RE: Next Week in Germany

Hello there,

I'm one of the people who will be attending and writing about the ETS (European Ten Sing) Festival next week, which I have been waiting very eagerly for during the year!

I am expecting it to be one of the best festivals that I will be attending so far during my time with Ten Sing and I am hoping to have a fun time with other Ten Singers from across Europe! From what I've seen from their website and photos on Facebook it looks like it will be!

Today I haven't much to say, but expect bucket loads more from me next week!
See you soon!

Game over? its just the start!

Team Davies arrived back late last night. As I walked out of the airport I felt tired, emotional, hungry and very thankful for meeting so many amazing people.

 My year has been a very difficult one with illness, threat of redundancy and family problems, but a fluke meeting with a certain Ken Montgomary at this year’s National conference has changed my life. I need to publically thank him for what he has done for me, my YMCA and my youth and the faith he has in me and I look forward to visiting him soon to thank him personally and sharing food and stories with him. Thank you Ken!

I didn’t want to blog yesterday as tears and lack of sleep left me an emotional mess as I stayed up till 5am to wave the first people off. I also wanted time to let the experience sink in.

I was back at work today and as my Chief Executive greeted me with a hug I felt very proud as colleagues told me how he had followed me on this blog. My first day back at work was a good one with new funding, new hope and the start of our summer scheme. I found myself slipping off back to Prague and my new friends at times but their inspiration will carry me on through the week and I have already spoke to a group of youth about Prague 2013 and raised the issue at the managers meeting!

WATCH OUT PRAGUE! BOLTON IS COMING!!!!

I have learnt many things but as always the people on the conference have taught me the most, I have been inspired and touched deeply by people’s comments and actions. I just want to share a story with you that really touched me. I met a girl called Edita, she couldn’t believe I didn’t have facebook (that is correct Twitter is the future!) she was so worried that I couldn’t keep in contact with her that she bought me a book of stamps and gave me her address asking if I would write to her and keep in touch. It’s amazing that she went to that length and I will write to her, and I was very touched.

It was also encouraging to hear others comments about myself, I wont share these as they are personal and feel very honoured people feel this way about me. Proud to be chosen and proud to represent England, we all did well.

Just to finish the entire conference was playing the circle game by the end of the week, including the facilitators. Me and Santiago did it... the point is it just takes one person to want change and if you try hard enough others will follow.

This is Adi Davies signing off. Thanks for reading

Day of REFLECTION!

Today was defined by reflecting on all the positive and amazing work every young person put into the YMCA Europe Peace Seminar in Prague 2011! I reflected on many things e.g. All the Laughs, Jokes,The beautiful people,Wonderful Prague and how quick we became a family. I keep looking through all the hundreds of photos I took and they make me feel so many emotions, I feel at PEACE whilst I am looking through them. All the memories of this seminar will be with me forever. I and all of the other young people will still be working and communicating together on our facebook group that is called YMCA Europe Peace Work Seminar Prague 2011.(Click link) http://www.facebook.com/groups/136458056440441

I know I would be answering on everyone's behalf and say, if you ever have the opportunity to attend a seminar in Prague amongst 18 different nations and be so fortunate, then you would be a FOOL to say "NO".

All of us will still be working towards a PEACEFUL future and hoping many others will be too. Once again I am so grateful for everyone who made this happen for me and this has impacted on me so much. "THANK YOU" ("Dekuji" in Czech) I have came away with so much knowledge about all different cultures and how all YMCA's are all so beautifully different in many ways!

I would personally like to say thank you to Ken Montgomery for all the work you have done and into the organising and the blog. Very grateful.

As well to all my NEW family who attended this Seminar;

1. Adrian Davies
2. Misha Guskov
3. Andrada Deatcu
4. Vardan Hambardzumyan
5. Amanda Blasius
6. Solomon B. Samuel
7. Antti Saarelma
8. Selma Zaidi
9. Belen Otero
10. Michal Szymanczak
11. Camelia-Adela Padureanu
12. Martina Hudcovska
13. Dorina Lluka
14. Juan Simoes Iglesias
15. Edita Taida Djakoualnova
16. Gerard Tosserams
17. Frah Saeed
18. Gerhard Gruhler
19. Ian Boyd
20. Viktoria Pilinko
21. Jack Ahearn
22. Sarah McMunn
23. Josefina Smolkova
24. Santiago Negro
25. Luisine Vardanyan
26. Sandro Samadbegishvili
27. Maria Pronina
28. Qendrim Lluka
29. Maria Vardanyan
30. Matthew Cook
31. Maria Verwoerd

THANK YOU ALL!!!

We will all meet again...

I will leave you with a poem I received from work today and it ties in with all what we work for in PEACE.

Yours

Lewis Barkway North Staffordshire YMCA

1. The version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

Next Week in Germany

Next week it will be the YMCA European Ten Sing Festival in Germany. I am not actually going. When I said in an earlier post 'Next Week we are off to Germany' I didn't actually mean me I meant the Blog. Four young people who will be attending from England have agreed to act as Blog correspondents for the Festival so watch out for their posts.

Back in Blighty

I'm sat here back on my sofa in london on the first morning back after prague and I'm thinking about everything that has happened over the last week. many things are running through my mind. i have have experience a lot and learnt a lot too. I know an aweful lot more about certain parts of the world, countries in eastern Europe that I'm ashamed to admit I had lumped together before. But now I know a little more about them they are very much separate, different, yet linked through a shared history. The more I have learned about certain parts of the world, the more i have realised I know very little.

Back on camp around this time we would have just finished breakfast and be starting our lectures. Right now I have just put my daughter to bed and am thinking about the very different routines. Its very simple to fall back into our own rhythm at home. I do want to do that, but I do not want to lose the feelings and memories from the past week. There are many inspirational stories I have been lucky enough to hear over the past week and I want to try and remember those and harness them as I go back to my own little part of the world.

Catching up with all the news, local and international since coming home and its very sad to hear about the tragedy in Oslo and the death of Amy Winehouse. Both stories seem to be linked by the death of young people. Many people too young for a normal death have had their lives cut short for different reasons. My heart goes out to all the people and families of Norway. We did get the headlines while we were away, but now we are catching up with the details and they are just chilling. To me it feels really surreal, as they were taking part in a youth camp in Europe, and where have I just come back from? ..... a youth camp in Europe! I could not imagine that happening....

On a lighter note, I'd like to say thank you to all the many wonderful people I have met over the past week. The other YMCA members from across Europe, the facilitators and guest speakers and especially the other guys from the UK. We made a good group I think, and I cant remember the last time I have laughed so much. I really miss the sound of laughter this morning!!

Thank you to Prague, thank you to my new friends, thank you to YMCA Europe. Lets all go back and serve God in our own little ways as he really is #bossofyouall !! :)

@cityymca_london
@boydicuss

Next week we are off to Germany - until then

Waiting to leave

I’m sat in the hotel lobby, belem from Argentina is teaching cards to Qendrim from Kosovo, Santiago from Spain and our own Jack. Adi is rounding up the people remaining on his interview wishlist and everyone else is chilling out eating the chocolate yoghurt we have for breakfast and marvelling at the genius of spoons made of plastic that look like metal (Lewis and I couldn’t believe it). It’s amazing that such a diverse group of people who had never met seven days ago are now laughing like old friends. Some people here have lived through war, others have gone to war, while some of us have been lucky enough to only see conflict through the media. Some of us have been tear gassed, some of us have been shot at and some of us have witnessed the effect of domestic violence. Despite all of this everyone shares in common the hope for a better future.

I feel really privileged and honoured to have shared in this experience with everyone here, I’ve had an amazing time and such good fun. This probably won’t be my last post but I’d like to say that everyone here has been genuinely awesome both socialising and swapping icebreaker games (though the moo game being played in the distance was very distracting J ). I’m definitely using the fisherman game back home (like wink murder but faster and with more people involved at once). The presentations have been fantastic and I have learn so much about other countries and the good work that the YMCA does in them. But more importantly I have continually inspired by the personal stories and passion for peace evident in everything that has been said in conversation both planned and informal (definitely worth staying up to 4AM every day to get in as much conversation as possible). I was also embarrassed by how good everyone’s English is though even as a natural speaker I cannot find the words to express how grateful I am and I only hope that the stories and methods I bring back are worthy of the trust and time that people have invested in me. Thank you everyone

-Matt.

Time to say goodbye

Not sure if this will work. I guess you folk in Banglagesh and the Czech Republic will have changed a little as a result of your experience. Perhaps there is a song comming on

Almost time for home - Update from Laura

Well, it's coming to the end of our time here. It will be sad to leave because we've all become like a big family, but I am looking forward to returning to England, to see my family, friends, colleagues, young people and get my home comforts back!

This afternoon we shall all spend time doing some reflection on the 2 weeks experience which we shall share tomorrow with the rest of the group before the closing ceremony and departure.

However, I will still have many things to reflect on when I return to work, with the main part being how I can put what I've learnt in to practice in the YMCA community in West Bromwich and I look forward to exploring this this some more.

It's been an amazing experience, one I wont forget, and it's also helped me to value what I have back at home.

Some of the best photos from Prague so far

Dude, Where's the Peace?!

Hi Everyone!

I must first apologise for not blogging since I've been here, I would say I've been to busy ... but if I'm honest all my spare time has been spent with all the lovely people I've met!

The Peace and Reconciliation conference has been an amazing experience so far! I have made so many friends and insist on attempting the US accent all the time especially after finding out all Americans have lisps :P Also the Czech's think I look like a vampire as I am pale with large eyes o_0 ... I can't see the similarity myself and its something I've never had before! Haha

On a more serious note, I have been so shocked and sad to find out situations of conflict and lack of peace in the countries of my friends here, particularly Belarus and Kosovo which almost bought me to tears! Its so intriguing to see the difference in cultures, and makes me feel so lucky that I have not come face to face with conflict back at home!

Its also fascinating to see that most people here speak 2/3 and some even 4 different languages! It makes me feel so guilty that us English only speak English! But everyone here speaks great English, although they understand the Americans better than us English! Especially poor Lewis, if he's not speaking to fast its to slow! :)

As well as learning a lot of interesting things about peace through touching personal stories of the past, learning about everyone individual cultures has also been nearly as fascinating! We did a culture evening last night which was great! Learned so much about other countries across the globe as well as partly being a geography lesson! We learned new dances, tasted sweets listened to music and more from other cultures which again was amazing, especially when we all made the americans aware of what REAL football is :P Its was all fun and jokes though :)
The food and hotel is also beautiful here, despite the excess amount of chicken :') Anddd its stopped raining just in time for our trip into Prague tomorrow which I'm really excited for to learn more about Czech culture!

The diverse group of people I'm with are some of the most beautiful and amazing people I have ever met, and have become very comfortable with each other especially after all the very intimate but hilarious ice-breakers! It will be really sad to stay goodbye on Sunday, but facebooks will defiantly be added! :D

Anyway Sunday isn't here yet and we still have a good couple of days ahead which I am going to make the most of as there is still lots to learn!

I'm so grateful to have this amazing experience to learn such fascinating things and meet such amazing people and experience such a lovely city!

Jack :) x

Thoughts from the week so far...

Well I’ve been here for almost five days but it feels like I just arrived. Everyone is getting on fantastically and the thoughts and stories are flowing freely. It’s really been amazing to get so many varied perspectives on peace from both different countries and regions within them. The other guys have excellently covered the things we’ve been getting up to so I’ll try and focus on how I’ve seen things and the themes around peace and reconciliation that have come up.

There is a recurring theme that communication is key to obtaining and maintaining peace. Without communication people forget how similar we all are and divides start to occur between us. This communication isn’t just between governments but between the people of the countries, villages and families of the whole world. This for me is summed up by the quote of Mother Theresa that our Kosovar friends gave to us: “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person”

Another important thing I have learned is how war and conflict is a very personal affair. People in the same conflict will have different experiences of it and react in different ways. It has been eye-opening to hear of people’s personal accounts and to see just how human people can be in peace and the power that forgiveness can have.

On a less sombre note we had a great evening last night with all the represented countries doing a short/long presentation/powerpoint/dance lesson. It was brilliant to learn more about all the other countries, especially from the point of view of those who live there rather than the standard Wikipedia result. We kept ours simple and just sat down and threw pictures into powerpoint that represented Britain to us. The idea was to show everyone how we see the country that we live in. If you want to see it I’ll try and find a way to upload it (probably after the conversations die down at 4AM)

Another highlight was an interview with Lusine from Armenia about her experiences with the YMCA “Roots for Reconciliation” project. I shall let her tell you about it herself:

My highlight so far is definitely the one on one conversations we have in the quiet moments when people can reflect on the talks and films and add in their personal take on it along with relevant stories that have. Anyway, I hope your enjoying our reports in the blog and I look forward to seeing everyone back in England so we can talk about everything we have learnt. Matt :)

WOW...What an evening!

We have just finished our cultural evening which started at 8pm and we finished at roughly 12pm. It was a joy to be part of and a mixture of emotion and pride from everyone as they showed off their respected country, truly an experience that will stay with me forever!

There was a mix of PowerPoint presentations, dancing, drinking, speakers, presents, videos and many jokes and laughs. It just once again reinforces how diverse the YMCA movement and its amazing people are! Here are a couple of videos from tonight’s action. First up is Maria Belen Otero from Argentina playing the charango and the songs name is Alheli Plant. Here is the link:

 

Next up is Lusine and Maria Vardanyan from Armenia leading everyone in some traditional dance: 

 

Lastly is a clip of Amanda and Sarah from the US movement leading a “Hip-Hop “dance session: 

 

My personal favourite was Viktoria Pilinko from Belarus who read a Poem called “Pagonia” she also spoke about the injustice in her country, which was quite emotional for her and everyone else. She showed great strength and maturity beyond her years. I was very proud of her and she gave the members of her home group a magnet each, so I felt very lucky as only 6 were given out and I will truly treasure mine.

Again a fantastic evening proving that the YMCA defiantly does have talent! A special mention must go to Matthew who put together team England’s PowerPoint (the boy has skills! Well done Sir!) I will let him post it but the entire team came up with ideas from home.

It has been a very long day, I’m feeling quite tired as I feel I have not stopped. Most of the conference is now playing the circle game (thanks to me and Santiago largely) and we have vowed to get the entire conference playing it before the week is out.

I have also learnt some amazing icebreaker’s that I will be sure to try out when I get back to Bolton! Watch out any young people reading! Especially my Youth Council!  One in particular had many of us rolling around in laughter, I will try and explain it but I feel my words won’t do it justice:

 Take a group of people and send one out of the room, the others then pretend they have picked someone in the room, you then call the first person back in. the idea is that everyone in the room is a cow and one person has been selected as the chosen cow. The picking person then asks all the cows to Moo 3 times and they have to pick the chosen cow out. OK! ... Here is the tricky part…

THERE IS NO CHOSEN COW IT’S A JOKE!

 So once the picker chooses who they think is the chosen cow, everyone says yes and asks them “how did you know?” this usually leads to an elaborate reason on how talented they are at picking cows out (cough USA cough) The person who the picker selected then goes outside and the group actually pick a chosen cow this time, now when they come back in and ask the cows to Moo everyone Moo’s twice and is silent leaving the first person who was the picker to Moo very loudly by themselves! HILARIOUS! We actually did this to another 8 people who had come to investigate all the noise from so many people mooing! I have been told that the hotel have complained because we were so loud!

Lastly I just want to say how inspirational all the speakers were today but especially Solomon Benjamin during his talk, he really inspired me and I have really enjoyed his company today and his wicked sense of humour.

PS. large groups of people who work with children and youth are extremely competitive but im pleased to report I’m holding my own in the icebrakers…..just!

Prague Day 3

Long day, but good day. We have just finished (midnight) with our multi cultural evening, all the countries represented here have given a short talk or presentation about their countries. We had food, drink, dance, songs and photos from across Europe. I have learnt that I am surrounded by some very proud people and rightly so. There are many things to be proud about across Europe. Beautiful places and beautiful people.

Today ran in much the same routine we have got used to, my group ran devotion this morning, asking people to think deeply about TRUST, PEACE, RECONCILIATION, LOVE, TRUTH and trying to think of 10 other ways of describing these words without using the original word.

Our presentations today included Soloman taking to us about YMCA Kassel University in Germany, Gerhard gave us a very interesting talk about his experiences of living in Palestine for 6 months. Vardan also gave us a short talk about YMCA peace work connecting people across the world. You can find out more at: http://www.vanymca.org/id/youthpeacenetwork.html don't forget World Peace Week this year 12th-19th Nov 2011.

Check out more at www.twitter.com/cityymca_london

Another Day Another Lesson Learned - Shabeb

Another day, another lesson learned. Today we talked about transformation of ourselves and of society. Amazingly inciteful as we learned that tolerance and acceptance of differences is not enough as this will not last. I have always been proud of the tolerance and acceptance of the British people but as we know there are many examples where this has boiled over and led to discrimination (e.g the current situation with EU migrants). Instead we need to have engagement and dialogue and in such a way we can be one step closer to being a truly integrated society. This is not easy but each one of us has a responsibilty to try to achieve this to have peace and justice. I feel we in Britain are closer to this than many societies but we can no longer live parallel lives with our minorities and must strive to change this. We must create a new identity for ourselves which combines and celebrates our differences rather then just tolerate and accept...

I feel I have learned so much about myself, my identity and my prejudices and this has started me on the journey to a more peaceful and productive life.Ps: we visited Dhaka again and although I have been very positive about this society I have to say it is a crazy city. It is so overpopulated and the city continues to try to construct newer and taller building without dealing with some of the core/root problems (we can see this scenario in all countries but not to this extent). I am amazed to see so many people in such poverty living side by side with many wealthy people. This seems so strange to me that the people can allow this to continue. There are loose electric cables every where, no road rules and yesterday we heard a youing student died in the centre after a brick from some scaffolding fell on his head. This construction is occurring around people and the bricks are like missiles the people have to watch out for...

Wonderful Prague, Beautiful People!

We are on our 4th Day in Prague and we have done so much! We have had great quality time together in our "Home-groups" and been as ONE altogether. The hotel has been great, we have had good service. We have collaborated a lot of work together and have learnt loads about our cultural differences amongst each other. I believe the YMCA and YWCAs around the world have that amazing vibe about them, where everyone feels apart of a family. Everyone cares about each other and feels respected in all circumstances, especially at this Peace Seminar in Prague. I'm so proud and honoured to be representing North Staffordshire YMCA in this BEAUTIFUL Place. Hope you like the pictures and will upload many more throughout the next few days. I would like to say thank you to all the wonderful people who gave me this opportunity to come to Prague. All the Young People here from all the other YMCAs across the world are great to be around, all the YMCAs CEO's (aka BOSSES) should be so proud of each and every single one of them.

So far in Prague....

Well I finally made it! After 7 (amazing) years working in my local YMCA I am finally sampling the movement on the international scene. In my last post I mentioned briefly that my own YM experience kind of started and stopped at Bolton’s front door, now I find myself among some great people all with a different story and experience.

I am one of the oldest on the conference and have been surprised that there are so many volunteers here (not that surprising considering we are a voluntary organisation!)  i am however extremely encouraged and very proud of the younger people that I have met, and thinking back to when I was their age the passion and desire they have has put me to shame.

I have met Dorina Lluka who is the youngest national general secretary ever! She is only 25! She is from Kosovo. I spent a lot of time talking to her in Prague last night and she is very humble. She is a true inspiration to anyone in the movement and she has promised me an interview later in the week!

Ian has covered the content of what we have done so I will try not to repeat what he has posted but I too was shocked at seeing Bryan Adams in last night’s film!

My roommate Matthew is a cool guy and we have not gone to sleep early the last two nights sharing tales from our lives. He also snores but I have heard worse. He again is only young but has done so much and is defiantly a rising star!

I have tried to hold back and let other people in the home group lead and this has been a welcome break for me as I usually find myself leading everything at my local YMCA.

I’m feeling quite tired as I’m having to speak slower and concentrate more when people are talking but I’m really impressed with how well everyone speaks English. Some people here have English as their second, third and even forth language so I feel like I’m cheating almost as I can just about speak English and a grade E in GCSE French doesn’t really count as a second language!

Another thing I’m really impressed with is the circle game and the fact it’s an international game, I’m currently trying to catch out Santiago who is quite good but I will get him! As my colleagues of Bolton will tell you I am the true master of the circle.

Lastly I had a great time at dinner tonight sitting with new people and despite the language barriers the message was loud and clear “I love YMCA” I’m sure anyone reading this will agree that any time you meet people who work or go to the YMCA it’s just like coming home!

Having a great time don’t forget to follow me on twitter @adidavies

Peace

Peace & Reconciliation Seminar, Prague, Day 1

Yesterday we met for the first day of activities. There are 18 different nations from across the

World represented here by 23 different young people all under the age of 30. There are a also a couple of old fogies here helping to facilitate!

Yesterday we were divided into our ‘home groups’, groups that we would be splitting off into for deeper discussion. I am in group B, we were asked to link our name to something to do with peace, our name is Believers in peace.

Our days are packed, busy from 9am till 7pm. We start off with devotions, then presentations around a peace topic. Yesterday we learnt about the issues that have taken place in the Balkans and Caucasus regions. There are people here who have actually seen war. We in the UK have issues, but nothing on the scale of what other people have lived through. It really puts things into perspective!

Each day we have a space for a film and yesterday we watched House of Fools about the war between Russia and Chechnya, the film even features a guest appearance from Bryan Adams!!!!

In the evening after dinner the whole group caught a train into Prague city centre to explore. We walked across the beautiful bridge (and took turns in touching the dog statue for good luck) we saw the castle and were able to understand most people, as every other person we walked past seemed to be English?!

The common language among us 23 different people is English, so us UK guys have really noticed and felt privileged/guilty that the seminar is being conducted in English. Very handy for us, but we are having to speak slower and feel very guilty that we don’t speak any other languages.

Last night we got in just before the heavens opening and we were treated to thunder & lightening and torrential rain Czech style.