Europa Zmienia Warszawę

Hello everyone!

On Friday 4th of July we were cooperating with our brother organization from Warsaw in the event “Europa Zmienia Warszawę” aka, Europe is changing Warsaw! Oranized by Europe Direct. The day went really good, as expected we all were there on time and started to prepare the different things we wanted to do with children as well as organizing the information for who wanted to know about the event. It took place in Warsaw’s Castle square, and the weather would have been great if it wasn’t for the strong wind that happens sometimes and made the things a bit harder to do.

During the event we had different traditional games for the group of children that were coming during the day, the most popular among there were “ciupy” aka stones, “podwórkowe bierki” or pick up the sticks and giant darts in the ground.

The two things that the children enjoy the most, and really wanted to participate in them were the origami, where we were making flowers, frogs, boats and planes, and the section of eco-recycling where used toilet papper rolls were being used to créate different character or even hats, this was one the most funniest part of the event and everyone were enjoying and creating different things, the good part of it is how the imagination of the kids flow and you start to learn a lot from them.

On top of everything we had face painting, while the most demanding design was the mask of spiderman also a lot of other things like butterflys, dogs or cats, as well as flags were painted in the face of the children who were brave enough to let their skin in our hands!

Last but not the least we were using used t-shirts to makeamazing and colorful bracelets for all our guests, on the sad note of the day it was that during around one hour and a half, not many people were coming to the place and we had a bit boring time, as when we are doing something with the kids the only thing that you get from them and that its enough for all the energy you use during the day its their smile and their sincerity, its hard to see any sign of malice in them, and it makes you feel really good with yourself. We also had some quiz games about the different countries of Europe.

As a personal opinion of this guy who is writting this it was a great day, and I really enjoyed it, I would do it anytime and I hope that everyone who were there, the organizators, the volunteers and the children were really enjoying the event! It was really nice to see them smiling while you were working with them and their desire to stay more time with us.

Take care.

Hugo.

Working Sunday, or a day in Płococholandia

To be honest, work with children from primary school in Płocochowo is always pleasure for me. We’ve been there already 2 times with presentations about Russia and Hungary and every time their eyes were full of curiosity. They are truly thankful audience! And this Sunday after two days of raining the sun appeared and I that meant that this day will be bright and joyful, despite of the fact it was a working Sunday…

Płococholandia is a name of an annual charity event that have been running in Płocochowo already 6 years. Funds that collected from it go for school’s need, this year it’s re-equipments of classes. There were two part of the event: first one was a concert of local musical and dancing collectives, in the second one there were a fair, lottery and different workshops.

After welcoming speech of a director, the concert had started. For me the most catchy performance was from SWAG, a dancing school from Pułtusk. 

They were inflammatory and bright! And of course I will never forget a performance about a train going from a valley of fantasy to a country of fairytales because a song from it was playing in my head all the day long ;-)

In the middle of the concert Sylwia called Zsófi, Kien and me to set our own stand. After testing the idea of creative recycling with children and youth, we decided that it works pretty well and had chosen the topic as a main idea of our stand for Płococholandia. But in the very beginning making owls out of toilet paper rolls and pigs out of empty plastic bottles was not popular among kid, but…our success had started when we suggested them face painting. Yes, it’s really funny, but it had worked as a virus advertisement! Children were staying in a line waiting and had started to be curious how to make all of these funny things. 

Some time later they were coming with friends and parents (by the way, the last were wondering that we make it for free). Personally thanks for Kien who had appeared as a talented painter. British flags are seem to be his specialization, children were asking for them again and again! That’s great that co-working opens people’s skill and let you know people better. Unfortunately, because of the fact that our stand was placing on the grass, we could not run a race of origami frogs that Kien also could teach children.

In the end of the day I realized that Płococholandia had come to the end very soon. I was tired, but happy. I saw smiley faces of children going home and waving goodbye. It seems they had fun with us and if they forget how to make an owl out of toilet paper roll, they will never forget how British flag looks like. And I hope they will not forget Vietnamese, Hungarian and Russian volunteers! 

P.S. big big thanks for Sylwia, Zsófi, Kien for a great working Sunday! 

Have a nice day,

Daria

Pułtusk supports Earth Day!

22^nd of April was the Earth Day. I think most of you heard about this worldwide annual event that aims to raise awareness about environmental protection. Anyway, small historical note will not be out of place. So, according to web-site of Earth Day Network, this action has started in 1970 with a grassroots demonstration and today it’s a huge network that unite 22 000 of participants in 192 countries of the World. The most common practice of celebration is to plant new trees and wildflowers for Earth Day. But of course there are plenty of other ways to mark this event, for example educational and handicraft workshops or even garage fairs.

We left the right of tree-planting for a local Forest Service and decided to run an eco-workshop in Liceum. By general consent we agreed that our topic is recycling and reusing. The main reason is that some time ago we discovered that our houses are full of plastic bottles and newspapers and it was great to know that Internet is full of great recycling ideas as well! Inspired by really talented masters of creative recycling  we started working on our own. 

When we met our students I think they were a bit confuse because most of them were boys (and as well-known many boys are not eager to do handicrafts), but later they found it funny and easily dropped into work. As a planned result we should get a coaster, but of course it takes more time then we had. But anyway I think all of students can be proud of themselves!  

Links of works that for sure inspire you to start recycling of bottles and newspapers that you meet on your way (at least I liked them so much that I had this feeling ;-):
Beauty Harmony Life
DesignRuls
Best out of waste.

Have a nice day and take care of our planet,
 
Daria


P.S. by the way, number of places in workcamps are reducing with every each day! Hurry up or you will waste your chance to spend unforgettable holidays! Go to our web-site to choose a workcamp of your dream!