Thurday 24th September - the big day!

    So here we are: the big day is finally arrived!
    This morning, while having breakfast wearing our customized t-shirts, we were pretty excited about what we were going to do. As we went together to the Leipziger field the sun was shining which was definitely a good sign for us.
    As soon as Paul gave us some more information, we started working. Some of us went to take the refugees from their centers in order to be right on time at the field, all together. A girl of us went with the Wisamar crew to the supermarket: they bought all the necessary to make sandwiches and drinks for all the participants and then it was task of some girls to prepare them. When Italians notice that there is free food, well you know what happens. We were kinda hungry, in fact.
     At 14 the match should have finally started. Most of the teams started arriving soon after 13, though something unforeseen was about to happen. One team was missing and others showed up whitout having signed up. It was a problem for the whole tournament, so we had to rearrange the matches. Ok, we managed that too. Now we were officially ready to start!
    The field was completely full: people playing on the two fields we created, other teams sitting on the green waiting for their turn, staff members running to and fro to get everything arranged.
    The day was incredibly busy for us all: the boys were playing in the tournament with a team - Dinamo Delio - while the girls had to split tasks such as prepearing and serving the food, writing down the results, communicating with the teams. The atmosphere was really nice, with many nationalities mixing together  and everyone seemed to enjoy the match.
    It was then time to check the scores and see who was going to  play in the finals. We were all very nervous at this moment, since many teams hoped to win. When we finally got the names of the best teams, we all rejoiced: our team was playing too to get the third place! The other teams playing were the Forest, who played against our team, and the International and Tourgau Strasse fighting for the first place.
   Though the climate among the spectators was really tense, everyone was happy when te winners were announced: the Forest got the third place, Tourgau Strasse the second and finally the International team were the absolute winners of the game!
   The most important thing in out tournament was not winning, but having fun all together in a day that everyone would remember for a while. After the names of the winners were announced, certificates and t-shirts were distributed to every participant and medals were given to the winners. We also had some musical entertainment by the folk band Widarsihtig and everyone had one more chance to get free drinks and food from out buffet.
    Slowly all the players started heading home and we remained alone, the music still playing, tidying up the field. We were definitely tired, but so happy to see that the event was over and was definitely a success!
   
    So this is now the end. The end of this blog but more importablty of a journey that lastes three weeks and got us here, to see with our eyes the final reault of much effort and hard work. Thanks to everyone who took part in the tournament, but above all thank to every member of the staff group. All the days spent together between work at the office and laughs through the streets of Leipzig won't be easy to forget. We all made this experience special!
   

Wednesday 23rd September

    Can you believe that just a day is left before the event? We definitely can´t.
    When we started this journey we thought this day would never come, that these three weeks will be such a long time. But they are eventually gone.
    It is hard to describe the atmosphere at the office today. Everyone is getting so nervous: our tutor kept telling us how crucial it is to finish everything on time today, starting from the to-do lists for tomorrow. Apparently we have so much to do and we will be so excited, that the risk to forget something is very high. That is what everyone was busy with today. Write down the welcome speech,
the shopping list, the rules of the tournament, a budget list, arrange the tasks for the day... These are just some of the tasks that needed to be done for today. It was pretty hard to keep calm while working, especially in the afternoon.
    We can just hope that everything will be fine tomorrow, since another busy day is waiting for us.

Tuesday 22nd September

    What´s the thing Italians enjoy the most doing? Eating. So we were extremely happy to organize a brunch at the guesthouse this morning, to celebrate our success. 

    After receiving some money from our tutor, a little group of us went to the supermarket to get some supplies. After having our food prepared for three weeks, we were really happy to choose what to eat on our own. After a while the team came back to the guesthouse carrying a shopping trolley full of food and drinks. As soon as we arranged the table with everything they got, we stood up and started grabbing whatever was in reach. That´s how we spent our morning: eating and chatting all together.

    In the afternoon the sponsoring and the marketing teams went in the city center, as usual, to collect as much money as they can. The program group has two different tasks: some of them went buying the t-shirts that we are going to wear the day of the match, the others are scheduling the teams that are playing in a few days. The creative group - this is a way to say us - is not doing any challenging work, to be honest. Everyday is quite always the same: updating the blog, taking photos of groups working.

    Tomorrow is the last planning day before the match and we can´t wait to see the results of our three-week work. 

Monday 21st September

The third week has already started and the event day is almost there! On the one hand this means that everyday we are more excited about the match, but at the same time it´s always more difficult to find new tasks to fill our daily schedule. In fact, the tournament is almost ready and we now feel more relaxed.
    This morning the marketing group went to the refuges´centers to make sure that they would be able to reach the field by bus or tram the day of the match. Unfortunately they have no tickets and so it´s task of this group to buy them for this occasion.
    The members of the sponsoring group went to the city center, as usual, to collect some more money since we have not so many resources. They will spend this afternoon doing the same activity.
    Since the big day is quite close, the program group has probably the biggest responsibilities. In fact, they have to define the last important details and check what is still missing. To give an example, today they went to buy medals that will be given to the winners of the tournament. In addition, they are also writing the list of participants and the final program.
    For what concerns the creative group, we are updating the blog with daily posts and photos of our free time.
    To sum up, it has been a productive beginning of week!

 

 

Friday 18th September

   Two weeks out of three have passed. Tiredness and homesickness start to take over.
   Today was probably the worst day since we are here, one of the less productive at least.
    After a meeting at the office, everyone left to do their daily tasks. However it didn't last for long, since a few hours later everyone was coming back. Not finding sponsors and having to ask for money on the streets doesn't help to make our mood better. Because of the poor results we had today, after our lunch break we had to deal with our tutor's reproach.
   In the afternoon Paul took us to a center for refugees. It was a good opportunity to recruit players for our match. Surprisingly enough, the first thing we saw when we got there, was a soccer field with many children playing together. The best thing about this visit was to see that the concept behind "A match for equality" does really work: playing soccer all together is a way to make friends and forget about daily worries.
  Today we also got good news: the Wisamar office kindly decided to give us tickets for the amusement park Belantis, where we are going to spend our Sunday. We can finally enjoy our last weekend in Leipzig!

Kids playing

Thursday 17th September

    When we first arrived at the office, we thought three weeks would be such a long time to organize a soccer tournament. We can barely believe that today just a week is left before the big day. So much happened during those days: from deception to enthusiasm, alternated  with moments of homesickness. It is true that we got some really good results so far, but at the same time we still need to work hard to finish everything on time.
   Today the marketing group tried to recruit some players by writing emails to some more schools suggested by our tutor, as well as going to the university. They also printed some more flyers, which were useful for the sponsoring group, that was spending the day in the city center. Fundraising turned out to be really productive as we always manage to collect a fairly good amount of money, not to mention advertising our event. That is why we are going to spend all the spare time we get doing this.
    The program design group kept looking for possible t-shirt shops where we can have our staff t-shirt printed.
   Finally our group -the creative- is working on a special project that is going to be published online soon!  
   

Wednesday 16th September

 
    One of the most satisfactory things for a group of young people organizing a project, is seeing people showing interest for it. That is what happened to a group of us today, who spent the afternoon in the city center collecting money and handing over flyers.
    The day at the office started with the designing of some posters, on which our project and philosophy were briefly explained both in English and German. Some people from the marketing and sponsoring group went to the city center to collect money. Some of them held the posters they previously made, while others tried to attract some people explaining for what the fundraising was. Even though they had some rude reactions, they managed to collect a good amount of money.When they came back to the office, they were all very excited about their results. In particular, they told us about some people that showed their concern about the issue of immigration in their city and were particularly willing to contribute to our project.
    The remaining groups spent most of their time working at the office. The program group also went to a shop to look for medals, which will be given to the winners of the match.
     We leave you with a picture that best shows our enthusiasm during the day.
 
 

Fundraising in the city center