Youth For Positive Change 2006

Now the leaves have fallen, and the winter is with us, we set down the answers from our four young ambassadors to questions we asked them after their return from their high-summer Peace Camp in Romania. Here is what we asked:

1. What were the highlights of your trip to Romania?
2. Any “lowlights”?
3. What did you learn?
4. Exercise/games/ classes etc that were good and that we might be able to use with young people here?
5. Relationships that you made and people you will keep in touch with?
6. What you thought of Romania
7. Recommendations for us for our future work with roving ambassadors – things we did well, things we should have done more/less etc

These were the responses.

1. Highlights

SABRINA: staring out over the horizon (it was a really beautiful country); meeting other young people from other cultures; learning about other cultures; debating; trying new food

ZAINUL: the journey(s) were fun, particularly the eight-hour-long bustling yet smelly train journey. When we did arrive eventually, the scenery and surroundings were nothing but spectacular. Meeting many different people from many different countries (Gabo, the Mexican, lol), and sharing my interests with them (especially football!).

How could I forget, I took a footie with me (God must’ve arranged this game!) — our (mixed-nation peace campers) team had an intense game against some Dutch campers. Unfortunately we lost, but nevertheless we left blood, sweat and tears on that Romanian pitch — we all savoured it!. Getting to know Lani and Sabrina better was always a great thing (without them I would’ve gone mad)

LANI: the people were the main one for me, though there were lots of highlights. I was really looking forward to going to Romania again, last time I went there I had a really good time. The first highlight was meeting everybody at the airport, because we hadn’t travelled together before and I was a bit scared things might not work out, but I found out that everybody has a good head on their shoulders. The place itself was beautiful, the trees and mountains. I knew the group was going to be interesting because with all these different people from all these different countries something had to come out of it!

Mostly getting a chance to talk to people and hang out with them. I had some really good times with a girl from Indonesia who had already heard of the organization I work for at the moment. Sometimes at the end of sessions we would go and sing very loudly to music, sometimes me and Aman would go for little walks up the mountain, this was cool too. It was wicked just sitting and chatting to people and listening to music.

Ying was that funny, and constantly kept the mood light with jokes and games. This was a real highlight because we needed it at times and also she tried very hard to think about how I could be included in the games she wanted to play. The funniest time connected to Ying was when we did a game in the talent show where you had to mime an activity, and then the next person who was the only one who had seen you had to do it for the next person. When I joined in the whole game changed because in the action the person was supposed to be walking and I didn’t: everybody in the audience knew why, and it was hilarious to see other people try and mime what I had done.

AMAN: Well, I don’t think words actually do justice to the highlights of this trip for me … I still feel the impact it’s had on me almost 4 months after my return.

The best thing about this trip is that it woke me up to the reality of the world I live in. I feel much more politically aware and while I still don’t know even half of what’s going on in the world, it’s given me the desire to want to learn more.

Aside from this, I met some absolutely AMAZING people!! I always thought that I knew some pretty ‘like-minded’ people to me, but I’ve never fully felt as if my views and aspirations fitted with anyone else that I knew. It was in Romania that I realised that I wasn’t a complete loon. Being one of the youngest too, the extended life experience of everyone around me became an inspiration which will never leave me.

One of the best things that I can say is even though I came back from Romania 4 months ago – there are still people that I keep in touch with. It’s great having contacts all over the world, and I’m definitely planning on making the most of it. At Christmas I’m off to Russia for a few days to see my Australian friend Matt!

Hiking! – I got to go on some absolutely wicked hikes! Some were actually quite dangerous, but that was half the fun! It was just amazing to get back to nature, and to live in such a beautiful natural setting for a while. I really was away with the fairies half the time – I’m a true romantic at heart.

2. Lowlights

SABRINA: getting stung by a bee; becoming ill; being away from home (I was very homesick); missing friends and family

ZAINUL: seminars were a little dry (bar Rebeka’s, she was top!)

LANI: for the first few days, even though I was enjoying it I found it very hard because it felt like being a university, the sessions were very long and lecture-like and I kept thinking, I have finished Uni and I don’t want to go back. Not having any fruit was also crap. Mostly I found it hard to be around that number of people all the time and not to be able to move around myself much — this is not because I don’t like being around people it is because I like to have the option of being able to move independently even if I don’t use it. It was also cold and rainy which we should expect but I didn’t like it because I had brought the wrong kinds of clothes

AMAN: I can’t really think of any BIG things to be honest, there are a few small things I could have done without though …

a)THE COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – We were told that it was gonna be hot, and not to bring much stuff, so I didn’t take many warm clothes with me – BAD IDEA!! I feel the cold much more than your average person, so in Romania I was freezing! I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to know that Matt was off to Russia after Romania – so I was quick to steal some warm clothes off him. Despite the rather fetching bright orange jumper he gave me, I was still quite cold!

b)The food! – Our meals pretty much consisted of pork and potatoes! Very nice to start with, but after two weeks of solidly eating this food … it got a bit boring!

c) Leaving! – I wish we’d have had more time

3. What you learned

SABRINA: there’s a lot more that needs to be done in terms of promoting peace in schools and generally to other young people; situations are different in different countries; a lot of the young people present all wanted the same change — change for peace

ZAINUL: – I learnt that unless you make an effort to speak to people then they might not want to speak to you. Then you’ll never know whether that person was nice or not (if that makes sense?!)

LANI: I think the main thing I learned was that there are lots of ways that we could make things better, as in making the timetable more flexible, more practical, and having lots of different people that you couldn’t get there — that sounds really negative but I also think I’ve got some perspective in that we did our best and we had a good time and learned a lot about each other’s countries. (I’m not sure about the answer to this question).

AMAN: I learnt things in Romania that I can’t even begin to explain. The workshops taught me the basics on the reality of politics and world capitalism but I feel that the most valuable thing that I learnt came from just talking to people and the experience as a whole.

It’s changed my direction in life for sure. I now know that my future lies somewhere in peace work or working in some line of community development. It’s kind of thrown my life off track a bit, but as the Kenyans would say: Hakuna Matata

4. Exercises etc that were good and might be used here

SABRINA: sharing experiences and telling cultural stories; the spy game

ZAINUL: hmm, we played a game in the ‘Gandhi’ room, where we were divided into two groups, all of us sitting. One person from each group would have to come up and sit behind a partition (a big blanket preferably), so they can’t see the person from the opposition group. The idea is that when the blanket drops, the two people facing each other have to shout the name of the person sitting in front of them as soon as they can – seems easy, but its annoyingly fun!

LANI: there was a really good session where we played games and did exercises which really sorted some issues out. Denis’ and Mario’s stuff was good.

5. Relationships made and people you hope to keep in touch with

SABRINA: a lot of the people i made friends with, in particular Andreea and Vicky – whose email addresses i have yet to get!!!

ZAINUL: defo-(nitely) gonna keep in touch with Aaron, and Gabo (Gabo has a funny accent )

LANI: the Cov lot, Vicky, Tara and Beinca

AMAN: I’ve kept in constant contact with Tara and Matt. I think they’re friends for a long time now – others I keep in contact with loosely a few e-mails from time to time.

6. What you thought of Romania

SABRINA: i made friends with a lot of the people, in particular Andreea and Vicky whose e-mail addresses i have yet to get!!

ZAINUL: beautiful Country

AMAN: absolutely wicked place!! It was especially nice to visit while it was fairly independent of the EU – soon it’s going to be like Western Europe, there was a sense of simplicity which was especially attractive.

7. Recommendations for future work with roving ambassadors:

What we did well

SABRINA: enjoyed learning some of the language beforehand; learning about how foreign money exchanges work!

LANI: I think it was cool

What we need to improve

SABRINA: remember to take own phones so we can ring home; more training and background on host country; journey in the train on the way back was much more comfortable; loveddddd the pancakes and pizza; thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience it!- was a once in a lifetime experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it

LANI: what you were saying about giving people more preparation time before hand might be good.

Well, all four young people got to the YPC camp safely:

Keep scrolling down to read their first impressions and see lots more photos!

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After a minibus ride at 5am from Coventry to London City Airport, a plane to Amsterdam, and a plane to Bucharest, we were met at the airport by Mark, Heather and a number of YPC participants. A bus and a Metro ride (taxi for Lani) later, and we were at Gara de Nord, from where our ultra-comfortable (not) Night Train would take us to Cluj

We arrived in Cluj-Napoca at 6:30 am on the 1st August: Kai gave us a lift in his big car to the bus station, we waited around a bit – and then we were off to the east into proper rural Romania

    

90 minutes bus ride later, we arrived at the village of Magura Racatau in the foothills of the Apuseni mountains. From here, Zainul and Aman walked (and Lani and Sabrina rode with the luggage truck) the 3km up the ravine to the YPC camp. After nearly 30 hours travelling, we were here!