Once upon a time I

In the 22nd of March we had an activity in the library about the Storytelling Day which is called Once Upon a Time.

In the activity,students from grades of 4th,5th and 6th grades of primary school participated in different sessions each of which took one hour.

After a small game of name introduction which is also for energizing we both the volunteers and the students all started to read our stories to each other which we had prepared before in both English and Romanian languages and comment on them.These include many stories in different subjects whether in a teaching way or in a legend way.

These sessions of workshops have given chance students to learn about the storytelling method as well as about the importance of it regarding to share information in this method.By doing some parts of reading in our own native languages as international volunteers we also got the opportunity to raise more awareness towards different cultures.Apart from that by doing activities such as the one which is called ‘magical microphone’ which is sort of a game in which one person starts to create a story and the others one by one continues that each one in a specific amount of time the students improved their capacity of creativity.

Photography exhibition in the museum

Last Wednesday we went to the museum where we work for a photographic exhibition about the traditions and places in Oltenia.

One of the photos which made me feel curious was this one. When I saw, I only wanted to know what I was seeing. In this photo, the women are making Easter eggs. They are putting the eggs inside the socks with some leaves and then introducing in water colors to have pretty designs.

Also, we had an interview for TV, speaking about the cultural differences in our countries and how we live here.

After that, we joined a lunch with the museum's workers and some other people.
We were talking and enjoying some hours.

Centrul Maciuca

In 14th of March,we,as the volunteers took part in a visit to the Neurological and Psychotherapy Center of Maciuca in a project called ‘’Love of Neighbour (Iubirea de Aproapele Meu)’’organized by Zenovia Zamfir.

Visitors including folk music  and joyful moments.Visitors were Marinela Neagu,from the Women League of Orthodox Christian Valcea(Liga Femeilor Creştin-Ortodoxe Valcea,the professor Nicolae Dinescu,Tatiana Marcoianu,folk singer,Patricia Apostolescu,a volunteer in the Association of Colourded Smiles and Paul Stanisor,writer.

Apart from them also Luminita Tanase,the principal of Maciuca High School,Nicolae Vaduva,the mayor of Maciuca,and Viorel Rafaria,the deputy have participated.

The center’s director Gabriel Smarandoui thanked the guests for gifts and for having offered those beautiful moments together with the employees of the institution.

Forum Theatre Training

In 8th,9th and 10th of March we started another activity together with the other EVS volunteers in Dragasani.We made several trainings for three days for the forum theatre activity that we will prepare.

In 8th of March we started the day in the second floor of the office all together in the morning.After some energizing activities we made several workshops about the ways to improve communication with more understanding for a more effective theatre during the day.At the end of the day we made a feedback activity in which each of us explained his ideas about the day and how we can improve.

In 9th of March,the second day we gathered all together in the second floor of office and started the day with energizing activities.In this day we made more detailed activities about communication and ways to send ideas and messages to the audience or the target.

In 10th of March,the third day of the training we all gathered in the second floor of the office and started the day with energizing activities as usual,In that day we started applying the details we had learned in the previous days and doing more practical activities.Those include creating our own small screenplays about social problems and exhibit our plays.At the end we made a feedback session of the whole training and we expressed our impressions,new knowledges and ideas as well as improvement of creativity.

Traditions which announcing the spring

As you probably know on 14th Febrary it's the St. Valentine's day, a celebration of love in which you give a present like chocolate or flowers to the person or people you love. This celebration is internacional, but do you know that in Romania they have another day to celebrate the love? Yes, there is.

On 24th Febrary in Romania people celebrate "Dragobete", the love's day. This tradition is related with the Roman Empire and the dacians.

According to myth, Dragobete was the son of Baba Dochia, a woman who stands for the main character in the pagan myth related to spring arrival and the end of the harsh winter.

The day is also known as “the time when birds are betrothed” because during this time of year, birds generally build their nests and mattes.

On this day, considered locally the first day of spring, boys and girls gather vernal flowers and sing together.

This day annonced the arrival of spring but the oficial day that the spring begin is on 1st March, knowed like Mărțișor.

In the history, this celebration ir related with the Roman Empire too, but also it's considered with Daco-Thracian origin.

Mărțișor is the diminutive of marț, the old folk name for March. (Martie, in modern Romanian), and this literally mean "little March". It is also the folk name for this month.

Mărțișor, marț and mărțiguș are all names for the red and white string from which a small decoration is tied, and which is offered by people on the 1st day of March.

Giving this talisman to people is an old custom, and it is believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be strong and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. 

Usually it wears close to the heart, until the last day of March.

After this introduction about the Romanian traditions in the beginning of Spring I will speak about my experiences with them.

Last Saturday I made mărțișor with smaller childrens in a kindergarten, in company of a Romanian girl called Diana, who was also volunteer like me.

This day was amazing and we learned new things about the culture of Romania.

This week we put in practice the things we learned.
In the  Colonia´s school, a school outside the city, we made mărțișor with the children and we use paper to make flowers.

Also we went to Ionescu school, a school in the city center and we were really welcome for teachers and students.

This is the summary of these intenses weeks in which we discovered new beautiful traditions about Romania that they continue alive like the spring each year.

We continued with ours activities in Colonia School

This week we prepared activities to work with the social skills (empathy, comunication and group work) and values (respect, friendship..)

These activities were:


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.

Magical Microphone:The participants make a circle.They choose an object which is soft and small.Only the person who has the object can speak.We throw the object to a person and he starts speaking about a subject which is previously decided.Each person can speak only for an amount of time which is previously decided and then throws the object to another person.The person who has the object has to continue speaking about the same subject.They can create a story between them but all the time the person has to continue from where the previous person stops.

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.

Animals' couples: You write papers with couples of animals and you give one paper to each student. They have to descrive their animal only with signs, and with out sound they have to find their couple.



Talking with numbers: A student has to watch to other student and express an emotion (happy, sad, nervous, quiet, fear...) saying a number and this student has to reply with another number the same emotion.



The detective: You have differents papers. One of them has write "Detective", another "Killer" and the rest with a "V" for "Victims". The detective has to discover who is the killer. The detective go out and the rest stay in the class slepping except the killer, who has to touch someone to kill. After that the detective enter in the class and has to discover the killer with questions (Who is the killer? What did you do before?...) and observed the signs of the people.

Activities in the school Colonia

During the tuesday, wednesday and thursday, we made activities in a school, with different students.The school is Colonia, near to our city Ramnicu Valcea.


This week we prepared activities to work with the social skills (empathy, comunication and group work) and values (respect, friendship..)


These activities were:

1. Empathy with exchange of glasses: This game is that each one of the students have one plastic glass.It is necessary to exchange with the other student but only with the best for him or her. When the exchange finish, the students answer these questions:

1.How do you feel when you receive the glass
2.Was it difficult for you to decide who to give the glass?
3.Who did you decide for and why?
4.How can we help each other for respect?


2. Putting gestures in common: There are pairs made and they are explained states of emotions with gestures.After in pairs they create a type of gesture for explaining this state of emotion.


3. Simulation activity: We choose five teachers and the rest are students.Each teacher has a topic to talk about including family,school,hobbies,future,lessons each for one minute.At the same time the students are acting in a bad way.When we finish the activity we make questions towards how they feel when others do not have respect.


4. Explain to draw: We have three pictures and choose three students.The first one explains the picture when the others can not speak and only draw what he explains.The second explains the picture when the others can make questions and get answer only yes or no.The third can explain everything and can give answer to the questions with explanations


5.Two donkeys:The students are shown first one picture and are asked how to solve the problem.Later they are shown the second picture where exists the solution.The story of the pictures is about two donkeys that are connected with each other with a rope and need to eat.How can they solve this problem?


6. 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.


7. 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.