Alba’s events
18 February
The pasta mini chefs
In relation to the first event we did two weeks ago in the Liceul Tehnologic nr 1 Cadea, about the most practiced and popularized traditional crafts of Sacueni, this week we held an event on the craft that the kids had chosen to try out for themselves: Pasta making! Getting our hands dirty with flour and eggs was a very entertaining and pleasing experience (even if the pasta dough turns out to look like a yellowish dry modelling clay).
For the sake of St. Valentine’s day, we decided to give the pasta fancy and quite big heart shapes. The kids were committed to properly blending the ingredients and impersonating short-height Italian chefs. While waiting for the dough to rest, we did a pasta facts quizz to see how much of pasta makers we were. At the end, the workshop turned out to be more decorative than future eatable, but we were happy with that outcome and the big hearts we created with our yellowish dough. Another good news is that the class remained quite clean after the event, regardless of two or three scattered dough pieces I can say it was very successful!
27 February
Spanish
night is coming!
Good morning everyone! Remember to leave some space in your agenda tonight if
you want to experience the Spanish culture like you have never done
before 🇪🇸.
Maybe you are not just able yet to travel to Spain, so this is the perfect
opportunity to savour a few Spanish typical dishes prepared by our volunteers
Alba and Andrea!🍲
On top of that, our volunteer Jon has a very special surprise for you. A
selection of the finest pieces of Spanish cinema (with Hungarian subtitles)
will also be available during this fascinating evening!🎥
You are just a few steps away from embarking on a new and fascinating cultural
journey which will surely not disappoint you. So come down to the museum at
19.00 and lets celebrate cultural diversity 🥳
Free entry!!!
1 March
Local entrepreneurs game
So what is it to become the owner of your business? How can you start from scratch an idea and see it grow and flourish as in your best dreams? Let me tell you how I see it.. Everything is possible in what respects to materialize an idea into a business. That is the thought which some high school students from the Petőfi-líceum and I followed through last week.
After a presentation on the basic knowledge concerning the business models, we saw the different steps of how it would be to start a local business regarding some of the most remarkable crafts of the region (except for the alcoholic beverages such as wine and pálinka are for those over 18 years old). From a list consisting of pasta making, chocolate, soap and honey making, the students had to plan in groups of 7 how to run their business and what would be the approximate costs of the first production round.
I have to say that the presentations left me thinking and likewise made me laugh and enjoy some creative expressions. For instance, some sentences worth mentioning were ¨With our profit we would build a Profi¨ or ¨Our honey is amézing, being méz honey in Hungarian¨. Besides, equally noteworthy was the amount of effort they put into designing the brands that would be the face to their business. It was a wakening activity to get to know them better and encourage them to participate in their local production from a more, let´s say, visionary perspective. The activity ended with some winners that we rewarded with a sweet-tooth treat. However, they all deserved recognition for their business founders´ skills.
15 March
Mini-exhibition in the hogh-school
Hello everyone!
In relation to the special day and the weekend of celebration that follows commemorating the 15th of March 1848 Revolution, we decided to exhibit some photographs of a walk in time through Sacueni. As we visited the Petofi high school and saw Hungarian flags and decorations, folkloric garments and excited students conglomerated in the corridors. We felt part of this dynamism and were pleased to leave a sample of what will be one of our future events, a visual trip through Sacueni. This involves an exhibition of photographs exposing sites as they were in the past century contrasted with the same sites nowadays. Hope you have time to stop by or come when the exhibition takes place We will announce it proximate to the date!
Sziasztok!
26 March
Maraca Maraca
The last activity we organised was different to the previous ones so far. There were no traditional crafts, no business entrepreneurship ideas nor gastronomy-based themes involved. This time it consisted on a dancing oriented initiative we decided to do with the children. The chosen song was Asereje, the Spanish summer music boom from a bit more than a decade ago. It is indeed a timeless song which is a must-dance when played at a party or anywhere its emmited by the loudspeakers. The hips move to the beat marked by Las Ketchup, the three integrants of this hit. I met the children of Oláh Katalin’s class, one of the two class´teachers they have at the Petofi elementary school.
For the purpose of the dance, we needed some instruments that accompanied the dance. Conversely, it would be something like making a Cesar salad with no dressing –don´t try this at home-. Anyways, so we decided to make them for the fun of it. The instruments we chose are maracas, a famous instrument in many Latin American music genres. They usually have an egg shape and a handle so they can be shaked to make sound. They are easy to use, user friendly, colourful and vibrant instruments. We made them with used toliet paper rolls and rice on the inside for the noice, covering each end with cardboard and using tape to close it as hermetically as possible. See, our maracas are ecofriendly with recylced materials! We decorated them by drawing personalised designs in paper that we stuck around the grey rolls.
We practiced the dance various times and I must say they are little dancing machines. They looked eyes wide opened and followed the steps carefully, thrilled by Asereje´s contagious moves. This week we are practising again because last week I was off being a tourist in Budapest –btw, beautiful and highly recommendable-. The flashmob will take place on Friday taking advantage of these recent sun-kissed days that announce spring is here to hopefully stay.
1 April
Nice weather seems to have come to stay! To
enjoy it, on Friday we decided to welcome spring with a flashmob at the centre square.
The kids from Oláh Katalin’s class at the Petofi elementary school moved their
arms and hips to the beat of Asereje by the Spanish music group Las Ketchup.
The children had a great time showing their familiars what dance they had been
preparing for during the week. The choreography was accompanied with some
maracas, an instrument used in Latin American to make the music performances
more vivid. For those of you who could not attend, here is a video of it
Also, this Friday at three there will be another
flashmob in the square centre, this time to the La Macarena´s vibes. We invite
you to come over and watch!
10 April
How much do you know the town?
On Wednesday we had a morning to reflect on the changes that the town of Săcueni has lived to. We exhibited some photographs that were a combination of the buildings back in the rural times, even before communism or any other ideology molded the different sites.
Today Săcueni is a town that has the buildings and facilities that are found in an archetypal town. It has the major’s house, the public library building, the station, the police office, the museum and so on. The repertoire of photographs included Săcueni’s main sites and contrasted past & present views of the same spots. The evolution these have experienced is evident for the spectator and so realized the three classes of students (two 10th graders and one 5th graders’ class) from Petőfi-líceum, accompanied by Ingrid Egeresi. After looking, contrasting and comparing we commented on a superficial level and ended with a game to see if we could identify the places. The context was the following: a hurricane had blended past and present. The photograph was completely distorted to become a seeming abstract creation of combined colors. However, I must say that for the next game the challenge will increase, given their ability to recognize and link each present place to its past… Săcueni is safe and things are back in its place.
2 May
Thursday news from the EVS
Last
week Julianna Püsök’s elementary class took part in a workshop of felting
tulips for Mother’s day (due in 3 days, for those of you who appreciate a
reminder).
Felting is a longstanding traditional craft which only uses wool to make
accessories like handbags, outer garments and any warm and cosy accesory that
crosses your mind.
We turned the museum into our little atelier and we started the tulip making
workshop.
The technique is simple: choose your coloured wool and have a bowl of water and
a soap next to you (that contains lanolin, wool-oil).
Once you have the materials ready, you can start the process. You put the wool
into the water and straight after you get the soap to cover the watery wool
with it.
>Essential: press the wool to get rid off the excess of water. The aim is to
gradually make the wool harder and molded to the shape you want.
Things go smooth when it comes to felting. Well, in this occassion we might
have used too much soap… We can say we held an improvised foam party!
Anyways, after a few times repeating the water dipping and soap covering, and
squeezing the water off, the wool starts hardening up. We used a ping-pong ball
to make the tulip shape.
The result was great, each of them had a felted tulip and likewise, I guess
more than one mother was happy to have an unexpected earlier Mother’s day
8 May
The EP elections are just around the corner!
For the past week the three of us volunteers have been thinking about how to
raise awareness, specially within the youngsters who will be able to vote for
the first time or are close to reaching the age limit.
For the purpose of reducing the spatial gap between EU organisms and the
citizens of Sacueni, we decided to start by providing the most important
insights of the EU.
We have started by going to a class of 17-18 year old students from Petőfi
School. After speaking about bureaucratic and practical information about the
EU endeavors, we underlined the importance of democracy and how the EParliament
is directly representing EU citizens’ ideological decisions. The European
Parliament is a directly elected body composed of 751 MPEs from all 28
countries which undertakes legislative, budgetary and supervisory roles. After
the explanations, we went on to playing some games related to the democratic
process. In groups of 4 the students had to agree on a pyramid of eight social
rights they considered fundamental. Moreover, we had time for a quick debate
regarding Schengen and national sovereignty for border controls. They were
engaged and we could listen to different respectful opinions. We are proud of
the reception the EU informative workshop had!
PS: For those less familiar with these elections, they will be open to votes on the 26th of May in Romania. We would appreciate if you considered this as an opportunity to mount to the will of working jointly for a more inclusive, secure and healthy Europe.
15 May
Are you interested in Spanish language?
Would yo like to add some more spice to your already existent knowledge and join the community of 577 million Spanish speakers of the world?
I start basic Spanish language classes this summer!
Here is th time to break the ice!
SEE YOU @MUSEUM OF SACUENI / 23 MAY, 5 P.M
See you there!
13 June
So the city days are just here around the corner.
We the Ér Hangja volunteers will be having a stall of our own nature: the
European Solidarity Corps -also a nice chill out- stall.
We are working on some surprises, oriented on the European Union and what it entails to be a citizen of this big community. Of course, our aim is to provide you with the information that can seduce you to have a look at the multiple activities offered under the umbrella of the ESC.
Whatever your life purpose is, we hope that you stop by to say hi and refresh with some Spanish beverages 🥤🥤
26 June
It has been a while since the
volunteers last published.
We are coming to an end and we want to recap on the work done so you can see
the events held. Also, Jon Baldwin, our video artist is leaving by the end
of the week so he is spending his last days here.
I will continue to be in Székelyhíd, helping out in the English Summer Camp. We also have the Spanish class with a small group every Monday, so if you are curious don’t hesitate to join us!
We hope summer has started well for those of you in vacation or about to have some holidays!! Somewhere the apocalyptic heat wave does not turn you into a shrimp or a dehydrated tomatoe!
4 July
I want to give some updates about the last volunteering.
As you might know, this week we are having the Religious Summer Camp at the
Roman Catholic Church and I thought it would be nice if you saw some of the
games we are playing: the knot, English hide and seak, who grabs the bottle,
and so on. Besides, we are learning together some Spanish and Magyar mass songs!
I am happy to be in the group and to meet the rest of the local volunteers and
father Kuglis Gábor.
Hope you enjoy the knot game video!
20 Aug
So it is getting closer to
the end of the Erhangja’s first European Volunteer Service project for the preservation
and promotion of cultural heritage in Săcueni and I thought of sharing some of
the events of the past weeks. We have been enjoying some sunny days in the
town, in nature and when I look back I don’t believe how fast these past eight
months have run.
I am grateful for the experiences and the people I have shared them with.
This is a collection that encapsulates some memories I keep with me and will take to Spain in two weeks.
Hope the holidays are going well for you all! See you around