Summer is here again. The smell of holly hocks, tea and croquet on the vicarage lawn. Ah how I remember my Childhood, playing in the long grassy meadow at my Gran’s house wandering down the leafy Donkey Lane to the River Severn and relaxing beneath the Crab apple trees on the dappled sunlit mossy lawn.
Well this Summer has been different. Apart from being glued to the PC, an activist’s Nemesis, I have ventured beyond Britain to see what’s up with FYEG happenings. I have been to 3 different events. One as a Prep Team member (Sustainability and Solidarity Study Session – Budapest), one as a participant (Biodiversity and Nature Protection in Eastern Europe – Montenegro) and one as a speaker (Danube Youth Forum – Romania and Bulgaria). Although with the FYEG culture these rôles are blurred somewhat.
You can read some of what happened at these events in this Ecosprinter and the next and what I have learnt will be fed back into the Project Manual to help you all run more effective projects from planning, to funding, to delivery and post project outcomes. I have found those I met very friendly and awesome company to keep. A great deal of solidarity was shown to me, with offers of several apartments for my exclusive use and many offers of places to stay should I find myself in people’s home country. Such generosity is of course offered in return and knowing we are a network of more than just comrades, but also friends makes it very enjoyable to be part of such wonderful people’s lives.