Though it's over it's just a beginning

the last day was intense. we started the morning with the evaluation session – personal and group evaluation of the training. the participants took it really seriously and gave us some good feedback. in addition, starting from the morning the participants were quite emotional – crying and tissues were a part of our final day! this shows how well the participants got along and how much they fell in love with each other! honestly, it has been one of the best groups i’ve met as there were no problems between the participants, everyone got along and took care of each other! they even managed to share the outdoor key when they went out – one of them always came and let those in who wanted to go back to the hostel earlier! and the free time or breaks they had, they spent together singing and playing the guitar! it was absolutely amazing. it seemed like they’re a real family already….

after lunch started brainstorming. we asked the participants to divide themselves into national groups and go over their local activities which should take place between May-July in all our partner countries. they had planned some draft activities before the training, now it was the time to make adjustments adding street animation elements if they wanted to and share their ideas. the session was connected with project management session as they had to plan their activities by answering the most basic and important questions – what are they planning, what is the aim, when and where the activities take place, who is the target group, who is gonna carry out the activities, what they need to carry them out, how they’re gonna promote, where they’re gonna promote, what kind of impact they see, etc.

i’m glad that the participants are excited to carry out their ideas and that we have so many different ones though the activities have some joint features. there are many partners who would like to organise something connected with environment and recycling. as it seems it’s one of the nowadays most important activity – how to use all that stuff we have in our homes in an useful way? some of the participants are preparing some workshops about street animation in their local communities, some of them are making performances in a cube, some of them are attending cycling event to promote the train and public transport, etc. when we have the finals of the local activities I’m gonna let you know exactly what you can see, where you can attend and when!

the session was continued with the follow up – some practicalities I needed to go through before the participants departure. and last but not least – the final activity and closure in the yard where the participants wrote their wishes into flowers and put them to the fountain so that they could open over there….

the participants got more sad, more tears, more tissues as the training was about to find an end….but it’s just the beginning of an endless friendship and an awesome project!