Danube-Networkers
Intercultural experiences - Romania
Text: Doina Chivu, Gheorghe Chivu, Gheorghe Drila, Ecaterina Fianu, Gheorghe Fianu, Gabriela Macarie, Marian Constantin Petrescu
Through this project we got the chance to meet a large group of seniors from 6 different European countries. It was for the first time when we worked in such large transnational group of people! If during the active life we met and worked with foreign citizens on few rare occasions, Danube Networkers project gave us the possibility to get in touch simultaneously with a variety of Europeans: Austrians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Germans, Hungarians, and Slovakians.
We, the Romanians, we were the generation in Eastern Europe on which the Iron Curtain was built on. For years and years we were forbidden to get in touch with citizens of foreign countries, for us the Iron Curtain was really opaque! Danube Networkers project gave us the possibility to have direct contact, to communicate and talk openly with people similar to us but living on the other side of the Iron Curtain: it was an extraordinary experience that showed us that the Iron Curtain couldn’t destroy the European spirit!
What we liked the most in this project was the diversity of the activities we developed. From making interviews and collecting songs & poems about Danube, to rendering life histories on Danube’s shore and getting information & photos about natural monuments along the famous river, as well as travelling abroad to attend project meetings, finding out new traditions, discovering life styles, visiting new places and making new friends – everything was an unforgettable and unrepeatable experience! It was something that made us feel capable, useful and still in good shape!
Now our memories are richer – we will always remember the emotions we had before the first meeting, the fear that we won’t be able to make ourselves understood or that the others will laugh of our ideas, the victory of the first dialogues shyly begun during the coffee breaks…and the happiness and frenzy of the songs and dances we had together!
Our lack of English language skills proved to be not a real obstacle: we succeeded to express our thoughts and feelings into a kind of Esperanto, and in the end we were proud to master basic English words, composing a small initial vocabulary – but enough to give us the impulse to want to learn more, better English!
Although that we started as a joint of different groups, in the end, Danube Networkers became a compact, single team: our project team! Danube, the European spirit and the music has united us!
Because of all of the above, we have to say “Yes, we are ready to repeat and to extend this wonderful experience, to “transfer” it to other persons!”.
