The training course “Baltic Way for Peace” took place in Liepaja and Riga. Project involes 11 non-governmental organisations from different countries – Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Spain, Russian Federation and Turkey. During the training course, youth workers and youth NGO representatives discussed about peace-building, integration and conflict resolution training in their countries and communities. Moreover during the sessions were discussions about numerous types of conflicts in their specific contexts and consequently looked into various methods of transforming these conflicts through non-violent actions. Above all, it was all so informative, that the time flew by unnoticed.Besides all this, program of this training course was so creative, that we could not expect that throughout the day on the project we will have a morning yoga and exercises. And even despite the fact that most of us have never practiced yoga, we were very happy to wake up in the early morning to collectively practice yoga and mediation. But except for the aforementioned, in the evenings we had a national dances, especially Latvian. And it was so interesting, that every participant tried to take part on this activity.
However, we had a city games – it was a really nice activity. Because we were divided into a small groups and focusing on the map, should find showplaces and take a selfie photos near beautiful sight. But despite the nice activities, we had a visit to the famous Karosta prison. We were a prisoners for a few hours, but emotions, which we had there – unforgettable. Because all the atmosphere there were so frightful and scary. Of course, in one side, we realized that it was just an excursion, but, in the other side, we were shocked, because we understood that, according to the prison`s history, there were a lot of people who died in this place and most of them were shot.
The most pleasant thing on this training course was the atmosphere among the participants. Because there was so peaceful, kind and calm ambiance that did not want to go back to our everyday`s life. Indeed, for a small interval of time, we become like a one family. And it was really hard to realize that we need to leave this wonderful and awesome project. Notwithstanding we did not say “Goodbye” to each other, we said “See you”, because the peaceful project brought a piece of friendly light to our lives.
By Liana
