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.