It's Up to Me Indeed: Bits from the Training for Trainers 'It's Up to Me 3'

© Ayhan Feraset 'Getting ready for 
the group photo'

This is a story about an inspiring 7-day learning-by-doing experience that happened in a picturesque little village Diepenau, in considerably Northern part of Germany in the beginning of March 2016. I'm speaking about a training course for trainers 'It's Up to Me 3' that gathered 35 young and energetic participants from 7 countries, namely from Norway, Italy, Macedonia, Spain, Latvia, the Netherlands and Germany willing to become inspiring trainers and learn new things about trainer's realities, exchange ideas and passions, form new friendships and obtain new contacts, as well get to know committed organisations and individuals that could become their partners in developing and implementing future projects, and also learn new things about different cultures. Moreover, the cultural diversity represented in the training course was beyond the 7 countries that officially took part in this training course - as such the colorful support team consisted of individuals coming from Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, two shadow-trainers coming from Croatia and Estonia and even more colorful team of trainers coming from Romania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and even the U.S.

'Latvians Are Everywhere' by Otto Ozols: A New Face of Modern [Latvian] Literature or A Mirror of the World Today?

Source: janisroze.lv

I walk along the numerous shelves of diverse manifestations of knowledge, and stop at the shelf stating 'Latvian Literature'. So there I stand, scanning through the many new and old masterpieces of new and old wizards of domestic literature. What immediately catches my eye is the very patriotic cover of a book 'Latvians Are Everywhere' [Latvieši ir Visur] by Otto Ozols. It also states that it's a special limited edition dedicated to the country's birthday in November. As follows, this national thriller as named by some was first published in 2010. I'm intrigued, though I'm not able peak inside as it's covered in extra plastic. However, it is visible to the eye that the cover contains engraved Latvian ornaments and has four short reviews on the back cover made by publicly well-known figures, including the wizards of contemporary Latvian literature. One of the main conclusions the locally famous reviewers try to feed to the audience is that the book is like a medicine for those that have lost their feeling of national significance. The book is pricier than other books, so I have my moment of doubt whether I should spend 18 something Euros and get this 'boost of national significance'. Well, 'Latvians Are Everywhere' and they win me over, also because I'm intrigued to learn about how people describe their experiences of living abroad. However, not everything looking splendid and promising from the outside is able to keep up with the created image when extra plastic cover is removed...