On October 20-25 group of young enthusiastic people from all around the Europe went to the small but very cozy mountain village near the Slovakia boarder Murzasichle (Poland) for a seminar ”Step in to democracy”. Active, creative and communicative people came from Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Spain to gather together and to fulfill their knowledge about another countries, cultures, languages and values, to share experience how to be an active participant in social life and support the development of civic society. Wojciech Ciesielkiewicz and Agnieszka Zawislak were our guides through the journey of sharing our experiences and knowledge, they created great atmosphere for learning and participating all the time.
Murzasichle was the place where many nationalities came together with various ethnicities, different languages and ideologies. We created the multicultural environment to discuss about our differences and similarities; we absorbed all those different tendencies and thought about being able to apply them to any situation in our lives. Those interpersonal skills we shared are the base to succeed in a today´s modern multicultural society. We were focused on the learning process thinking what I can learn from each and what I can offer to others. The best thing was that we were not worried about “wrong answers”, marks or deadlines. That multicultural education showed how to seek to achieve greater social harmony in a society and world currently beset by intercultural conflict. And we called this harmony as democracy.
We started every day with the funny energizers and after it with fresh minds we continued hard and creative work. We had a Schedule to know the plan of the day and also the rules titled “The Contract” to be participating and honest with yourself and others. We worked in various spaces – living rooms, dinning room, outside seeing the incredible beauty of Tatra Mountains, in the main workplace. Open spaces, working in groups let us to know more about each other, to see different people strengths in varied learning contexts. We discussed about the most actual problems in the world and Europe (“World cafes”), talked about young active people and their possibilities, checked our competences working in groups and analyzing our contribution of the day alone, created our own organizations, also wrote and learned the words from the “The Language Wall”.
After work we had enough free time to go to relax in spaces like jacuzzi, sauna, to play table tennis or pool sharing a desk, dance or just stay in the room with new colleagues or roommates. Sometimes we just enjoyed the time and surprised ourselves talking about our projects, school, education or personal experiences till midnight.
Also it is needed to mention that we had opportunity to visit Zakopane. This town was not so far from Murzasichle but very nice with a lot of tourists, souvenir shops and cozy restaurants. Zakopane is informally known as the winter capital of Poland and is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing or just enjoying the incredible views of the Tatra Mountains. The day when we were in Zakopane was rainy and foggy so we hadn’t a real possibility to enjoy the views but it just mean that we will come back one more time to go to Kasprowy Wierch and feel the grandeur of the mountains.
The project “Step in to democracy” for me was inspiring, useful and motivating. I met amazing people from all Europe, enjoyed beautiful nature, cities and places of Poland, fulfilled my knowledge with information about interesting cultures, languages, traditions, how to share and accept it and finally connect everything in just one word DEMOCRACY.
