What is puppet? Puppet is my imagination, second existence in my soul. I learnt a lot of things about puppet and puppet theatre in Hungary during the Youth Exchange “Once upon a time in Europe”. I met many people from another countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary), some of them were professional actor, some of them puppet expert, someone singer, everyone was special for me.

So many game, delicious Hungarian food, incredible flower festival, I found what I wanted there. I will remember forever. It was best two weeks in my life. Thank you Hodina H for this. Kamil Kum

Hodina H sent 4 girls from Pelhrimov for an international youth exchange Make some noise. This group went to represent Czech Republic to Larissa. The project ran from 31st October till 8th November and it was organized by association TerraNEON. In total 6 different countries (Greece, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) came to following continuation of the project Little prince is smiling in Spain.

The project Make some noise had two imaginary parts – Little prince and Make some noise. The programme was full of interesting, creative and entertaining activities. The first two days we spent in the mountains Kissavos where we even climbed the highest top and of course we started to get to know each other thanks to funny activities and also other cultures and their interesting facts and titbits. Then we moved to the city Larissa where we painted, created graffiti connected with the theme of the book Little prince, danced, raced in karts, watched interesting movie, organized Free hugs campaign, debated about the project and also about the future projects. Of course we experienced the Greek culture – as Greeks we ate, drank, said greetings, moved in the city, danced, relaxed and instead of yes we said no because the Greek yes is the Czech no. And a small note at the end – although we expected rain we had sunny weather with wonderful 30 °C during the trip to Thesaloniki.

How daredevil are you to perform a thater on the street? I was dare enough to perform a theater on the streets of San Joaninho in Portugal. The youth exchange “ArtsAreUs” had an aim to make a theater for people in the town using real fire performance and play that participants made together during the duration of the project.

During 6 days we were planning the play with professional stage director, making costumes by ourselves and getting new skills in acting. The project also gave me the possibility to meet extraordinary people and get to know to the culture of Portugal. If you get a chance, don’t miss the opportunity to try yourself in theater and explore new culture and meet new people!

5 participants of the international youth exchange Let’s dance together IV started the trip to new experience to the city Casarano in Italy on the 6th October 2008. We arrived to the place the day after and there we met other 17 participants from 4 countries (Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain). We lived for our stay on the edge of the olive park where we had the most of the programme activities.

The programme was compound from amusing energizers, games, various activities together and training for the final dancing performance. During the programme we got to know very well and we established new friendships with great people who were here a lot. The final performance which was opened with our common dance and then continued with other kinds of dances (national, ballet, wings, street dance, …) held on the square where the local public came to support us. But everything ends… But we have the great experience, knowledge and friendship which we got during this project.

The Czech group made by Pavel Hurda, Marketa Bravkova, Hana Vondru, Radek Jirku and Pavel Sladek took part in the international youth exchange Re-act in Slovenia with participation of Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic and hosting Slovenia. The project was held from 16th July till 24th July in the seaside city Koper.

We had discussion and workshops on the main topic which was culture and religions, we visited interesting places (not only in Koper but also in other seaside cities) such as churches, ruins of castles, wine cella and family brewery. There was also time for the trip in kayak and swimming in the sea during the programme.

We were in three different camps where we moved with the boats. Except these exhausting activities we had also some less exhausting workshops where the main topic was ekology and right rules of being in nature. We prepared interesting programme during our evening for our friends from Hungary, Lativa, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania. They liked mazurka, krteček and also some games. The fairy tale about the sugar beet in the original design. What to add, pleasently and full of contribution nine days for everyone of us.
Jitka Zimková

The international youth exchange with the topic of human rights took place on the East Slovakia from the 13th till 19th July. Five viros from Czech Republic representing Hodina H and whole Czech Republic took part together with Slovakia, Italy and Hungary. The programme was focused on the development of creativity in the field of human rights by games, activities, senes, comics or short movies.

We had alive discussions on the topic of children rights, discrimination or how to put near the problems of human rights to the young people. The part of the programme was a trip to the kastle Krasna Horka and to Kosice where we saw local historical monuments and interests. We were not bored not even in the free time thanks to our funny group which didn´t miss the sense of humour and a lot of ideas to make the time more attractive. More photos from the even here..

Youth exchange In-Action was held from 25 of June till 5 of Julz 2007 in Valdagno, Italy Oarticipating countries: Italy, Czech Republic, Estonia, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria Hodina H sent 5 young people to take part in this youth event. In Action is a multilateral itinerant youth exchange, traveling between Italy (Veneto: Valdagno and Venice) and Slovenia in 10 days.

The group will focus on the topic of cultural identity and differences between cultures.

Association Hodina H had its representation in Romania on the contact making seminar „Let´s braid projects together“. This seminar was held from 25th till 29th April near to the Romanian city Bacau and there were participants from Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Ukradne, Armenia, Italy, Finland and Turkey. We were working on common international projects during this seminar, we also got to know Romanian culture and its Eastern traditions.

Hodina H prepared on this projects two projects – a seminar in Czech Republic and an youth exchange in Finland.