Training in Stip: what we have done

On 3rd April, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the TC about "Minorities, Integration, Inclusion - Promoting Minority Youth Empowerment in Europe" started.

As usual, the first day was mainly focused on those activities which allow participants to get to know each other and to create the right confidence to share experiences and reflections.

We made some games I had already done in Sarajevo at the on-arrival training for EVS.

One of my favourites is the one where you put all the chairs in two circles, one in the middle and the other one around the first. The chairs look at each other and every people have the chance to talk to one of the participants for a couple of minutes about a specific topic which has been decided by the trainers.

Then everybody must change sit, moving at his/her left or right side, so that everybody meets someone else. In this way you can learn something about almost everybody and it can be the right input to get curious about someone and to get to know him/her better later on, at the coffee break for example!

In the afternoon we went around the city for a sort of "treasure hunt", we were divided into groups and we had to fulfill some tasks..like to take a picture with 6 Macedonians or to do something helpful for the local community!!!

After dinner we had the Intercultural Evening, we presented our countries thanks to some traditional drinks and food.

As I was representing the CnC, I had to present Croatia!! But unluckily I didn't have a lot for people to taste since part of the food and materials remained in Magdalena's luggage when we left at the bus station..

:-(

But never mind! There was so much food (and drinks!) that people didn't miss too much the Croatian one I bet!

The next days we had the NGO fair, where we presented our organization..I was happy with my presentation of Cnc..I wrote a nice flipchart about it and then I explained everything!

Of course during the second day the real activities started! We had a PPP on migration, then some social works, other PPPs, workshops, swapping cultures initiative as a mean of social inclusion and finally projects development.

The presentation I liked more was the one about Macedonia and its minorities as it's been very clear and I had the chance to get an insight in that issue. For instance, I really didn't know about the tough and critic issue Macedonians had with Albanians..it was very interesting. We also watched a Macedonian movie in the night about that, called "Before the rain". It was quite cruel but I liked it cuz we could see how people lived in the countryside, how much they feel the differences between Muslims and Orthodoxes, and so on.

I would like to describe the whole TC in details but I really guess it's going to be too much for the readers so I think to move to the emotional side of it!

Once again this experience gave me the opportunity to get to know interesting people..but it's not only about it! I really felt the group was great! we got close to each other very easily and very quickly! It was in a way similar to the atmosphere at the CMS (and definitely the opposite of the on-arrival training in Sarajevo..) but as long as the group was even more omogeneous I felt the harmony was even stronger!

We spent lots of time (out of the TC hours) talking about our experiences in the youth field, for example I got to know an ex volunteer from Turkey, who participated in the EVS in Portugal..we shared our feelings about it and I really appreciated his advice!

I had a great time, I cannot find the right words to explain that (this is the limit of English..as it's not my mother tongue of course!)

I also met two guys form Sardinia..at first I wasn't very excited..it's always risky to meet other Italians abroad..so many times it happened that I found they were very spoiled and posh..

But this time I got a nice surprise..actually the surprise was for both sides! Mine and theirs..as they had the same fear about me!

We spent a great time together, at the traditional dinner and the night after!

I want to mention also the trainers..Andrijana from Macedonia and two crazy Polish guys from England..Max and Jarek! well done everybody!
Thanks for these beautiful days and thanks for all those funny, useful, interesting activities we did altogether!