The preparation started very early in June, 2013. I think it was even before June. When I told Ryoma (a friend from Japan) about the annual youth forum in Rhodes, he quickly replied to me; Lets go there. We prepared the project brief for applying to the Rhodes. In-fact I did nothing, Ryoma prepared everything. It was been a month we had applied to Rhodes Youth Forum, there had not been any news from them. When I was with my friend in Teaching Hostel, Suddenly; a mail came Pop off in my mail box. Your application is accepted. I made no delay in sharing this news to my face book community. But this could not last a long; my friend who had all preparation was not invited. There were some technical mistakes from the organizer. On a week, we both got invited to the Rhodes.
It was the month of June in 2013. I am sure it was 28th of June; one day before I was officially leaving Naulo Ghumti; I left Damauli. Damauli and Naulo Ghumti have special meaning in my life. I cannot stay longer in NG though I had committed I would work at least for two years. At that time I was about to change my working location to Sindhupalchowk. It’s a place in Northeastern hills of Nepal. The vary place, where the people enters to Tibet (Tatopani Port). But due to many reasons; I don’t want to highlight now. I left yet again CDECF (an organization). I left that as well because I had an option. It was the time I was in the capital after one and half year. Everything had not been changed so much, but I felt like it grew older as I am.
Ryoma brought a flight ticket to me, and Youth Time (forum organizer) was to give me 500 Euros in Rhodes. I was very happy I will be in Europe for the first time. Many of my friends appreciated for this achievement. For almost two and half months I shared to everyone I was going Rhodes; because I was happy to get the chance to be there.
It was 27th of Morning. Though I had a rented a room outside I was sleeping in Hostel in Maharajgunj. I didn't remember exactly what time it was. But I must have gotten off early in the morning because my flight was in 9:35. In hurry, I prepared myself well. I went out find a taxi. Lokmani Jee; would you go with me to the airport? I asked Lokmani, because I need someone bad goodbye at the airport. We arrived at the airport at 6 O’ clock. I quickly went inside. I had a bit of negotiation in the Customs. They were not sure if I would be returning from Greece. I replied every question in English; so that he could believe I am not a man to hide, and he would believe I would be returning.
I took the first flight from Kathmandu to Doha. There in Doha, I found some friends from Nepal and India. I was happy to find some to accompany me to the Rhodes. The second was from Doha to Athens. In almost ten hours I was in Rhodes. We went quickly to the Hotel (La Marquise), and drop off the bags and went out to find the cheap hotels to stay for one night. I was with Shashank. He was a participant to the forum from India. We had the accommodation in the La Marquise starting only from 28.We stayed in the Gondola Family Hotel, which was very near to the beach. We went to beach in the morning, and had some unsuccessful attempts to swim.
The Two days forum was full of youths from different parts of the world. Majority were East Europeans. Very few were from Africa and Asia Pacific. The first day (28th) of the forum was formal opening. The opening was peculiar in the sense that it has some singing and dancing, and there were lots of wines to drink. I could not dance a lot. I would not forget that I was poor dancer there. Nevertheless I made a great attempt. I interacted with many young minds from Europe. They were there with interesting projects. Some were moderators of forthcoming sessions, and some were even journalist. The next two days were full of workshops, interactive sessions. We had our presentation in the first day of the workshop in the Media and Internet session. For the presentation, we (me and Rhyoma) woke up early in the morning. I was not stressed, but was little worried to finish off in time. Fortunately, we finished right in time. The jury, and I think everyone in the session appreciated our projects. There were fourteen presentations in the session in Media and Internet. We went out to the old town in the night. We made some walk to the streets around the old castle in the town, made some snaps of pictures. In the second day of forum was again with workshop, interesting sessions like “Life Mapping, Quiz etc.”, and others I could not remember because of my poor memory.
The closing of the forum was on 29th in the evening. Many interesting projects won the prices, but we were not among them. They were the projects in Kosovo, Russia and Nepal. The bus drove us to the Kallithea spring for the closing ceremony. This place was like i have seen in movies. It was much like a castle, decorated with light. I made the taste of different foods; including the Octopus and it wasn’t scary.
I am very happy that the trip to Rhodes gave me an opportunity to interact with so many interesting people and learn about their ideas. There were so many projects. Projects that deal with idea like Codex; I am Radio to resurrecting wooden churches in Russia. Every project was fascinating. Each one was with unique idea. I was like I was reading whole encyclopedia at a time. This visit was important to me; because there we were to discuss about the forthcoming activities in our Project “World Discussion Club”. We discussed and made some bullet points for future.
My first trip to Rhodes ended well. I must thank Youth Time for inviting me to the Rhodes, Ryoma and World Discussion Club for the support and encouragement. I am back with strong inspiration and vision for the future. Now, I am working to implement the vision to the ground.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment