Sivas, Turkey

Four pupils and three teachers travelled to Turkey, Sivas. Before travelling we had a meeting with the pupils and their parents to inform them about the host country’s customs, the weather, the traffic and the proper behaviour. We thought it especially important because there are differences between the European and the Turkish customs about which teenagers do not have much information. We wanted to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts between the pupils.

The pupils prepared for the project tasks with enthusiasm. They had to make PPT presentations showing their country, town and school and they did it by themselves. Of course the English and the IT teachers who took part in the project helped them when they needed, and also with practicing how to present these PPTs and with the English pronunciation. Our students fulfilled their task at a high level and their performance was really good.

The presentations of the partner schools contributed to getting to know each other better. During the mobility we became acquainted with the life of the school, which was really interesting for the teachers and the students, as well. With the help of the Turkish students’ presentations on education system we got a lot of interesting information and could compare it with ours, and could see the similarities and differences.

The students prepared for the logo competition and designed their logo. In Sivas the participants voted for the best logo and the Turkish logo became the winner because we thought that it would best represent the project during the two years.

We had the task to prepare a project toy using recycled materials. Our team prepared flowers from wires and old nylon stockings. We displayed them in an exhibition to the local people, together with other hand-made products which we took from home. Our host partner later sold them in a charity market to raise money. For the money they bought a wheelchair and two walking frames for disabled people in the local Club of Disabled People.

A Turkish language course was given to the participants by low-skilled students.

During the mobility we had the opportunity to get to know the local traditions. We could watch a show where we enjoyed the dervish dance and a traditional wedding. We also became acquainted with the traditional art of paper marbling called Ebru, and with the help of the art teacher the participants could try this technique, and they also could take their pieces of art home. Of course we also had the opportunity to try out local specialities (sweets and dishes).

The sightseeing tour in Sivas provided us with a lot of information about the Turkish architecture and history. We were also amazed by the natural beauty of Cappadocia.

In terms of common voluntary work the participants of the project visited an animal shelter where they gave food to cats and dogs living there. We also could listen to a seminar about street animals and watched a video interview with the director of the animal shelter that they had visited.