Pobierz plik - Grundtvig

or age. In the latter ‘competition’ I was ranked
first… it turned out I was older by three days than
the charming Marie-Louise, a retired ethics teacher
from Göttingen. It was fun but these quasigames
has a deeper meaning: every human being
is part of majority and minority groups, may lead
or be at the very end of a rank. The reference may
sometimes be absolutely accidental as well as surprisingly
interesting and community-building. And
more reflections upon return from Göttingen: Indeed,
there was joy in us. All members of our conference
session would be involved in discussion;
we would also work in small groups, national and
mixed nationality alike. We would communicate
with growing ease as we learned more and more
about one another. While having different experiences,
representing different organisations, and
speaking different languages, we can look for
what we have in common.
Mirosława (55) summed up the meeting in
Latvia: Dinner was followed by words of thank
you and farewell. While some of us – the Polish
women and the Germans from Berlin – had to
leave early in the morning, we talked until midnight.
As it was the case all the evenings before,
it was hard to part as there in Ezermajas our relations
became so intense. During unofficial, spontaneous
talks we sometimes resorted to foreign
words we did not even think we had known. If
there had been any barriers before, they collapsed
without a trace. Even before we had an impression
that despite the differences in history, language
and living conditions, they did not need
to divide us. Every corner of Latvia, Germany and
Poland is inhabited by women who want to be
happy, pleased with their lives, who want to have
friends and sometimes crave for simple joy.
During our first meeting, Mariane Klues-Ketels
organised classes to imagine a road leading to
achieving lifetime goals and realising that personal
characteristics and other people’s support can
motivate us on that road. During our first stay at
Preili we visited The Bread Museum in Aglon.
Its owner told us about the idea behind this
venture. Her story proves determination, strong
willpower, the need for active problem solving
and inborn creativity. Vija Ancāne had been employed
in a bakery which went bankrupt in 2000,
leaving the woman and her family with no income.
She enrolled for a business set-up course
organized by the NGOs Centre in Preili. There she
learned how to be self-assured (I want, I can and
it’ll be this way!). She did not have the money
to purchase the machinery so together with the
former employees of the bakery she started baking
bread in the traditional way. They bought a
car to distribute the bread to local villages. After
three years she bought a ruined building which
was going cheap and took out a mortgage on the
property. She overhauled the house. Her idea was
to have a museum combined with product tasting
sessions and events. She still thinks that conversation
is the most important part of her contacts
with the visitors when knowledge is passed from
one soul to another.
Conversation… we would wrap up almost
every meeting stating that inadequate command
of English was a barrier to our project implementation.
One of the essays written as part of the
project includes the following sentences: We listen
intently to the sing-song sounds of the foreign
language, look for opportunities to communicate,
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