A wonderful Youth Exchange took place in Bakuriani from the 23rd to the 31st of August. Six countries sent over five young people to create an amazing group. Armenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, France and Ukraine all found an organisation that accepted to take part in Communi-key, and soon those 30 young people were getting trained by Johanna and Dasha.
Arriving in Bakuriani
After our arrival and our first night in the loft hotel, we finally got to know each other properly. Playing name and get-to-know-each-other games, we were breaking the ice in the mountains! After a disoriented orientation race and a lot of information about the project, hostilities could start: our first three teams – Bulgaria, France and Ukraine – were going to present their country through our intercultural nights.
These nice teams stayed until the end of the week and formed our second family after our national team. We worked together on a different topic every day but always together. ❤️
Intercultural nights are always a great moment of bonding. Since it was the end of the first day for us, it was time for getting to know the people that we did not already. Through dances, singing, food, or just chill discussions here and there, the six countries were, little by little, becoming one big group, or one small community…
Breaking the ice
After our daily morning meditation session led by Dasha, day two could start. Finishing off to break the ice, we left the Bulgarian team in control to present to us their session about self-revelation. First activity was drawing what our partner described, each our turn, without giving the name of the thing; it was also about effective communication.
Their second activity was about fighting your fears : we all wrote down one fear that we had, and anonymously read some of them, to discuss the topic, sometimes to find solutions, sometimes to get one’s fear heard and understood. Nevertheless we kept those on the side for later…
Johanna then presented us her session about the different types of communication. We had to organise ourselves in animal groups depending on our reaction to a given situation. What about you? What animal would you be if your foot was being stepped on the bus? If your friend canceled for the third time?
Whatever animals we chose during the session, we all agreed on the best choice : finding comprises.
Once we were done finding our spirit animal, we could let our body play. We played a dice game with different rules in each group, but not only had we different rules, the winner changed tables. New table, new rules, could you win twice in a row? International communication is not always easy : should the newcomer adapt to your rules, or should he impose his? Majority won most of the times, but we did have some interesting choices…
And here we were again, back to intercultural night. Following the first three ones, the remaining countries – Armenia, Estonia and Georgia – were going to give their all to leave the strongest impression ! Folklore, tradition, quizzes, and food again; everything was here for us to have a great time. This is how we started to work on the foundation of our group, but we were not even near the end.
Understanding the mysteries of communication
On the third day, it was not a matter of breaking the ice anymore. We were all marching together towards our goal : understand all the mysteries of communication.
Johanna led the way with her activity on effective communication : understanding the four sides of a message.
French team followed with their non-verbal communication activities, to learn that the voice is not the only thing that can make you heard.
After this, we learnt about the impact of technology on our communication : we are communicating more in long distance than before, sure, but is it the same type of communication? Everyone has a different usage of their phones and technology, what we agreed on was that it definitely helped for certain relationships, when you are abroad or far away, but it also takes a lot of our free time.
Talking of free time, we did not have a lot before starting Estonian activity : Job Interviews! In small groups, we worked on our possible future interviews and played given roles. Halfway between role play and theatre, we worked all together to be employed next time we have to.
Our first free night was very chill, because everyone was preparing for the big day, HIKING DAY!
Hiking Day
We went all the way up to a mountain top, helped by cable cars to make it doable in one day, in order to walk all the way down back to our hotel, with some nice activities on the way that allowed us to reconnect with nature… but not only.
Everyone went back with their buddies, our sophisticated self-guarding system, but also with a few more friends than the day before.
Exploring active listening, leadership and trust
Enough of walking, it was time to listen. Johanna led her active listening session, where we took turns to play roles where we had to properly listen to the speaker, and it was not as easy as it may seem. Everyone has their way of listening, but you have to find the right way to listen to one person so that they can open their heart.
Now what we were ready to listen, we needed a leader ! Armenian team came in with their session : leadership. Two groups of ten were formed, but only four people of each group could stay in the bunker : could you defend your spot in this bunker to lead your people through the apocalypse?
After this session we also had our maestro showing off his skills through an impressive energiser. Watch the video here!
Inseparable, leadership and trust always work together. That is why our last session for the day was about trust. Get yourself guided by people, let go completely, close your eyes and walk around. People will be there to catch you, we thought, and they did.
Saying goodbye to Bakuriani
Our last day in Bakuriani, but not the least because we had two very interesting sessions. First was led by Ukrainien team on the topic analysis of communication. It revealed our inner selves and taught us on how we communicated. Second was Georgian team who revealed the secrets of non-violent communication by explaining the concept and then role playing through diverse situations.
After that, we slowly started leaving the hotel, at least in our minds, because we started dissemination activities. Preparing how we were going to tell the world about how amazing this project was !
We would not have left without a campfire though, where we could sing, have fun, enjoy ourselves one last night. It was also the occasion to burn down the fears that we had earlier in the week with Bulgarian activity. Thus we could all leave serene to Tbilisi for our last day.
Our last day in Tbilisi
After a trip and a lunch all together. We met again in Fabrika, where we had our last sessions. We had our lovely Youthpass ceremony, and evaluation session, but also our love sending activity : the envelopes.
Everyone wrote nice words to the people they wanted to, and we could all leave to our Georgian supra, as happy as ever.
Thank you, Johanna and Dasha.
But especially thank you for reading all this.
