In the period of May 28th and June 4th, thanks to the organizers Innovation Office (or VšĮ Inovacijų biuras in Lithuanian), I had a chance to participate in Erasmus+ youth exchange project ‘Green Energy’ in Turkey, Izmir (Foça). And I am pleased to share some of my thoughts and memories about this particular project.
Prior to that, I have to mention that this is not my first experience in this country. Actually, in 2014 I attended international youth project on a topic ‘Do not let children die!’. It was held in Eastern part of Turkey, Siverek town (Şanlıurfa province). This region is not a very touristic one (except Şanlıurfa itself, where Abraham is said to be born), comparing to those major cities such as Istanbul or Izmir which are densely populated and regularly visited by many foreigners. At the moment, due to obvious reasons (higher risk of terrorist attacks or migration issues) Şanlıurfa is included into the list of regions close to Syria border that are not safe. I am happy that I was able to see that area before and now compare different experiences.
There are some countries which you simply want to visit once again and explore more, because it has something really unique and attractive. Turkey is definitely one of them. Therefore, I wanted to see the third biggest city Izmir and its district Foça. Namely, Foça (Phocaea or Phokaia) has an impressive history, as it dates back around 5000 years and outlived different empires and had influence from ancient times, Persian, Hellenic, Roman and other rulings. It is situated near the Aegean Sea and because this area is largely inhabited by seals, this sea animal has become the symbol of Foça. It could be mentioned that this area has a wonderful climate and spectacular nature with crystal clear sea water, coves and islands. This is noticeable and leaves great impressions. Historically, the people of Phocaea had good sailors and were famous of its fleet.
The participating countries of this project were Turkey, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Portugal, Macedonia and Romania. I am really glad I’ve met so wonderful, talented, motivated and friendly youth from many countries at once. I would say that one of the greatest advantages and pros of such kind of projects that you are able to increase the number of your friends, contacts and also build bridges between cultures.
The programme of this youth gathering was well-thought and interesting as we had possibility to learning possibilities, sport activities, cultural events combined. The exchange of different experiences in green energy sector obviously was the focal point of this project. Raising awareness about ecological and environmental issues in our societies is a crucial role of everyone in order to save our planet which is in danger. Green energy and alternative resources are the path for the future which has to be implemented as soon as we will finally understand the true benefits of it. This is a new sector for economy and labor market as well and should be developed. So we discussed about the general risks for our global nature, different approaches and presented how each of the participating countries contribute to the alternative resources sector. The final task was really interesting – we had to build up a prototype or hypothetically project a house based on green energy materials. There were many creative ideas how to apply the best practices from different countries.
I was kindly surprised by the real examples of usage of alternative resources in Foça. Obviously, the climate is favorable for that. I noticed many solar panels and collectors, it is widely used by locals. Another fact is that many people drive electric motorcycles and electric motor scooters. There are special places to charge the batteries. Also, it was quite extraordinary to see lots of cats and dogs in the streets and people take care of them by providing special venue to feed these animals (with food and water inside). One of the main feature of people from Foça or Izmir that I perceived is the openness and quite liberal attitude toward many things. Maybe because of that the younger generation – students and young adults are willing to live particularly in Izmir.
During our programme, we also had several meetings with local officials of Phocaea in a municipality building, we were invited to visit a local school and see the education system over there. A boat trip to the islands was also arranged and allowed us to experience the beauty of Foça area, enjoy the wonderful sunny weather. An interesting fact is that Phocaea is relatively close to a Greek island Lesbos which is well-known nowadays for the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Also, worth mentioning is that there is a military base in the area where we stayed and trainings are exercised. The region of Izmir is famous for Ephesus, an ancient city which is one the best preserved. I especially admire seeing those places which have a significant contribution to the world’s history. However, this time we were not able to see Ephesus due to an intensive schedule. Most of the countries have different approaches to their history, beliefs, but there are some places that help us to share common values and reach for intercultural dialogue. The promotion of unity, respect and tolerance toward different views has been one the main goals of the project. And I personally like that there is always a room to find similarities between countries rather than focusing on what separates us.
What I really liked besides the information about green energy, was the possibility to learn more about cultures of countries. In the first half of a day, typically some time were left for learning language of participating countries. Members of each country had to present its own language and teach some basic phrases that might be useful. It was quite fun. And in the evenings, we had to present the culture of our countries. Lithuanian group presented some very unique facts about our history. For instance, that our territory once was from the Baltic Sea up to the Black Sea, that our language is among 10 oldest languages still spoken today or that the geographical center of Europe is in Lithuania. It is always nice to have a chance to share interesting things about your own country and be sort of an ambassador. I am glad that other members from Lithuania which I did not know before were friendly throughout the project. We also presented our national cuisine by giving a chance to taste some of the foods like apple cheese, honey, kvass and other. I really enjoyed the time in this social and cultural part of the project. We had a possibility to see traditional dances, hear folk songs of different countries and hear previously unknown facts about each of them.
Apart from that, the organizers provided us information about possibilities of Erasmus programme or youth exchange in general. I am always looking for cooperation, therefore, it is nice to know more sources and ways to do that. I am sincerely thankful for the organizers and for their support and efforts to create an everlasting experience for us, bring new perspective to our thinking about green energy and youth exchange. I appreciate such opportunity and it satisfied my expectations. I have great memories from this project and hope to share this experience with many people.
In general, I see the true benefit of this project that it allowed me to broaden my knowledge about the green energy as such and also about the specific peculiarities of usage of green energy in different countries. Moreover, participation in the cultural nights and language lessons, gaining new friends has been one the greatest things out of this project. I kindly invite everyone to participate in at least one similar project, because it is simply a great experience!
