Lucrare Traditie

Last 19th April I went to the library to see a workshop where they make traditional Romanian shirts.

They neet a camera to record it, so I decided to go, discover new traditions and improve my skills with the camera. I recorded everything and also I took some photos.

It was great, I felt like I worked like profesional, staying there, behind the camera, listening and waching what they were doing.

 Non formal activities with students

The day 19th of April. We made activities with 2 groups of students:

1. First Group (9 years)
2. Second Group (10 years)

During 2 hours, we made activities to work social abilites (to work in groups, self-discovery, recreation activities, to recognise the feelings).

For example:

Do we know how to count?

The student will make a circle.They have to count from 1 to 20 but they can not order for saying the numbers.And they have to count between all of them until 20.If any of them repeat a number they start from the beginning.And the numbers should be counted in order.

The order of birthdays

We make a line and the students try to get in order in this line according to their birthdays from youngest to the oldest without speaking and only with signs.

Find Out The Leader

We have one person outside and choose a leader.The leader does a few actions such as applauding,etc..All the other imitates what he or she does and the person who was outside before tries to guess who is the leader.

Sit down/Stand Up 

Somebody says a characteristic.(for example:Who has ever traveled by a plane?)All students who complete this character stands up.A few times we repeat different characteristics and do the same.

Fruit salad

Form a circle of chairs that is one chair fewer than a total number of players. Nominate a player to be 'inside', that player stands in the centre of the circle. Divide all players into three groups of fruit by going around the circle and naming them either apple, orange or pear. The player who is 'inside', calls the name of a fruit. If he calls out apples, everyone who is that fruit must get up quickly and change places. Players who are not apples remain seated. The person who is 'inside' tries to sit in an empty spot whenever players swap positions. If they manage to sit in a chair, the player not sitting in a chair is then 'inside'.The person in the middle can also call 'fruit salad' and everyone who is seated has to change spots.

Express feelings with numbers:

They are in couples, face to face, and they have to express feelings with out speak, only using the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
In one line they use 1, 2, 3. And in the other line they use 4, 5, 6.

Presentation in Constantin Brancoveanu University

The 18th of April, our group and the group "Go for Green" went to Constantin Brancoveanu University to make a presentation about our countries (Spain, Germany, Turkey and Poland) and also about our Projects (Discovering the Rural Traditions Through Storytelling and GO for GREEN ). 

We went to the University with Sergiu Mir that made a presentation about Eramus + and help us to make our presentations.

Enviroment workshop

In 14th of April on Thursday we took part in an activity together with our other volunteer friends from the project ‘Go For Green’ in Scoala Gimnaziala ‘Take Ionescu’ about upon the environment regarding to the pollution.

In the activity students of 5th grade showed participation.We started first introducing them about generally who we are and what we are doing.After some energizing activities which was also for them to introduce themselves we started showing some presentations that had been prepared beforehand.These presentations showed important details of pollution and recycling and the effect of these on the environment in daily life.

After presentations, we delivered each students papers,asked them to draw their hands and write inside with one word what environment means them.By writing different words such as the nature,the sea,animals etc. and explaining the results the children had the opportunity to use their creativity.

By the following activities of workshop we expressed more about what recyling really is and what people can do about this to preserve more the environment.In the end of the workshop the students expressed their pleasure with the activity since it was a good opportunity for them to have new knowledges together with people from other countries.

Cleaning in the museum

Following the activities such as storytelling days, for the next two weeks we started other activities in the village museum.

In the first of these days we gathered all together in the library of the museum. We started collecting information about the museum regarding especially to the history and the culture of the country.

We also started to put these resources into order to translate to our languages and to use for media campaign for the following days. This was a chance for us to spend an informative day with a lot of new knowledges.

After that we started cleaning activities to help in the museum. 
We collected garbages from around the museum and take some branches to clean the trees around.

Also we went by cart with horses and experiment a new way to see the museum.

Then we went to the old school part of the museum with our partners from "Go for Green" and we cleaned the windows of all the building and some staff inside.

Continue with the cleaning work we collecting more bushes, but this time with the help of our colleagues from "Go for Green".

All of these activities were a great chance for us to experience the life of the village and gave some ideas about how people lived in the past.

Centrul de Ingrijire si asistenta Bistrita

The wednesday 6th of April, we visited "Centrul pentru Persoane Vârstnice Bistriţa şi Centrul de Îngrijire şi Asistenţă Bistriţa". This center is in Costeşti.

We went to the center with: Zenovia Zamfir , who started with the project ''Iubirea de aproapele meu'' ,Tatiana Mărcoianu, singer of traditional music, Marinela Neagu, who participed in "Liga Femeilor Creştin Ortodoxe din Vâlcea",Antoanela Enăcache from the Association ''Zâmbete Colorate'', the writer Marian Bărăscu , president of the cultural association ”Rusidava”,in Drăgășani, the plastic artist Paul Stănişor from the cultural association ''Anton Pann'', and we volunteers from Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Georgeta Mureanu,our coordinator and Cătălin Ştefan Carcadia.

We visited the center with the coordinator and the admnistrator: Daniela Coca and Mariana Persu.

And we had the oportunity to visit the special school from the children with disabilities.

After we ate in the Mănăstirea Bistrița very good Romanian traditional food: Sarmale and soup.

To finish the visiting, we went to the Mănăstirea Arnota, to visit the Monastery and we saw the mountains and the amazing views.

Thanks for this very interesting day!

Once upon a time II


Last week we went to the library and we shared some storytelling from Portugal, Spain and Turkey as much as the children listened to us. Then they told stories from Romania for us to know.

It was a funny and interesting time which the legends and stories from differents parts of the world came alive with magic.

Here you have the first story, a clasic legend about Romanian sea:

The legend of the Black sea

Once upon a time it was a wonderful princess. She was an only child and she lived with her father.

When she was 11 years old, his father died and she was crying in her father’s grave. The surrounding sounds were shocking because, I forgot to say, she was living in a boundless desert.

She was crying and she was sighing, but each tear when touching the cold rock on the grave, is tenfold in size.

And like that, the girl was crying three months. Around her was forming a big sea. Then she became a mermaid in order not to drown.

The sea was bigger and bigger…After a few years, a lot of tourists were coming.

The man was coming and they were bathing in those tears and they were enjoying in the waves, because every time when the princess sighed, a new wave was forming.

This is the legend of the Black Sea, called like this because the princess was very sad.

After this story I will tell you another legend from Portugal which also is known in Romania, a salted storytelling:

The salt

Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters.
One day, he wanted to know if they love him, so he asked each of them:
How much do you love me?

The elder replied: “I love my father more than the sunlight.”
The middle replied: “I love my father more than myself.”
The younger replied: “I love my father as the food loves the salt.”

The King thought that the younger daughter didn´t love him, therefore he expelled her from the castel and the princess wandered alone in the world. Then she found a Castle and offered to be a cook there.

One day came to the table a delicious cake. When the king cut the cake, he found inside a beautiful and valuable ring and he asked all the court ladies to whom belonged that ring.
All the ladies tried the ring but it doesn't fit in their fingers,so the king called the cook.
Only the cook's finger fits.

When the prince saw her enter the dining room, immediately fell in love with her and the prince asked the princess' hand in marriage.
Happy, the princess accepted, but asked the prince to let her prepare the food on their wedding day.
For the wedding were invited all the nearby kingdoms´s Kings.
Even the princess´ father was invited, without knowing that it was her daughter´s marriage.

The Princess prepared delicious dishes, but in his father's food purposely didn´t put salt.
Everyone was delighted with the food, but the princess´ father wasn´t eat nothing.
The price´s father asked him why he didn't eat. He explained that his food wasn't tasty. It had no salt.
The king (Prince's father) pretending be angry, called the cook to explain why she hadn´t put salt in the King´s food.

When the princess arrived, his father immediately recognized her.
The princess said: “Do you see my father how much I love you? Salt is very important. Without it, the food has no taste.”

The King apologize her for not having realized how much he was loved by her and the princess forgave his father.
In the end they all lived happily ever after.

To continue with these stories, let's tell a story which combine the sea and the salt:

The legend of the salted sea

In the beginning, the water of the sea was sweet like the water of the rivers. The humans were traveling a lot of kilometers to find food, since the food didn’t have good taste. For this reason the humans searched for new delicious or new condiments that made their foods more appetizing.

One of these men arrived with his boat, this man was the captain,in one island surrounded for tones and tones of strange and stranger white sand. He discovered this sand had incredible properties, as this was good to preserve meats and to get better taste. So this man decided to call that sand “salt” and who traveled around the world to sellsalt in each place that he crossed.

In one of this travels, he arrived in Galicia and in this place he met Olaia, a beautiful woman who was the daughter of old fisherman. He felt in love with her and got married, but when he traveled to sell salt, one of the most powerful lords from Galicia, who lived in a castle near to the sea, tried to seduce her with a lot of presents and nice words. But Olaia stayed devoted with her love, the lord kidnapped Olaia and kept her in hir castle.

When the marine returned cannot do nothing to free Olaia, and with a lot of sadness continued his travel around the world in order to get more money to make an army and recover his love. But when he returned to Galicia, he found Olaia with freedom. Olaia told him that the sea helped her, destroying the castle, killing the lord and putting free Olaia. The Ship’s captain, grateful, gave to the sea the salt’s island to improve the flavor of their waters. And for that reason now the water of the sea is salted.

To finish let's tell a story supernatural, with magic beauty:

The Grey Wolf

The legend is focused on the character of the greatest Turkish emperor who had two daughters that were renowned for their beauty. Because of their beautiful appearance it was believed that only humans with supernatural powers could take the emperor’s daughters in wedlock. They started to assume that these women were not created for the purpose of getting married to human beings. As their father, the emperor was very concerned with their safety and made all possible preparations to ensure his daughters were kept away from the masses. He ordered the construction of a massive tower in a faraway place that had not been inhabited by any human beings till then and ordered his two daughters to be locked up in this tower until the appropriate time.

Following this, the emperor occupied himself with intense prayers to God for providing the solution to this problem. According to the legend the deity whom the emperor prayed to, descended down to earth and took the form of a grey wolf. He then took one of the daughters of the emperor in marriage and nine children were born out of this wedlock. The nine children were given the title of “Oguz” which meant a goodhearted descent. Their voices were like that of a wolf.

The legend continues to narrate that all of the nine children carried with them the spirit of the grey wolf. With the passage of time their population grew because of which the Turkish people acquired some characteristics of the grey wolf. This includes virtues like courage, strength and agility.