Hello! My name is Katharina. I am 22 years old, and I had the amazing opportunity to attend the workshop “Puzzle of Diversity 2.0” in Ceuta, Spain, while doing my internship at the organization pewobe gGmbH in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
I am an experienced escape game player and a mastermind at solving riddles and puzzles. But why am I telling you this? And why should it play any role in working in an international youth work space?
As you can read in the title of the project, the main topic was diversity. The focus of this workshop was to educate social workers, aged 18–30, to be able to create their own escape rooms for educational purposes. In my case, we were asked to develop escape games on the following topics: ethnic minorities, refugees, and people with disabilities. I know what you are thinking: How can a person combine such serious and complex topics with this kind of method? Is it even possible to touch upon such diverse topics in just a 5-day training course? And most importantly, how can you address these topics in a fun, entertaining, yet serious and educational way?
On the first day, we arrived in Algeciras and met up with a bunch of new people from around the world who came to attend the training course. We were allowed to play a rather “normal” escape room, diving into the world of Harry Potter and saving everyone from becoming invisible. In a group of seven people, we managed to solve a bunch of riddles in a language that was not our own mother tongue! It’s really impressive how a group of strangers can team up to solve a foreign riddle, just by briefly knowing the concept of the wizarding world. To wrap up the preparations for the actual start the next day, we took the ferry to Ceuta, which is located on the African continent! Excited about the amazing opportunities and new experiences ahead of us, but tired from our long trip, we arrived at our accommodations and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, the actual course began, and we were properly introduced to each other through icebreaker games. Then, we were given an overview of the program and the schedule for the week. It was so exciting to meet everyone on a deeper level! After a shared lunch, we took a bus to the district where the wall frontier between Spain and Morocco is located. We got to experience the societal differences between different districts of the city, while discussing the process of people trying to cross the border, as the area is the connection between Africa and Europe. We talked about the reasons why people flee their countries and what we could do to address the ethical issues surrounding it. Afterwards, we were sent on a city quest, where we got to explore the city more, bond with our new friends from different countries, and complete fun yet challenging tasks, such as asking local grandmas to take a picture with you and then sharing it with everyone in the group.
After enjoying our first night in Ceuta, we started bright and early on the second day, engaging in our first discussions regarding our main topics, while being next to the sea! We then started on the other topics (ethnic minorities and people with disabilities), shared stories, and reflected on each other’s challenges and experiences, while taking a closer look at statistics on related issues. After lunch, we quickly dove into the fundamentals of escape rooms. While considering possible opportunities for our own riddles, we tried out several methods, which made us even more excited about the group work ahead. As our minds were still in “learning and sharing” mode, the night of cultural exchanges quickly arrived. It was amazing to learn about each other’s nationalities, beliefs, and customs while dancing and having fun. It brought us so much closer together!
Day 3 arrived, and we began learning the theory of escape rooms. We learned how to involve people in the game, letting them dive into the topics efficiently, while also understanding the dos and don’ts of creating a chain of riddles. We created small puzzles for each other to try, and then provided feedback to create a practical reference for the theory we had learned earlier. It was nice to see the different ideas everyone came up with in such a short time and with the limited materials we had! After lunch, we separated into the three main topics and brainstormed ideas and concepts for our escape rooms. We decided on the materials and the location, while also implementing the knowledge we had gathered earlier. Everyone worked really hard and effectively, even staying past our bedtimes.
Rise and shine, because the day of the escape rooms had arrived! While already feeling sentimental, everyone worked nonstop on creating and finishing their rooms until 8 p.m., so that our local guests from Ceuta could come and enjoy our work! We even got to try each other’s escape rooms, and I must say I was so proud of everyone’s efforts. Every participant contributed to their escape room in their own way, making the whole experience so diverse and exciting! We were all so satisfied with our results and received amazing feedback from the local community, so much so that we even made it into the local newspapers! Thank you to the kind and interested reporters for taking our project to a new, local level! Working in our teams brought us even closer, which made our farewell gathering the next day feel all the more bittersweet.
Our official last day involved many reflections, cleaning tasks, and final shared messages and results of our group work. We got to see Ceuta for the last time and shared our final moments by enjoying our last dinner together and dancing until we couldn’t anymore.
I want to thank everyone involved in this project, whether my facilitators back home, the facilitators/organizers from Spain, Poland, Ukraine, etc., or the participants attending the training course. You all made this such an unforgettable, life-changing experience for me. I learned so many great and useful aspects, which I am already incorporating into my day-to-day work now and in the future. Having shared my experiences, while also learning from others and getting to know their perspectives in life, and being able to educate and challenge others in a fun way, was an experience full of so many great impressions. Yet, it ended so soon.
I am really grateful for now having all of this knowledge to spread to others, sharing this unique and eye-catching method. I will gladly recommend attending similar projects, because even though it was a short and intensive course, which involved much discipline, it has left a remarkable impact on me and others, with whom I gladly keep in touch from around the world.
See you on another project!
Katharina
