From 24 June 2015 to 1 July 2015 Civic Forum NGO was hosting participants this time in Lastiver. The main topic of the project is entrepreneurship in rural areas, to motivate youngsters think about future inovative ideas, which can be implemented outside big cities and to try out the ways of living in rural areas by contacting with locals and helping them to fulfill their needs.
For these purposes we were located in beautiful mountainous region of Armenia, far from civilization and outside of our comfort zones, without electricity, without internet, most of the cases without phone connection. To get to that place we had to hike up in mountains, but views and places, which we saw at the end, was totally worth it : starting with beautiful, noisy waterfalls, till caves with unique pre-christian carvings. Some of participants were sleeping in tree houses, others in tents. Every evening we were gathering near campfire and spending evenings talking, singing, dancing and sharing emotions with each other.
Activities which we had there was very interesting and helpful to gain new skills.We had, for example, treasure hunt where the groups had to search and discover places while members were tied up with each other, which was making this game more challenging and was also encouraging teamwork.
Personally I loved the team-building activity, where we had really hard task to do, but unlike the expectations from game leaders our group showed high level of teamwork and the task was done in a very little time, this sense of achievement and satisfaction made whole group even closer as we appreciated each other more and more.
We had also quite mystical experience while playing night game, organized by Estonian team, where we had to follow the noises coming from different parts of the forest, to find shamans and to get from them some “symbols”. Wandering in the forest in darkness during 2 hours, without making any sound, was little bit stressing, but at the same time exciting adventure.
We had really nice hiking trip up to shepherd’s place, where we became witness of Armenian hospitality, locals were sharing everything what they could.
Also it was very interesting to listen to owners of the place where we were staying, to share their stories, to find out what they needed, and then to make plans how we could help them. We tried to contribute what we could, we divided into groups : some of us where marking the way, some were trying to solve entertainment problems , others were making branches, trash bins, pond for fish.. and some of us were working on logo of this lovely place.
We tried our best to help locals and hope they weren’t disappointment. The experience gained there was pretty much unique, as with all the difficulties and challenges, which we faced by living outdoor, the sense of group support and positive energy between participants made these 7 days memories unbelievable.
