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Day 9, Case study

Working on case study

After nice celebration of independence day of Latvia, unfortunately the day 9 had started.

Case study - presentation

This day greeted us with an interesting thing to do - case study on energoefficient houses. As we reached a lovely working place - the youth center "Kaņieris" - we started to work on our case study. We were divided in 4 teams.The task was to think about, calculate, find the best solutions of decreasing water, electricity and other consumptions, meanwhile fallowing the given situation, keep satisfied all the inhabitants of house. We had to look at this problem of all points of view, because not only with changing light bulbs or  heating system of the house the problem would be solved, every inhabitant of house had different opinion about saving energy, so we had to find the compromise. After some hours of searching information on the Internet, discussing in the team, making presentation, we had to present our final ideas in front of judges.

Case study - presentation

Then came the fun part - as we had nice time in Riga, we did so many different things, experienced culture differences - we had to make feedback sketch. So, each country came together and showed how this culture exchange looked from their point of view. It brought a lot of fun, laughter and positive memories back. In that moment we realized how awesome this event has been.

 

Fragment of Greek feedback

Day 8, Free day

Finally the day we all so waited had become. The atmosphere on the streets of Riga was full of joy, patriotism and people. It was the best time to see the city, go for a walk in the center, go to taste some of Latvian traditional meals, buy souvenirs and just chill out. When the night came we saw beautiful torchlight walk, it felt like all Latvians gathered in the center of Riga. Fallowing the crowd we stopped at the riverside and all together waited for beautiful fireworks appear in the sky. All sky was decorated in bright color to say happy birthday to Latvia. Later we had a birthday party to celebrate independence of Latvia with a tasty cake and many nice games.

TV24 about the project

Day 7, Flash mob

In the morning we gathered in Doma square, where we danced previously made Flash mob. About 30 people in "Think green, be green!" hoodies, holding two PET bottles in their hands were walking around old Riga. When we started to dance, hitting bottles in the air, seemed that all the other people in Riga disappeared form this square and gave us opportunity to show what are we doing here, that everyone can recycle plastic bottles in very different way. It is an interesting way how to bring awareness to all the people, because it's interesting, fun and creative. There you can see our Flash mob ---->

After the great experience in streets of Riga, we went to house of European Union to debate about Eco Food. There were two groups, one supporting eco food, and one against it. The main argument of the first team was that “we should know our food”, even if that means sacrificing variety or the comfort we enjoy today. The other group argued that eco food cannot replace the food we eat today, simply because conservatives and modifications are the only way to solve the hunger problem our planet faces today. 

But our day did not end there, we had a great ECO rally in the streets of Riga, we were visiting the most popular and famous buildings, doing some tasks, like hugging trees, picking up the garbage on the streets, giving kisses to cyclists, making the greenest pictures on our way, finding out essential information about Latvian national things and just having a really great time, it followed by a journey to Rigas fascinating nightlife

Day 6, Installation building

Building installations

Moring of Wednesday started with a walk to place called Andrejsala. There for us waited a lot of already used materials and waste. The main task was to give message to the society through installations of waste. There were a lot of stuff – metallic cans, plastic bags, PET bottles, card boards, wheels, papers, news papers and other used material. 

Installation with fact about PET bottles

The essential meaning was to use statements/facts about environmental problems, like “Of 27 PET bottles it is possible to make a sweater” or “One ton of recycled paper can save 14 trees”, etc. So we were dived in 5 teams, each was provided with this kind of a fact and we started to build installation form garbage. During the first part of the day we brainstormed ideas, made the installation and put the statement to this installation. While building this installation the TV24 came and filmed everything we did. The second part of the day was made for presentation of the installation. 

 After presentations we went to put these awesome installations near the waste containers in the nearest area in hope that someone will read the statement and realize what can be done to make our world greener, better. 

 

It was instructive, ourselves inspiring and great! 

Day 5, Enviromental roleplay

European Union house

After a fabulous night full of music and fun , it was time for Environmental Roleplay at the European Union house.

The environmental roleplay was about green thinking towards naturally resources in the sea: we were divided in 5 groups, ships and fish companies, who were supposed to lay a strategy towards buying  and selling ships while fishing. The aim of this role play was to pay attention to resources of fishes in the sea, because they were ending very fast - companies tried to earn a lot of money, but in the same time really had to think strategic – earn some money while there are still fishes in the sea. After 8 rounds we saw, who had had the best income. In every round we had to make decision where to sail - deep sea or coast sea - and buy or sale ships between each team. At the end there was situation that all fishes in the deep sea run out, so the roleplay was ended. Afterwards there was discussion about the winner strategy and loser weak points. 

Advertising campaign designe presentation

  On the second part of the day we had to make an advertising campaign design with other NGO. The guest NGO was Board of Latvian Students of Environmental Sciences. They helped us to think in groups about things like self providing with a healthy food, public transport popularity, ecological building heating system and a problem about garbage on the streets. After in the groups we presented the outcomes, it was interesting to see how creative advertising could be and how possible is to make a real campaign.

Day 4, Ideal recycling model

Presentation on garbage sorting in Greece

This day we had a presentation on garbage sorting held by the participants about different ways Italians, Greeks, Norwegians and Latvians use to deal with their waste: Greeks don’t separate the rubbish and put everything in a big bin then send it to the recycling factories. At the same time Italians have big differences in the different areas of the country, they have big problems dealing with garbage in the south while in the North they have an organized system for recycling by separating all the garbage in the houses, Latvians also have some recycling factories made for paper and medicine, but the whole system of garbage recycling doesn’t work for everyone, so they need to fresh up this system. On the other hand Norwegians seem to be the more advanced on this topic and they have a natural approach to recycle since they have been educated to separate waste.

Afterwards groups made of participants of different countries gathered to underline the SWOT.

Ideal model

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats were detected in order to create an ideal model of recycling.

In the end all the groups agreed on the fact that to have a better model people should start by educating children and motivating people.

Day 3, Back to Riga

During the second day we had the chance to learn a great choreography of a Flash mob dance, which we will most probably perform in the centre of Riga by the end of the week.  Flash mob will bring message to society about environmental problems, like recycling PET bottles and awesome experience to all of us!

Italian language lesson

Italian language lesson

By returning back to Riga we enjoyed two more language lessons - one from the Greek people, and one from the Italians. Both were entertaining, informative and at times hilarious. It is an important part of our cultural exchange, we get to know and understand each other better.

Day 2, Team building

Team building

Day track - Team building

The second day started with team building oriented activities. They helped us create bonds, exercise our team skills and be more open with the others. There were intellectual, interactive, outdoor and indoor games, which were at the same time entertaining and motivating. Some of the activities were also quite unique, for many people it was the first time trying out some of the challenges.

Latvian culture night

But apart from our day activities, we also enjoyed Latvian food specialties, as well as a Latvian Lesson, followed by a great Latvian night. We learned about the amazing Latvian language, while we were surprised by the Latvian culture: fascinating songs, dances and costumes. Now all of us can dance Latvian traditional dance called “Plaukstiņpolka” without any problems.

Latvian culture night

And of course, the Latvian sauna, and the traditional way of using one. That cleaned us from inside-outside.

Day 1, Arrival

It was the evening of 11^th of November, we, positive young people from four different countries-Greece, Italy, Norway and Latvia, met together in Riga to start a 10 day trip of adventures, green thinking and exchanging cultures.

International evening

The first way together led us to beautiful wooden cottage 12 km outside of Riga. Nice atmospheres, great landscape, smiling people around were like inspiration for attractive, interesting and social communication activating get to know games. These were the first steps to find out names of everyone. But that wasn’t all for this evening, the next came International evening, where we presented our countries by tasting traditional foods and drinks, singing traditional songs and learn something new about other cultures.

This day was a great beginning of youth exchange, new friendships and making our planet greener.