Our volunteering journey continues…

This week we learnt that our reputation had expanded outside of Constanta on Wednesday, when we went to a high school out of the city for the first time, in the neighboring town of Eforie Sud. The location of this school allowed for more outside playgrounds and such and as the school was quite well maintained from the inside as well, it expanded our perspective on Romanian schools, for up to that point we had only visited schools in the middle of the city.

Aside from the high school in Eforie we also visited the Naval high school again as well as the Maritime University. During these activities we realized how much good intention many students actually have and that they often find themselves restricted by the government or local authorities. The students actually show a great willingness to help to improve the country as well as to attend more extracurricular activities. Sadly they feel like they have to choose their direction of study too early and they feel like the government is not particularly supportive when it comes to extracurricular activities, be it either about something like opera or even ecological measures.

At the beginning of the week we had a good meeting where we discussed a variety of subjects relating to activities and project management. Not only did we formalize and digitalize many of our processes, we also did a personality test in order to collectively reflect on our unique range of personalities. This will, perhaps gradually, allow us to have a better understanding of one another. In addition, we were told that everyone, the schools as well as our own organization, was very content about our workshops so far and that there is a lot of demand in and near Constanta for our workshops.

We are beginning to develop a variety of workshops now, which will make us able to choose how we want to tailor our activities to a specific school or group. This way we will create more variety for ourselves, keeping things more flowing and interesting. Additionally, we will be able to make our workshops nicer for the students as well, as we are able to anticipate better to their specific needs.