So, this month, many of the things that happened in the project have been already mentioned on our Facebook page and here in our Blog. But since we are so proud of it, we will still keep on talking about them!
First of all, we continued the activities with our dear kids at Casuta Bucuriei. We facilitated some more workshops with them – we created little treasure boxes from paper, we painted some rocks and we played different games and had fun in general. Since these wonderful kids started their studies again, we let them pay all their attention to the school. Unfortunately, that also means we are not visiting them anymore, but we have amazing memories and experiences from the times we spent with them.
Like we have mentioned before, we facilitated two different amazing climbing camps for teenagers. For the camps, we volunteers split into two teams and were joined by professional climbers to help with the climbing part, while our responsibility was to help the teenagers be cozy in the group and comfortable in the camping spot. The kids were very brave and good at climbing and they did not hesitate to look into the eyes of their fears. We are really happy and grateful for this opportunity to be on the facilitators side, after having had the first hand experience of how it is to be in it. You can read here more about our climbing camps on our earlier blog post: https://minteforte.ro/climbing-camp-with-minte-forte/
This month we had yet another international evening. This time our fantastical Garance created an authentic French party. He went through the trouble of bringing us food and drinks all the way from France, playing all the french music for us and engaging us with a quirky quiz about the ridiculous side of French laws in his fabulous style.
Also this month we started community workshops under the name ‘Creative Hearts, Healthy Minds’. As the name suggests, they are about creativity and health in different ways. So far we have facilitated Artspectives – about representing our issues or feelings as an object or drawing; River of Life – about making your life experience visible as a metaphorical river; Know Thyself – philosophical workshop about reflecting on who you are; Moving emotions – mindful experience to find and notice your emotions in your body and also Mindful Journey – workshop we hosted in a forest about the connection to ourselves, environment and others.
In addition to the things happening in the project we (Tero and Kitty) had some cozy and sweet moments. Firstly we finally decided to fulfill our plan of going to the Botanical Garden to draw life on a beautiful sunny day. We also got inspired in two completely different ways. Tero reconnected with nature and the wonder of waking up early to enjoy the peace and quiet and company of other early birds. Kitty, on the other hand, went to explore new and interesting art mediums like charcoal drawings, different paints etc. This month was also a fun evening of playing Settlers of Catan with a couple of Minte Forte members including Garance. We lost, but Kitty wants a rematch! And just last weekend we had another rare sunny and summer-y day so we took the opportunity to enjoy it fully. So there is a cute picture showing how fun it was.
Wishing all the best, hugs and kisses for the cool autumn,
Tero and Kitty