YE Festival 2013: I love to live for this stuff

In 2007 when I was asked to attend the Prague festival I was not in a position to go. After being involved in our movement for years and having been to international experiences that helped shape who I was, I had turned my back on the YMCA in favour of a hedonistic passage into my 20's, I was doing my own thing and that was that.

In the weeks after that festival, friends who returned were beaming from their week in the Czech Republic, seeing friends old and new and experiencing something that perhaps they couldn't fully put into words. I knew I had missed out.

Some years later things had become hectic for me in London, I was working in a job going nowhere with no real qualifications to draw on so I decided to leave London and come back to Newcastle. On my second day "home" I paid a visit to my old YMCA and spoke to my youth worker about volunteering and getting back into youth work. A few meetings that flew over my head and a chance conversation later, I landed a job in YMCA England and have been involved in the movement ever since and now work for Y Care International as well as being part of ILP and GLYN.

When the time and opportunity came to attend the 2013 Prague festival, I signed up. I was sure that I wouldn't miss out this time.  So after looking though the photos and reliving the experience that happened just a few weeks ago, I've realised I live for this stuff. I love to live for this stuff. I’m not going to give you a day by day account but more of the feeling I took from the festival.

A typical day might consist of seeing an old friend who has been nothing but a status update or an uploaded photo for the past five years and finally hugging them and catching up. On my way to lunch I’d maybe see a young group of Colombians facing off on a basketball court against a group from the US. If I got thirsty, I’d throw some shapes and get a refreshing mocktail from the Calypso bar. If I needed a pick me up I’d head over to the café and get a quick espresso and find myself chatting to the wonderful and industrious team. And on any given day I’d side step countless faces recognising me as "the Y's best talent guy", I mean not everyone said hello but sometimes seeing a celebrity in the flesh can phase people...they're only human ;)

In seriousness this festival has embodies the YMCA, sure we are in a bubble, sure it's sunny and it's a great time but something nuanced is threading through all of this. Some collective spirit, being on the same page, being supportive of each other, that all comes from an innate human nature and doesn't stop or start in the festival.

I understand now why those friends in 2007 couldn't put into words what they had experienced in Prague, because I can't quite either. But everyone feels something. Perhaps the reason we have a shared and mutual sense of our lives being altered is that through this experience, we see the world in a different way and so in turn we see ourselves in a different way. We don’t have to describe it. Just know that new possibilities await, possibilities that transcend culture or language. Keep the momentum going. I'll be looking out for that young Robbie who doesn't think it's for them and telling them that they missed out. 

Particular thanks to

The teenage Russian rock band on the Forest Stage
Cedric dancing like a mad man in cross bar
Tom and Ian smashing countless Big Macs
Vladi directing me and Y’s Best Talent
Ken making me us like a giant
Ben wearing that bandanna and just being himself
Romulo dressing up as a Village Person who doesn't really exist (seriously.. where is the sailor in the YMCA video?!)
The thunderstorm
You

Shot of reality

Rachel has done a great job reporting on the content of the conference so perhaps I can share some personal thoughts and challenges from the week. I'm also inspired to write more as I received an email from YMCA Europe’s president saying he enjoyed my last blog. I guess I'd say to you (the readers) please leave comments and keep us inspired!

After the success of the tea party, I will be honest and say the digital activism totally left me feeling flat. A lot of time wasted on things that don’t take much time at all and no clear vision took the shine of this part of the training for me personally.

There was one session that moved me to the point of tears and it was when we looked at issues in our own countries on the scale of conflict. I have much respect for the youth and participants from Georgia, Russia and Cyprus who shared what mattered to them, they were open, honest and real but it was my friend from Karabagh who moved me to tears as she said,

“We are not at war, but sometimes it feels like it”

It was a touching moment, and a real shot of reality for me. One of the other participants caught that I had tears in my eyes and she approached me later to say that she was touched someone from the west could react this way. Through all the jokes and energisers it’s the moments like this that set the peace institute apart from other projects in my humble opinion and why I love being involved.

As part of the project we are split into areas to work towards tandem grants for post conflicting countries, I find myself representing Kosovo and in the Balkans tandem grant group. One thing we all agreed on and saw as an extra to the project was building leaders/capacity for our own YMCA movements. I got the unfortunate task of feeding back to everyone and was quickly shot down by the leadership; this led to a debate over what were “YMCA people?” One theory was ‘everyone is YMCA, they just don't know it’ others mainly from the east side of Europe told me they didn't get the concept of a movement and that it seemed a rather closed concept.

Now I'm not mentioning this to start a mass debate or argument I just found the concept interesting, as a Change Agent I understand that globally we are waking up the giant and that also transfers down to local and national movements. Surely if ‘everyone was YMCA’ we wouldn't need these Agents? Perhaps this also begins to explain why sometimes people I meet on training have only a few weeks or months in the movement? It will be interesting to see this process and how an Englishman operates in this tandem grant group so watch this space!

In conclusion I’ve had a very challenging week but not in the way I thought it would be, I'm now questioning my role here on the other side of Europe and how I view/do things. I'm also wondering about the effectiveness of a giant that has two arms doing two completely things? As we move onto the festival it’s a time for strong leaders and leadership, I look forward to being challenged and at the same time challenging. So no inspirational quote or thought to end this blog… just a man, humbled and challenged, lost in his thoughts but determined to succeed.