TC “Ready to Start”
“What kind of car do you think they’ll pick us up with?” I ask Sam and Alex while we wait at the train station of Citta della Pieve for a ride to the venue, which would be our home for the week. “Like a classic Italian car, one of those small ones,” A says. “Probably a Lamborghini,” Sam says, making Alex burst out laughing, “a limo!” he wheezes out. “I think it’s going to be a white van, they’re kidnapping us,” I said, and we laughed some more.
It was half past midnight and we were the latest group to arrive at the venue that day. The October air was chilly, yet a couple of cicadas were still making themselves heard. Every passing car, which there weren’t many of at this hour in a small Italian town, we hoped would be ours, yet each one passed, none of them a Lamborghini nor a limousine. And then there it was. Before any of us could say a word we grabbed our stomachs in laughter.
“I told you it was a white van!” I finally let out a scream of victory.
The venue was called a hostel in the project infopack, which turned out to be a fairly grand understatement, at least for what we were expecting. As it turns out, a hostel can look like a small castle, it can have a built-in church and it can indeed also include a majestic view of mountainous Italian country-side. We were stunned from the moment we arrived. Despite the fatigue of a full day of travelling, we had an instant hunch that this project was going to be special.
Since the first day of activities we were introduced to the importance of healthy, fresh food in the community. Introductions and explanations before every meal gave the food a sense of depth - it wasn't simply fuel to keep the body running, every ingredient had an origin, a story, and most importantly people behind the scenes who had given their heart and soul to grow, harvest, deliver and finally prepare it into a meal. In Italy food is something that brings people together and creates a space for people to relax and enjoy time with each other. All of us felt that immediately, making it easy for all the participants to connect during the introduction activities - after all, we had already shared some laughs at the breakfast table.
We were here to learn how to create an Erasmus+ project, but as it turned out quite early on, we were here to learn not only about the technical processes of it all. A good project does include writing a good proposal, having a certain goal in mind for the topics and doing tons of paperwork in the process, but it takes so much more to make a project memorable for the participants as well as everyone else involved.
We learned that for the group to function as a whole, it takes thoughtful organised activities as well as openness and the simple act of appreciation of individuality from the participants. The activities build trust, create a safe space for us to share and explore, and everything that happens outside of that - the spontaneous inside jokes for life, the songs that will become the anthems of the project, the tears that are shared when we connect on a deeper level - is up to the participants to create. When we trust, relax and enjoy, we develop the desire to learn and create. And isn’t that what nonformal education is all about - to learn how to create change in the society out of our own sincere desire to live more authentically.
I could list the memorable moments from that project for hours - the hike we took to Pacciano, a picturesque town nearby; the chestnut festival where we learned Italian line dances with the locals; the van rides that always somehow ended up with singing our favourite songs; the Roman thermal baths we visited; the night where we all listened to our most meaningful songs and shared our stories; the unforgettable dog Romeo, who won everyone's unconditional love immediately; the projects we created in groups out of our own passions and interests. Inspiring, to say the least.
We left Italy with a fresh desire to live a more authentic life and to share it with others, to create an atmosphere around us where appreciation and kindness are the norms, not something to be earned, but something to be shared and standardised.
“It is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all.” -Erasmus Roterodamus
- Helen, Sam, Alexander
