Second day of our project

3rd March

Today it was the first day of our project and we had different games to know each other, to brake the ice among us and to start to make the group spirit.

The first thing that the facilitators asked us was to stand up in a circle where the participants next to us were not from the same countries. Going from the left side we had to make a presentation of our self, by telling the our name, country and one adjective which starts with the first letter of our name, and then repeating the last three participants name and adjective which made the presentation before us. This game was nice and funny and helped us to remember a lot of names even why with the help of the funny adjectives that participants were connecting with their names.

When everybody finished presenting themselves and the last three persons, the facilitator asked us to make a straight line and asked us in total quiet, without speaking only in nonverbal communication, to arrange our self's in alphabetic order from one corner of the room to the other corner. Which mean that the we had to make e straight line in alphabetic order starting from the persons whose name starts with A and ending to the other side with the persons whose name starts with Z. When we finished we had to tell our names out loud so everyone could hear us and check if we managed to arrange ourselves but this was not the end. Without moving from the line the facilitator asked us again in total silence to arrange ourselves now regarding to our birth day and month. Again we managed to arrange in line without making any mistake and for this the facilitators gave us 5 min of brake. And we noticed that the participants were not staying anymore in national groups as it happen in the previous night but now they were talking with participants from different nationality which made participants happy.

After break we went inside again and the facilitators divided us in two groups and gave us instructions for the next energizer. In our group we had to choose between three characters Princes, Dragon and Hunter each of them presented by a gesture. The point of the game was to chose one character and to win against the other team. The rules were easy:

1- The Princes is kept by dragon inside a castle and can't be free, which means she loses but she wins against the hunter because she was so beauty and the hunter couldn't kill her.

2- The Dragon is so strong and big that he keeps the princes prisoner, what makes him wins against her but he loses against hunter because he owns a gun and he can kill the dragon to release the princes.

3- The Hunter has a gun which can kill the dragon but he can't kill the princes because of her beauty which makes him fall in love with her and this makes him lose.

After the facilitators explained the rules we went into our groups and decided which character we were choosing. Than we were facing the other team and when the facilitator was giving us the sign to go we were making the gesture. The first team who reaches three wins was going to take a  2 min massage from the losing team. This game brought a lot of laughs and positive energy to the group.

When we finished this game the facilitator asked us to take a sit and make a half circle and he presented us the next workshop that we had to make. He gave to each of us post-notes with three different colors. Each of them was presenting a different thing. Regarding to our opinion and thoughts we had to write in each of them what is a good project, good participant and a good facilitator than we had to stick each of them in their representative flip-chart. When everyone finished the facilitator started to read some of them and giving us the main idea what is a youth exchange, for what we were gathered there that it wasn't some kind of vacations or holidays but it was a project funded by European Union and there were some rules that we had to follow. The facilitator gave us the wright message why we came in Vladu Lui Vodi. After he finished making the small presentation about this workshop, the facilitator asked us as a group to make some rules of behavior so we could achieve a good project and to have perfect time in Moldova.

The first rules like to be on time, to respect each other, to speak in English or body language, so no one of us would feel excluded from the group or to respect each other, we (the participants) started to give ideas about the rules that we would like other participants to respect. When we finished the facilitator made the last rule which was to be a team and to enjoy our staying in Moldova he called us to sign the flip-chart in a sign of our approve to respect every rule.

While we were busy by signing our agreement the facilitators were prepared for the next workshop. It was time to divide us in smaller groups in mixed nationalities and to play mission impossible. They gave us 10 tasks where we had to find information about each other, about the hotel, about the place that we were staying and to work as a team. When they finished the presentation of our tasks we were free to go to have lunch and to discuss in our groups about the tasks we had to accomplish. During the rest of the day we were working in our small groups and before going to dinner we had to come back in our working room and to make the presentation of our mission impossible. In the end we found that the point of the game was not to finish the tasks or to be the best group in the presentation but to build the team spirit among us and to know more about the persons we were working for a few hours. This game was a lot of fun and we enjoyed and we were feeling more the good energy among us.

The first day as a big group we can say that it was amazing and everyone enjoyed and was pleased to be part of the group. But the day hadn't finished yet. Tonight the participants from Armenia, Bulgaria and Estonia were going to make the presentation about their countries, cultures, music, daces and cousin. For some of the participants it was the first time to face another culture from theirs and they were so excited and couldn't wait for the night to come.