Between 22-28 August the second Erasmus+  project of Ér hangja Association took place with great success at Székelyhíd. Thirty young people from four countries took place in it.

During the time of the different activities, the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian and from HIghlands (south part of Slovakia) participants got aquinted with the culture and traditions of the others through cooking different traditional meals. The first day of the youth change programme was the exposure day, when all the participants got aquinted with the project, their daily programme, the Erasmus+ programme of the EU, the hometown of the project and had the first meeting with the  others. They learned the name of each other through a game and gave an account of their expectations over against the programmes and their participation in it.  

A project can be any long or short, the last day is always the best day. Those who are homesick are happy to get back, those who wanted to have friends have 1-2 really good friends on the last day yet. The same happened here too. And besides this, in the morning the youth spread the flyers and posters and then the projection started on time.
 
The mayor of Sacueni appeared too to greet the youth and say thanks for choosing his city for a summer challenge. Also the organizers expressed their gratitude for the active participation and productive week. The projection was enjoyed by many, yet the afternoon was calling again for the participants only. The most important part, the final evaluation and handover of the Youthpasses was left for the afternoon. So there was nothing left to do, than celebrating the achievements by partying together.

Those who did not have enough rest or games after the “working days”, on Saturday had the chance to recover their needs. Still, there were some things left to do. This way those who did not find their place in front of the computers to study the video editing software had the option of drawing the flyers and posters for the Sunday projection of the short movies. Finally, the day of Saturday and the list of cultural nights ended with the Romanian cultural night, since the host country was left for last as comeliness.

The Friday morning was devoted to the filming of the introductory videos for each short movie about the preparation of the national dishes. Each group had to imagine and to draw, plan their first introductory scenes (what background do they need, how do they want to introduce themselves, etc.) and then shoot it with the help of the associations expert colleague. After lunch some more work had to come since the videos had to be ready for the final editions, so each group was filming the missing parts. The intensive work was followed by active relaxation.

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.