THE ESSENCE OF LIFE

This newsletter is mainly about the last school year, but also a little has been added from this school year. I expect to publish a further newsletter in April 2004, mainly about the student exchanges taking place over the next months. I would like receive news from all of you about the exchanges and other events that you want to talk about.

Gudjon Ó. Magnússon

Another Comenius Project ……..?

2001 was the final year of our previous project entitled "European Cultural Panorama" made by St. Margaret’s School, Urspringschule and Xántus János School. It meant three years of joint work, good fun, community spirit and life –long friendships. And then it was coming to its end. We were sitting in the enormous park of St. Margaret’s School watching our pupils enjoy themselves at the farewell party " What a great success it was!" "No, it can’t be over! Not now! Not here!" – We thought. -"Let’s carry on cooperation! How nice it would be to have some new partners and begin something new!" And so did we!

We started to look for new participants. To my greatest surprise, it went like clockwork and we greeted our new partners: Fjolbrautaskolinn Breidholti, Reykjavik, Liceul Teoretic „Adam Müller Guttenbrunn", Arad, Göteborgs Högre Samskola.

The participants come from far-away countries in Europe, totally different types of schools with various customs and traditions. It is amazing; how easily we have found shared interests and the common points, despite our different life- and work-styles.

The heads and the project co-ordinators met in Reykjavik to plan the joint work. We divided the tasks and got down to our assignments. Our project culminated in the "Water Festival" held at St. Margaret’s School, in Bushey, in March 2003.

In the months leading up to the special week in Great Britain various preparations were made. In each school Socrates Boards introduced the participants of the project, a huge advertising campaign was launched, which encouraged our students to produce art works related to water, join the school choir and learn "water songs" etc.

I was amazed at our students’ enthusiasm. Plenty of project work was done, therefore we had to select very carefully those students and art works which stood the chance to represent our school at the Festival in England. I could feel the excitement throughout the school. Sometimes I found myself surrounded with students and fellow-teachers who asked me how work was going and crossed their fingers for us. We could feel the whole school supported us. The "Water Festival" became important for everyone. We spent thousands of hours rehearsing the Hungarian songs and dances. Our dance and music teachers were merciless perfectionists and made us show our best.

The event was a huge success. Every school managed to perform something special and unique for their country. Each programme was given huge rounds of applause and cheering. We realised how much can be achieved through co-operation and community effort. We not only managed to achieve our aim and have a fantastic festival but to strengthen the relationship between the participants.

Lucia Kákonyi, Project Co-ordinator

Xántus János Idegenforgalmi Gyakorló Középiskola, Budapest, Hungary

This project year has just started and our work is in progress. So far we have focused upon the natural water cycle and we are about to apply the knowledge we have gained upon the artificial water cycle of Gothenburg. That means that we will learn about how the citizens of Gothenburg are provided with water and what further on happens to it when it is flushed down our toilets. We hope to get an overall view of the water situation in our town.

Other parts of the project that we will work on is the quality of the drinking water, water in lakes, wells and nearby rivers. The examination of the quality will contain chemical as well as biological aspects. We hope to be able to compare results with our partner schools throughout Europe, not only by mail but also through a study visit to Hungary, Budapest. Do we have the same type of water quality, problems and ways of measuring the quality? These are questions that we wish to have answers for in the end of this school year.

Yes, here we were…Seven pupils and three teachers. We had a couple of adventures even here on the plain: missing sandwiches on the plain (some of us remained hungry), some problems with the new Romanian passports, broken water bottles, and wet clothes. We arrived in Bushey in the evening where our new "families" waited for us.

The first day of our visit was dedicated to the St. Margaret’s School, which I have to say impressed us all. Huge buildings, a lot of green, swimming hall, dining room (were we met the English cuisine…the majority of our group voted for the "liquid chicken", only the cowards took the traditional "fish and chips") and not to forget the Great Hall were we had the rehearsals and the "Water Festival".

Next day was a day for rehearsals and for the International Concert. Other events was the Art and Photographic exhibition and the visit to the old roman city St. Albans, a small and lovely city not far away from London (the old street market reminded me of our markets were one of the girls of our group almost got married…and I enjoyed the old Cathedral as well).

The third and fourth day were dedicated to London… Buckingham Palace (some of us were quite taken by the sight, we had some fans of the British royal family in our group), Big Ben, the boat trip on the river Thames, the Tower of London (we were impressed by our guide and by the beauty of the Crown Jewels… unfortunately they were not on sale…), the British Museum, the Docks are just a few of the attractions we visited these two days. I don’t want to forget the musical we went in the evening of our last day in England and the fact that some members of our group got lost with the London cabs.

Emotions…but this time because we had to leave these wonderful places and our adoptive "families" which were so nice with us. We are leaving, but we hope that some day we’ll come back to our new friends and their wonderful country.

Everything is over now, all the difficulties, the good things…just memories, pleasant ones. We arrive in Arad, and all our families and friends expect us and we begin to tell about our BIG ADVENTURE we had in England.

The H. Harthandelsinstituut is a secundary school that was founded in 1929. Originally it was an only-boys school. The aim was to give youngsters in the age bracket 12-18 an appropriate training in all kinds of business-related subjects, so that they could perform well in the local small and medium-sized companies. That is the reason why our school is commonly known as The Commercial School. It offers a broad range of subjects that are important in later business life. Due to the particular political and geographical situation of Belgium, languages are important at all levels of the curriculum. This way the study and practical training of Dutch/ French/ German and English makes up 30% - 50% of the curriculum in some school years. Other subjects are business informatics, economics, accounting and law study. The school has a reputation for discipline, hard-working and professionalism in its study offer.

Next to this school, a gymnasium was founded in 1946 . In the curriculum there are majors in science/ math/ modern languages as well as Latin/Greek.

The educational profile of both schools is inspired by the Roman Catholic religion. Students are shown and taught that solidarity, mutual understanding, respect and cooperation are most important values in Life.

The two schools are managed together. They have in total some 1250 students, aged 12-18. Some 30% are girls. Since 1994 the school has set up, or participated in several European exchange projects such as "European Classes" with schools from Sweden, Italy, Finland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Germany. Especially the final secundary years are involved. For the Comenius 1 School Project " WATER, THE ESSENCE OF LIFE" Mr Hugo Delbeke takes up coordination for our school.

Another typical feature for our school is the boarding house, where 75 students have accommodation during the week. The boarding house offers the students hotel accommodation, but with a home-like atmosphere.

The school is in the center of the thriving Flemish town Waregem (pop: 35 000). Waregem is about 40 km from Bruges and 30 km from Ghent, and some 80 km from Brussels. In Europe it is known for its carpet manufacturing, as 75% of all European tufted and woven carpets are manufactured in this region. But other textile sectors (upholstery, household and wall textiles) are also represented.

The quality of the drinking water here in Iceland is very high and most Icelanders have always been proud of it. We brag about our water to people from other nationalities but often we do not appreciate it until we are abroad and far away from getting it.

The reasons why the quality of the water as we know it today is so high are many, one is that the security around the water sources is very high. This is of course necessary to keep the quality of the water; no one wants a peace of gum or a cigarette stub in their water.

The quality of the water here in Iceland has not always been this high. It is only about a century ago that the people living in Reykjavík had to go get their everyday water from open wells and springs in and near Reykjavík. At the beginning of the 21st century there were about 34 closed water wells and springs in Reykjavík which shared the job of providing the citizens with water. It was in 1909 that our main water source today, Gvendarbrunnar, began its work. The building of it was then the biggest structure Icelanders had taken on.

In the autumn of 1909 Gvendarbrunnar springs were opened and the citizens of Reykjavík and around the capital finally gained access to clean water and lots of it. In 1900 it is estimated that one citizen used about 8 liters of water but as soon as the water wells were opened in 1909 the number of liters used by one person in Reykjavík and the neighborhood multiplied and soon reached 200 liters a day per person. Today it is estimated that one person in Reykjavík and in the neighborhood uses about 240 liters of water a day, which is one of the highest in the world.

Most of our water that we get from these wells in Heiðmörk is ground water that flows from Bláfjöll and under Húsafellsbruna. The wells themselves are not all as deep therefore are used differently. The wells in Gvendarbrunnar are only about 10 meters deep but in Jaðarsvæði there are wells that are down to 140 meters deep. The watercourse in the wells is very dependent on the weather, e.g. the rain, and rises and falls according to that. Because of this difference the wells in Gvendarbrunnar are only used in the summer and closed in the winter while the wells in the other three areas are used during all seasons. This is done to keep the water from being polluted; the deeper the wells are the less change of pollution.

It was a hot and dry summer this year in Germany but nevertheless we had and have a lot to do about water. We were starting with all the preparations for the really wonderful "Waterfestival" in St.Margaret’s School in Bushey. We have to thank you very much, you all did a wonderful job.

There will be a UNESCO workshop on water during the next academic year in Urspring and the group will join the COMENIUS group in supporting the WaterAid project.

We’re also very happy to welcome a new member in our Comenius family, the Heilig Hart Handelsinstitut in Waregem, Belgium. They joined us in August 2003 and we look forward to meet them and to work with them.

This academic year’s main field of the water project will be more on science, geography and the environmental aspects. But we’ll continue to support WaterAid and their project in Tamil Nadu (South India) which was attached to our Comenius Project.

Teacher's meeting Budapest

German students in Iceland