Dear friends and enemies of experiential learning,

Your friendly, maybe too friendly team, was meeting in Latina to plan the last part of the via experientia long-term training course.   

We prepared a nice and challenging programme for you.

We looked very carefully to your learning needs and made a programme around these learning needs.

Most people asked for deepening their understanding of elements of experiential learning, mainly about how to process the experience and opportunities to practice more and get feedback on it.

Some people asked for a party all night long, small group work, more outdoor experience, better understanding for themselves,….

Before the course we will ask you :

-        to prepare your developmental needs in order to work with them during the course

-        to read some texts and to come up with questions for deepening theory 

more info during the next national meeting

Walter and Erla , you will be informed by Dirk

During the course we will work in an experiential and  process oriented way on :

-        coming back in the group and share our experiences in between the courses

-        give again opportunity to practice as a trainer of the group , learn from it , get feedback and look forward

-        deepening theoretical concepts and developing your own grounded theories

-        conclude your learning and work on your personal development plan for the future

-        future of our group

-        evaluation of the course

More information will come later…. But we expect you to be in Sabaudia on the 6^th of May around 6pm

Fully prepared, with lots of energy and good will.

So …  keep on the good work, and stay on the via experientia…. We will do the same

Your friendly team  

Angelica, Arturas, Dirk

This is Leonardo

Hi everybody. I’m back on this spot; I’ve been out since long time. I’ve a story to tell you about prejudice.

I’ve read a book of W. Dyer about the inner grow of an individual. Such an empty groove of nothing !!!

I decided to banish the author from my Library.

Then a friend gave me as present another book of this fellow. “ You’ll See It When You Believe It: The Way to Your Personal Transformation”. Well, trust me, this is a wonderful “box” of ideas, emotions, insights and had got the credit, to let me do a step forward in understanding the meaning of what we’ve learned during Via Ex 1.

Please try this food for mind. Ciao and Merry Xmas ! “

Ciao e a presto

Leonardo

Hello all

Silence is a BIG thing in our courses; the presence, the use, the absence of it.

I was just reading something from my favourite writer, Flann O’Brien, which made me wonder:

“If you are being silent, in which language are you being silent? Is it possible to be silent in more than one language? “

What do you think?

Hugs from Strasbourg

Dear friends,

The beginning of the future is already starting!

How was it to come home after the course. What did people say , what did you tell people about the course, what is going on with you now?

Share some of it at the blog so we can start our ‘blogging’.

We would like to use the blog for sharing what is going on with us in between now and May. We are especially interested in the results of your practice, reports of the national meetings, interesting experiences…. Let’s share these things who are linked to the course. The more personal stuff can be shared by the facebook group.     

 Well I can start….

For me it was somehow strange to come back to the real world  but I did not have much time to reflect. Busy at home, busy at work, …. Back in the real world  . But it is great to see everywhere pictures popping up , getting nice comments on the facebook group.

I immediately had a training course for two days working with MBTI profiles and I had a very enthusiastic  group, it gave me again energy to go on with this fantastic job.

I hope you also will have some fantastic experiences in your training practice !!!

Take care

Dirkas

Hello dears!

Yes, its true! there is more (and there will be more on this blog soon!).

Just received the report of the B-team latest meeting (I don’t know if it is really their “final meeting”).

So, let’s see what they have to say about it:

The B-team in the Belgian Ardennes

The final meeting of the B-team took place in the ‘parc naturel de la Viroin’, a beautiful area in the Belgian Ardennes, in the beginning of July. On the first day Ieva proposed us a long and silent walk in the woods, through the fields and waters in the valley of the small river the Viroin. And yes, we managed to keep silent….. at least for some hours. When we reached the ‘fondry des chiens’, a kind of crater where you can do a little bit of caving and climbing, the urge to talk became just too big. Afterwards we continued our path, taking a swim in the Viroin and passing by the excavations of an old celtic village, before ending with abseiling down in the old stone quarry where we would stay that night.

The momentum of that evening was Gert’s experiment to open a bottle of wine, only with a walking shoe (so without a corkscrew). You’ll see the result in the little filmfragment we made of it…. Human beings can do much more than you would think at first! At the campfire we had a long and interesting talk about the importance of structure in experiential learning programs. Opinions were diverse, so we couldn’t find the one right answer. But is there just one right ‘absolute’ answer??? Or does the answer relate to each person who ask the question??? Anyway, the stars were calling us for a good night at hotel aux mille étoiles …

Bert Claeys prepared a second day of hiking, allowing us to enjoy the beautiful nature, the sun and especially each other. We celebrated Via Experientia and its togetherness in a local restaurant, dreaming about a reunion somewhere sometimes…..

11 October: now we can add the links for the pictures and movie thanks to Bert:

here is the link to our last trip pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/ieva.misiunaite/LastBTripPics?authkey=Gv1sRgCJL_ovTfr6bCIQ&feat=directlink

and this one – link to our movie:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ieva.misiunaite/LastBTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjfm-mWoN6wUg&feat=directlink

Hello dears!

Just thought to write something silly, as it is summer time and the heat is amazing…

So:

“Something Silly!”

Is that enough?

Sure you can write something even more silly!

hugs from sunny Strasbourg!

and today (two weeks later than the original post) it is raining like all hell with lightning and thunder!
so the only thing I can do is close the windows and play my ukulele:

New ukulele (known as a "frog")

good isn’t it?

see you!

and it is so long ago…

and we still carry those people and visions and sounds…

Remember; somewhere there is a mohawk walk waiting for you!

Mohawk walk waiting for us...

sometimes a song helps life to go on…

sometimes a song simply fits…

this one was by a tramp and accompanied by Tom Waits:

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
never failed me yet
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
this one thing i know
that He loves me so

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
never failed me yet
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
this one thing i know
that He loves me so

Night time football, eating and drumming at Antonio’s canoe club provided much enjoyment:

with the magic of a moonlit, midnight dragon boat paddle around the lake to complete a wonderful evening of togethernessness!

togethernessness (note the life jackets!)

The final day saw us reflecting and making plans for the future:

Then it was time to head off to the national park and go to the zen garden for some poetry and haiku…

haiku in the zen garden

and the chance for a great group photo in the little amphitheatre next to the cafe where the via Experientia team met to plan the whole course last year!

until the next time...

On a personal note, Sabaudia was a pretty incredible experience for me and one of the many opportunities offered was the one to jog to the beach and back before breakfast. Each time was different, although the route was nearly always the same. And each time I brought something back from the beach with me. On the day before leaving I arranged them incredibly artistically and kind Ieva took a photo of the result. Artistic? for you to judge!

gift from the beach

Until next time! And once again: huge thanks to Ginte for her brilliant photos!