Thursday, 28. July 2011
this was peacecamp 2011 - Bath-Sahaw Baranow


This was peacecamp 2011
Sometimes things happen. A lot of things happen every day. There are good ones and bad ones and it makes me feel sad, desperate and helpless to know that I don’t have the power to change all the terrible and for a sane mind incredible events of the world. It hurts me personally. This is why I don’t want to watch any more, I feel the need to do something. In my opinion the peacecamp project is the perfect opportunity for people like me and all the previous peacecamps prove, that there are a lot of them out there.
It is obvious that finding solutions needs talking, it needs every single participant to contribute something to the process of a peacecamp. The peacecamp taught me that listening is one very special and important way of contributing something to a group of people. When people started to listen to each other, our conversations started to take different turns all of a sudden. We were thinking and talking about ideas of happiness about ways of making our voices heard, our ideas possible.
Of course all that work would not have been possible without all the professionals supporting us. First of all there are Evelyn and Ronny, who put so much energy and care into this project. The artists of the Academy of the Impossible, who showed us a way of feeling good together and who gave us the strength to go through a lot of discussions in the large group with Silvio. The organisation and exact timetables made the impossible possible. We managed to feel close to each other and we felt safe when suggesting new thoughts in front of nearly sixty people. This collective feeling of acceptance and security enabled us to have historical presentations and discussions. Former diplomat Ilan and historian Markus made sure, that the European groups were also integrated into the dialogue of the Jewish and Palestinian delegates. They achieved a constant high quality of our debates. All the four groups had teachers with them, who took care of us warmly and were never too tired to answer our questions or to help us.
The younger participants, including the filming team was always in for the fun parts. It was never boring when every group showed us a lot about the place they came from and great humour when laughing about their own traditions or habits. In the end of this peacecamp I find myself surrounded by an overwhelming number of new wonderful friends and I am happy that things happen. I am happy that I am part of this camp that is one of the good things happening.
Bath-Sahaw Baranow

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