After my internship at
the german organisation GFE Erlebnistage in the summer 2018 I decided to
continue with further training in outdoor education with a partner organisation
in Finland, Anjala.
During that one month of living and working in
Anjala I learned a lot about different methods and programmes. I also had the
possibility to see Helsinki, Kouvola and the area around Anjala. In this post I
want to tell you about the way I experienced my work and the land.
The Youth Centre
Anjala- Nuorisokeskus Anjala
One of the most beautiful things in Anjala was
the property of the Youth Centre. The apartments for the groups, the main
building and all the other buildings are located in a very historical and
beautiful landscape. Years ago, the river which is next to the Youth Centre was the border between Finland and Russia. The property used to own the Wrede family. The old Manor and the storage make it easy to put you down the memory lane and back to the time when the Wrede family was living here. But I didn’t come to Anjala to admire the buildings, i wanted to find out how they are working with outdoor education. I already knew that the Youth Centre is working with camp schools, day programmes and trainings. But what programmes do they have?
What is
similar to the experiences I already have? And what kind of knowledge will I
bring back to Germany?
During my
stay I had the opportunity to accompany many programmes and I want to present
my favourite ones here:
Nature Trail
The Nature Trail is a trail located next to the
river with questions about environment and nature on the way. What makes the
trail so special for me is the beautiful landscape you can see during the walk.
It is a great possibility for participants to relax.
Escape History
This program
is happening at the old manor and challenges the participants with many
different riddles. It is all about finding out how the citizens can survive the
war with the Russians on the other side of the river. I really like this program
because it has a nice mixture of challenging the participants and informing
them about the past of this land. Divided in groups they must find keys, puzzle
pieces together and decode texts. At the end they must put all their results
together to open the final box where they can find the solution how to survive
the war…
Anjala Tarzan
Teamwork
and Action: In this program you really learn to jump over your own shadow.
While you are hanging in a giant swing a group is pulling you to the top of the
tree. From there you can start swinging in a height of 12 meter! I did it
myself and the feeling was great!
Campfire cooking
When I used to cook over a campfire with groups
it was almost every time the same: pizza or soup. But now I learned a very
exciting dish which is quite easy to do and but the output is amazing: Smoked
fish with rice. With a small fire, a smoking box and some Trangias for the rice
the dish was done in about one hour.
Escape Forest
During my work I spend a lot time on preparing
this new Escape- Forest program. After plenty days of preparation, we tested it
with the first group, and it was really nice.
This program is quite similar to the Escape
History program: It is also about solving riddles, puzzle pieces together and finding
the right numbers and letters for the combination locks.
The story:
A scientist went to the forest to explore the shining stones. When he got lost
in the forest, he hid some hints which are telling you the story about what he found
out and how he got out of the forest…
Apart from
those programmes I had the possibility to accompany many other programmes: Tree
climbing, GPS tracking, teamwork games, archery, fishing, labyrinth and others.
I really enjoyed the difference between the programmes I already knew from
erlebnistage and the new programmes I could try. That shows me again how
versatile outdoor education can be.
Finland – Landscapes and more
I already
mentioned that I had the opportunity to visit Helsinki, Kouvola and the area
around Anjala.
With this
pictures I want to show you some impressions I got:
Anjala
Around the small town Anjala I found many peaceful
beautiful places.
Repovesi
National Park
Hiking trip
Helsinki and Nuuksio
At the end I want to say thank you to everyone
who supported me before during and after
my stay at Finland. Thank you for showing me around, to instruct me for the programmes,
to translate all the conversations I couldn’t understand and for welcoming me
to the daily routine of the Youth Centre!
KIIIIIIIIIIITOS
