Buna ziua guys! I’m Henri and since October 2015 an EVS volunteer in Bucuresti. In my project everything is about non-formal education, either with orphans, children in social apartments or young adults. Together with my colleagues I organize workshops seeking to improve & teach.
I spent a long time in this amazing country. I travelled a lot, I met plenty of people. Children, young people, and also older ones. I made incredible experiences and look back at the best time of my life. As the time passed by so quickly and then end of my stay came closer I thought about what I’ve learnt.
In specific I thought what I’ve learnt about Romania(ns). Besides the plenty of positive aspects I also discovered some downsides. One issue worried me the most is the lack of open-mindedness and opposition to immigrants. Pretty weird as Romania itself is highly influenced by a lot of very different cultures.
Since my project is about changing and rather than about complaining an idea popped up in my mind. By time and after advices of my co-workers and association a plan was born: I intended to make people aware of the foreign influences already integrated in their culture and life. What does it mean in concrete? I decided to start a treasure hunt in Bucuresti leading to places built by foreigners for instance. Even I became surprised during my research how diverse Bucuresti and Romania actually is.
For numerous years I do geocaching which is basically the grown-up and digital version of a treasure hunt. Check on the internet for hidden boxes close to your place, use GPS to find the exact location, search and find them.
What is geocaching?
Quite quickly I figured out that this was the most economical, sustainable & joyful way to realize my project.
So what I did (and I’m still doing, I see it more as a continuing project which I can also implement back in Germany) is the following:
Step 1: Finding the right places
I made researches about my neighbourhood and Bucuresti in general. What are places stamped by foreign influences? If so, up to which extent? Which of these places are worth to be discovered? I asked myself (and the internet) questions like these ones. After some time I had a list with various places which seemed to be promising.
Step 2: Visiting the places & checking for geocaching ability
In the next step I visited these places. Most important was to assure that I could actually hide somewhere a cache there. Very agglomerated and public corners are less suitable than hidden corners. In case that I found one of these places (which is easier said than done) I thought about the concrete place, seize and position to hide the cache.
Step 3: Placing the cache and publishing it
Surprisingly, the last step was the easiest one. I bought cache boxes and placed them at the chosen location. Last, but not least I wrote a description of the place and uploaded it on geocaching.com. Finished. It’s now accessible to the public.
Although it contained some work, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable project. I learnt a lot, even more than I initially thought.
Even more important though are the people. Geocaching for itself is a hobby requiring and provoking a lot of endurance, curiosity and thinking. Sounds like your last math exam? Not at all! It’s at the same time very funny and relaxing, not mentioning the feeling of awesomeness after you found what you’ve searched for. From my point of view it is easier and far more useful to learn something by doing something you like and which rewards you. Therefore, I think that people don’t see it as “lesson” or “course in open-mindedness”. They have fun and learn at the same time, in an informal and more subtle way.
Did you get curious? All it requires for you to play is a smartphone with internet andGPD. Follow for instance this link and search my first cache: https://coord.info/GC6NTA3
Read the description to figure out more about the place and the cache itself.
Here a though-provoking hint…
Enjoy it. Happy caching 🙂
Knowledge Builders 3 