For a northerner it is a strange feeling remembering the sunny days of November. With lots of warmth, ice cream and activities in the sun. But this is my throwback from when I attended the Share the Care Youth event in Croatia, the 28th of October til the 2nd of November 2024.
The setting was idyllic. We took a ferry to a Croatian island and were very blessed with the hospitality of a local youth organization; they supplied us with a venue as well as accommodations, not to mention the amazing food. The bay offered us a beautiful sunrise each morning as well as lovely nature and surroundings. Personally, I enjoyed a quiet morning with a coffee from the local café before the rest of the group started gathering for breakfast. It is truly as the saying goes in Swedish “morgonstund har guld i mun”, translated this would be: morning time has gold in its mouth. However, a proverb that equals this saying would be “the early bird gets the worm”. In short, if you get up early, you’ll have more time to do stuff. Somehow, I had a lot of time for swimming, ice cream and coffee while I was in Croatia – and I will never forget the people I shared these moments with.
As a continuous learning process, the walls of the venue transformed throughout our week into a testimony of all our creativity, our talks and our ideas. As this room more and more became our space, we also enjoyed some energizers and other activities directly under the sun, with the sound of the birds, the boats and the islanders in the background. I am not going to lie, if we did not have the opportunity to take cover under a shade or sometimes keep indoors – the sun would have been too much for me. But we managed to get the best out of what was offered, those days in the shift between October and November.
Reflecting on the schedule, the team of trainers created a well thought of journey starting from creating a common ground of understanding with basic notions and contexts; as well as understanding mental health in connection to democracy as well as the various narratives that we base our lives and actions upon. Moving on to discovering remedies and being creative with our approaches, we really got a chance to connect and learn from each other – being blessed with perspectives from all around Europe. As the days passed, we got to learn more about practical tools on how to plan and implement initiatives. Tools that we all brought back home to our local contexts with our local challenges and opportunities.
It was a strange feeling when November was a fact, and it was time to go back home. I wanted to stay with the group, but I was also excited to get going with all these tools and new perspectives. Though the most peculiar thing was this: that somehow, a northerner got a tan in November. This is unheard of.
Agge Angusson, attendee
