June 02nd – June 10th 2015, Turkey
First ten days in June we spent in Turkey, in Tavsanli. This typical town of the Aegean region, situated 300 km south of Istanbul, has population of 67,000 inhabitants. We took the train, plane and bus and travelled for 24 hours to reach our destination. Our goal was to attend a project called “All You Need Is Sport”, which was designed and successfully conducted by Istanbul University students.
Six teams arrived in this turkish town to share and improve their own thinking about sport. Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Romanian, domestic Turkish and our Croatian team were designing their own intercultural evenings presenting our states whit their beauty, folk dances and traditional dishes to each other.
We had workshops on daily basis. Why is it important to do sports, what are the barriers we deal with and how to motivate people to engage in sports activities. There are numerous benefits. In first place there is your health, your own physical and mental progress, socializing and meeting new friends, traveling and learning about other cultures, learning responsibility and sense of sacrifice for the greater goals. On the other hand, we are aware of financial and other obstacles, but we agree that laziness is what makes us not practicing. The truth is, practice is not just tennis or maybe riding. This includes running, also various exercises in the morning and before bedtime, such as sit-ups, push-ups and other known strength training, and stretching.
Colleagues from other countries were emphasize the need about sports classes, sports camps and related content. Luckily, in our country there are such content as school in nature, but maybe somethimes we forget about good things we have and we just take them for granted. It is our resposability to be aware of all valuables offered to us.
Afternoons were provided for updating themes out of session so we played soccer, volleyball and many other sports. Every effort deserves relaxation so we made our own at the swimmingpool and in the sauna.
This was a project where we were able to learn a lot, and also to offer a lot, as in so many other projects and also in every situation in our lives. Finally, we made new friends, met young people from all over Europe and brought unforgettable memories back home.
Written by: Maja Marić, volunteer in Ocean of Knowledge