Project meeting in Turkey – Mersin 23.-29. May 2011
„From fairy tale to fairy tale“
The project meeting took place in Mersin from 23.May – 28. May 2011 and teachers from all the participating countries - the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Spain and Turkey arrived.
What is remaining in our minds after one week in Turkey?
A noisy and vivid Turkish music, songs coming from the mosques announcing the time for a prayer, warm welcoming and hospitality everywhere you arrived, exotic spicy food, lots of vegetables, hot sunny weather, beaches and a sea.
The first days of our stay, we worked on the project From fairy tale to fairy tale. Each country had a presentation of its fairy tales, about what we have done so far.......
Turkish teachers together with their pupils showed us their own dramatization of Turkish tales in English. The pupils were very enthusiastic about playing the tale and had very nice costumes.
We also had a chance to see the school of Mersin, we met Mersin’s teachers as well as pupils. The pupils were very happy about speaking English with us, we discussed everyday activities, hobbies, etc.... We also had a chance to see a music lesson where we could relax a bit and listen to children playing the small keyboards and singing Turkish music.
Mersin is a provincial capital and one of the liveliest cities of Turkey. It is an important centre of agriculture, it produces mostly lemons, but also oranges and bananas. It is surrounded by the historical places such as town Tarsus , the birth place of St. Paul famous for his contribution to the spreading of the Christian religion. We saw the Well of St. Paul together with the remains of an old building where is believed that St. Paul lived. During the periods when the Christianity was prevalent in Tarsus people believed that the water in the well was holly and had power to cure ill people.
We saw an old part of Tarsus, with the old traditional houses made of stone with no kitchen, bathroom and toilets.
We also appreciated the visit of the caves: The well of Hell and Heaven, in one of them we disturbed a small bat.
We could go and visit a mosque, we tasted Turkish cuisine with its typical food: vegetable such as tomatoes, eggplants filled with spicy rice, chickpeas paste (hummus), vine leaves filled with rice too, wonderful and tasty fish, chicken and lamb kebab, ... We tasted a typical Turkish tea (very strong for us), and a real Turkish coffee drunk in tiny cups, but also very strong together with something sweet Baklava.
We were happy to see Istanbul, a beautiful town with charming mosques Blue Mosque – also women covered with scarves can have a look inside, Aya Sofya, which was built by the emperor Justinius (527-565). The interior is full of beautiful frescos. Once you are in Istanbul you should visit Great Bazaar. It is an unforgettable place full of interesting smells, charming atmosphere of lights, nice smell of tea, cheap perfumes, leather, noise of the vendors trying to attract as many tourists as possible to buy their goods.
The common project Comenius meetings give all the participants the possibility of meeting new people, different culture, improving knowledge of English.
All of us are looking forward on the next meeting which is held in October 2011 in Czech Republic.
The schedule of the project
Project meeting in the Czech Republic
- teachers and pupils from Hungary, Poland and Turkey
3. - 7. 10. 2011
Project meeting in Spain
- teachers 16. – 20. 4. 2012
Project meeting in Poland
- teachers and pupils 4. – 8. 6. 2012
The final evaluation and theatre performance of the project fairy tales
KaSS „Střelnice“ 5. 6. 2012