Culture in Constant Change: Youth Exchange

From the 2nd to the 7th of January (plus the travel days) we held the youth exchange called Culture in Constant Change, or Cultange for short, in Ciudad de los Niños. This exchange brought together youth from 6 countries to learn more about each other's cultures, to learn about Spain and immerse themselves in an international environment. There were many disadvantaged participants for whom this was the first time to travel abroad!

Over the course of these seven days, the participants took part in a wide range of team building activities, a series of workshops, ranging from inclusion to art and they spent a lot of time cooking and presenting their cultures to each other. Each night a country would show off their traditional dishes, and they would also hold presentations about their countries. Some groups even taught everyone traditional dances...

A huge highlight was the workshop organized by the Hungarian team, Tekerd. They are a group working with LEGO, creating massive portraits and other pieces of art. For the youth exchange, they prepared a small portrait of a famous person from each of the countries and the participants could build them. There was definitely quite a competitive spirit going on and the portraits all ended up looking fantastic!

There were two small trips within the youth exchange. One was to Granada itself, since Ciudad de los Niños is a bit far out, in Chana and one to Alhama de Granada. During the Granada visit, the participants had the opportunity to explore the Alhambra and to get to know the city much better. Some groups decided to explore the Albaicín, some the city center and everyone had a good (albeit very cold) time running around the city.

We also went on a day trip to Alhama de Granada, a unique village perched on the edge of a canyon. It is known for its thermal water, although we sadly didn't get to try that. Instead, we walked around, exploring the oldest buildings of the village. We also saw an insanely detailed nativity scene, which was very impressive. Finally, after some free time, we saw the traditional "Cabalgata de Reyes Magos", a religious festivity which involves a parade where the three kings arrive and give candy to all the kids.

While it was certainly not the most intense youth exchanges I've participated in, I was very happy to see how friendships developed between the participants and I feel like everyone learned something new and broadened their horizons a bit!