Social Business in One week

 "There’s the first time for everything I guess” was the words going through my head as I drove to Mažeiki in the early sunlight. Going to youth exchanges is not something new, but going as a leader, a completely different story. Speaking of stories, I grabbed the card game “tell you a story” and broke the ice with participants on the way.

It can be funny looking at five countries trying to learn each participant's names by having the largest introduction circle. Where everyone is calling out their name and makes a move. While the next one has to remember all  movements and names of people before. It's not surprising that I got only the names of people before me. The circle exhausted most of us, but the introduction had only started.

You would be wrong if you ever though hunger games will be seen in only the movies. The participants spread into eight groups with a task named Hunger Games. The first thing people thought about was the movie and began cracking jokes about surviving through the week. However, it was about content making.

 The second day came, and it was perfect for a hunger games team on that day. All because we had a mission. An impossible task, yet possible in town Mažeiki. Most of the participants were confident in what they were doing, while others felt like chickens running around with their heads cut off. The best part about it came at the end. Where from trading pencil for other valuables people came back with all sorts of possessions. Like, a printer, pharmaceuticals, and other valuable items.

Trip to Palanga and Klaipeda.

 From the church in the middle of town to beaches filled with a cold wind. Palanga missed out on the spring we all longed for. Instead, we wandered into the heart of parks to find weird trees, climbed a church tower to overlook the city, and drank coffee which was approved by Italians.

 Klaipeda on the other hand, empty and silent. The city which was resting from Friday night. Place where finding a vegan restaurant is compared to searching for a needle in the haystack. At least the coffee is good.

 The beginning of social business.

 After Klaipeda, we didn’t return back to the place we started the day before. Instead, we slept somewhere outside of Mažeiki, together in a huge house - almost like one family.

 In the morning, people split into groups in which they will work together until the end of the week. Commonly designing and working on their social business idea. Most of them had no knowledge about the business or anything related, but that's the trick behind the non-formal education. By examples, games and simple methods we can pass the knowledge to teach the fundamentals about social business.

 The happiness was read on each of our faces when we returned back to Mažeiki. Back to our homes where we nested the days before. The groups had to continue working on the social business idea, but the mood was different after lunch. Besides, some of us had to start preparing for the Polish and Romanian national evening.

 Social business keeps moving on.

 Days working on the social business began blended together. The participants could only think of how to not burn out from the amount of knowledge flushing into their heads. Workshop after workshop grew their ideas about the social business more concrete.

 Minutes blended into hours, and hours faded into the days, arriving at the day before a presentation. On the last workshop, everyone learned how to sell the idea through storytelling, designed the size of business and slowly got ready to present it.

 Presenting with shaking legs.

 When breakfast was over everyone got more worried about the lunch coming up, because after lunch was the selling moment. I felt a slight empathy for the people who had to present in front of the public for the first time. I could step in, and help them, but I knew I shouldn't intervene. I had a leaders role after all, and I wanted participants to step out of their comfort zone.

 Somehow, I felt being a leader is not enough and decided to be cameraman during the whole week as well. It might look like a simple job, but it ain’t easy. Remember, simple is not easy. Lurking around the hall when people are presenting felt kind of silly. When heads are turning my direction, every time when I duck to take a photo. I think people wanted to have their faces documented.

 “If there’s something you are afraid of to start doing something, do it no matter the odds of failing or succeeding. After all, we only regret the things we didn’t do.” – Jānis

  ***

 Something you should know. I never returned back to Latvia after this, instead, I ventured further south to Lithuania looking for adventure. However, that story is on a different website.