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I’ve been away for two months now and getting back to Active issues is exciting and sometimes time-consuming. But catching up is nice to do. Being away for so long has been strange, as I haven’t even been able to check e-mails and see what the board has been up to. That said I had no doubts they would do fine when I was away.
I was part of the Norwegian delegation on SWY21; Ship for World Youth, a youth exchange programme organised by the Japanese cabinet office, taking place on a small cruise ship sailing across the Pacific. 250 participants aged between 18-30 years old, from 13 countries took part this year, and during the project we took part in different courses, learned about each others countries and cultures, took part in different seminars and made new friendships.
There have been many learning experiences during this trip. The expression “umbrella organisation”, which is something I use all the time, isn’t clear for everyone. Some people thought I worked with producing umbrellas, and there were funny situations where I had to explain exactly what an umbrella organisation is. Most of the people I spoke with about Active hadn’t heard of such an organisation before and found it quite impressive that we are so many non-drinkers organised.
What surprised me during SWY was how much alcohol was a part of the free time evening activities. People –especially non-Japanese participants- were drinking and socialising in the piano bar every evening, and many of the participants seemed to find that drinking together was a good way of getting to know each other better. What I noticed was that this split up the group; as participants who didn’t drink alcohol preferred not to take a part of this.
On a few occasions where an “Ocean’s café” was organised in the same room; Japanese volunteers provided different sorts of tea/coffee/sweets, with music playing in the background, many people participated. This was not only an evening event but was organised 5-6 times during the exchange both at daytime and evening, and I think that if this would be another evening activity choice, more people would go here. This was a place where you could sit and talk, play games, meet new people in a nice setting without alcoholic beverages.

We had many interesting discussions during SWY, and my greatest learning experience has to be communicating with people from so many different backgrounds at the same time. Collaborating in group work, discussions, to learn about each other –it has been an experience of a lifetime. As an experienced youth trainer and with much knowledge on intercultural learning, it was still interesting and there are always new things to learn.  I’ve returned back home, eager to learn more on international organisations such as United Nations, looking forward to communicating with the Active board and office again and with a better idea on where my passion lies within volunteering and NGO work, and that it truly is a lifestyle.

The views on the blogs are the views of the blog writer, and not necessarily the organization. ACTIVE cannot be held responsible for any possible consequences.