In the picturesque village of Oščadnica, in the north of Slovakia, on 08. 06. 2018 were people assembling next to a boarding house near the centre to participate on Erazmus+ project EMforMe (Employment for me). Team of six young organizers had been working very hard before in order to make everything ready for participants from five countries, which were included in the project, and that Romania, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. Altogether 36 Europeans could not wait to see all the activities which would lead them till the end of the whole stay, 17. 06. 2018.
On the first day the introducing games were waiting for them, so they could get rid of their worries and shyness. Starting with the next day they could fully enjoy the project in highly-friendly atmosphere. Relationships were created quickly. It was not only due games and coffee-breaks or sobremesa, but also educative parts of the project, which were often interactive and required teamwork.
The main idea of Erazmus+ is multiculturalism and its understanding by different nations. This project was based on this idea, too. As people are used to, every second evening participants were able to try atmosphere of cultures of present countries on so called cultural evenings. The first cultural evening was, of course, dedicated to hosting country, Slovakia, where usual eating of halušky (Slovakia national dish) was improved by showing of typical Slovak historical costumes and other interesting things.
The major part of the program was to educate the young in selected topics of the whole project. Thanks skillful and friendly team of volunteers, participants were given knowledge from workshops, open discussions, presentations and many more. The information was given by many methods so everybody could be satisfied, but always in very interesting way.
The program was various, indeed, since the already busy schedule was enriched with trips in order to see also different places around Oščadnica. The participants were even taken to Budatín and the famous place of breathtaking view.
The organizers were doing their best to create the whole program so everybody could be happy. They wanted to make sure they did well, participants were asked to leave evaluations. The ratings brought our organizers good feeling of very well done work. In these letters were not only words of glory about the project and everything, but also assertive opinions and new ideas, even visible improvement of English language skills. It was the language of the project (we do not count cultural evening where participans were introduced with tongue twisters of the countries). In the very last question “if you could travel in time, would you participate on this project one more time?” were many long or short answers, but every one of them meant the same – Where is the time machine, please?
