About our work: the Creative Office

It has been a long time since my last article here. What can I say...? Sorry, busy days lately. And it seems that February has driven me into the waters of laziness. I don't see it as a problem; it's as good as any given moment to reflect about our time here, after five months of volunteering.

One of the things we can reflect about is our workshops. I don't know if you remember, but one of our tasks was to set some workshops for the kids at the youth centre. After our training we started to work on them, and some weeks before Christmas we could have the first sessions with the children. In the next weeks, each one of us is going to tell how are we going after almost two months of work sessions.

Today I'm telling you about my workshop: the Creative Office*

(* this is just a word play. In Portuguese, you can translate workshop as oficina. So, 'the creative office' is just the name of the workshop: oficina de criatividade)

I'm a journalist, so since the very first moment I thought about do some stuff with creative writing, journalism and new media. Journalism can be a bit boring when you are a kid, although it's in my agenda for the sessions, and I think they are too young to go to new media, even having Facebook and Instagram accounts yet... (my pupils have between 9 and 12 years old).

So I stayed with creative writing. But then, I thought about giving one more turn to the original idea. Why just creative writing? Is there any difference if I'd include more things? What the kids want to do?

The answer was so easy when it came to my mind, that I decide to change everything without almost thinking. The 'writing' word fell from the name of the workshop, even when it was already in all the papers. From then on, it was just a creativity workshop.

Looking back with some perspective, the change was the best I could have done. Of course, I'm never going to know how it would be if we have stayed in the first idea. But now I can say that we have lot of freedom to do what we want. If we want to write, we write. If we want to paint, we paint. If we can to imagine, we imagine. No rush, no pressure. We just want to have fun, laugh and forget the homework they will have to do later (me as well) during one hour, more or less.



There are days that we sing, or act, or shout loud, or the three things at the same time. Other, we end up climbing in the chairs, while everybody is looking through the window trying to guess what we are doing. Some days we finish the session making some noise with the keyboard that is in our room. Always playing.

The game is always present in this workshop. All the activities are developed through it. As Mary Poppins sang: "a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine goes down". There are two objectives: first, have fun. Last (but not least), to think, to use our brain. Thinking is the "medicine", because we are actually working, we are creating. Maybe it's just a small text, or a logic problem, or a cartoon, or a song to help me recover from a mysterious disease...

Everything is permitted, as long you respect yourself and the others. And we (yeah, again, me too) are encouraged to think out loud all the time: we never know when a small, and maybe for them, useless idea, is going to become the key which make an unforgettable afternoon for everybody, which is something that happens very usually.

I wouldn't be more happy with my group. Daniela, Carlota, Vitoria, Catarina, Sofia, Filipe, Gabriela and Gabi (when she shows up there)... We even have a nickname, as a result of a day we had to work as fortune tellers: "os futuristas" (something like "the futuristics").

They are amazing, each one in its own way. But they share a great mind, filled with ideas, built-in openness, endless curiosity and an intelligence without limits. I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to share my knowledge, and learn new things with them. Because, as it couldn't be otherwise, the learning process go both ways.

This activity has became one of the moments of the week which I expect more. I couldn't be more proud and happy about how is going, how the kids are developing themselves, and how interested they are. I just wish, now we are "moving" to the local High School, as part of our new tasks for the next months, that our work there has some results as good as those ones.

Or, why not, even more.

The Week of Friends in Vila Fonche

Friends. Do you guys remember that TV series? Me just foggy, but anyway... You would think love is the thing which keeps people healthy and happy, but some scientific reports (Allen, A. A. and Hafen Ch. A. - unfortunately the exact date and the title of their research is not known to me) show that youngsters who had good relationship with someone, so called friend, enjoy better health (also mental aspect of it), more proper body weight (obesity, huh?),  and declared less stress in future life. Those who have at least one good friend tend to live longer (up to six years when compared to people lonely), copy better with difficult circumstances, have stronger immune system, higher self esteem and self efficiency, and so on.

Friends - they are truly mystical creatures, important people who got tiny pieces of your heart. The meaning of that small 7 lettered word (at least in English) may be slightly different. Well... I bet it is different for everyone. There is ad many definitions as many friends on the world.

Usually a friend is a person whom you trust, share time, moments, memories, words, activities and many many more. You know, I did quite an effort trying to find a nice definition, I have looked through so many dictionaries, but nothing really spoke to me. All of them included liking, affection, companionship, support. That is all beautiful and important.

So what does actually the worth 'friend' mean? In the deeep corner of my heart I consider myself a traveler. You know, The months I spent in my home country for over 3 last years are possible to count on the fingers of one hand. And there are for sure people my heart is longing to, people with whom I share that special connection, memories, thoughts, words. People for whom I try to be even if I'm not literally there. But the same is with Turkey, United States, and now Portugal, as well as from many many other countries I haven't been to yet, and even don't know if they are on my bucket list. Recently the word 'friend' means to me someone, with whom I share now, which becomes a memory. Someone with whom I share laughter, silence, walks, serious conversations or just few hours of flight. It does not include keeping, but being.

Amazing friends I got here, in Portugal, and I wont try to tell their names, just to not skip anyone. Children with whom I work are also friends - beautiful ones, they show you completely different perspective on things. And oh, how did they enjoy things! This week we had those special envelopes put up on the walls, there was a name lottery and everyone got a secret friend, and became one. The biggest problem was to leave something in the envelope, since someone was all the time around them, excited. The association was filled with laughter and positive emotions, so beautiful that it is not even possible to describe with words!

It is good to remember about your friends. A postcard, a letter, a piece of chocolate or something completely meaningless for others but for you two containing a story. hugs are also great!

And you? What does 'friend' mean to you?

Lots of love, Friends (:

Maaarcia! <3

Who has got better friend? (;