Dissemination activity with the Ethnographic Museum in Baia Mare

Today, 20.06.2012, we had a very nice dissemination and valorization activity in collaboration with Malvina Madar from the Ethnographic Museum in Baia Mare. We had many guests. The exhibition was very successful, as well as the video presentations. We had guests from Colegiul Tehnic C.D. Nenitescu and School N. Iorga from Baia Mare and the children from a Folk Ensemble from Satu Mare. We also presented the materials we made for our partners from Romania The Ethnographic Museum and the School from Ieud, Maramures. We will give some of these materials to the County Library and the University from Baia Mare and other institutions.
We believe that our activity was successful today, as all the activities we did in this project. Here are some photos from the activity:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.400351546679516&type=1
More information you can get on the project blog: http://ethnotreasurehunt.blogspot.com/
We hope you like our photos.
Daniela, Marcela and Tavi

RASOS on ST. JOHN day (Midsummer day)

From ancient times people marked the time of the return of the sun, the shortest night. In olden times it was called the Feast of the DEWS, (RASOS in Lithuanian). When Christianity was established in Lithuania, the name was changed to Feast of St. John, according to agrarian folk calendar, the start of haying.
                      On the Feast of St John a special role was granted to the sun. The sun is constantly mentioned in songs sung on the longest day of the year.
                      Farmers paid special attention to water's special powers in reviving soil and making it productive. Maidens tried to get up before sunrise, collect the dew and wash their faces with it to make them bright and beautiful. They would also get up at night, go outside to wet their faces in the dew and returned to bed without wiping their faces dry. If that night they dreamt of a young man bringing them a towel, they hoped that he would be the one they would marry.

                      Flourishing plants were worshipped because it was believed that plants collected on the eve of the Feast of St. John posses magic powers to heal, bring luck and foretell the future. Nine plants with healing powers were called Kupole, plants of the Feast of St. John. Folklore shows that Kupole was the Goddess of plants, living in aromatic plants, blossoms or in buds in summer and in snowdrifts in winter.
                      It was believed that wreaths concentrate perpetual life's forces and are symbols of immortality and life. Walk around three fields and gather bunches of nine flowers, twine a wreath and place it under your pillow. You will marry the man, who in your dream comes to take away the wreath. At midnight, twelve wreaths were dropped into a river and observed if they were pairing off. If no pairing off occurred, there was to be no marriage that year.

                      The rites of this day continued till sunrise around bonfires. The site selected for ritual bonfires was always in the most beautiful area, on hills, on river shores and near lakes. Jumping over fires or around it had magic meaning. Ritual bonfires cleansed both physically and psychologically. Jumping over the fire was carried out with the belief of making better health, increasing body strength for hard summer labors and assuring better growth of grain and flax.

                      During the night of the Feast of St. John, the miraculous fern bursts into bloom. It is difficult to catch sight of this blogom. Some say that the fern bloom is like birch dust, others describe it as round and white like carp's scale. 
Send by Rima Stongviliene, Lithuania

Dissemination activity in Warsaw, Poland

On our way to Lodz, for the project meeting, Octavian, Lucian and I met some of my friends from Warsaw: Anna and Barbara. They were very kind in hosting us for one night and showing us their school and their beautiful city.
This was our chance to visit a very modern school Skola Podstawowa nr. 342 from Warsaw.  It was a very good opportunity to see what my friends have done within the Comenius multilateral project "Is it waste or money?", which I had helped them write last year, and to disseminate our "Ethno treasure hunt" Comenius project. http://www.wasteormoney.org/
We  talked about the end products made by each team so far, we shared experiences on  different administrative and organisational issues of the project and about possible cooperation in other projects in future. It was a very interesting meeting and we appreciated our hosts' hospitality and warmth.

Thank you Anna and Barbara and your families for having us as your guests. 

I also want to thank their headmistress, Mrs. Maria Marciniak - Maletka, for allowing us to visit the school, even if it was on Sunday.

Daniela Buda

Feedback from the project meeting in Poland

The 6th  Ethno treasure hunt project meeting in Lodz, Poland, was very successful. It was a great contribution  to the aims and goals of the project. Particularly useful and interesting was a detailed tour of traditions, costumes and lifestyle from the feudal age, held at the Ethnographic Museum of Lodz. Later on, we also had the chance to observe and experience some of those customs and rituals, watching a traditional wedding play at the Malrzyce Open-Air Museum, with all the traditional outfits, music and dances. The whole meeting was an enriching and educational experience for everyone.
Dimitar, teacher of English, Georgi Ivanov, vice headmaster, Galin Ganchev, headmaster of the school "Vasil Levski, Ruse, Bulgaria

Dear friends
The project is going to end, but it will surely be fixed in my heart forever as one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in my life. This last meeting in Poland has been really interesting and people welcomed us in such a perfect way that it is really sad to say good bye, so... I prefer to say See you soon, Friends! My house is your house.
Mariausilia, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy

The project "Ethno treasure hunt" is ending and we are a bit sad, but at the same time we wish to have further chances to be involved in other European projects to widen our experience. Thanks to this Comenius project, our students and teachers had the opportunity to verify what they learnt in their books, to meet new people and discover our common European background. It was a really good experience.
Rosa Crupi, Headmistress of Instituto Comprensivo Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy

This has been the first experience for me and everything of it was really fantastic because I have seen a lot of beautiful places and I have met  many nice people!!! I hope to repeat this "hunting" I'm happy that I had the opportunity to meet Polish people who have deep roots linked to their traditions and culture that they have inherited from generations.... Ciao, ciao, friends!
Valeria Vinci, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


This meeting in Poland was an interesting and beautiful experience for every aspect: I'm happy for sharing this trip with all of you because it was an occasion to stay together, to discover other cultures and traditions, to taste typical food. At the end of the meeting I can say that I will remember it as a positive and joyful moment.
Chiara Vinci, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


Thanks to this Comenius project I've learnt that comparing different cultures is the best way to overcome any kind of prejudices. This new experience helped me to broaden my way of thinking and I loved to meet friendly people.
Anamaria Miuccio, Art teacher, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


My dear friends, I wish all the best for your life! We had such a wonderful time together in every country we hunted, discovering the small and precious treasure of our friendship, which, I'm sure, will last. Each country I visited I found warmth, hospitality and love. Moreover, I learnt a lot about old traditions and cultures. My life now is richer with good memories and with the smile and good humour of my Ethno friends. Thanks, Europe!
Nina Morabito, English teacher, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


I appreciated your company and the way you welcomed me in your ethno group. I liked the people and their hospitality, their old traditions and I tasted delicious food. I hope to have other occasions to meet you all in the future.
Salvatore, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


Dear friends, it seems like yesterday when we met in Baia Mare for the first time! It was great to meet you all with your warm welcoming. I really felt at home in that wonderful hotel in Romania and later on in Turkey, in Lithuania, in Bulgaria and at last in Poland. Now I am sad. We shared a very good time together experiencing new adventures and new worlds. You'll be in my heart for the rest of my life.
Mimma Crupi, English teacher, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


My first experience was very positive and I want to thank my colleagues and my school for taking part in this Comenius project. It has given me mhe opportunity  to know other ways of school organization. I believe that our students, who had the chance to compare with foreign students, will become active and responsible citizens of Europe.
Cettina Cami, teacher of Italian, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


I'm really happy to have had the opportunity to stay in this green land full of historyand traditions. This Polish meeting is the last step on two years of hard work and I'm very proud of what we have done, but also a bit sad... We had the opportunity to understand the real meeting of these words FRIENDSHIP, TOLERANCE AND COOPERATION. I've met many people and faced different cultures, rich of ancient and wonderful traditions. Ethno treasure friends, I love you all!. Kisses!
Linda Cigala, teacher, Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicilia, Italy


Nobody would tell the better way of exploring than we do with the help of our Comenius project. This time we are guests in our neighbour country. It is full of red poppies, vast meadows and green fields. People here are proud of their ethnic traditions and their past. We had the possibility to watch an amazing traditional wedding performance. The bright colours and liud folk songs made our hearts beat quickly. Our project is going to its end, but the experience gained in Poland will stay with us for long. Thank you, Polish team, for your hospitality and care!
Rima and Renata, teachers of English from Lithuania

I had already known that the Polish team is one of the most hardworking and colourful teams. But they have organized such a fantastic program for us, that I am impressed by their organisational skills, team work, harmony of the manager and teachers. I enjoyed  visiting the Ethnographic museums, where I detected many similarities between rural lifestyles in Poland and Turkey. I had the chance to see colorful decorations, paper cutting works and folk costumes. The music and dances at the wedding party were great. The trip to Auschwitz Concentration Camp showed us the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding. If Europe had Comenius programmes before 1930, they wouldn;t have suffered from World War II. In the visit to the Textile Manufacturing Museum and Salt Mine, we learnt about business and labour life of Poland. After all these unforgettable experiences, I would like to thank Asia and our Polish friends for this outstanding week.
Ozgur Boyaci, teacher of English from Denizli, Turkey

This has been an incredible feast for me and my team here in Poland. I have had the opportunity to host all my ethno friends in my homeland, show them my system of education and school, where my team and I work, make them experience the spirit, hospitality, and the sights of Poland. And, even if I stayed in Poland, every single dayof the Comenius meeting I felt as if I were abroad: I saw the same familiar places as if for the first time, in the eyes of my Comenius partners. It was an unforgattable experience for me and my Polish friends. We had to learn how to cooperate well to organize the activities and make our guests happy here. I hope we have succeeded well and our ethno friends felt at home with us. I am also grateful to my Polish colleagues at school, who, though not directly involved in the project, helped us immensely with the preparations: created presents, organized food, performances and school exhibitions at school, and documentary visits. I have learned what it feels like to be the leader of a team of people who are understanding, willing to work (also under stress and pressure) and creative. I don't mind having to work hard for this particular meeting. It was worth every bit of the effort. The only thing I am sorry for is that it has been the last meeting within this ethno project, though I have a strong hope that Lifelong Learning Programme will turn into a Lifelong friendship.
Asia, teacher of English from Lodz, Poland, coordinator of the Polish team.

Last project meeting in Poland, May 2012

Project meeting in Poland.1
Project meeting in Poland.2
Project meeting in Poland.3
Project meeting in Poland.4

The objective of the 6^th meeting was to evaluate the activities and collaboration within the partnership.

The programme prepared by the Polish hosts for the last project meeting has been very rich and interesting:

We were officially welcomed at school by Mariola, the school headmistress, Joanna, the project coordinator from the Polish school and their team of teachers and students.

We visited the school and we had the occasion to see a Sample English lesson with SEN students - Form 1A (Asia & Monika). It was a very interesting experience, an exchange of best practices in teaching English using the materials created within the project. From the discussions we had with the students after the activity, we realized that the participation in the activities within the Comenius project has had a great and beneficial impact on them. It has helped them improve their self-esteem and courage to express themselves in English and mother tongue.

 We have also had the opportunity to learn some of the traditional Polish dances in the special workshop organized for us by Monika.

We visited the city of Lodz and we were told interesting facts about its history and the Poznanski Palace, where we saw some facets of the Polish history and culture.

We enjoyed the educational programs in Bolimowo and in the open-air museum in Maurzyce (workshops on paper cutting, pottery, basketry & blacksmith); the Folk wedding of the Łowicz region (in the same open-air museum).

We were impressed by the documentary visit to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. And we admired the marvels of the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the beautiful Wawel Castle – royal chambers, armory, treasury, courtyard; The Mariacki Rynek; Sukiennice, Mariacki Church in the Old Town of Krakow.

We had a very interesting dissemination activity and presented our project and its results to the host school and local community, as well as to the officials who honored our meeting.

During the technical meeting we discussed the issues connected to the finishing of the last products to be made. On request from the Italian team, we established that the sum of 60 euros that each team has to pay for the copyright for the Book of traditions will be paid to them after each team receives the difference of 20% of the grant for the project, using the invoice given to us by the Italian team during this meeting.

We discussed about the evaluation of the activities and collaboration within the partnership and the possibility to further our experiences in new projects. Here is what each team has said:

The Bulgarian team: “The partnership in the Ethno treasure hunt project has been very successful. It has been all the time characterized by mutual help and understanding. The organization of all the project meetings so far has been fluent and all the obstacles have been eliminated through excellent team work and synchronized reaction of all partners towards one goal. Personal friendship among all partners is the key to achieving a unique working atmosphere of support and positivity. A great contribution to all this has the main coordinator of the project, Daniela Buda. With her excellent team work organizational skills, fair judgement and friendly personality, she has managed to make all partners work as an intricate clock mechanism – synchronized and with ease, precise and punctual”

The Italian team: “This Comenius project “Ethno treasure hunt” has been very positive for our students, families and teachers. During these two years of work the cooperation among all these people has been successful; students have been involved in every proposal and they have been very active in producing fine works – we’ve achieved the main aims planned at the beginning, comparing different cultures and traditions belonging to our common European roots. Actually, the project has been characterized by a mutual friendship among partners, which was established since the first meeting, and this contributed to the full achievement of the project, experiencing and sharing every single activity. The teamwork has been well organized by the Romanian coordinator of the project, Mrs. Daniela Buda, who helped and guided all of us in every step of the project.”

The Lithuanian team: “This project was a challenge for us. We weren’t experienced in the field of Comenius projects. However, we have to thank the fate for sending us Daniela, our project coordinator. She is a very experienced and tolerant coordinator. Furthermore, we are happy about our project partners. They are devoted and hard-working people. We are a perfect team. Our project meetings were full of useful activities and productive ideas. I suppose that it would be great to continue our partnership within other projects.”

The Turkish team: “Before this project, I and my school had not been involved in multilateral projects. So we didn’t know many things about the working styles of the European schools and teachers. We, the Turkish partners, have observed and learned many things form this project:

·         How partner schools teach foreign languages and art

·         How they involve their staff into school activities and international project work

·         The traditional lifestyles of other cultures, the attractions and beauties of these countries

I think that Turkish people need to learn about your institutional structures and lifestyles a lot, so that they can improve their sympathy, understanding and tolerance to western world.

During the project we produced many excellent end-products, which are unique, even more than we had planned in the application form. We gave some spontaneous productions, such as the Ethno treasure hunt story, which shows that our project group is an enthusiastic hardworking and creative one.

All partners hosted us well; they did their best to make us feel at home. They showed us the best shows of their schools and the dignity of their culture.

When we took part in the dissemination activity in Denizli, which was a “Project fair/ exhibition”, our Ethno treasure hunt stand received a great attention and admiration from the citizens of Denizli. This shows we have reached all of our aims and showed and disseminated what we have been hunting for during our work in schools and during our project meetings. They especially liked the Coloring book and the Ethno calendar.

So, at the end of the project, I can say that we are more experienced now. The atmosphere in my school has already changed. We added a European point of view to the administrative staff, to the teachers and students. What we teach in school will be related with traditions, skills, communication and intercultural competence. I hope we will go on cooperating and exchanging best practices and ideas. Thanks for giving me this opportunity, Daniela!”

The Polish team: “The Polish team has been working hard for the two years of the “Ethno Treasure Hunt” project. We have produced many end products, created a lot of interesting educational activities at school and outside the school. Together with our Comenius partners we made our teachers, students and parents involved with them actively and with passion. We’ve learned how to cooperate and communicate at different levels. We’ve “discovered traditions teaching positive reactions”, such as tolerance, love, appreciation of the nation’s customs and traditions and opening our hearts for new things, people, ideas and phenomena abroad. We have learned new ICT techniques, management and creative skills. We have disseminated and evaluated the products of our efforts. We have broadened our minds and once again proved that if there is a will, there is a way. We are already thinking of continuing our project and transforming it into a new one. The ethno project will always stay in our hearts and minds. “We have searched, we have found, we have won!”

The Romanian team: “I believe this has been an extraordinary experience for all people involved. We have researched for the treasures of our countries and found many of them: traditional clothes, foods, customs, stories and legends, the way we have to behave when visiting homes abroad. We have learned about the history, geography, literature of the partner countries. We discovered the arts and crafts characteristic to the regions we visited. We found a lot of human treasures, too, such as: tolerance, accepting other people’s ideas, helping each other, but the best treasure we have found is, in my opinion, FRIENDSHIP.

We have discovered that there are more similarities than differences between our cultures.

By the end of the project we have achieved more end-products than we had planned in the application form and they are all of excellent quality and reflect the creativity and hard team work of the people involved.

I believe this project has had a great impact on all people involved. The students involved in the many activities of the project have improved their creativity and self-esteem and their appreciation of their own cultures. The student’s parents have got involved in different activities within the project and this helped them broaden their minds and opinions and better support their children and the institutions where their children study. The teachers have exchanged best practices in teaching and learned from each other. The institutions involved benefitted from their headmaster’s exchanges of best practices in school management and improvement in their image in the local community.

So, I believe our project has reached all its objectives.”