March 2020

Mihăești NEETs and the community

On the first day, we were at Mihăești, where the mayor welcomed us and he gave us information about it. He mentioned that Mihăești is located in Vâlcea County, Oltenia region, also talking about the schools in the area and about youngsters. We spent 2 weeks here, we made non-formal activities in 2 schools, Măgura and Mihăești and, one day, we visited Govora Monastery. In schools, we worked with students of different ages and we adapted activities according to this. All the activities were non-formal and gathered different topics: interculturality, arts (painting and drawing), dancing and music, introduced after getting-to-know activities. Some of the activities proved to be very interesting for them, as we presented the places where we came from, because they learnt new things, finding out about places they never knew they existed. Also, in the days we thought them Turkish and Macedonian dances, they thought us Romanian ones. Alphabet Game, Mission Impossible, countries presentations, team building games (The Rope, The Circle), Ear-to-ear Game were very enjoyable activities for them. In one of the days, because we became “famous” in this community, we spent a day together with the students, their parents and also their grandparents. We painted, danced and sang together. That day was very interesting and is still kept in our minds. For all of us, these 2 weeks were and will remain memorable because of the enthusiasm of the students and the way that we met we different parts of community: mayor, teachers, students, parents and grandparents. At the end of this “adventure” we received gifts from all of them and we were happy to leave some ”prints” here. There are all waiting for us to come back!

Govora Monastery

In the time spent in Mihăești community, the mayor offered us also a cultural visit – Govora Monastery. It was one of our favourite visits. During the tour of the monastery, we found out that to this place contributed a series of rulers, the last of them being Constantin Brâncoveanu. Two things raised our attention: one of them – in 1641, the first law book, Pravila de la Govora was printed here; second one – the religious painting of the Holy Virgin with wings, painting which is just above the entrance and we could observe the details. The place is a peaceful one, the nuns have bright faces, telling us stories related to the monastic life, some of them quite funny. Another shared aspect related to this place is that the only meat eaten here is fish. And… the food here was delicious!!! All the moments here were gathered in our souls and we wish to come back before we leave.

COVID-19 virus and the pandemic

Since January 2020, different rumours have been heard, related to a virus that can kill a part of the persons that get infected. In February, this rumour became reality also in Europe. The pandemic is a ugly reality, as cases started to appear in Romania, too, the country in which we currently live and develop our activities. In this country, schools were closed on March 11^th and on March 16^th the State or Emergency and the quarantine have been instituted. A quarantine which arrived with a lot of rules… During this period, we could not do much for the project, because we had to stay home. Social distance had to be kept, we could only go out with masks and having a self-declaration in our possession, these rules being set for everyone’s health. We could not do too much, the danger exists, all we could do is follow the rules and be patient. The pandemic affected the entire globe, but we will try to get by this staying at home and focusing on our personal development.