Anne-Lise Rolin - Elise Vereecke

In the morning:

8.15: We had our collective “Mm a cup of coffee, mm a cup of tea”

9.00: We did two games to get to know each other: the first one was the parachute with a big piece of cloth. Everyone took the border of the parachute (different games: umbrella, mushroom, pop corn, igloo, the cat and the mouse with balls…). And the second game was a rhythm game where we used our bodies to coordinate our hands and foots (not as easy as it seems to be!).

“Good morning, good morning”

“How did you sleep, oh very deep”

“Mm a cup of coffee, mm a cup of tea”

“One piece, two piece, three piece, four piece, so much sugar”

10.00: We wrote a letter to ourselves with our expectations, hopes, fears…We ‘ll keep this letter till the end of the programme and than at the end of the stay we’ll see how we have changed, if our expectations have been realized and if our fears were funded.

11.00: We took the car to a new spot where we discovered Land art sculptures from Belgian artists. The name of this walk was “Festival en mai”. Every year in May, some artists come to that spot to make art with natural elements. Some of this sculptures are in a good state and others have been destroyed by the nature (nature is stronger than man’s work).

“Le géant endormi” – ‘The sleeping giant’

To appreciate the place at this stage, we made a stop next to the sculpture named: “Le tombeau du géant” - ‘The sleeping giant’ and Deniz tell us a story about an elephant and a squirrel. This story was more than a simple story, this story tells about expectations that everyone in this experience, in this journey, would find the answers to his questions and expectations and would find his tree and make his pirouette.

The nature of the elephant

"If you were me, squirrel ..." said the elephant at once to the squirrel.
It was one afternoon in summer. They sat in the house of the squirrel. The window was open and the sun shone in, fell obliquely on the table where the tea cups were which they had drunk. Motes danced in the light and in the distance the thrush sang in the top of the lime.

"... Would you also like to climb trees, as you know you really cannot climb and are sure you'll fall and hurt yourself..."

The squirrel said nothing. The elephant took another sip of tea and continued.
"... And when you get to the top of a tree came, would you also look around and feel your heart pounding with joy because of the distance you can see, the whole distance, which you've never seen before and would you also cry, "the distance! I see the distance! "And turn around your axis and make a pirouette on one leg ..."

He paused and looked with one eye to the squirrel. But the squirrel still said nothing and stirred his cup.

The elephant looked at the lamp that hung above the table and went on.
"... Even though you knew you could not make pirouette, and certainly not on one leg, and not on top of a tree, because there is no place for a pirouette, even for someone who is very good in pirouettes, you know, because you cannot even stand on one leg ... "

The squirrel got up and poured the cups again. They both took a sip.
"... And that you would fall - there is no way - and through the branches of that tree would come with a smack on the ground, so everything hurts and everything that can break breaks and you do not know where you are and who you are? "

The elephant took another sip, put his cup down, cleared his throat, biting his lips and put his trunk in his neck, for he knew not what he had to do with his trunk, and the squirrel set his cup down too, rubbing over his head, scratched his back and said:

'Yes.'

 (Retold by D. Nieuwejaers)

13.30: We came back to the accommodation place.

13.45: We ate a very good sandwich. We rested a little in the sun and enjoyed the good weather.

In the afternoon

14.30: We created our own collective land art with the material that the accommodation place offered to us (woods, stones, bark, tiles, moss, …). But we had to do it in a special way (special technique): start with a tree (natural element), and use the light (shadow) to make the outline of everybody. Yes, everyone had to be represented! At the beginning we had some difficulties with the sun (it was not there all the time) but we found a solution: lie down on the ground and make the outline.

During our stay, we would be able to have a look to our creation and see his evolution, if it changed.

Our sculpture could and change with time but anyway we enjoyed making our own land art creation and we enjoyed the group work.

After that, we made a circle, according to our birthdates, chronologically. But there was one instruction: we were not allowed to talk or to write to each other. Here too, we found some difficulties, even if it was very funny. We couldn’t understand each other: the months were not in a chronological order and it was not well organized.

Then we did another activity: still in a circle, we had to change places with the person in front of us. Everyone had to change position at the same time, in the fastest possible way and we had to touch a leaf in the middle of the circle with our foot. There we went, every one pushing each other, two noses broken, one bone smashed in two and one man down… No, we’re joking! No worries, nothing happened but it was quite messy. Carme asked us three questions (reflections)

- I have an objective and… am I going to achieve it?

- Is my group going to achieve its objective?

- And we are going to act as human beings?

And the three answers must be yes. And we changed the way to do it. It worked better, nobody was hurt.

Third activity: say our names and tell three things about us, but one of this information had to be false. The listeners had to find the false piece of information (thing) and tell why they thought it was false.

Last exercise: every one had half of a paper star and we had to find the other half of the star to rebuild the entire star. On the stars we had to write some of our qualities that would make the group and the group life during this stay richer. Finally, all the stars reunited made a galaxy.

In the evening

8.00: Delicious meal prepared by our teachers: spaghetti with three different sauces: salmon, vegetarian and curry.

9.00: European multimedia quiz made by Mr. Thibaut, what an amusement!

11.00: After a big interesting and complete day, we went to sleep with our head full of many thoughts.