning made our time more pleasing. However, the greatest challenge for all of us was coming morning, when unannounced alarm was switched on by polish girls. Not all faces were nicely presented and enthusiastic to work. Each of three groups had received a map and had to find out hidden messages in the forest. Thefollowing tasks have had to be done: shooting with the air gun, place a figure of seven people so that only five legs and four hands are touching the ground, move the entire group through a web of ropes made of, overcome swamp together, provide first aid to injured person, light fire with flint and make a triangle on the water with canoes. In this way we wanted to present that taking common decision and group work in a stressful situation is much more challenging than usually. Why? After a night at the bonfire, in the morning someone wakes you up furiously howling siren, you do not have time to wash, do not get nothing to eat, it is cold, you are extremely tired, sleepy, angry and then for addition you will have to go into the forest to perform some tasks. Think how you would feel in that situation…
But after returning the deserved meal and time to relax was waiting for us – canoes, beach andlazing.
A wonderful way to learn about other cultures and stereotypes about our country were national intercultural evenings. We learned the Spanish dances, tasted French cuisine, visited Poland, along with the fan, who had come for the European Championship in football.
Our guests can also find out what the Polish cuisine is and thanks to Jutrzenka and Inpol companies also tasted the sweet delights.
It is impossible not to mention about the Great Bottle Race held in connection with the annual Water Festival, ""Ster na Bydgoszcz"" in which our youth exchange team was also taking part in – David and Maria (Spain), Emilie and Jason (France) and Michal and Agata (Poland). The rest of the participants strongly cheering for the international ""boat"", called the Green Dragon. Moreover, we also had an opportunity to sail on the world's largest boat built of 5.454 plastic bottles, which the builders (we), have established two days earlier, the new Guinness World Record. Small gifts funded by the City of Bydgoszcz and Unilever have been a nice addition.
Another interesting day was the meeting with young people in High School number 6 in Bydgoszcz. During the meeting we presented the ""Youth in Action"" program, inviting at the same time young people to actively participate in workshops presented by us and answering questions later. Completely different challenge proved to be a “City Game” during which participants had to perform rather unusual tasks: take a picture of someone on horseback, to find a particular person in the City Hall, to find a car with the sum of digits 29 of the registration numbers, buy Grzesiek not knowing what it is. It was another example of teamwork and joint decision-making skills.
And that is, the decision-making processes and their consequences were the main topic of our exchange. The decisions that we all take every day can affect us here and now, but also on other, and perhaps later. So remember to take common decisions, they should be well thought out.
And finally, I would like very much to thank all my group - Marta, Karolina, Ewa, Agata, Paulina, Paweł, Mikołaj, Michał and especially Helena for their great involvement to the preparation of and during the exchange.
Many thanks to Jurek for designing a great logo in our exchange and Małgorzata for transport assistance. And as usually I do, I give a giant kiss for my wife, who relieves me from the daily routine helped me realize this project.
I hope that the participants have provided many unforgettable moments, they will remember us for a long time and sometimes remind about us and maybe they would like come back here once J
""Choose the right decision"" - we are organizing this exchange we made the right decision.
And what will be your next decision?
Project co-funded by
