Team work and day trip

We had a very busy day yesterday. The morning was taken up by an interesting activity demonstrating the importance of communication, partnership and networking in non formal education.

Then afterwards we were treated to a visit to Mertola and Serpa; two historic Portuguese towns not too far from Beja. We had a guide for each who explained about their interesting past and present.

We ate out in Mertola and the group sang songs from their countries and got everyone else to join in, which was great fun.

I think that it was very important to our hosts that we took the time out of the conference room to go explore and learn more about their culture.

Here is a picture of our guide in Serpa talking about the ancient church doorway in the background: 

The Intercultural evening

The intercultural evening was great fun and a fantastic chance to learn more about a wide variety of countries.

Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Spain and France all presented fantastic food and fascinating insights into the culture, religion and history of their home countries.

Our UK presentation involved a quiz with a prize to first person to shout out the correct answer. We were overwhelmed (and a little frightened) by how much they enjoyed it.

Overall it was a great end to a great day with amazing people:

Pictures for day 3 1st and 2nd attempts

Day 3 – From paper planes to frogs

First thing we did this morning in groups was to define what we believed non formal education meant.

Our definition was “Non formal education is a more engaging less pressured, non competitive individual style of learning. It is laid out in a way that is more enjoyable for those involved. It allows you to be more creative, learn life skills and have fun in and educational way.

After a short coffee break we had a lesson about different styles of learning. We were told to sit on our own, we were then given a piece of paper and told to make a frog... My frog did not go well. It ended up being a plane. We then rejoined and we allowed working in small groups and try to figure out how to do it. After that wad unsuccessful we then rejoined as a circle and Toni told us step by step how to make it correctly. I’m sure you will now agree that my frog is glorious now.

After lunch we were split up again into groups, this time the groups only contained one member from each country. We then had to write down the problems that are faced by our NGOs and people involved in them and present them to the class.

After dinner we have our intercultural evening, we shall keep you updated with that I’m sure.

Conor    

Team work

Today was a day of getting to know each other through team work and fun activities.

We awoke for breakfast before setting of for the first activity of the day: a treasure hunt! 

Our hosts split the group up into 4 teams and sent us out to find clues and questions hidden around Beja. Not only did this activity help us to meet and bond with other people on the course, but it also let us explore the interesting sights and culture of Beja.

It is fascinating to be able to get this opportunity to chat to people from different counties in a way that you wouldn't be able to normally. In my team we had a French person, a Portuguese person and someone from Palestine.

Later in the day we regrouped to talk about our expectations of the course and we got the chance to hear about the non formal education projects that are being run outside the UK. Inspiring stuff.

Here is a picture of Conor and his team on a mission to find the next clue in the treasure hunt:

Day 1

We met at 9am at Kings Cross station and made our way to Luton Parkway. Boarded the flight for 2 and a half hours to Lisbon. Once we arrived in Lisbon I decided we should get on a bus and head into Lisbon. We arrived in.... I have no idea where we were but no body was around to ask for directions. Finally we found a café and asked how to get back to the airport.  We took the the underground back to Lisbon airport which was quicker and cheaper than the bus, we know for next time now.

Once at the airport again we met Pedro and the other members of the group and had to wait for the final memebers flights to arrive which took another hour. Finally we were on our way to Beja.

We arrived at hotel Francis at 22:30 very tired but very excited to get started the next day.

Sorry this post isn't very exciting im sure day 2 post will be more so than this one.

Ready for takeoff!