Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

O intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 em Lisboa. Aqui ficam uns pequenos testemunhos dos participantes da Escócia. 

Shelby Johnston, Scotland

As a wee gal from Scotland, being able to share hilarious and educational experiences with some beautiful folk from across the world has been mega!Spending time working in groups talking about Scotland's current political stance and comparing it to other countries has been beyond beneficial for me to realise how I deal with the daily political news and how ignorant I've been to other peoples situations- all of which are totally different yet somehow have relatable aspects.THE GRUB (dinners) HAVE BEEN BEEN FAB. Having a chance to explore other country's traditional meals & to just chill with them at breaks and at night has been one of the highlights, seeing peoples humour and trying to teach people the Scottish dialect has been a pretty good laugh and we can speak at a decent speed and be understood at this point in the week... we've adopted some honorary Scots along the way.One of the most magical moments for me on the trip was on the way to visit the castle and coming across another Hang Drum (musical instrument) player... I play one at home and was able to have a shot of one on the sunny streets of Portugal which couldn't have put a bigger cheeser on my face. 

Portugal chums, I'll be back. 

Brad Burrowes, Scotland 

My name's Brad and this was my first time in Portugal and also my first youth exchange. I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity through A&M Scotland as it had been a great experience and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. The youth exchange has helped me see the way people from different cultures live and how they differ to mines, the exchange has also changed my perspective on life and has made me realise there is much more to life than just staying in my own city and not exploring the world. I really enjoyed experiencing different food from the other cultures and enjoyed the task of having to make food for 30 people as this was the first time I'd done anything of the sort. My favourite part of the exchange was when we took the day trip out to the museum and castle:I learned the struggles that people in Portugal went through and how times have changed also the trip around the castle was great the I was mesmerised by the views and how nice the city really is , all in all I enjoyed my whole experience on the exchange and would I've the opportunity to do something like this again. 

Les McGovern, Scotland 

The spin exchange has changed my perspective on life as it allowed me to experience many different cultures and how they differ to my very own. I will be heading back to Glasgow with a new mindset, motivated and ready to tackle new challenges which will hopefully better me as a person. I can not thank spin enough for gifting me with such a great opportunity as this was, after all, my very first time I have had the chance to travel to another country. This is a chapter in my life I will never forget as I made new friends for life and not learned about other cultures but also learned a lot about myself. Again words cant express how much I have enjoyed living here in Portugal. 

Sam Donnelly, Scotland

Coming on this trip has been an amazing experience I feel I have learned a lot and my confidence has grown, it has been a life-changing experience and I would love to do it again, if I could go back I would do things a little differently but I will use this as a learning experience, I have loved getting to know everyone and learning about new cultures, everyone has been so nice and friendly I will miss the people and spin, thank you for giving me this opportunity I can't wait to go home and make other people aware of the things we have learned. 

Jasmine Main, Scotland 

My name is Jasmine and I am a youth worker from Glasgow, Scotland. I had been on many youth exchange projects as a young person and was delighted to be asked by our organisation to accompany young people as a staff member and team leader to Lisbon for 10 days. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching young people from all over the world bond and laugh over life experiences and cultural differences. I know these experiences and memories will stay with them for life and I can't wait to see the effect it will have on their lives back home in Scotland.

Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

Aqui podem ler mais testemunhos dos participantes do intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era, que decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 em Lisboa. 

Dominika Ostańkowicz, Poland

Felling and memories about the exchange:  The story of my exchange started by feeling afraid about people, travelling alone and my not so good level in English. I fastly recognize it wasn't necessary. People in exchange are really amusing we have a friendly atmosphere. We make a little community based on empathy and explore our culture. It was also a great opportunity to practise English. Many of people send me an invitation to their countries, so my calendar is full of places which I have never been before. I will remember this time for so long and recommend to other people. 

Klimentina Gjorgjioska, Macedonia 

Being both a group leader and a participant at this youth exchange, was very challenging for me since this was my first youth exchange. I have already been part of Erasmus mobility projects, but just training courses. Taking part in this project, undoubtedly opened new perspectives to me and reassured me once again how powerful young people are with their skills and creative thinking.I was very enthusiastic about my participation here because as a political scientist I am deeply interested in analyzing the emerging tendencies like post-truth societies and post-democratic practices. This exchange contributed to deepen further my critical and contemplative prism of the reality we are living in.Also, it showed me that engaged and motivated young people can make significant work if they work in teams and respect the opinion of the others.I am glad, I had the opportunity to meet youngsters from Poland, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, Scotland and share with them my opinions as well as experience Lisbon together.It is always amazing to be part of workshops and project that bring diversity and different mindset together because you can always find inspiration there. Thank you, SPIN, for enabling us this great experience. 

Francesco Diperno, Italy 

Getting knowledge about something let you control it; take it for granted and it will control you. That's why it's very important to be aware of what is happening around us, to be curious and especially to start asking ourselves questions that were never lingering in our heads. Critical thinking means get out of society's gates and go directly inside of us. Who are we? What is true? What is false? Why? We were born in an unfair world, where it's easier to believe in lies. During the youth exchange "TH!NK, youth and the post-truth era", 9th-17th October, we focused on this, trying to open our eyes to the world. Recognizing lies covering uncomfortable truths, dealing with journalism and media (even in a practical way, also going to visit "Diario de Noticias"), and, especially, learning by doing. Workshop, activities, visits filled our days make them full of meaning. Every moment was coloured by knowledge, smiles and life. A mix of cultures, languages, habits and different points of view, we were all together to be better, to make the world better, somehow, in our way. I'm very glad to have been part of this project and I really thank Spin organization to all the work behind this. So if you are reading stop sitting on your sofa and start travelling, meeting people from everywhere and being part of Erasmus+ projects. It will change your life! 

Antonio Atanasovski, Macedonia 

Hello everyone, this my first youth exchange. I took one Erasmus+ training, but the concept here is totally different. We had lots of fun and time to enjoy hanging out with people, exploring Lisbon but most importantly learn to think critically. Before I arrived I thought I knew everything about fake news and the post-truth concept, but as I saw I was really wrong. Lisbon is a city with a huge spectrum of diversity, there is the old town which looks exactly like the map from Assasins creed, also the modern buildings, where we visited the office of popular newspaper company and had the chance to write a paper and speak with the journalists. Then there are the museums, we visited the Museum of Liberty, where I learned about Salzar, the censorship and the propaganda that was going. The best part is that I learned that the revolution started when a certain song started playing on the radio. If you take walk on the Bario Alto area, you could notice as you are walking you can hear 5 or more different languages just on one street. 

This a picture of me and my new friends. 

I could write so much about this experience, but I will keep it short. I want to say that there is something magical about meeting totally different people or exactly same as you, which I did. You can see that things have many different perspectives, which sometimes we have the same news in a different form. So if you, my reader, are going into western Europe, visit Portugal. You will learn so much and meet so many beautiful people into the city that never sleeps.

Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

Aqui temos mais testemunhos dos participantes do curso do intercâmbio TH!NK, que decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 em Lisboa.

Jakub Kitel, Poland
Post Post-truth

The most important part of youth exchange for me was talking to people. Despite cultural differences, we all share common fears and anxieties. In these times people either don't have a vision for themselves, or they don't really believe the narrative they are telling themselves. No one feels appreciated, no one feels in the right spot. Pop-culture based in democracy fed us with lies about being able to change the world, given that we work hard and really believe, but the world was never changed by the will of common men. Joining any kind of political or sociological movement will change every day to a game in which we think in terms wins or loses about cases that don't affect us. And being a part of this system based on the mirage of importance always means losing. These are not times of great ideologies or plans, rather a small prejudices and silent convictions that can pose as universal truths about the world. Trying to find a solution or those “universal truths” will only lead us towards more lies and cruelty. Because the only truth lays in people – our common need to feel safe – we can achieve it by choosing narration, joining the conversation within the system and losing, or ignoring conversation and focusing on people that are close to you, and trying to be the best version of yourself for everyone else. I want to believe, that post-truth society is heading towards the world in which we don’t lie to ourselves about the importance of our beliefs, but rather focus on the only truth that always mattered – other people.

Marta Kuncer, Poland 

Sunny Lisbon, or Spin Association to be precise, hosted youth exchange „TH!NK: youth and post-truth era”. Since I’m interested in critical thinking and role of media in a modern world I decided to take part in it. Group of 30 people from different corners from Europe met together in a street-art-dominated Barrio Padre Cruz. We spent a week exploring the topic in a non-formal education way and simply sharing a time together. Workshops were dedicated to critical thinking, freedom of speech, manipulative fake news, comparison of various national perspectives, guidance to facts checking and other. Participants had an opportunity to explore the topic fully but it, of course, depended on everyone’s own engagement. Surrounded 24/7 by Portugueses, Italians, Macedonians, Scots, Poles, Estonians for a week we had plenty opportunities for a cultural exchange. Some were limited to small talks, while others – fortunately - went deeper into political/social issues. It’s clear that there are some still rather big differences when it comes to gender equality, education, corruption, basic human rights, freedom of press, homosexuality and others in each European country. What I find pretty common after this youth exchange is universal lack of respect for each other. Even though we bonded and liked each other it didn’t stop some people from not listening to each other, being late, or simply assuming that they will get things done for them by somebody else – to name a few examples. It was a valid reminder that whether it comes to a short youth exchange, longer social project or a society itself – the participants who play a part in it are the ones who are shaping it after all. I had some interesting interactions and conversations. Upside was to see people who left their own country for the first time, being a bit insecure, and how much they opened during the whole week. I believe that’s where youth exchanges are truly fulfilling their role. They are safe, organized platform for the youth who never before had a chance to go abroad and have more engaging interactions with people of different culture.

Caroline Männik, Estonia 

Even though I have been in quite several youth projects, I still felt extremely excited when i got to know that i can go to the youth exchange in Lisbon. This experience was something completely different for me as I have never been in Southern country, neither been in a group leader`s position. But first of all, try to imagine arriving to Lisbon as an Estonian. You are used with cloudy and rainy weather and with wearing jackets and scarfs all the time. But then you take a flight and suddenly you have sun and can wear shorts even in October. I`m pretty sure that I got overdose of D-vitamin here. We came to Lisbon a day before the official beginning of the youth exchange and used the free day for exploring the city and it`s fascinating mosaic walls. I`m so satisfied that we came earlier because it helped to create strong group feeling inside our Estonian team. Next day we arrived to Spin and got positively surprised how cool Bairro Padre Cruz is, especially it`s street art. After introducing ourselves through couple of games, we understood that with these participants we will have really memorable project... and we were right. Throughout next few days we got more familiar with the topic of the youth exchange, we discussed what is the definition for the post-truth and shared examples from our countries. I enjoyed watching documentary called “HyperNormalisation” and I`m sure that I will watch it again once i arrive back at home. After having intensive workshops in Spin we also went discover Lisbon with the whole group, visited museum, Media lab and stunning castle. What made this youth exchange very different from my previous projects is that every nationality were responsible for preparing the whole dinner for the participants. It was obviously very stressful, but at the same time it improved our teamwork and cooking skills. Everybody seemed to love trying out different cuisines, starting from Italian pasta, ending with Polish pierogi. Overall, this youth exchange was magnificent and I`m going back home only with positive memories. 

Stay positive, 

Caroline

Esmeralda Ferati, Italy

Hi everyone! I'm going to write shortly for my youth exchange in Portugal. I didn't know about the existence of this project until me and my friend talked about it. I came from Italy where these programs are very popular but I never thought that I'm gonna be part of the similar one. Now I'm here, taking the best of it! At the beginning, I wasn't convinced about the success of the project. We were people from different countries like Italy, Estonia, Scotland, Portugal, Macedonia, Poland and I thought it would be difficult to interact with each other. But my suspicion wasn't real. Different activities made us know each other and now we behave like a family. Looks like we are part a TV Show and every day we have some tasks to complete to achieve our goals. Fortunately, we achieved all the goals together with no differences. When I write about tasks it comes up in my mind the firsts ones, when we had to remember all the names of 30 people. The very first one was that we had to choose by causality one secret friend and we had to do something special for them to make their day beautiful and interesting. I did it for my secret friend but unfortunately, I didn't receive anything from my own secret one. But anyway my days were beautiful and more beautifully. It wasn't just for the activities that made us know each other there were also activities that made us know more about the world around us, some things that weren't said before to us. We discussed too many topics that show the main our days problems such as was the Post-Truth, about media, politics and society.

Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

O intercâmbio "TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era" decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 no Bairro Padre Cruz em Lisboa. Aqui ficam uns pequenos testemunhos de alguns dos participantes

Agata Siwak, Poland

I had decided to participate in my first youth exchange only 4 days before it started. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it, but as soon as I got there and met these incredible people, I knew it was a place for me. I loved Lisbon, especially at nights with live music. The atmosphere, the company, the weather… Everything was perfect. Thanks to the people, workshops turned out to be exciting and interesting. The hosts did their best to give us another great experience. Having participated in this youth exchange, I can surely say that it will not be the last one.

Aneta Ligenza, Poland 

It was my first youth exchange. I was really excited but full of fears about my skills and knowledge. New experiences, new people, different cultures. The subject of exchange was for me interesting. I'm a street photographer and knowing about post-truth is for me necessary. Every workshop was a great way to learn new skills, listen to other participants. This exchange wasn't only workshops but meeting new people, sharing our passion, trying new meals from 5 other countries, sightseeing and exploring Lisbon all together. I think I will be looking for another exchange because is a great way to explore Europe.

Shirley Van-Dúnem, Portugal

Being in a youth exchange for one week can make us experience different emotions: we can be homesick or find another home next to new people, we can feel tired and really exhausted and even without energy try to enjoy the experience to its fullest because we know that in a blink of eyes it will all be gone soon. Living in the host country of this youth exchange remember us of the pressure to treat others like we would like them to treat us, it's all about learning, respecting boundaries and turn what makes us different from each other the reason why we need each other.

Ana Sofia Abreu, Portugal 

As a Portuguese girl I had only participated in Youth Exchanges outside my country, but Spin gave me the opportunity to spend ten days with amazing youngsters in Lisbon. The experience was quite different. Being from the hosting country makes us have a different participation in the programme as we are able to communicate with the natives and know the surroundings. Regarding the thematics, the workshops were very interesting and my knowledge about freedom of expression and freedom of press in Europe changed my perspective, as some countries still struggle with this issues. The multicultural differences between the participants is also one of the things I liked the most. With so many historical and personal backgrounds it was impossible not to learn so much about the other countries and other nationalities- we even tried typical meals from each country. Also, the friendship built in these 10 days just proves that no matter how different we are, the foundations of respect and togetherness are real and we all feel very European! And in the end of all this, what we learnt the most is that... what's really important is to TH!NK !!

Kristo Tamm, Estonia

I spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal as part of an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange. The exchange gathered participants from Estonia, Portugal, Poland, Macedonia, Italy and Scotland. The project was extremely constructive, interesting and beneficial. The topic of the exchange was an important one: post-truth politics, combined with the concern for the youth and their ability to navigate in this new world in which we now live. During this 7-day exchange, we had a wide variety of constructive exercises that helped develop our critical thinking and analytical skills. We had workshops with smaller groups, thus giving everyone a chance to speak their mind, but we also had exercises involving everyone at the same time. Additionally, we watched a thought-provoking documentary, visited Lisbon, and enjoyed each other's cultures, by having country dinners each night. As this was my first youth exchange, I did not know what to expect. However, all my expectations were exceeded, as the project was organised superbly, the participants were nice and the location was beautiful. I made a lot of new friends, learned about some lovely cultures and gained a huge amount of new knowledge about the topic of the project. 

Lola Milkovska, Macedonia

This is my first youth exchange and therefore I am very happy to be part of it.I think that is very inspirational to bring people from different countries together and make them work on different thematics. This youth exchange made me think more critically towards media and politics. I gained new skills, knowledge and a great experience. This was also my first time in Portugal.I get to know more about the political, cultural and societal aspects of this wonderful country. It was great and challenging to be part of the intercultural evenings.I am happy I had the opportunity to bring the Macedonian cuisine and tradition to the participants from different countries.I also enjoyed the other international evenings and cuisines and therefore I feel closer to the other counties. It was a pleasure to be around this kind of people because I made new friends and I experienced new things. I definitely recommend Erasmus + mobility projects to young people around the world.

Pedro Carvalho, Portugal 

This was my first time doing a youth exchange and I really enjoyed it! During this last week, we did a lot of different activities to get to know each other and also discuss the topic of post-truth. What I liked the most about this experience was the interaction with people from other countries and to learn more about them and the history/culture of their countries. I learned a lot I didn't know about these countries and now I want to visit them to learn even more and experience the wonderful things each country has. I'm taking a gap year and now I'm thinking about doing a trip around central and eastern Europe to visit some of the countries that were represented in this youth exchange. I really enjoyed the theme of the youth exchange as well, I love thinking about topics such as freedom of speech, what is truth, politics and media manipulation... I think these projects are a great opportunity to meet other people and learn about interesting topics and what it means to be European. It's also a good way to travel so I want to do youth exchanges in the future outside Portugal so I experience what it's like to do have an experience like this in a different country. To sum it all up, I think the projects and activities were very well organized and the people amazing!

Intercâmbio "Imagine Your Dance" em Anento, Espanha

Entre os dias 11 e 18 de Julho, tive a oportunidade de participar no intercâmbio "Imagine your dance" em Anento, uma pequena aldeia, em Espanha. Este intercâmbio tinha com temas principais dança e fotografia. Embora eu não tenha qualquer experiência prévia com estes temas, decidi participar.

Inicialmente, não estava a gostar, até pensei que talvez não deveria ter ido. Não estava a gostar porque as actividades, para mim, pareciam muito abstractas, eu não percebia os objectivos de determinadas actividades. E por esse motivo eu ficava um pouco impaciente, sentia que talvez todo o programa para mim iria ser uma perca de tempo.

Outro problema foi a comida. As refeições não eram bem compostas, o que depois de passar o dia a fazer exercícios físicos acabava por ser um problema. Houve refeições em que o prato principal eram dois tipos de feijões e grão, apenas isso. Frutas, nas refeições, era praticamente inexistente. 

Com o passar dos dias, senti que tinha que fazer um esforço para aproveitar a oportunidade que estava a ter de poder participar. Tentei tirar o maior proveito das actividades, mesmo não gostado de algumas, fui adaptando para que pudesse aprender algo de novo com cada actividade que foi proposta. E assim comecei a dar uso ao slogan inventado pelos participantes do intercâmbio, "en Anento disfruto del momento". E esta experiência que não começou tão bem, acabou por ser bastante enriquecedora. 

O mais importante desta experiência foram as pessoas. Havia pessoas de 5 países diferentes, das mais diversas áreas de formação, mas houve uma grande coesão dentro do grupo. O que nos permitiu, em uma semana, criar forte laços de amizade. No geral, esta experiência teve muitos aspectos que não gostei, mas muitos mais aspectos que me fizeram sentir que valeu a pena ter participado. 

Vânia Coelho

Intercâmbio juvenil "Homemade Home" na Eslovénia

 O Intercâmbio Internacional de Jovens "Homemade Home" decorreu de 8 a 17 de Julho na Eslovénia. Aqui fica um testemunho de uma participante portuguesa.

No dia em que me candidatei para participar no intercâmbio Homemade Home na Eslovénia, não estava à espera que nesse mesmo dia me telefonassem a dizer que tinha sido seleccionada.

Já à algum tempo que pensava em realizar uma experiência deste género e a SPIN tornou isso possível.

O intercâmbio foi de 10 maravilhosos dias, com hospedagem num hostel de qualidade máxima, num município chamado Brezice, na Eslovénia, juntamente com mais 3 portugueses e a nossa líder de grupo francesa.

Para além de ter abordado alguns problemas sociais actuais de grande importância - Sem-abrigo, Refugiados e Emigração - abordamos o conceito de "casa" e os sentimentos provenientes desta. Também nos foi possível aprender sobre algumas formas de arte, nomeadamente musica, artes plásticas, escrita criativa, teatro e fotografia.

Tive a possibilidade de ganhar consciência e aprender acerca das problemáticas acima referidas, bem como explorar as minhas capacidades nos inúmeros workshops de fotografia.

Mas o melhor desta experiência, foi conhecer as pessoas fabulosas que conheci, provenientes da Roménia, Espanha, Polónia, Itália e Eslovénia. Deram-me a conhecer as suas realidades e as suas vidas.

A Eslovénia é um país lindo, maioritariamente verde e para além de Brezice, os organizadores do intercâmbio ainda nos permitiram visitar a capital do país - Lubliana!

Nesta viagem ganhei uma nova família e um novo conceito de CASA (HOME).

Escusado será dizer que fui acolhida e tratada da melhor forma pela SPIN e pela organização Eslovena do Intercâmbio.

Por tudo isto e muito mais, agradeço à SPIN esta experiência, que nunca esquecerei.

Raquel Costa

Intercâmbio Internacional de Jovens "Aim High, Choose Healthy"

O Intercâmbio Internacional de Jovens "Aim High, Choose Healthy" decorreu de 28 de Julho a 4 de Agosto em Lisboa. Aqui fica um testemunho de uma das participantes.

Katerin da Estónia

I participated in the youth exchange "Aim high, choose healthy" during the summer of 2013 and it was a lot of fun! We got to know more about healthy habbits and how to improve one's lifestyle. I got some new knowledge about how to track my physical progress and fat loss with some methods that I had never heard before. We did a lot of group building and fun activities with smaller and bigger groups and I made a lot of new friends from different cultures. Furthermore, we had national evenings of every country that was represented and I learned a lot about the food, music, dance and politics about the other countries that were present. Thank you for an unforgettable week in Lisbon!

Intercâmbio Internacional de Jovens "Our time!"

O Intercâmbio Internacional de Jovens "Our time!" decorreu de 22 a 29 de Junho de 2013 em Lisboa. Aqui ficam uns pequenos testemunhos de alguns dos participantes.

Alexandra de Portugal

A participação no intercâmbio foi absolutamente fantástica. No inicio tinha receio em participar pelo facto de ter algumas dificuldades em expressar-me em inglês, mas acabei por embarcar neste projeto e ainda bem que o fiz.  Destaco a aprendizagem pessoal, o trabalho em equipa, a partilha e a interação. O intercâmbio permitiu-me melhorar a língua inglesa, conhecer diferentes pessoas e perceber que iniciativas existem nos outros países sobre esta questão da intergeracionalidade.  É de facto uma experiência incrível e uma optima oportunidade de conhecer novas pessoas, países, culturas e de aprendermos uns com os outros. Sem dúvida, recomendó!

Ieva da Lituânia

Firstly, as a group leader, I found this youth exhange very useful. I've learned some new and interesting methods of how to encourage young people to soak up new knowledge, how to make them understand the topic and have so much fun at the same time. As a participant, I realy enjoyed the topic. I was very happy to meet Portuguese seniors. They made me to break lots of stereotypes about old people. I also realised that intergenerational dialogue means sharing. Young people can learn lots of things from the elder generations. But they also can propose their knowledge. Therefore, If you want to get something, you have to give something, too. 

Urte da Lituânia

This youth exchange was the first for me. First when I heard that I'm going to participant in this exchange I was really scared. Because I don't knew how everything will be and what I'm going to do. But when I came I realized that this is the best experience for the future. All discusions,games and activities were all something that for now I can use in my own life. These topics like "generation dialogue","what we can change for olderly people,or what they can change for youngest people" and others are really important for all people. Now I can share my opinion with others and others can say them opinion to me,it is really intresting. I realized that no matter where you from,what your culture,nationality or who you are,you can communicate with all people and share your experience,which can change your and others life.

Nélia de Portugal

International Youth Exchange Our time! During 8 days, we were going to be around 25 people from 5 different countries working in activities about intergenerational dialogue while getting to know each other. It was a great opportunity to improve our skills and knowledge about other cultures and languages and to share our life’s experiences. We all spent 2 days with seniors in Senior Academy of Carnide and it was one of the best moments because they are really active people and they showed us that age is not a barrier. Thanks Spin, It was a great project!

André de Portugal
What a lovely surprise and experience. It is awkward to say that I went on exchange to Lisbon (yes, I'm Portuguese and I study and work at Lisbon) but it was a very enriching experience that I couldn't miss! Be a part of an inter-generational movement, practice English (and Spanish, Lithuanian, Polish, Italian, Português?!) and make new friends are obviously good arguments to convince. They convinced me, I hope someday will convince you too! Btw, SPIN ROCKS! Thank you so much for this unforgettable exchange.

Uma foto, uma palavra, 5 anos!

Car@ amig@ da Spin! Como estás?

Nós estamos muito orgulhosos de te anunciar que a Spin está a fazer 5 anos de vida!. Estamos muito entusiasmados e a preparar tudo para que possamos celebrar em grande o nosso aniversário durante todo o ano de 2013...

Se participaste em pelo menos uma actividade de mobilidade através da Spin (SVE, intercâmbio juvenil, curso de formação, workshop, estágio profissional, etc.), queríamos agradecer-te por teres feito parte da nossa ONG! 

Através da tua participação contribuíste para o crescimento da Spin e para o que somos neste momento!

E nós queremos evidenciar o teu contributo e participação através da realização de um  vídeo feito das tuas fotos e palavras. Por isso te pedimos se nos podes enviar 1 foto e 1 palavra que sejam representativas da tua experiência como voluntário/estagiário/participante com e através da Spin, as quais possam espelhar o tempo que passaste connosco e/ou o que fizeste através de nós.

Estamos a recolher os feedbacks de tod@s para criar o vídeo de celebração dos 5 anos, o qual estará disponível muito brevemente nos nossos canais de comunicação (sitio, Facebook, You Tube).

Muito obrigada pelo teu apoio e participação!

Estamos desejosos de saber de ti neste momento e de receber a tua foto e palavra mais representativa para o email: geral@a-spin.pt!

Um abraço,

Equipa da Spin

One photo, one word, 5 years!

Dear friend, how is everything going?

We are very proud to announce that the Spin Association has reached 5 years of life! We are excited about it and are getting everything ready to fully celebrate our anniversary throughout 2013…

If you have participated in at least one of Spin’s activities (EVS, Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, Workshops, Workcamps, Internships, etc.), we wish to thank you for being part of our NGO!

With your participation in our projects you have contributed to shape what Spin is at this moment!

Therefore, we wish to highlight your contribution and your participation through a short video! We would like to ask you to email us one representative photo of your experience with Spin as a participant, trainee, volunteer and also one word that can sum up your time with us.

We will collect everybody’s feedback and create a video, which very soon you'll be able to watch in all our communication channels (website, Facebook, YouTube).

Thank you very much for your support and your participation!

Looking forward to hearing from you and receiving your most representative photo and word (email: geral@a-spin.pt)!

Hugs,

Spin’s team

Dance Along Culture Shock Therapy

Português

Dance Along - Cultural Shock Therapy foi um intercâmbio no qual a SPIN foi parceiro e que decorreu de 25 de Junho a 2 de Julho em Redon, Bretanha, França. Neste intercâmbio seis participantes de Portugal entre os 18 e 25 anos juntaram-se a participantes de outros três países Europeus (França, Eslováquia e Roménia) e passaram sete maravilhosos dias no campo a aprenderem sobre as suas diferenças culturais, pro actividade e choque cultural. Durante esta semana aprendemos a viver juntos e a desfrutar do estilo de vida da Bretanha e sua natureza enquanto partilhávamos danças tradicionais, comida, histórias e jogos. Entre tudo isto criámos um projecto conjunto, um videoclip, onde todo o grupo representou, sobre choque cultural mostrando as diferentes fases e sentimentos inerentes ao processo. No final criámos um evento onde envolvemos a comunidade local de Redon onde apresentámos o intercâmbio, as diferentes culturas envolvidas e projectamos o nosso vídeo final.

Foi uma experiência maravilhosa para um grupo de 27 pessoas de 4 países (Portugal, Eslováquia, França e Roménia), definitivamente uma experiência que nos ajudou a valorizar mais a nossa cultura mas também nos ajudou a sentir uma maior ligação a esta cultura transversal que designamos por Europeia!

Fizemos amizades para além de fronteiras que vão durar muito tempo!

English

Dance Along - Cultural Shock Therapy was a youth exchange in which SPIN was a partner and that took place in Redon, France from 25th June until 2nd July 2012. In this youth exchange 6 participants from Portugal gathered with participants from another 3 countries (France, Slovakia and Romania) and spent seven wonderful days in the countryside learning about each other’s cultures, pro activity and about cultural shock. During this week we lived together we enjoyed the Brittany (western part of France) lifestyle and nature while sharing our traditional dances, foods, histories and games. In between all this we designed and created a video clip, in which all the group performed, about cultural shock showing the different phases and feelings of the process. More than this we organized an event in our camping site for the local community of Redon in which we presented the youth exchange and the different cultures involved and we made a projection of our video clip.

Was a wonderful experience for a group of 27 persons in which we all improved our knowledge of this 4 countries (Portugal, Slovakia, France and Romania), definitely it was an experience that helped us give more value to the Portuguese culture but also feel a stronger connection to this transversal culture that we call European!!

We made friendships beyond borders that will last for a long time! 

ECOyoung

In the midsts of spring this year, 20 young Europeans came to the most western city within their borders in an attempt to acquire new and share old knowledge of the life of nature in today's world, its destruction and preservation.

Doing so, they perhaps discovered more of themselves and others as well. I dare to say so because the ecological crises is obviously provoked by humans and not by nature itself, so the problems of ecology has mainly anthropological character. Therefore, I believe, solutions for these issues should be searched for within personalities and their crisis in relation to themselves and nature as a constitutional part of their being.

If we take a peek at the etymology of ecology, it reveals it self not only as a study of living things and environment, but also as a relationship between the two. Or similar, Okologie derived from the Greek oikos, has a meaning of a house, habitation. So here, as the name of this youth exchange ECO young suggests, the idea of such a gathering was that participant's views on the environment they inhabit grow younger, are renewed, refreshed, regenerated and even reconstructed, so that, with a certain change that hopefully will occur in their relation to it,  the world, the nature itself could become young and new. Eco young, at least for me, is the return of the regenerating power that nature lost because of the human dominant rule over it, and so the return to being eternally young and forever new. Perhaps this romantic view on the preservation of nature was more actual in 17 and 18 century when ideas of environmental protection were given a start, more of an aesthetic preservation than anything else. So, we agree that these ideas are not new at all. The difference is that today, and this exchange helped us reconsider and remember, people are aware of their own self-destructive power which is the result of the instrumentalisation of science in service of human life stile and the realization of the modernism's program of ruling over nature. Aesthetics is no longer the case.

Different debates during this green week provoked many discussions and reflections, and the individual contribution of participants sharing their own views were highly productive for it showed the group how various are the standing points depending of the cultural, historical, political and economic backgrounds that influence how others perceive and treat their environment. To make things clearer, several field activities were performed where persons involved in this exchange had opportunity to "RE" a lot, that is to REmake, REmix, REdistribute and in this way to REfresh their consciousness of our surroundings, whether this be urban or not. I think these young people recalled that environmentalism is not exclusively far in the hills, mountains and seas, but also in our houses, streets and cities. Ecology is also defined as “The study of consequence.” (Frank Herbert), so humans being the only beings to consciously act they provoke changes that produce consequences that we are used to ignore as abstract and far from us, and therefore not worthy to deal with any time soon.

This postponing of our responsibility towards nature led us to a point where making damage is inevitable. Not only that it prevents environment in its natural cycle of regeneration, but it somehow, ironically, became a part of this cycle. Human impact is now needed, otherwise nature becomes overprotective and its destructive powers are manifested in ways we are about to witness.

Many of the workshops of this youth exchange made clear that the abstract "raising awareness" is not always the answer in making changes. I would rather say that it is more helpful not doing than doing if we wish to aid nature to get back on its track. It is choosing the smaller evil and researching for alternatives of how to reduce damage that we are making anyways. Honestly speaking this is the best we could do in my opinion. Fooling ourselves with over excessive involvement and environmental activism (which is becoming more of a trendy fashion than realistic engagement) is simply not doing the trick if we wish to take things seriously. It is good for entertaining the masses and feeding the society of banalised spectacles. We should accept our weakness and inability in making things better, and understand that sometimes nature's message is "please stay away".

I truly hope that ECO young helped us see that the human emancipation with the help of growing sciences perhaps sometimes went in wrong ways: instead of liberating and developing it led to a form of enslavement.

In my subjective opinion, and from my humble knowledge in this field I dare to conclude that our mistake is in nurturing our instinct of power over things and this is where we go against ourselves. I believe that it is not in the human nature to own things, but instead, we should attempt to enter in a dialog with them, if we wish to understand them better of course.

Tristão Garrido Lopes Faria