Let’s Communicate!

In the end of June 25 young people from Belgium, Italy, Spain, Macedonia and Portugal, spent 10 days in Rivoli in a Youth Exchange called let’s communicate, living and learning together about communication through non formal education methods. During these 10 days we took part in a variety of activities related to the topic, but also getting to know each other better and understand each other-s differences and points of view. For example: we went to discover the city of Torino and Rivoli, with in Rivoli a treasure hunt to show off the good parts of it. In Torino we had beside some time for ourselves where some visited the Mole and some the Egyptian museum, a tour through the museum of Radio and Television where we could see an interesting development of communication.

But beside our trips to Informagiovani for a presentation about the event That’s a Mole and how to organize and maintain a project from that size, we also did a lot of activities at the hostel, where we were accompanied by a horse named Pasquale and a dog named Bach. Some of the activities included Atlantis where we had to made a plan to cross a magical bridge by cooperating, while also being faster than the other team. In the evening we played games as Jungle Speed and Cards against Humanity, which were always succeeding in making all of us laugh.

Also, there were intercultural nights in which every country showed some of their national goods, for example the Portugese brought Port while the Italians showed a typical aperitivo! These are just a few examples of the awesome things every country showed on the intercultural nights. The Spanish group made us dance a traditional Catalonian dance and the Macedonians made some homemade Ajvar.

Another part of the exchange consisted of going to Eurolys, which is a life changing experience each year. Eurolys is an event at Colle del Lys to commemorate the fallen partisans who fought for our freedom against Nazism. At Eurolys, the participants had all kind of activities related to the topic as well as an awesome bonfire party in which all the participants danced in a circle. The next day we had trust games and activities while in the night, after Portugal lost the match against Uruguay, we had one last activity left for the day in which the youngsters went up the hill in the night in a torch march to honor the partizans, which gave an amazing view and atmosphere.

After the torch march some participants put a wreath as a sign of respect for the fallen partisans. After the ceremony the chairwoman of the national partisan association had a speech about the fight against racism and for a united Europe. But the world cup played a role for not only the Portugese, also Spain was involved in the worldcup, and the ones that liked football saw together how Spain lost to Russia.

At another day we met the mayor of Rivoli, who gave us the opportunity to ask questions and gave us a small speech about cooperation and the importance of it.

At the last day of the exchange we had an clown workshop in which we learned that it is the fear of shame and failure is what most people keep from going for what they like, while in the evening we  all participated in their national group, while also some alone in a poetry slam in which they all cited their own poem, and same of them even made one alone. One even made a story about the week! When the poetry slam was finished we had a party at IOCentro, but when it closed the party continued at the hostel where we all had a great time, with as hardest part saying goodbye to all!