Batam Youth Camp

Tomorrow we will start our overland trip back home to Bengkulu and for me its time to write a little about PMI Batam Youth Camp. For the first time its not the national headquarters of PMI but one of the regional Branches that has held this event. And for the first time its not only people from Indonesia but Red Cross from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and even we two Germans.Which felt quite weird, to represent this big Red Cross with only two people who had to be facilitator, staff, volunteer and head of delegation all the same time.

We saw Batam which is only 40 min away from Singapore by ship and made a lot of new friends across all of South-East Asia. There was a range for activities from disaster preparedness to public information and sports. I enjoyed blind volleyball, where the net is closed with a blanket and you can’t see when and from where the ball is coming. The Singaporeans invented a new game in which you can test your lower body strength and play 1-2-3- (Schere-Stein-Papier).

In the evening we had a very intresting practice sharing ceremony and my report about German Youth Red Cross doing „political education“, which I think GRC/ JRK sees in a very broad way, was shocking for the people from Papua. „How can you do that and be neutral?“ Well my response was, that it is a very broad in the sense of empowering youth to speak out about their issues, to teach them how to resolve conflicts, and that a political order that negates Humanity is one Red Cross has a problem with.

PMI Batam staff and volunteers did a tremendous job with preparing and we really all had a good time and many fond memories. Despithe the use of a weather consultant (haha) the weather god wasn’t in our favor and especially the closing ceremony was griped by pouring rain.

You can find more pictures in my flicker stream.