European project ‘Being a stranger, abroad and at home’

Pre-history

Olve has a long-standing tradition of European projects.  During the latest edition, from 2001 through 2003, our school coordinated a three-year Comenius project with 10 schools across Finland, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Austria, Italy and Spain.1  This proved to be a huge organisational challenge cross-purposed by severe culture shocks in several directions. But during the last general meeting at Sosnowiec and Zakopane, Poland, everyone agreed this project to be a success in many ways, and expressed their preference to continue the collaboration of this team.

 

Since the Comenius agency does not accept consecutive project applications with an identical configuration of schools, two sabbatical years were decided upon, during which we would

a) organise one-on-one exchanges between two schools from the ‘pool’ 

b) generate ideas and proposals for a next ‘big’ Comenius project.

 

During the previous project years the Belgians and the Poles appeared to systematically get on very well with each other. So our choice for a partner school was quickly made.

 

2004-2005 Exchange project between Sosnowiec and Edegem

In November 2004, Olve hosted 25 Polish pupils and 2 teachers: the people from Sosnowiec were each ‘coupled’ with a Belgian pupil or teacher, and stayed at their homes. This week included the Polish pupils attending classes at our school, fun & games, a professional quiz evening, and an official reception at the Edegem town hall (by the Edegem councillor of Polish descent, Mr. Pszeniczko). Moreover, we launched the backbone of this exchange: the ‘Strangers’ project.  The final delivery and presentations will be organised during our upcoming stay at Sosnowiec, in May this year.

 

Being a stranger, abroad and at home

This theme was sparked by the fact that there are a high number of Polish people living in Belgium, especially due to two migration periods:  the ‘coal miners’ generation’ of the 1960s, and post-1989 immigration. A main aim of the project is to show that these migration “waves” are not necessarily a problem², but a perfectly normal phenomenon which has been going on since the beginning of mankind.

 

To this purpose, we are weaving a ‘strangers quilt’: a patchwork or mosaic of component subjects revolving around the central theme.

 

We teamed up in separate task forces consisting of 2 Belgians+ 2 Poles. Every team chose several subjects to work on, starting together during the November meeting, continuing the work over the internet, and applying the final touch when we will all be get together again in May. The work will entail interviews, posters, songs, internet quests and much more.

 

Here is a brief idea of what all these different ‘patches’ are about.

  1. Famous migrations in history e.g. homo sapiens from Africa, the Vikings, the gold rush
  2. Famous ‘first migrants’, e.g. Marco Polo, Columbus, but also Copernicus & Einstein
  3. Migrations of our people to other countries, e.g. from Flanders to Northern France, to South Africa and the Congo, of Polish people after WWII, and everyone to America.
  4. Immigrants living with us, e.g. Moroccan/Italian/Polish/Jewish people in Antwerp, and Jewish/Roma in Poland. Also including Poles in Belgium and Belgians in Poland
  5. Cultural enrichment through immigration, e.g. the Arabic influence via Spain & the crusades. Multicultural cooking.
  6. Strangers anywhere. Apart from some people under the previous point: youth subcultures, homosexuals, the handicapped, asylum seekers.
  7. The political and emotional factor: what does ‘home’ mean? How do I keep in contact with my loved ones when we are far apart? What do I miss most? What values do I want to impose on strangers who want to live in my street? How do I adapt? In what way do I want them to adapt?
  8. Integration working relatively well, e.g. Belgium, South Africa
  9. Integration gone wrong: genocide & ethnic cleansing, e.g. Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Darfur, Auschwitz.

 

We will symbolically lay down our quilt at a special place near the village of Oświęcim, 33 km from Sosnowiec…

 

Notes

1 http://users.pandora.be/olveweb2/

² As indeed, they are not this time: the integration of Polish people in Belgium seems to work fairly flawlessly.

3 More information and photographs on http://bawa.be/comeniuspoland2004/