Our Projects – written by Ilja

Our projects are an important part of our life on board . Before the journey began, we all could choose which project we would like to work in, and  most of us got their favorite.
The projects are for the whole length of the journey so we can work on them for a long time and learn how to organize and coordinate something like that. At the end, every project group has to present their products.
So during the week we often do things for our projects and every Friday afternoon we have project meetings for one and a half hour to learn new things about our project, to work in and at our projects or to present our weekly results to our project members.
But what are the projects about and what do we do there?
Totally we have got six projects, ‚See(h)stücke‘, ‚Bordband‘, ‚Meer aus Plastik‘, ‚Ökologischer Fußabdruck‘, ‚Auftakeln‘ and ‚KUS-Kurier‘.
In the following text I’ll describe the projects for you.
First I’ll begin with my project group which I know best. I’m part of the project ‚See(h)stücke‘ (led by Yvonne). Our project has two parts. First we take photos for our official KUS website. We take the pictures, delete the ones which aren’t in focus, choose the good photos and find headings for them. Then they are ready for the website. Second, we work a little bit more creatively with our own hands. We paint with different kinds of colors, create logos with different materials and many other things like that. Often we work together with the other projects. For example we build stamps for the textiles from ‚Auftakeln‘ or we create a painted footnote for the magazine of the project ‚KUS-Kurier‘.
The second project is our ‚Bordband‘ (led by David). They surprise us with musical contributions, for example on birthdays, or every Saturday at  ‚Besanschot an‘. They also want to create a special song about our whole journey.
The members of the project ‚Meer aus Plastik‘ (led by Christian) analyze the plastic in the ocean and analyze what consequences the plastic has for the ocean, the fish and other organisms.
Another project is ‚Ökologischer Fußabdruck‘ (led by Sebastian). They collect data about our water and petrol consumption and look how much water we use for cleaning the ship, for taking a shower or how much water the galley needs. They analyze the data to show us how we can minimize our consumption.
Our fifth project ‚Auftakeln‘ (led by Carla) also started two projects. First they want to learn how to use different settings of sewing machines by making small bags for everybody. Their second project is ‚Pimp Your Shirt‘ – they repair or pimp up clothes if they have a hole or something like that.
Last but not least our public relation project ‚KUS Kurier‘ (led by Nele). They present our experiences to the public, write texts about our experiences and create a magazine. So after our KUS journey we will be able to remember all those unique and special moments we had.
It is fun to work in the projects and I’m looking forward to our product presentations at the end of our journey.