Thursday started with a brainstorming, after the breakfast. The basic question was: Can food become an income source for youngsters without big investments? The youth discussed their ideas about possible enterprises in mixed groups, later presenting, comparing and analyzing the results of the common work.

After a short break with games and fun there was a short presentation about food-blogging to which the participants could add their recipes already. After lunch everyone had the opportunity to learn how to cook the Bulgarian banitza and the shopska salad, later on, with the help of an expert, the participants shot very nice food-photos about these.

The third day of the project seemed to be long and exciting.
 
The discussions started the day before about the habits and traditions related to meals now were turned into presentations. The cooking of the Hungarian goulash and the Slovak noodles with cottage cheese took lots of time but it was worth to wait as it can be seen on the pictures and videos made during the process.
 
In the afternoon, as a relaxation, the participants went to Olosig village to entrepreneurs whose persistence and ambitions are exemplary. The youth visited a horticulture of foil houses where the producers grow flowers and garden-stuff, trying to turn all of the foil houses into 100% bio production. The visitors might take tomatoes or peppers straight from the stems, and large plums from the trees, not to mention that before leaving they were invited to a table with home-made ham and bread. So the afternoon program prolonged towards the evening, but still, everybody was very curious about the Hungarian cultural night.

Beginning from the second day of the project the participants started to deepen themselves in the main topic of the week. First of all they contoured the maps of their countries, then sticked the proper image of the national dishes to the right regions on the map. This was followed by the presentation of the national foods of each country which ended up in a great discussion since everybody was curious about the others’ habits related to meals. In the afternoon the first cooking workshop took place when the group of Romania taught the participants how the real polenta with cottage cheese is made.

As a recreation after the cooking and the rearrangement of the place there was a debate about food, whether it is just a basic necessity or there is something more hiding in the topic. The day ended with the Bulgarian national culture’s night.

On the very first day the rain influenced the atmosphere and the program a lot. The city tour was replaced by presentations about the city of Săcueni, but besides this the ice-breakers and other activities were going on smoothly. After getting to know each other’s names and a bit of the personalities, and also the Erasmus Plus Program, the participants enlisted their hopes, fears and contributions to the project and to the enrichment of each other’s knowledge. The day ended with the intercultural night.

The project entitled Common European Culinary Picture for Preserving Our Cultures! will take place between 22-28 of August, in Săcueni, Bihor county, Romania.
 
The project goal is twofolded. One one hand the organizers want to help facilitating intercultural knowledge of the participating countries through gastronomy and raising awareness of the importance of maintaining their own cultural values in order to preserve European Multiculturalism for the future generations. Ont he other hand the projects aims helping NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) participants to develop entrepreneurship and competences which could be advantageous for their employment.
 
The main activity of the youth exchange is the creation of 5 films that will present the cooking procedure of national dishes of the 5 participant countries and the cultures and countries beyond the presented dishes. The videos will be presented to the public at an event conducted on the last day of the youth exchange, and shared of various mass media and online channels. Before making these films the participants will know how to prepare these dishes, but will also learn the basics of photoshooting, videoshooting, editing footage and blogging. The digital skills which will be developed are very useful nowadays, since employers require them for many jobs.

The Er hangja Association organizes an Erasmus+ youth mobility involving 30 unemployed youth from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, between 22-28 August, 2016. The project aims to help the youth by creating the occasion for acquiring intercultural and gastronomical knowledge; besides this, the participants will take part in workshops developing digital skills related to gastronomy (food blogging, food photography, etc.) that might help them on the labors market.
 
This is why the Er hangja Association calls for those who want to participate, to learn something new, and who are between the age of 18-25. To participate, please send an introductory text about yourself and a motivational letter to the erhangja1@gmail.com until the 31st of July, 12 a.m.
 
The project is funded by the European Union.
 
For more information please call Orsolya Biro, organizer, on the following number +40 755-481-491, and Timea Aszalos on +40 762-830-344.

The project of the Erhangja Association called European Social Overview through My Lens was closed on 16^th July. The end of the project was marked by the film projection in the conference room of the youth center owned by the Reformed Church of Sacueni.

During the project the participants learned how to handle the camcorder and the photo cam for making videos; they could try their knowledge also in practice during the fieldwork. You can see the documentaries created from the interviews, clips recorded by them. It is an interesting fact that each documentary was created by a team of participants with mixed nationalities, this team setup enhanced communication and acquaintance process.

In the forenoon of the last day a group of the youth participants went to the city after breakfast to distribute the handmade flyers and posters in Sacueni. They invited the people of the street to the afternoon screening, then the time of premiere came. The three documentaries was finished, to which the screenplay, the footages and the editorial work wasdone by the mixed groups of the participants from the three countries. After the premiere there was a short conversation with the public about the presented topics.

The Slovak cultural night indulged not only our tummies but we could gain new knowledge about the country and could also expand our common dictionary with new words. After a night rich in dance and tastes the groups could hardly begin to start the editional works of the documentary movie next morning. There were some exercises helping the atunement and then the film crews from Monday teamed up again. They made it clear what’s the rest to do, who undertakes what, what kind of footages are needed yet, what should contain the promotion of the screening?

After waking up and drinking the necessary quantity of coffee the youth gathered in the room on Tuesday morning. While everybody was still crooning the „Nád a házam teteje” song („The roof of my house is made of reed”) learnt on the Hungarian night previously the organizers planned to have group discussions in the forenoon. The participants teamed up to analyze the topic of black work, jobs that don’t require qualification and the emigration for work. Each group looked up a space in the building where they preferred to work and the notes were done in half an hour.