No More War

Our final evening in Rome was really exciting as we would be joined by 20 volunteers who are preparing to visit Palastine for the olive harvest this year. We exchanged information on our workcamps, over a lovely dinner prepared by the workcamp participants. They invited us to join in an evening skype call which took place between the preparing volunteers and some volunteers currently staying in Palastine, also the farmer with whom they would be working. It was really interesting to hear a bit of the history and what awaits the volunteers during the olive harvest. Sounds like a super project : )

Our time in Rome was coming to an end, our Italian expert Katya made sure we would not leave without seeing the most important sights. So she gave us a final city tour, from the vatican to the Collesseum and we set off by train to Civitavecchia port, where a 20 hour ferry ride awaits ………. : )

………….. Our “ferry” turned out to be 20 hours of comfort and relaxation. 3 bars, a pool, a shower, sun, sea, Sardinia and endless music. Thank you john! We of course used our time well, we researched, we debated, we brainstormed, and finally we have compiled a vital resource for workcamps . . . . . The PC 4 playlist is ready:

Stupid Cupid – Connie Francis
I Gotta Feeling – The Black Eyed Peas
Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
Pencil Full Of Lead – Paolo Nutini
You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry
Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
Pump It – The Black Eyed Peas
Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
I Can’t Dance -
Zobra Greek -
Why´s Everybody Always Picking On Me – Bloodhound Gang
Song 2 – Blur
Rhythm Of The Night – Cascada
La tortura – Shakira
Pretty Fly For A White Guy – Offspring
Ghostbusters – Ray charles
Lollipop – The Chordettes
Mr Sandman – The Chordettes
Minas Song – PC4 ( can only be heard live and in person, on request)

Happy listening ; )

Our final evening in Rome was really exciting as we would be joined by 20 volunteers who are preparing to visit Palastine for the olive harvest this year. We exchanged information on our workcamps, over a lovely dinner prepared by the workcamp participants. They invited us to join in an evening skype call which took place between the preparing volunteers and some volunteers currently staying in Palastine, also the farmer with whom they would be working. It was really interesting to hear a bit of the history and what awaits the volunteers during the olive harvest. Sounds like a super project : )

Our time in Rome was coming to an end, our Italian expert Katya made sure we would not leave without seeing the most important sights. So she gave us a final city tour, from the vatican to the Collesseum and we set off by train to Civitavecchia port, where a 20 hour ferry ride awaits ………. : )

………….. Our “ferry” turned out to be 20 hours of comfort and relaxation. 3 bars, a pool, a shower, sun, sea, Sardinia and endless music. Thank you john! We of course used our time well, we researched, we debated, we brainstormed, and finally we have compiled a vital resource for workcamps . . . . . The PC 4 playlist is ready:

Stupid Cupid – Connie Francis
I Gotta Feeling – The Black Eyed Peas
Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
Pencil Full Of Lead – Paolo Nutini
You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry
Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
Pump It – The Black Eyed Peas
Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
I Can’t Dance -
Zobra Greek -
Why´s Everybody Always Picking On Me – Bloodhound Gang
Song 2 – Blur
Rhythm Of The Night – Cascada
La tortura – Shakira
Pretty Fly For A White Guy – Offspring
Ghostbusters – Ray charles
Lollipop – The Chordettes
Mr Sandman – The Chordettes
Minas Song – PC4 ( can only be heard live and in person, on request)

Happy listening ; )

Yesterday we visited a workcamp in Girona. The 5 volunteers and their co-ordinator Ingrid are preparing for an upcoming poetry festival. Today we will have an city tour and then host the final workshop of Peace Caravan 2012, on the theme of “Peace”, of course.

Girona is beautiful and it was wonderful to spend the day with the workcamp volunteers and also the SCI Catalunya staff. We strolled through the streets of the historical Jewish Quarter, and had a fabulous picnic in the park. finally it was time for the workshop. We began with a silent discussion, as the feedback for this activity was very positive at the last workshop, ¨What is Peace?¨. We then used The Chair Game from the toolkit and used a drama activity to explore the themes of the Peace Manifesto.

We had some great discussions and really interesting performances. Feedback was extremely positive, and we are really happy to have made the trip to Girona : ) Best of luck with the Festival guys!

Today will be filled with last minute things, an Evaluation and preparing for an awesome final party, tonight. We will let you know how it goes, as soon as we can…….

For now, PC4 will be enjoying the final day of The Peace Caravan with the wonderful people of SCI Catalunya woohooo : )

The 11th of September is a big day for catalaunian people: on the “dia de la catalunya”, the catalunians go on the street to voice their request for independency. We were very excited to witness this event this year! The SCI team planned to take advantage of the masses of people in the street to carry out a “human library” with us. The idea is simple: humans become books and can be “read” by other people. They first decide on a title and three key words that will be visible in the catalogue of thr library. People who pass by can then look at the catalogue and decide, which book they want to borrow. After a 15 minute conversation, they give the book back and have hopefully learned some new things, gained some insight in someone else’s life and maybe challenged their stereotypes about this person. But today was not to be the day of the human library… Though the city was full of people, they were more interessted in walking around and looking at many stands than in taking some time for a personal conversation. Nevertheless, a few people came, and in the end the SCI team just “read”, so we had the chance to get to know eachother better and to grow closer together. We also took the chance to do what the PC can do best: collect signatures for the manifesto!! : )

After enjoying a picnic in a nearby parc, we made our way to the manifestation. Over a million people were expected… We decided that we wouldn’t go there as the Peace Caravan because we felt that we didn’t know enough about the conflict and that the struggle for independence and nation- building conflicts with our main message “no borders for peace”.  When we got out of the metro, we almost drowned in the mass of people and yellow and red flags. But we went there as private persons because we didn’t want to miss this important event, after all it is an example of a non-violent mass protest! And it was indeed very impressive! Thousands of people shouting “in… Inda… Independencia!” and holding up banners, requesting the right to determine their affairs by themselves, without the control of the spanish government. After walking with them for some time, we went to the arc de triunf, where we enjoyed a live concert with catalan music. A great ending of a great day, that allowed us an insight in the “catalan way of life”.

…I guess our dreams tonight will be all in yellow and red! : )

The 11th of September is a big day for catalaunian people: on the “dia de la catalunya”, the catalunians go on the street to voice their request for independency. We were very excited to witness this event this year! The SCI team planned to take advantage of the masses of people in the street to carry out a “human library” with us. The idea is simple: humans become books and can be “read” by other people. They first decide on a title and three key words that will be visible in the catalogue of thr library. People who pass by can then look at the catalogue and decide, which book they want to borrow. After a 15 minute conversation, they give the book back and have hopefully learned some new things, gained some insight in someone else’s life and maybe challenged their stereotypes about this person. But today was not to be the day of the human library… Though the city was full of people, they were more interessted in walking around and looking at many stands than in taking some time for a personal conversation. Nevertheless, a few people came, and in the end the SCI team just “read”, so we had the chance to get to know eachother better and to grow closer together. We also took the chance to do what the PC can do best: collect signatures for the manifesto!! : )

After enjoying a picnic in a nearby parc, we made our way to the manifestation. Over a million people were expected… We decided that we wouldn’t go there as the Peace Caravan because we felt that we didn’t know enough about the conflict and that the struggle for independence and nation- building conflicts with our main message “no borders for peace”.  When we got out of the metro, we almost drowned in the mass of people and yellow and red flags. But we went there as private persons because we didn’t want to miss this important event, after all it is an example of a non-violent mass protest! And it was indeed very impressive! Thousands of people shouting “in… Inda… Independencia!” and holding up banners, requesting the right to determine their affairs by themselves, without the control of the spanish government. After walking with them for some time, we went to the arc de triunf, where we enjoyed a live concert with catalan music. A great ending of a great day, that allowed us an insight in the “catalan way of life”.

…I guess our dreams tonight will be all in yellow and red! : )

We all made our seperate journeys back to the SCI office, our first activity was “Sudistan”. This is a simulation activity designed by SCI Belgium, where the particioants are the leaders of their own countries and must take measures and make decisions to improve the economy in their country. Speculation, trial and error and lots of debates later, again real life similarities became obvious. We sat in the sun reflecting on the activity, the outcomes of the game and the way we can contribute to fighting qlobal inequalities by changing our everyday live behavior.

We had a little “Diva moment” when we asked the SCI team if we could all stay in the same accomodation instead of sleeping seperately in the homes of local volunteers. We really appreciated the efforts they made for giving us a more comfortable place to sleep (real beds, can you imagine??), but we felt like we really needed to stay together as a group. The incredible Clara and the team made that possible for us, so we could sleep all together in the SCI office. Dear SCI team and hosts, we want to thank you very very much for all you did for us!! We love you! After lunch, we went on an alternative city tour and explored the parts of Barcelona that are not so well known.  Our guide told us about the impact the spanish civil  war had on Barcelona and we had the chance to visit a bunker that was used during the bombing of the city. Hearing about this tragic chapter of the country’s history reminded us again of the importance of our struggle for s more peaceful world. After the visit of of the bunker, our guides took us to a hill, where we enjoyed an incredible view over the city. After a late dinner we ended the day chillig at the terrace of one of the local SCIs, enjoying the beautiful view and talking and singing catalan, english, nigerian and international songs until late at night. So I will end this post with the following lyrics of a never ending earworm:

“one man went to the moon, went to moon and mellow…” : )

Peace Caravan arrived into Barcelona ferry port, very relaxed, this would soon change. We were greeted as we stepped off the ship to, what can only be described as, the most amazing welcome EVER, or so we thought : ) a large banner welcoming us to Catalunya, a camera crew, and lots of cheering, which was echoed by lots of other ferry takers at the port. Our relaxed state changed to hyper excitement, we got lots of attention, from anyone around and snapped up the opportunity to promote our manifesto and show off our banner : ) we jumped into the crowd of people and got chatting. Alex and Borja also had time to fit in a short interview with the press; click on the link below to see Alexs best Catalan accent.

We had to take a short shuttle bus out of the port where we would rejoin our new hosts again. As we exited the gates, the amazing welcome we had received previously was amplified, literally, through a megaphone. Many more people who could not get into the port were also there to greet and welcome us. It was such a phenomonal feeling to be met at our final destination, and the last stop of Peace Caravan 2012, with bundles of enthusiasm and warmth. The catalan welcome didnt end there, we were taken to the office where dinner awaited us. We had time for a nice relaxed drink, getting to know everyone in SCI Catalunya, before heading off to our respective hosts homes for the evening.

What a day, ” 3 bars, a pool, a shower, sun, sea, Sardinia and endless music” and a welcome never to forget!!!!!!!

Heres the link http://www.xarxanoticies.cat/infolocal/noticies/article?id=1039643

Today we had a workshop with the participants of the Citta del l’Utopia workcamp. The topic of discrimination was a very passionate one, and brought many long and diverse conversations within the group. Starting with a silent discussion to get everyone thinking, followed by a moving debate giving participants the opportunity to voice their views and challenge or hear other opinions. Some great feedback during evaluation, showed that the workcamp volunteers were grateful for the mental stimulation and they continued discussions throughout the day.

We all spent the evening in Rome, enjoying the beautiful sights of the Collosseum, and much more.

The next morning we met with Douda, a refugee from Cote d’Ivoire. Translated into english by camp leader Alessandro, he told us the story of how he came to be in Italy. He gave raw and honest descriptions of his difficulties crossing borders and the working conditions he had to endure because of his illegal status. He spoke a lot about working on a farm, and the treatment he and other refugees receiveed regularly from their “employer” and the local people. (maybe more detail? Maybe not) At times the truth behind his words was difficult to swallow but a sharp reminder of why the Peace Caravan exists.

The following day we again had an opportunity to speak with another refugee from The Ivory Coast. He spoke a lot about the conflict in his country, and why he fled from there, without his family, who travelled with him to Ghana and remain there now . Just like Douda he had a long and tough journey to get to Italy, facing many terrifying barriers along the way. He spoke very openly about his arrival and the camp he was moved to as soon as he came to Italy. With great details he described the living conditions in the refugee camp, and his struggle for basic human rights. Fortunately, he received information from another man in the camp, who told him about Laboratorio 53, an organisation working with immigrants and refugees. They helped him to organise documents and recived legal status to live and work in Italy. He finished by telling us that he hopes someday the war in his country will end and he can return home with his family.

We were really fortunate to speak to people who have had real life experiences with the borders restricting movement in and out of Europe. Our message from street action resounded

” freedom of movement is a right, not a privilege”

Speak soon x pc4