Post from Jerahl Hall YMCA Youth Ambassador - North Staffs YMCA
The Programme Innovation Camp in Switzerland offered many programmes from TenSing, Youth and Parliament, RGE (Environment) and lastly Savings and Investments. I was very much excited of the prospect of representing my YMCA on an international stage for the time, as well as my first trip to Switzerland!
The Programme Innovation Camp in Switzerland offered many programmes from TenSing, Youth and Parliament, RGE (Environment) and lastly Savings and Investments. I was very much excited of the prospect of representing my YMCA on an international stage for the time, as well as my first trip to Switzerland!
I arrived in Zurich, and searched for the Zurich YMCA, CEVI. Once I gathered my bearings from the little German I know I was able to search out Zurich base. On entering I was met with new faces that we're welcoming and helpful. For the official start we all gathered in a main hall, where we were pleasantly welcomed by Romulo and Adi, at this point I wouldn’t have thought I could have respected two people more as I did with these guys at the end of the camp. Anyway, we were told to introduce ourselves, our names, our countries and our YMCA's which we represent! The sheer diversity of the people there astonished me when people shouted out their countries; Kosovo, Bulgaria, Serbia, Portugal, France, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Switzerland, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, China, Norway, and many more. There were 23 countries represented!
We were told to get into groups of 5 or 6 to participate in a challenge that would take us around Zurich, the challenge involved finding locations around the city and pinpoint the pictures to the locations as well as the description, Mariela and Rezarta from Albania, Mathilde from Norway and Andrzey from Poland joined my group and we ventured around Zurich.
We were told to get into groups of 5 or 6 to participate in a challenge that would take us around Zurich, the challenge involved finding locations around the city and pinpoint the pictures to the locations as well as the description, Mariela and Rezarta from Albania, Mathilde from Norway and Andrzey from Poland joined my group and we ventured around Zurich.
When we arrived back it was time to move to the base for the week, we all marched out of the YMCA Zurich like a mini battalion to the main station, leaded at the time by Dynamo (a YMCA scout from Switzerland). We arrived at the station and boarded a train, oh and by the way it was double decked, I couldn't hide my excitement! A double decked train WOW! Small things eh. An hour later we arrived in our location, a small town outside of Ebnat-Kappel, a bus awaited us and took us up hills and winding roads, the sky was dark and the stars just bright enough to shine through the buses interior lights, all of our curiosities had already peaked, we wanted to see what the view was like but we knew we had to wait until the morning. We arrived at camp and immediately set tables out and picked beds, the time was late and after short messages from the facilitators we had the time to talk amongst ourselves, at first my fellow compatriots engaged in conversations with me and after welcoming each other it was time for bed
The first day of camp: I woke up, still feeling groggy from the long day previously. I went to the main hall for breakfast, looking out the window revealed why our curiosities were firing on all seven cylinders, WHAT A VIEW! These hills and mountains in Switzerland are amazing this was definitely the place where God played with nature.
We started each day with as devotion that was led by Romulo, which led us to a few ice-breaker style games. We all then moved into our groups, the youth and parliament group contained my fellow YMCA Englanders, Bulgarians, Armenians, Philippines, Romanian, and Ghanaian!! We were invited to understand how youth parliament works in one of its most successful countries, Australia and YMCA VICTORIA to be more specific, we had an excellent facilitator in Emily Greco who told us everything of the programmes and fully made it enjoyable throughout. We learnt how to set the programme up and how to hopefully implement it within our own respected nations, how to create legislation and bills, how to debate and governmental chamber etiquette. Luckily Australia works with the Westminster style of parliament, so it was easier to grasp!
After a full days learning with the programme, we had tea and discussed the hike that we would later do. Before the hike, we were told to partner up and answer questions that were given to us to share and gain knowledge of each of our own YMCA's. As we walked on a road the off road track became clear as we turned right up a hill, we climbed and climbed, our cheeks puffed and puffed with air as the gradients increased and my whole bottom half of my body started to heat up! We came to the top to be greeted with an even greater view from the one I witnessed earlier in the morning! The hike continued for a further 2 hours where we conversed through another 2-3 questions, we passed some cows with some traditional bells around their necks, stereotypical Switzerland in my eyes. We waited for the people at the back, at the top of the hill that would make for our descent back to camp. As we waited we played a few team bonding games which one of them I fell right on my backside, I clearly didn’t take into account the wet grass.
We got back to camp and straight away everyone got changed from their hiking gear into something comfy, whilst all being downstairs us YMCA Englanders played a game of heads up, which involves a charades like format on an iPhone app, as soon as one of our overseas colleagues saw us playing, minute by minute half of the room at least caught the buzz and came to play with us, to the point where it was a shout fest trying to describe the answers to the person who guessed the song, movie, famous person etc. This was the perfect ending to the perfect first full day!
Thursday sprung on us all and the sun was still shining bright over us and the Swiss mountains; we were treated to a traditional Swiss breakfast, some kind of mixed muesli with fruit and other things! Anyway we started the days schedule like the day before with devotion from Romulo, and some organised fun singing games which were all really fun. The best way to start the day!
The days programme picked up proper where we created our own bill, and debated it with the 'opposition'. After the programme work we ate and I took the opportunity to take a group photo with all the members of YMCA Kosovo, they have for sure left a mark on my heart! Love those guys! By 9pm we all got called over into the fringe of the nearby woods that surrounded us, it meant only one thing CAMP FIRE! We all sat around and played some music, shared some thoughts and ate hot bananas, yes, hot bananas that had been stuffed with Nutella. We all sang acoustically, I even gave a rendition of a Bob Marley song....which I murdered. Victoria from France got the guitar out and sang one of her own songs and wow it was memorable, meaningful and downright wonderful is the best words I could use to describe her performance! The camp fire gave us all a time to reflect on the experience so far and what we as a YMCA stand for, not only for our communities but for the youth of today all around the world.
Friday normally means -happy Friday- for me, the week is nearly over and a new one is near to begin. This time round however, I was not so happy with the thought that time was nearly up with these guys in Switzerland, did I need to come back? Yes. Did I want too? I'm sure you know what my answer is. We started the day like the previous two with devotion and some little activities to get us all ready for the day, Romolu came with this great popcorn song game, it was great. Emily also came with a game all the way from Australia, and Adi with a game called trolls, Giants and wizards which is like rock, paper and scissors but with teams.
Anyway Friday meant discussing in my innovation group how we are going to try and implement such a programme in our countries, we set up a plan and fingers crossed it can be achieved. We ended the scheduled afternoon with a rendition of the lion king song from the tensing group. They were awesome. I also learned how to do origami from Alvin (Hong Kong) who was a facilitator in the RGE group!
The afternoon ended with a couple more inspiring questions from Adi that gave us all the chance again to share and tell about our local or national practices as well as personal/professional development, Adi told us to get into groups. I remember telling myself I have spoken to every person bar one over the entirety of the camp, how I let this happen still baffles me, however, I made it my mission to sit next to him as we heard our first question. We spoke and answered the questions, myself and Kristian from Serbia then introduced ourselves personally. He told me that he was glad we got the chance to speak as he had the same thought as me that it was crazy that we didn't converse at all before. After the questions had finished we had a spare hour before Tea, the weather had turned for the worse with rain hitting down hard on all the windows. Kristian said he was going for a run, I took the opportunity to join him and off we went in the rain around the hilly region that was home for the week. Everyone thought we were mad, my reply “I'm English, I’m used to this kind of weather especially rain”.
I was excited for tonight as tonight was the cultural night, where everyone brought some food, drink or national dress from their respected countries and showcased it in the main hall! There were some great foods from fondue from Switzerland, spicy 'dragon' sausage from Serbia, marmalade chocolate from Estonia, cured meats from Eastern Europe, sweets and biscuits from Hong Kong, Philippines and England. The cultural night gained momentum after tea with everyone beautifully dressed in their national clothes. I probably soaked in more culture on this night than any a time in my life. National games and dances came out where we all got involved, we presented them with a strange rendition of ‘hokey cokey’ which went down well, more so than I thought to be honest. Still we added something to the night.
I simply didn't want the night to end; I knew what was to come in the morning. In small groups dotted around the hall, we all spoke until we couldn't stop ourselves from yawning every 10 seconds, 2am and bed was calling. WHAT A DAY, what a night!!!
SATURDAY
Here it was, the dreaded day! We had breakfast earlier so to as give us time to pack up and clean up! We gave a huge THANK YOU to the scouts for everything they have done, from cooking for us, cleaning and making everything just perfect! We gave them a standing ovation, and that I thought still wasn't enough to show our appreciation. They were just simply outstanding. We all got into teams and cleaned the whole site; I was in the team that cleaned the bunks! Everybody waited outside as the final bits of cleaning was being done. We carried on playing games, and football whist we waited. The Bus came, I was in bus 1 so was leaving first; I hugged everyone I could in the time I had. I wanted to bring them all back with me. Joe, Hannah B and Hannah P from England and me shared a unique bond; we became best friends as such in just a short space of time. I just hope I keep my promise when I said to everyone individually, I will see you all again very soon! I got on the bus and headed for the airport. My flight wasn't until another 5 hours as was the case with the Serbian duo. We decided to carry on with our adventure and re-entered Zurich city center as it was 10 minutes away on the train. Away we went, we hired bikes which are free in Zurich and we had a little tourist excursion in and around the city whilst looking for gifts to take home.
With those guys I have never laughed so much, 5 hours later we were all checked in and awaiting our flights back home. It was mine to depart first, again I had to say goodbye. They walked me to my gate and saw me off. I felt like I was saying bye to family. I was saying bye to family!
After a little stop in Frankfurt I made it back home to Stoke.
I look back now to the week I had, it is by far the best thing I have done in my 7 1/2 years with the YMCA! It's got me; it's hooked me for sure, without sounding to cliché. I can't wait for more!!!
Posted on behalf of Jerahl Hall
