The Values Quest Adventure in Southport

The final, and probably the most exciting for the Macedonian team, stage of the Values Quest project was the exchange visit of the team to the United Kingdom. They were visiting their partners from Sefton Youth Service in Southport in the period between 25 August and 1 September 2007. The Macedonian group had been looking forward to this trip from the very start of the project and the programme provided for them by the UK team, as well as the surprisingly good weather, justified this - it was a memorable experience.


The day-long trip from Skopje to Southport on the 25th brought them to Southport late in the evening, tired and luggageless, but nevertheless pleased at the sight of their smiling English friends welcoming them. The three-course tea at the hotel and the rooms rounded up the excitements of the day. What followed in the morning were preparations for the Cultural Day, a big event for Southport, where the Values Quest team had their own stall, presented the project and Macedonia as best they could, met the Mayor of Southport and had a great time meeting new friends and doing different activities, such as graffiti drawing, playing golf, strolling along the green grass and looking at the blue sky, unusually sunny for England.

The morning of the next day was dedicated to getting to know Southport. During this Town Rally the team was divided in groups which went on an exploring expedition, doing different tasks and seeing many beautiful places. Afterwards: lunch in the park and playing ‘hide and seek’. In the evening, Tony, one of the UK team leaders, managed to embarrass a large percentage of the group by means of his ‘notorious’ Karaoke - Bob Marley show.

Tuesday was Water Sports Day, a very new and different experience for the Macedonians which included canoeing, raft building and being in a boat that turned over in the middle of a lake, which means being drenched and cold, and, strangely enough, still having great fun. The day ended with bowling and barbeque and luggage arriving :)

The group spent the following day in preparations for the Manchester event, the concluding conference of the Youth, Sport, Action! project, working together in a relaxed and interesting atmosphere on designing the Values Quest stall. In the afternoon, they went together to a recording studio, where they recorded their Values Quest rap, a soon-to-be number-one hit :) The big gathering of all the projects within the Youth, Sport, Action! project took place in Manchester on August 30th. There the team presented their project, saw what the other teams had done, met up with old friends and danced during the party in the evening – an excellent conclusion of the whole project.

A visit to Liverpool, Anfield Stadium, dragon boat races and cheering, a Chinese meal, shopping, museums, galleries, Gala Dinner and dressing up, awards, dancing, laughing, no sleep - this was the last day in Southport. And an evaluation talk, during which everyone was sad that the end of the project had come, but also expressed their pleasure that the two teams got along so well and became one and their gratitude for having being part of this wonderful experience. However, they all realised that this end is just the beginning of future successful cooperation between Sefton Youth Service and the Blue Sky Youth Network, the beginning of friendships to last.

Written by: Daniela Atanasova