Laimingas - a true friend from Africa!

One day we had the “use of materials” session where the participants built some instruments for themselves. As there was excess of materials, will and inspiration, an elephant was built out of plastic bottles and newspapers and painted blue! An real African elephant was born in amarante!

The elephant was the new dearest friend of Greta, a lLthuanian girl, who named the elephant Laimingas. He became a dear dear friend to all of the participants and he was taken along to everywhere. In the beginning he was really weak – like a real baby elephant! But we took him to Porto where he opened his eyes for the first time! It was amazing! The elephant got stronger and stronger by every step he took. Soon he was already having some coffee and beer, listening to some music and eating sandwishes! He discovered Porto with the participants, took part in the performances on the streets, went for a walk on riverside, sang along while others were singing and playing some tunes…..and finally he even got his first restaurant dinner!

As we saw how fabulous elephant is and how dear to the participants we decided to take pictures of his first “everything” and make a movie. It’s unbelievable how the participants took care of him! He was always everywhere, treated as one of us! And when the participants lost (forgot) some promotional material to porto streets, then no one forgot about Laimingas!

During the last days in Amarante, our elephant who had grown, learnt and experienced a lot meanwhile, had his first surgery – the participants decided to make him even stronger and more beautiful!

At the end of the training course we, trainers and i, decided that laimingas will stay in Amarante till august. Oh yeah, did i already mention that he will come on the train with us? Yes, that’s true. Don’t laugh. He’s one of us now and ready for the adventure! But you know what happened when no one was in Amarante anymore? Laimingas travelled to Faro itself! He’s already so independent that is able to travel himself (ok, the Portuguese participants took him along to Faro) and meet new people – 30 portuguese youngsters with whom he already performed as well!

I’m already looking forward what Laimingas will do next….

Taking action - improvisation, image theatre, use of materials

The third day was perfect to start taking action. As the participants already had an idea what is street animation, it was the final time to get into action. First the workshops "working with body" - improvisation and image theatre! Later "use of materials" - performing and transforming!The participants built their own performing materials - juggling balls, hats, etc. Basically they transformed all the material available into something that can be used on the streets!

After dinner we had the video night where everyone could present some short videos they know about street animation to give examples, show their organisation's and it's activities videos and a lot more. The day finished with the activity "discoverying Amarante by night..."

What is street animation?

Sunday started with a session about active participation / citizenship. One one of our aims is to promote active citizenship and show the youngsters that even the smallest step matters. The morning session was full of different activities. The afternoon was dedicated to street animation - what it is, what are its elements, what is its aim and how can it be used for active participation. As usual the concept of street animation is quite broad and was varied amongst the participants Who thought it was music on the street, who thought it was juggling and circus, who thought it was graffiti, who thought it was whatever one can do one the streets. In reality basically everything can be street animation. The end result of animation should be social change – an impact on the community where the animation is implemented!The evening was filled with an activity called "The dark side of Animation". Our trainers team made a show in the park. They created a story about animation performing themselves in the woods and involving the participants into the story. there were story telling, sounds, fire, legends and a lot more. finally crazy Brais, one of the trainers, jumped into the freezing river and vanished....

Let's get into....

The following day (day 1st) was dedicated to introduction. In the morning we started with a brief intro of YEU, the Youth in Action (YiA) programme, the training and overall project of the train, the trainers team and the programme. After that we moved on to the expectations, fears and contributions activity where the participants had to put down what they expect from the training course, what are their fears and what kind of contribution they can make to the organisation of the training course.
After that started the City Discovery which aim was to get to know Amarante and get to know each other through teamwork. The participants were divided into different groups, each one of them with a different task. Of course, it was like the law of Murphy - it started raining....although we equiped the participants with umbrellas, soon the sun came out again and all our problems solved.

The idea of city discovery was to send the participants into the town to find answers to different questions and solutions to various tasks. For example they had to take a picture with the policemen and taste some typical food / drinks of Portugal.After the lunch break begun the funniest part of the day. The participants had to present their results of their discoveries - a short presentation of their group members, show visuals of their findings and explain their task. We laughed a lot because one presentation was more crazy than other. One of them was even a complete non sense video where the participants did an interview with the river. Who wouldn't laugh at a question - are you planning to get married? Of course the river answered......yes (complete silence is considered to be yes!).

Our host Miguel attended the session and he had a good laugh as well. He was amaged how everyone went to the police office to have a picture with some police officers. He was quite sure that the following days the policemen will come to ask him what was going on. Amarante is a small city so everyone knows everyone.After that we had the train session which aim was to explain the participants the overall flow of the project "InterActiveTrain - Get in and Gain". We splited the participants into groups and gave them some slips with short sentences which they had to put into chronical order. After that I made some corrections where necessary and we had a modified action plan! Later on some group building and other minor activities.

After lunch we had Anima-NGOs session in order to introduce the countries and organisations! Had loads of fun though most of the participants were quite tired...

Arrivals, arrivals, arrivals

The trainers and support members arrived in Amarante already a few days before the start of the training in order to make the final decisions about the TC. We had 5 trainers and 2 support members working on the training.

The first participants, Italians, arrived in the evening of April 1^st. Such a lovely group. Although they met for the first time all together in the airport they seemed like a punch of friends. When arriving their first questions was obviously – when are others arriving? Unfortunately I had to disappoint them while saying that tomorrow evening. Still they found something to do for them – first discovering Amarante by night and the next day making the advertisement for the window of Casa de Juventud. It’s a custom of CJ to put an enormous poster on the main window so that everyone else could see what’s happening. The Italians took their job extremely seriously – put on some tunes and started painting, cutting, inventing. At one point the trainers went in and came back with a saying – we should be motivating and inspiring them, not the other way around! But it was true – the deep commitment and feeling was incredible!

Late at night arrived others. First the Lithuanians who were exhausted after their day in Lisbon and almost a 5 hour trip from Lisbon to Amarante. And then started the confusion. First called the Romanians from the airport of Porto saying that their luggage is lost and the are not able to catch the last bus. I advised them to push the airport personnel as much as possible so that maybe they still have a chance to catch the bus. Unfortunately not. Finally they reached Amarante around midnight and without any luggage. They were concerned, upset and tired as one can be after such a journey. And then called the Polish who also were not able to catch the last bus. They were in Porto without any clue how to get to Amarante. Finally we managed to order them a taxi and they arrived a bit after midnight. Only the two Portuguese managed to arrive without any confusion. But nevertheless, we were happy that they arrived safe and sound, some complications are more than normal while taking the routes they had to.

From Amarante with love

Amar is the portuguese verb to love, and it is perhaps fitting that it should be the first part of the name of this attractive town. A settlement since the 4th century BC, Amarante is situated in the rich agricultural lands of the Minho region, the northern section of the country which is responsible for the grapes of the vinho verde, the young semi-sparkling ‘green’ wine unique to portugal. The River Tâmega runs through the town and crossing this waterway is a striking arched bridge, the Ponte São Gonçalo. it is reputed to have helped local heroes fend off a french attack in the early 19th century. Nowadays cafes and restaurants make the most of their riverside location.

Buried in the chapel of a church and monastery now bearing his name, São Gonçalo is the saint most strongly attached to the town. born here in the 1100s, his ability to heal the sick earned him his special status. The granite used to build these religious edifices in the 16th century is of an unusual hue, and it glows a warm ochre in the light of the setting sun, the cloister of the church being particularly pretty. Indeed the whole town has a magical fairytale feel to it, with elegant turreted buildings and trees drooping into the river. the annual festivities which take place in early June are known as the festas de são gonçalo, and perhaps similarly connected to the romantic-sounding name, one of the traditions of this local celebration is to give a phallus-shaped cake to the one you desire!
In my opinion Amarante is a lovely small city with its 61 000 inhabitants. Love that they have here mountains, river, fresh air, city full of culture and beautiful architecture, you can go everywhere on foot if you're up to going up and down the hills, etc. the city is surrounded by mountains and vineyards.

Training course on street animation launched

On Saturday, April 2nd started the training course "Street Animation as a tool for local actions" which is a part of the overall project "InterActiveTrain - Get in and Gain".

The training course will take place in Portugal, Amarante from April 3rd till April 10th (excluding travel days). During this week 25 youngsters from Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Italy and Romania will gather together in order to learn animation techniques, exchange ideas and experience, get to know each other cultures, traditions and tabus and a lot more.
Focusing on street animation as a tool for local actions, the training course intends to provide the participants with the necessary competencies to plan, implement and evaluate activities that use street animation as a tool of creative participation in civil society. Based on non-formal education methodology it will put the participants in contact with creative and dynamic methods of performative arts and street animation in order to explore it as a tool for social intervention and by providing an attractive and creative approach to increase the active participation. We believe that after the training course the participants will be able to run street actions in their communities, that will allow other youngsters to get involved in the civil society representing more efective democratic participation.
The training course will be supported by 5 trainers with lots of experience and knowledge on the field and organizers.

Stay up to date with the training course and it's process here...

Triin