LTTA1 - Belgium
From the 12th to the 19th March, the team of students from this Erasmus+ Project met in Arlon, Belgium, for the first Learning, Teaching and Training Activity (LTTA)!
It was a real excitment and the students from the Institut Notre Dame, Arlon, were expecting their new friends from Portugal, The Netherlands and Poland with some cakes and juices prepared by themselves. How good it was to have such a friendly welcome after a long journey!
During this week, there were icebreaking activities, meetings and interviews with people that were directly affected by the events of the WWII, visits to monuments, museum, and synagogue. A very rich program that not even the rain that fell the whole week could ruin!
In one of the first moments at school, the team could appreciate the work of a class from the belgium school that prepared a very interesting exhibition based on the books they had read on the Second World War theme. It was clear for all that the students had prepared themselves very well, were very creative and commited in this work. In this same day, the testimony from Mr Bosseler, whose father was killed in a concentration camp, left noone indiferent to his words.
On the next day, everyone departured to the Abbey of Orval, a wonderful place where the students learnt about the way of life of the monks living there, the process of making beer and the help they gave to the population in general and to the jewish children, during WWI, in particular.
This day ended in the castle of Jamoigne where we learnt about the role of the people living there in saving jewish children from the Nazis. To learn about these events and the difficulties these children and other people lived during that period was one of the hardest and most beautiful moments of the week!
Nevertheless, the week was still "young" and on the next day the team went to Bastogne, to the War Museum and then to Fermont, in France, to visit a fort of the allies. It was a very interesting day and the portuguese team even discovered a machine gun from WWII that was built in Portugal! All portuguese students took a picture there!
On the belgium program, there was also a visit to Luxemburg and to a synagogue where the whole team met the rabi and learned about some aspects of the jewish religion.
Although... all good things come to an end, and on the last day, after a short meeting in the belgium school, the students from The Netherlands, Poland and Portugal said goodbye and departured! It was also a nice day, because the sun finally arrived and we could see it after a week of heavy rain!
