While JACis youth were in Poland..... (19-25.01.2015)

The week from 19^th January, JACis was pretty empty, because almost all youngsters who are usually attending JACis went to the Youth Exchange in Poland! On some days we were more volunteers than youngsters. Maybe you think it was boring but we actually had some interesting activities.

We started the week with our cooking activity! On Monday we were cooking fried mashed potatoes which was supposed to be a traditional German meal but Russians also claimed that its traditional and the internet said something about Belgium... So let’s say we had an European traditional meal! It was really nice and because we weren’t so many everyone could eat enough to get full. 

Preparing the Tiramisu

Tiramisu is ready!

 On Tuesday Georgiana and Paul went to another cooking workshop at Zeimuls where Tamara, an Italian volunteer, showed us how to cook original Italian Tiramisu. It was very interesting and of course delicious!

Thursday 22^nd us volunteers went to Zeimuls to present our project volunteers united. The event was called Jauniesu Forums and us volunteers and youth workers had the possibility to present what they are doing or have been doing and then a jury decided which project should win an award. We saw a lot of youth, project's ideas, and organizations from Rezekne, along with their work. Even if we only had 3 minutes, our presentations was the most interactive and interesting. We were very proud!

After that us volunteers went to visit Tamaras English conversation club where we played “Who am I?” which was fun. When we finished and actually wanted to leave Clemence and Paul did an Impro session with their instruments and even swapped them although no one really knew how to play the others instrument! But in the end they even found a harmony :D

On Friday we did our movie evening for the first time in Zeimuls together with Tamara. We watched “BANKSY - Exit through the Gift Shop”.

On Saturday Georgiana organized a teambuilding training for some youngsters of youth council. We did trust and teamwork activities and we discussed about topics like trust, communication and teamwork. It was very nice to spend time with the youngsters and to see how they overcome themselves and work together. In the end everyone was happy and learned a lot! 

Playing cadrs?

I want my angel!!!!

Debriefing...

Feeling the trust

Saving our people :)

On 25th January in Festival Park from Rezekne, local people celebrated the Snow festival. A lot of kids with their parents participated to a competition with a lot of funny games in the snow. The lion mascot animated the atmosphere, making everybody happy. Clemence and Georgiana were volunteering in this event - they prepared hot tea for everyone. A good moment to practice latvian language.

 

Preparation for Poland Youth Exchange (12-18.01.2015)

 

A lot happened last week. We commenced by celebrating the international "Thank you" day, for which we held a writing competition. Though we did not receive to many submissions, those we received were of high quality. We also made a poster to honour the act of saying "Thank you!" to another.

 Afterwards, we played a funny game Clemence proposed: Inside the two cakes she made were hidden two pieces of hard candy. Whoever found those candies was determined the King/Queen for the day. These cakes, called "Gallette du roi", are a tasty French delicacy made from puff pastry and almonds.

Who will be the king of the day?

Also, a team from of youngsters from Rezekne prepared to go to Poland this last week. There were many meetings with enjoyable games and activities, for example rhythm games with cups, clapping and stomping. It was a real pleasure to watch them. Also, in preparation for speaking English for one week straight, we played a little game called "Guess who you are". The participants were really good at it, it took most them merely 5 minutes to figure out the (non)fictional person tacked to their forehead.

Am I Brad Pitt?

Gifts for poland!

On wednesday, we had a really interesting meeting with the head of the local youth center "Zeimuls". We discussed a lot of different topics over a cup of tea and some biscuits. It was a productive conversation and really thrilling to finally meet such an important person in Rezekne.

JUNGLE SPEED!

We also finally had time to dig around in JACis' games a little bit. We found a really nice and fun game called "Pentago", the idea of which is to place 5 marbles in a row on a rotating board. It can really get you confused quite easily. In addition to that, lengthy sessions of our favourite game, "Jungle speed" took place. Screams of anger, joy and utter disappointment were audible across all of JACis' rooms.

Last, but not least, our regular movie-session happened on Friday. This time, we watched the great movie "Stand by me", directed by Robert Reiner. This story about growing up, death and the nonsensical acts one commits when young really moved us.

We hope to see you again at this place next week. Bye!

Coming back in JACis

The Christmas holidays for 2014 were very interesting. After the party in JACis the volunteers spend some beautiful moments together with their hosts from Latvia as well as guests from Romania and Germany. The time spend with them was really revitalising and gave us food for thought. When you stay in another country for a long time, it is hard to hold on to your memories of home.

On 29th of December Clemence and Georgiana participated in Zeimuls' Christmas festivities, an event with a lot of Christmas songs, dances, games for kids and of course a meal for all the employees. Thank you Zeimuls for invitation.

The new year came with a lot of resolutions, so we started the first week in JACis by making planifications .... . The youth of JACis started also with a lot of work concerning that they will go to a youth exchange  by the program "Culturball".

 18 teenagers from Poland and Latvia will go to Zakopane, a city in the south of Poland between the 17th of January and the 25th of January. The theme of the project is related to sport, meaning that  some of their activities will be volleyball and Ski. The communication language will be Latvian, Polish, Russian and English.

Latvian Team of "Culturball" project

Preparation activities for the youth exchange "Culturball"

Preparation activities for the youth excenge "Culturball"

Wednesday, on 7. January, people from Latvia celebrated the Orthodox Christmas. In JACis we had another important event - Moritz birthday. We made a party for him, we eat latvian cakes and  Paul, Clémence, Viva and Kristaps decide to sing " My wonderwall" from Oasis. A great moment! Happy birtday Moritz for your 20th anniversary :)

Last days of the week we prepared for the activities we planned for the next week and on Saturday, exceptionaly we worked. It was the last day for our Christmas tree! We had a lot of fun taking of all the decorations and cleaning  the tree (we stripped it of all needles) and the room .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The time before Christmas was very busy for the JACis volunteers. They needed to find a Christmas team consisting of one volunteer and three youngsters, they prepared the Christmas decoration for their rooms, Christmas songs, Christmas games and of course Christmas food.

Everything was in tune with the season, because we all love christmas: That means we shot Christmas movies, learned about traditions in each others countries and families, we got little presents for our hosts.

 Almost everyday tasty scents filled JACis, as we were working to bring the culinary traditions of our homes to Latvia.

On Tuesday we received a beautiful Christmas tree that we decorated with tensil, stars, angels, and lights. The tree was so big, it filled the room from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. Everybody loved the tree and used the opportunity to take many pictures and selfies in front of it.

But not only the preparations for the JACis Christmas party were made but also our trip to Riga and the JACis event at Rezeknes Christmas market in Festival Park needed to be organized!

On Friday, the 19^th of December all teams went to Riga. Moritz planned the trip for a long time so everything was well organized. First, we visited the German embassy where we got informed about the work and tasks of a diplomat which was very interesting for everyone. After that we visited the museum of occupation where we unfortunately didn’t spend so much time. Then we went to eat  at LIDOs - a very famous restaurant in Riga.

Visit to the German embassy

Museum of occupation - Riga

Riga prepared for Christmas

 The day ended with a visit to a youth centre in Riga - Kaneris.  We were impressed by the size and their equipment as well as the great ideas that went into the layout of the center. They had a theme for every room, for example the "reflection room" full of mirrors. Clever, eh?

Sandbox for developing ideas

Conference room - because no idea stands alone

Refection room

Creative room - let out your inner designer

  
On Sunday 21 December JACis had the oppotunity to present its diversity and creativity in the Festival Park where the Christmas market took place. The volunteers prepared different activities and delicacies: we baked bread on the stick on open fire which attracted many people, did some hand-craft with children, cooked Christmas punsch and played some games. The fun part was that we met Santa Claus, we introduced ourselves over the microphone, wished everybody a merry christmas and a happy new year in our native languages, enjoyed the "reindeers" (even though they were just a goat and a pony in disguise) and had a lot of fun until we were interrupted by a heavy blizzard.  



Next day we had our JACis Christmas party. We met to do the last preparations (preparing the food, last-minute decorations, rehearsals and rejoicing) and then began the festivities, which were bound to last until the late evening. First we were in Georgiana's room "the little reindeers" where we played some funny games and woke up Santa Claus after we danced and sung carols.

"Reindeer riding"grabbing candy

Sleeping Santa

Carol moments

Group picture

 Then we went to Paul's room, the “musical kitchen” where we enjoyed Christmas songs, cookies and Punsch. 

Preparation in "musical kitchen"

Musical team

Singing carols together

Next stop was Moritz's room, where we had delicious Christmas apples and a game about unwrapping chocolate

The dinner is ready!

Cookies for everybody

Ready for a game?

We finished in Clemences room, where we sung again and had nice French snacks. All in all it was a nice preparation for Christmas and everyone enjoyed it!

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells..."

Santa's sleigh

And a funny game

Everybody is in a hurry to taste "la bûche"

The official part ended by giving present to each other but afterwards we still enjoyed sitting together, talking and eating what was left of the food.