It is not every day that one is presented with the
opportunity to be within a group of people so diverse
that one gets completely lost in translation. From the
Iranian–Swedish girl who lives in England, to the
Bosnian and Russian living in America, to the Israelis,
the Moroccans, the Spanish, the Syrian, the Lithuanians,
the Italians, and the list goes on… And it is not every
day that they all become your friends.
We arrived at Bologna
expecting a training session on “Intercultural Dialogue
on Gender and Lifestyles”, and that is exactly what we
got. We each discussed our cultures and our cultural
differences, we danced to each other's music (Arabic
music was the biggest hit), we played Villagers and
Wolves, and we cooked. We talked about gender, defined
it, and transcended it. We walked through the streets of
Bologna, gay couples holding hands; we turned many
heads.
The trainers were
amazing, the participants exuberant, the schedule
flexible, and most importantly, our garden was blooming.
Yes, we had a garden! When we first arrived, we were a
group of complete “aliens” trying to get to know one
another. We had hopes of what we wanted to achieve from
the training and we had fears that we knew would hinder
us; with that we made our garden. We all wrote down our
hopes (our seeds) and fears (the rocks) and planted our
garden. Every day was an opportunity to stand before our
garden and move a small rock to give a seed room to
grow; every day was a chance to rise above and overcome
our fears and let our hopes and dreams reach the sky. |
