From Our Diary

Saturday 23-04-2022

Our day began with a traditional breakfast from a local restaurant. Our options included a variety of cornettos and pasticciottos, along with a cup of coffee or juice. After breakfast, all of the participants met up in the activity room where we took part in competence and icebreaker games. After a small break where we played volleyball, we took part in an activity regarding beers and alcoholic beverages found in Europe. After that, we did a speed dating activity where we could get to know each other better. Then we stopped for lunch and break up until 2:30pm. After lunch we returned to the activity room where we engaged in an activity organised by our group leader Christian, where
we had to come up with a short story with a foreign participant. After that, we played a game called poisoned river which was organised by the Georgian group. We ended our session wit a game of musical chairs. Between 5 and 6 pm we had a small break until dinner, while our leaders held an evaluation meeting. At 6pm we had dinner, and after dinner we headed to Poggiardo with the French group and ended our night on a good note.

Sunday 24/4/22

Started the day with an activity, then it was followed with the discussion of what citizenship is and what do we understand by citizenship. We were split into 4 different groups, and we invented our own country including our beliefs and symbols. We shared our ideas such as why do we accept immigrants, what system of voting, what can we do to solve conflicts between the majority and minority.

Second activity, it was carried away with an EU general quiz with all participants. Then we were divided into four groups and we chose different subjects which are affecting the world such as sex work, poverty and gender inequalities. We discussed how we can improve these and also how we can introduce these topics to the EU Parliament.

Monday 25/4/22

Started the day by getting some breakfast from Convivio Parco. Tomaso and Chef Mattia prepared some pastries for us and we enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee.

Headed over to the activity centre where we had a talk about immigration from the Maltese leader Chris while Monika and Beatrice assisted with the translations.

One of the first challenges we had was we picked a random paper which had a short story introducing a person. For example my paper was about an 8 year old boy from Afghanistan who is fleeing the country with his family.

We headed outside in the sun and stayed in a straight line. Moreover Chris started saying some facts and if we related to them we moved a step forward. My character didn’t move a muscle and it showed how unprivileged my character was next to other people. The morale behind this was that we choose the papers at random and that relates to life as we are born randomly we didn’t choose to be born in a rich or poor family, it’s all “luck”.

After that we were divided into groups and we were given a case study and we had to answer some questions about it. Every group had an example of an immigrant who went into another country and each experience was different from the rest. My group had the example of an Indian lady who moved to Milan for a beauty pageant and once she got in Italy she felt like a fish outside of its water because of the different lifestyle and different culture. This Indian lady had to adapt and accepted that she’ll never be considered as a local however adapting to the lifestyle made it even easier to feel closer to being somewhat accepted.

Prior to that, we had a little break, we took lunch and chef Mattia and Tomaso and their team prepared a some pulpetti for us. Like usually I would always go for a second plate!

After heading over to the activity centre we were again seated with our group and the next activity was mentally tough because we had to go outside in the park, no talking with each other, no phones just us and our minds. We thought about how we can make immigrants feel more welcome. Our team came up with the idea of saying a simple hello or smile to them would be a big step because that will make them feel wanted and not like outcasts.

Dinner time came and we enjoyed a focaccia and some pasta and of course like always I went for a second plate!

During our free time after we spent it in our open space outside of our flat where we played Ring of fire with our friends from Georgia and France. We ended the night by playing a couple of rounds of Mafia.

A busy day, but fun. We rested an prepared for our trip tomorrow!

Tuesday 26/04/22

This day we went to Castro, an hours walk and we were there. Went on a boat and visited some caves along the shore and also some of us swam in a cave. when we went back, we continued swimming, ate something, then had to go up quite a lot of starts to go up to the historical part of Castro. went around the bastions, saw a basilica and also could see Albania and Greece from up there. went back down to the dock part and relaxed a bit, then an hours walk back to Ortelle, ate, washed and relaxed at our apartment.

Wednesday 27/04/22

We started the day with a game called ‘Ninja’ and then it was followed by another game where we picked a card and every card it was representing a status. For instance Ace represents the highest card and 6 is the lowest. This game helped us to realise on what level we are and to respect each other no matter what. We discussed four points about what we need to do to have a fair society and the same opportunities to everyone.

In the afternoon, we played another game called “Don’t let them in”. We were divided into two groups: one group needed to form a circle and hold tight to each other and the other group needed to form a strategy to try to enter into the circle. This activity showed us how to feel to be outside the circle and how to express ourselves and also how it feels to be part of a group. Afterwards, we discussed some of our experiences of how we felt when we were feeling low and high and what we did to get through these experiences.

Friday 29/04/22

In the morning we started with a quick energizer where we were split up in 3 rows and were categorised by the colours green, red and blue. We had to duck each time our colour was called. Following this game, we did an activity that was made up of several groups and we all were assigned a number of questions relating to the EU as we had a limited time to discuss between us and write our opinion on each question. This made us think and reflect both between us and seeing the answers of the other groups which led to deeper reflections.

After our break, We did another activity where we were split up into two groups. Each group had a number of issues concerning the EU and a person that represented part of the EU and the issues which could relate to the issues at hand. A ball of string that was used to disseminate the resources provided according to the issues at hand. This activity made us reflect on how there are not enough resources to cover each and every issue. Therefore, it is critical that we are conscious of the amount of resources used and to make sure that they are used efficiently and sustainably to reach out to every group that requires these services.

Lastly, we did a short activity where we ended the special friend game and then moved on to the evaluation part of the project where we discussed what was satisfactory and what could be improved. This part is very essential as it gives everyone the opportunity to speak up for future projects to improve.