A HOPEFUL RETURN WITH OUR SECOND MOBILITY: GELA, ITALY

A HOPEFUL RETURN WITH OUR SECOND MOBILITY: GELA, ITALY

From 7th to 13th November 2021, the Italian partners of our project offered to host the first meeting after the break due to the worst moments of the pandemic. As we reported in our previous newsletter, the 3rd Geniko Lykeo from Corfu hosted the first LTTA, so two years later we continued our journey on another island and Sicily was our host.

However, at the beginning of this school year only months were left to carry out our project tasks in five mobilities, as some schools finish their year at the end of May. Our Italian partner, the I.I.S. "Luigi Sturzo", only had five weeks to get everything ready to welcome almost 40 people from five countries in Gela and to comply with the sanitary measures against COVID.

The teachers and the students welcomed us at the Alberghiero, one of the two buildings that this vocational school has, called in that way because of its studies related to Tourism, and Hotel and Restaurant Management Services. Some pupils of the school explained their studies and, spontaneously, some of students from the visiting schools introduced themselves representing their countries. We were able to see the excellent skills that the students of the “Luigi Sturzo” are acquiring when we had lunch in this building; delicious food!

Project activities were carried out despite little time for advance preparation in all countries. For two days, the second building of the school that deals with other studies such as Administration, Finance and Marketing, Business Information Systems, hosted some activities like a trivia game on general knowledge of the six partner countries and on cultures and countries around the world. It was given the form of Kahoot contest, which was won by the Spanish student Laura Espinar Jiménez. This set of trivia questions made them work hard to investigate much more about what unites us and separates the peoples of the world.

This project task was complemented by a workshop coordinated by the computer science teachers of the Italian school in which comic strips were made with the free Pixton App on the subject of multiculturality, which, as we said above, is one of the subjects included in this Erasmus and the main one to be dealt in this mobility.

That same day, the Headmistress of the Italian school, Mrs. Rita Cardamone, the coordinator of the project in Italy, Mrs. Silvia Santamaria and other school teachers presided over the delivery of the attendance certificates. The host school invited the visitors to celebrate with them a farewell dinner together at a local restaurant.

Back at the Alberghiero on the last day of the meeting, the school broadcast live through its YouTube channel. The programme included the meeting with an SOS Mediterranee worker, a woman who presented her work as a volunteer and a question time was opened after her introduction.

In addition, the students in this mobility gave their opinion on selected images to create a flow of opinions about the society in which we live and value its injustices, and its positive and negative attitudes. Finally, the young visitors of the meeting gave their opinion about the week in Gela, the school and the city itself as a kind of informal evaluation of the mobility.

In the early afternoon the visitors were received at the town hall and, for a while, the plenary hall was filled with the light of a beautiful sunset.

There is no doubt that the Erasmus projects encourage the youngest participants to do their best to communicate and even start new friendship that may continue in the future.

Besides, it will be an unforgettable experience what they learnt about the beautiful land of Sicily and the civilizations of the Mediterranean, thanks to such stimulating visits as the Timoleon Walls in Gela itself and its historical layout, full of churches and buildings that travel to other centuries, the unforgettable Valley of the Temples of Agrigento including its museum and the lovely island of Ortygia, not far from the essential visit to Syracuse; all vestiges of a rich past that no one should miss on a visit to Sicily.

We know that our Italian friends regretted that the eternal Sicilian sun were not with us and that the rain were almost continuous every day that we spent in those lands, but they should not worry. Sometimes chance and magic arise in a meeting and everything goes well and there is nothing to regret… We will not forget those temples of Agrigento illuminated on the green and bright ground thanks to that unexpected rain. When the host partners of project have clear priorities and treat their visitors so warmly, there is nothing to regret.