Finally, got the time to write...
To my friends of working camp
In May 2014 Serbia has been affected by a flood, which hits different areas of the country.
The heavy rains causes several damages to building and infrastructure, and a lot of people has been involved in house losing and natural disaster conseguences
The entire country has been on emergency, but finally people of Serbia find the way out to face the situation.
They discover a great sense of solidarity, and community against the common tragic conditions, even if the forces of country have been not prepared to manage such a catastrophe.
(The force of unity..they said...)
A great effort has been done by citizen associations and NGO, and one of them “Young Researcher of Serbia” also organized for the summer, “working camps” in different cities.
By this, several volunteers from all over Europe and world join helping activities of flood relief in aid of the population of most damaged cities.
On the early weeks of august I partecipate to one of this working camps on Veliko Gradiste, a city on the Serbian side of Danube.
This was a beautiful place, on the side of “Silver Lake” (see photos) and I had really a great time there.
There were 14 volunteers and two camp leaders from Italy, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and of course from Serbia and local village.
It has been a great experience, and even if some tipical organizational matters, it left me a lot inside.
We work together - knowing us only on that days – in enviromental awareness activities (garbage collections, seminars on sustainable lifestyles ..) and support to flooded hit population.
We have also a lot of spare time togheter, having fun, knowing each other and became good friends.
It was great experience for me, several lesson learned – as activities like that leaves you all the time.
Pratically we didn't do a great amount of things – of course, you can't imagine to save the world in few weeks – but, first lesson learned, we started by our work some changes in the points of view.
Before our intervention, people doesn't care so long about wastes and environmental protection. - even if, the same nature with its great force hits them in deep, but during the days we were there, they became courious, they watched us working and began to wonder, they became to think about..
The change had started...
This is one lesson because you often think that nothing can be done to get better, or the stuffs are to big that you can't do anything...but probably you have to start to the small.
We are not super-heroes. We are humans, but with our choices and our behaviour we can make the difference..so don't be afraid to do this.
Second lesson learned, is about working in a group.
During our activities, we felt how is work toghether with our people – even unknown before the camp, even from different countries around the world.
You say, in normal life you can curse every day with your collegues, with your superior about why the hell you have to manage with some kind of persons.
Well, In this camp I understand once again, about sharing the time of work and activities toghether with other people could be difficult, but finally it leads to better results
And more, nowadays we are pretty confused on the concepts of state, nationality, other nationalities and of course, of Europe. We think the the efforts that men who fight during the second world war to join the countries in a more wide unit called European Union, are nowadays unuseful.
Ok, working with guys from other country I could appreciate how different and wide countries in Europe are and how other cultures are similar and in the same way different to mine.
Knowing other cultures has enriched mine and help me to know it better.
A famous italian song said “Se nun te scherri mai delle radici ca tieni, rispetti pure quidde de li paisi lontani”...if you save your roots, you respect also others ones, in traslation.
Third lesson learned, if you want to take a change in a society starts from the youths
The are the future citizens, they bring the future in their end.
If you involve them in what you want to do or you are doing, they could listen, learn and even improve what you are doing.
But, they have to know...they need to get their future back. They could have the possibility to getter the better idea in order to get the world better
Final lesson, we volunteers, came for the flood. A natural disaster affected Serbia, but also in the same day we were there, also my country Italy was hitted by heavy rain too.
These days also in Garganic region, a flood is happening.
Nature sometimes shows his presence in an hard way, but we humans have to consider the responsibilty of our role in it.
The fights of previous generations lead us to the world of today: more social rights, more welfare, more money for all..These were the must of the generation of our mother and fathers.
Nature has been unconsidered almost in this challenges, because the attention was in the society-
Our generation instead is called to respond an urgent call. Try to learn the better way to consider the society within the environment.
This is our challenge, this is our opportunity..
It's not more a joke or a freaky thought, - climate change, as we see, is not a weird crazyness of mad scientists – It started to bite, and hardly.
So we have finally to learn how to get sustainable our lives.
Nature doesn't wait and, sustainability stay in the future of our childrens...
As I said we are not super- heros, but in our own we can decide.
This the power in our hands
For example during the camp, we started a bit by the food, thanks to our vegetarian friends.
Even if you are not vegetarian at all, you have to consider that we don't need as in the past so much meat in our diet, but instead we can introduce more vegetable in order to have the same result in nutrition.
These are my final consideration about the camp.
Obviously they are completely personal and resume my personal thoughts.
I decide to wrote as the travels tought me
There aren't any travels without stories, there aren't any travels without diaries..
