FINAL MEETING

Tuesday, 18th of august 2008, Struga (Macedonia).

Issues: 1:

Project: -Positive and negative points

-Feedback

-Was the project accomplished for 100%?

-Lessons to draw, mistakes made, possible improvement

-About Antoine’s pictures

The following: -We do it again?

-Photo exhibitions

-Travelling note book

-Youth Exchange in Struga

-Alternative travelling guide

-Benin 2009

-Web creations

Note about the composition of the association

Financial evaluation

PROJECT:

Positive points:

We’ve sometimes been too much centered on ourselves, we could have make more efforts to « integrate » people coming with us, by speaking English with them.

Loss or decreasing of motivation due to tiredness of travels, heat, problems and illnesses. 1 or 2 days without juggling, although we could have. Some problems of organisation some days (where we go, where we sleep, where we juggle?)

It was difficult to move as much as we could have wanted, because we were dependant on common transportation.

We were sometimes wondering about the utility of the project: We are not in holidays. But we must keep in mind the conditions mentioned above, and that sometimes it was impossible to juggle.

Positive points:

We took pleasure in doing this. We were supporting each others, in case of problem or loss of motivation. We were a real team.

We were lucky, we met nice people, lived beautiful things.

We were helped by many people. Rarely (actually only one day) we were only the 4 of us for the activities.

We were free to change our mind and plans, to take decisions quickly and without arguing too much. We managed well in spite of the « un-organisation » (the Balkanic one and our). To take decisions, we managed by consensus, we all agreed. There was a good communication between us (eye contact!). The sharing of the chores was well done, nobody got screwed making always the same thing.

We managed well with money, without useless expenses.

It was sunny

Some kids managed to develop some juggling skills. It’s nice

Feedback:

Everyone in one’s side, personally, we improved in juggling, relationship, organisation, animation, managing of material and kids.

We learn new techniques, discovered hidden skills.

We experimented new things, like juggling with fire. For some of us who were not familiar with animation it was ok anyway.

We come out grew up, more responsible, more together, full of ideas and projects. We all got a good shot of motivation and positive energy.

We learned to « predict the unpredictable », to rely only on ourselves and to always expect everything

We lead the project until the end and it’s simply good!

The project in itself and the lessons to draw from it:

-Was the project realised for 100%?

Not always. We have to take in consideration the conditions, the context: The heat between 10am and 5pm, the pain in the back due to the carrying of the bags, the dependency to common transports, the fact that we needed, for Kosovo and Albania, to take time to find a place to sleep, then a place where to juggle.

We lost some time in Shkodër. Hanging around, no juggling.

From Leskovac, we really « saw » the concept: Working in the morning form 10 to 12, then the evening between 5 and 7. Fire performance at around 9. We made up a framework for working.

Preparation before the activities: Making of materials, reparation, training.

-To improve, lessons to draw, mistakes…

It’s a pity that we didn’t have time enough for training more, for preparing a more structured performance: Few or no time together before the beginning of the project. We could have think about axis of work, we could have been more professional.

We use much more the home made material than the one that we had bought in the shop. It’s a good point.

Good managing with the material, no or few losses. Good communication between us, during juggling activities (who does what, who keeps an eye on the stuff..)

No music! Too bad… Make up and costumes were rarely used.

One mistake in Shutka were to juggle close to the houses: Parents come and spoil everything.

Antoine’s pictures:

Antoine could find his place without problems as a photographer. He managed to find time to make pictures, but also to leave his camera sometimes to come and help for activities.

THE FOLLOWING

We do it again?

It was discussed the eventuality of making again a juggling trip, the basic project with its improvements. In stand by, because It’s difficult right now to know where each one of us is going, where we’ll be. We speak about it in 1 or 2 years.

Photo exhibitions (things to do):

To create a kind of « portfolio » for the presentation of the pictures, their promotion and the visibility.

To go and find places for exhibitions. The idea is, for every big city where we would make an exhibition, to make another one in a small village in the neighbourhood.

To change formats depending on the pictures and the places

It was suggested to come back where we already passed, and to make exhibitions where we’ve been already.

Estimation of the cost of the films: 30 euros.

To build a good file, as soon as possible, to be presented to the action 1.3 transactional to get subventions.

Travelling note book:

How we see it? A mix of styles, pictures, anecdotes… We put on the side the juggling point to speak about the landscapes, people, travels, historical points… Lots of possibilities, all we have to do now is to write, everybody on each side. Not to be afraid of being ridiculous, of making mistakes.

To contact, once we have some texts, a small edition house.

Youth exchange in Struga:

We put it in stand by until the decision of the European commission. We must think about the 30% of travel costs to pay, if the project is accepted.

Alternative travelling guide:

We keep it in mind, because we need more time, for a long and big trip during which we would take care only about this project.

Benin 2009:

Sculpture workshops in Dassa. We already have contacts there. This project would last 1 month, in 3 or 4 schools. Back in France, photo exhibitions, exhibitions of sculptures.

We must work on this project, find 6000 euros, and for this go in the city halls.

Web creation:

The creation of a mail address for the association was decided: association.ajdee@gmail.com

A mail list of our contacts, partners, adherents, jugglers… has been created. The 4 of us put our contacts inside of it. Adherents and members will get the reports of the general meetings. The members will be proposed to become adherents, and the partners to become members.

It was discussed the eventuality to create a web site. For this we need to ask some friends who could make it.

A group on Facebook has been created: ajdee’s fan club

The forum must be cleaned.

NOTE ABOUT THE COMPOSITION OF THE ASSOCIATION:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>Ÿ <!–[endif]–>The office: The 4 of us

<!–[if !supportLists]–>Ÿ <!–[endif]–>The adherents: Those who pay every year the assessment. They are invited to the general meetings, and can vote at them. We sent them an internet flower bouquet. Also we send them the reports of the general meetings. Those who help us (gift of money, of it’s time…) become automatically adherent.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>Ÿ <!–[endif]–>The members: The persons who can be interested in our projects. Who support us morally or financially. They’ll get the reports of the general meetings. They’ll be offered to become adherents.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>Ÿ <!–[endif]–>The partners: They are organisations or persons, who might help us or be interested in future projects. They’ll be offered to become members.

FINANCIAL EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT:

Global cost: 865,60€

Expenses:

Rice: 36,50€

Petrol: 36€

Balloons: 45,50€

Travels: 227,60€

Food: 136€

Accommodation: 25€

Juggling and photo material: 269€

Creation material (tape, pincers, iron wire, paintings…): 25€

Bank commission: 20€

Extras: (luggage in the auto buses, tips, coffee breaks…): 45€

Number of balls made: 700

Number of performances: 14

Hours spent travelling: 34h

Hours spent juggling: 53h

Kilometres travelled: 1171km

Average temperature: 35°

Average time of Pero under the shower: 12,5min

There is 220 euros remaining in the Ajdee association’s account

Total cost of the project : 865, 60 euros

Number of balls made : 700

Total of rice for balls : 37 kg

Number of fire performances : 14

Hours of transport : 34 hours

Total transport cost : 227, 60 euros

Formal juggling hours : 53 hours

Kilometers covered : 1171 km

Temperature average : 34°C

and for fun……

Time average of Pero under the shower : 12, 5 min

- all people who believed in us, in our organization and our project; people who helped us by their financial support; EVS volunteers who hosted us during our trip; people who read this blog, who left comments.

Special thanks for:

- Yoann and Carsten who mentally support us a lot;

- Pijatta and Hirono who, at 2 differents part of this trip followed us, becaming real members of AJDEE, juggled with kids, slept, ate, travelled, and just lived with us. As the fifth finger of an hand, they were the last but not the least part of this adventure.

- the volunteers from Kumanovo, Ivana the organizator of the younth open festival who gave us a place in the programmation of the festival, Ale and Pijatta  who hosted us;

- the juggling crew of Leskovac, Stefan who painted the AJDEE flag and especially Nebojsa and Smiljana who hosted us, gave us material, played with us and enjoyed with us.

- all the volunteers and no-volunteers from Skopje who took part in the activities in Sutka, Djeki et Sinan our friends who were present those days, Jessica, Mohamed and Goran, 2 children really attentive and serious during the activites and who learnt the basics and even more in 3 days; Ljatifa the president of the organisation Ambrella, the local volunteers from this organisation with whom we worked with.

- special dedicace to the mayor of Krushe e Madhe who found us an accomodation and supported the project. People from this same village who gave us a ride until our following destination; People who invited us for a coffee, and made our stay as god as possible; Brahim, a kid who is living in Switzerland and helped us to communicate with the other children.

- HUGE dedidace to Mamy Martha, our host in Korenica who took care of us as if we were her own children; her grand-daughters Tina and Blerta,  her sons Alban and  Ilija, alias Martini or “Step by Step”, who offered us accomodation and as their mum, stayed awake with us until very late, took care of us.

- the man who gave us a ride when we were hitch hicking first to go the the gas station and the day after who drove us for 2 hours out of Kosovo and until the boat in Albania for our next destination.

- Second HUGE dedicace to Pietro and his family who hosted and provided us meals and nice time, drove us to the sea and offered us a huge meal in a restaurant in the village of Shijak.

- the driver from Durres to Tirana who helped us to get back Hirono’bag that we forgot in the bus by driving all around the albanian capitale; Gabrielle and Besi (wech Gab!) who hosted all of us in Tirana.

- Tonin and Erick, 2 Evs volunteers in Struga who hosted us in our last step. The drivers who gave us a ride when we were hitch-hiking between Struga and Skopje.

Special huge dedicace for all the chidren we met during this adventure, their smiles, their positive energy their happiness, their brighting eyes… Those kids without who this project could have never been realized and who taught us a lot.

To be continued, of course…

Shköder has been a real transition in our project.

In Shijak, Pietro a 120 kilos farmer has been our little angel, our source of energy, an amazingly friendly character.

Anyway it was not enough to make us stay. maybe it was because we were tired by 2 days of travelling, maybe because of the transition from villages to cities, we just did not get the feeling and the right atmosphere with children to play.

The day when we went to juggle, a few kids were more interested in making a mess with the balls, in stealing them more than juggling, in annoying other kids interested in learning how to play. We stayed one hour and an half and gave up. That was unfortunately our only activities with kids as the day after we left for another destination. 

Anyway, fire performances went on as good as usually. People were curious about us and enjoyed the show.

Those few days, we were not so performant with juggling activities. But it gave us the opportunity to create good relationship with Pietro. We also had nice time with our friend Yoann and his brother Gwenael with whom we went to the seaside.

The third day, giving a try to make activities, facing the disapointment about having only the annoying kids from the day before, we quickly decided to move on to Tirana. Gab and Besi, Antoine’s friends living there, hosted us. So we spent one day in the main city of Albania and enjoyed the afternoon playing in a parc. First a little bit shy, after one hour playing, we were surrounded by children who played and learned the basics of our art. This fresh postive energy came at the right moment and the fire performance later in the evening, in the same parc, help us to forget our disappointment about the day before. One more nice memory about the juggling project in Albania… Now it is time to leave again: back to Macedonia.

In Struga, everybody was exhausted. It was hard to find back some energy to juggle. Especially because we felt that we were not welcomed. Sitting on the beach or moving around from one volunteers’ flat to another, we eventually decided to end the project. Maybe this was the good moment to have a break.

Anyway, to be continued…

*Je ne sais pas l’albanais!!!

Such an explosive stay that we had in Korenica, a small village near the western border with Albania and Montenegro. A few houses spreaded on a hill, a school and its yard in a middle. We have been hosted by a farmer family who privided us everything, even if they didn’t have much to give. Moments of joy, moments of tears, moments of tension and moments of relief… The smiles, the misunderstandings but still the smiles, the first drinks offered, the first day, quiet and simple, the sun, hurting the day, the night, appearing fresher, the beds, real ones for once, the schoolyard with kids, the juggling balls and the smiles, again, their faces, obviously happy, just enjoying, later the fire performance, in a total darkness, the people shouting, calling our names, calling for more, surprised, impressed, “It was the first time we had something like this in our village!”, just thanksful people…

Then, on the road again to Albania. Hitchhiking, by combi, by boat, again by combi with a thousand people together with us, crossing a huge mountainious landscape, driving on a track more than on a road for hours, we finally arrived in Shkoder, Nothern Albania.

To be continued…

The text and comments will come very soon.

200 meters walking, we found the “city center”: 3 pubs, 2 shops and few trucks full of vegetables waiting for customers. One guy came to us, speaking a bit of french and german, asking us if we were lost. “No, No”. the place looked perfect for for our first village in Kosovo.

We found hospitality of the villagers very quickly, they hosted us in the kindergarden of the village, offered us coffees and drinks, presented us people who were speaking german (thanks to Pero to be our translator!).

The next day, we started our “job”; at 9AM we met kids in the cultural house (nice and quiet place, offered by a dutch NGO, with a library and a teater). Around 40 kids were present, enjoyed our little show and learnt slowly but surely the basics od juggling. For the afternoon (from 5Pm to 7PM) and the day after, we were playing in the school, and all the kids were always present. Working by groups of 10 kids for each one of us, we started to have a quite good organization during those 2 days: making balls and playing with them, playing with pois, then making many games, not necessarily realted to juggling but which entertained the children.

One the morning of the 9th arrived our precious finish friend Prijatta (already with us in Kumanovo, Leskovac and Shutka). She gave us a nice help during the second day and bring a lot od positive energy for the group. Thanks to her! She stayed with us until our departure to the next village and took a bus in the opposite direction than our… to go back to Finland. We had an other special guest, Hirono, a japanese traveller who met our friend Carlsten in Skopje, and who wanted to visit Kosovo. She arrived at the end of the 2nd fire performance and found us in the dark of the night, due to the breakdown of electricity and with many troubles with our cellphones… complicated situation!

Like in the other towns before, we made during the nights fire performances. First afraid by the use of benzil instead of parafin, we were anyway to excited to play in a new town to stop ourselves. We made a short test to be sure the use of benzil was secure ans went on the “Eagle Boulevard”, a parking place in front of an amazingly huge albanian flag painted on the wall of a house. Villagers, as much as us, enjoyed to see the fire juggling show which gave lights in the red and black frame.

Those two days were intensive, so we have been lucky to receive the hospitality of the villagers until the end of this trip. The Mayer gave us a ride until the next village, on the way to Peja.

So, first of all, we must present you the place whew we were going: The area of Suto Orizari, more commonly called “Shutka” is a town in the town of Skopje. A town where are living most of the Roma people, around 40 000 inhabitants. It’s a colorful, alive and messy place, where big houses are rubbing shoulders with wooden huts, where you can see everything, animals, garbage, carriages, shops… everywehre, hear any sound, smell differents odours… In a word: The place to be.

Some of us had already done punctual juggling activities some time ago, so we already knew some of the kids there, and some of them did know us as well.

The meeting place was on the basket ball field, between 5PM and 5:30 every day (from monday the 4th to the 6th of august). Because of the heat, we couldn’t start before, so we were using our time before 5 to buy material (rice and balloons, as usual) and to prepare balls and pois in advance

The global concept was this: We arrive, show kids how to make balls, give them the balls they’d made and those that we had made at home, and teach them juggling with 1, 2 and eventually 3 balls. Same story with the pois.

Lots of kids were present from the 1st to the last day with us, and developped some skills with 2 or 3 balls, or could show good tricks with 2 pois

In average, we had between 50 and 60 kids(aged between 5 to 160 per day, ,which is a lot for 6 or 7 people, especially because we were in an open area, needed to keep an eye on the material, canaliwe their energy, sometimes make other games… That was quite exhausting to make it 3 days in a raw, but in the meanwhile, kids were so smiling, with bright eyes, teaching us a lot (eg. games, danses..), bringing us fresh water, sharing their energy… That we always had motivation to go on.

On the wednesday, we were in a Roma educative center, calles Ambrela, run by Ljatifa and Roma volunteers: Muharem, Alma and Ajda. From 1 to 4 PM, we made those juggling activities with less kids, around 20 or 30, in an indoor area. At a moment we started to make plats made out of wool in the hair of most of the girls. That was like a good relaxation, more than welcomed after 2 days non-stop, and before 2 last hours in the basket ball field.

The climax of those 3 days was certainly the fire performance, held on tuesday, still on the stadium. Before doing it, we feared a bit to lose the control of the situation, see the “usrplus of energy” of many kids. Also the fact of having 2 liters of petrol was kind of stressful. And yet, all finally worked as it was planned. But what was amazing, was the quietness of the children: at the beginning they were all (around 30) sitting quietly on the ground, waiting for the first fire light. Then when the show was going on, they were:
-still sitting
-applausing most of the time
-screaming our names
-afraid for us when we were touched by a poi or a stick.

At the end, there was around 60 persons around us , nothing had been wrong, we had held the performance for more than 30 minutes. This night was close to perfection…

So, to sum up briefly, we can say that we saw maybe a hundred of kids, built at least 400 balls and pois, made 7 or 8 wood plots, used 20 kilos or rice, and 4 kilos of cement when we ran out of rice.

And, last but not least, we want to say a huge thanks to all people helping us those days, making matrerials, drinving, supporting us, juggling, teaching kids, keeping materials, taking pictures, feeding us, coming with us, and more:
Dzeki, Sinan, Muharem, Ljatifa, Ajda and Alma from Sutka
Pijattah from Finland, still with us
Anja and Martin from Poland
Dominique, Yoann and his family, Antoine (aka scoutboy), Gabrielle from France
Carsten from Germany
Hibe and Alija from Skopje

Thanks to all of you, and hope to see you in Struga between the 19th and 23rd of august!

Next step: Some village around Prizren, we still dont know which one. The departure is planned on Thursday the 7th.

Friends from Amelie were waiting for us there, so we did not feel lost at all. They hosted us for 5 days, the time of our stay there. We met lots of nice people, all from the same crew, some of them being good jugglers. From them, we will definitly remember the kindness and the hospitality of Smiljana and Nebojsa.

About our juggling project, we had at first some problems for finding the good concept and the good spot. But when we got it, we had lot of fun, and of course lots of kids.

We did almost every night fire performances in the park, near a nice fountain with the crew from Leskovac. It was really amazing to see so many fire pojs and fire sticks being played at the same time. And the very last night, we were invited to make a fire perfomance inside of the club ABC. 

During our stay in Leskovac, our  “AJDEE” flag was made by Stefan, a guy from the local crew.Thanks a lot to him for his nice drawing ! Pijatta, EVS volunteer in Kumanovo, was our special guest. She helped us a lot, and learnt how to play with the fire sticks and 3 clubs. Also, the last evening, we had a nice surprise : the arrival of Carsten and Yoann, directly from Skopje, joining us just for one night.

It was definitly a good stop in our project, and we totally enjoyed it. And we managed to lose just one ball and one pair of pojs….:-)

Thanks to all the people we met, and we hope to come back again in this town, or to welcome them in France, for some other project…

Finally, we took the road again saturday afternoon, going back to Skopje, Macedonia, where we intend juggling workshops in the big Roma area of Suto Orizari, also called Sutka.

To be continued….

Nothing was exactly planned so far. We were not officially scheduled. A couple of hours later, we agreed to start the performance by the begining of the evening, together with the music. The young rock bands started to play and we came up on the field. All dressed up with costumes, make up, helped by a special guest coming the way from Skopje with us, Carsten, the very first performance could start. Actually, it looked a bit like a test. Everything was held with mostly improvisation. We had to know what was wrong and what was fine with our ideas, what was needed to be improved. We eventually juggled an hour, watched by many curious kids, asking for balls, playing with the two clowns (Pierre and Amelie), sometimes affraid, most of the time laughing.

Later in the evening, we made a fire performance, which was totally spontanous. The very first one for some of us. We were surrounded by people at the same time very interested in the fire tricks but also wondering what was that! Everybody was finally very impressed. And according to the fun that we had, to the emotion brighting in our eyes, this performance was a success.

The conclusion of the first evening was going on in the Citadella, an open air bar. We enjoyed the place and especially the music: Foltin, one the most famous band in Macedonia, was on stage.

Sunday, we went back on tracks! We decided to make our usual workshop : making materials and teaching people how to juggle. With 10 kilos of rice, many ballons and some plastic bottles, we made more than 150 juggling balls. The kids first looked at us making the balls, but really soon they decided to make them by themselves. Actually, they were pretty good in that ! Youngsters having their own balls, we started to teach them how to juggle. And again we were really impressed : kids catched quickly the way how to juggle with two balls, some of them even with 3 balls.

Later in the afternoon, we had a nice surprise : our friend Cebi, from Pristina joined us. With her, we made once again a fire performance in the late evening.

The festival was nice, with lots of rock music bands, which were all of them great. Also the staff was really kind with us. Coming from different countries, they organized an intercultural corner, with lots of amazing food !  We would like to thank all the people of this festival, and especially Ivana, the girl who invited us.

Monday 28th of July, we left for our next destination : Leskovac, Serbia. Some friends are also waiting for us there.

To be continued…