I whip the dust off of my keyboard, as I think back a month ago about the beauty and intricate youth bonding that occurred at our January Face-to-Face gathering. It's been more than two weeks since I initiated my depiction of the F2F weekend, so pardon me if I do not include all the juicy details of those three wonderful days.
So, as I recall, I left off right at our arrival... The place was really nice. In a cabin-like environment, it was surrounded by arching trees, lots of green grass, and ample space for the 60 plus people who were going to be spending the weekend in this Youth Center retreat. I walk inside, as I'm instantly greeted by Diego and Felipe. We hug, and Diego points out the rooms in which we will be sleeping in and gives me a mini-tour of the establishment. After dropping my bags off on the top bunk bed of which I will be sleeping in, I slowly walk around to explore, and greet all of my youth movement friends. Some new, some old. Gradually, the more people that arrive, the better. Sam and Steph open up the night with the establishing of the ground rules that need to be followed on the weekend as we all listen intently. Some of the names of the rules are funny, but they were all obeyed for the most part. "Don't yuck my yum," would be an example. Which basically means do not shoot down what someone else said. Clever name, don't ya think? Following the ground rules, a quick activity of introductions involving balloons ensued, which everyone seemed to enjoy! And lights out soon after. Especially for those who had traveled from other parts of the state and were exhausted from being strapped down to a car for whatever number of hours they traveled. Day One was done.
Day Two: I am awakened at 6 A.M. to the yapping and chattering of soccer talk. Mind you, I LOVE talking about soccer, but NOT at six in the morning! Whatever, I am already awake, and as I look around, so is Facundo and Diego who were obviously disturbed from the noise as well. I stumble into the bathroom corridors, plunk my contacts into my eyeballs, and jump in the shower. The shower was surprisingly nice, with hot, steamy water but it had to be quick! The girls were waiting for the guys to finish.
Finally, I'm in the main room with breakfast already being served. I chow down on a great breakfast cooked and delivered by our very own members with bagels, strands of grapes, strawberries, eggs, and delicious coffee just to mention some of the delicious breakfast items! Consequently, Grey begins the day with what is to be discussed on the agenda and an energizer activity exercised in the front yard of the youth retreat.
This is where everything kind of becomes a blur in my memory because we did so many things on that epic Saturday! From the birthday aligning of all the members in which you had to be mute, to deliberating on the nominations of new steering committee reps., to running around the entire place in chainmail unison, to the privilege activity, to the counting the squares activity, everything was a blast! Now you might think, they didn't get anything productive done?! But, we did! We bonded and got to know one another, especially those who we had never met. For example, I met Rommy Torrico! Which I did not even know was Grey's younger sister, but we had a great one-on-one conversation talking about tennis and our common heritage. We are both Chilean, the best country ever! Hehe.
In addition, amidst all the fun, games, and activities, we did touch on the most important subject which was the We Are Florida campaign. Very well done by Felipe and Diego. They outlined the major points of the campaign and how we, as representatives of each county, can help and assist in the dismantling of the racial profiling copycat bills being introduced in the Florida legislature. Subash even made a special appearance and gave a quick run-through of the SB 1070-like bills and a condensed version of his Know Your Rights trainings.
The coolest and most knowledg-packed presentation was Luna's though. His explanation of Plan Colombia was so jam packed with information that I just stood there in awe, hugging with Jessy, as we keenly listened to each of Luna's explanations of the beautifully crafted white cloth piece laying on the cement sidewalk. You could hear a pin drop as all eyes and ears were on Luna. It was an experience that I had never seen. Truly eye opening.
Lastly, Saturday's events could not culminate with anything less than a soccer game! On an outdoor basketball court that is! We all had to be pretty careful, but it got intense as does ANY soccer game. I knocked Sam in the nose, Facundo collided shins with me, Esteban broke his nose...Haha, no, never THAT bad! Don't worry everybody, nothing happened to Panda's nose. But, yeah, it was an awesome game! Especially having Walter, Diego, and myself on one team! We balled up. Enough said. The Argentinean bragging started rubbing off, sorry guys. Hehe.
After soccer, everyone kind of did their own thing. Some people were outside by the bonfire indulging in roasted marshmellows and bootleg smores or everyone else was inside dancing and having a blast "letting loose!" Grey was by far the life of the party with her eccentric but ridiculously cool dance moves! Everyone had a great time in the "dance room" which made the party last until 2 in the morning! I was exhausted before the music was turned off and slept like a baby. Great Saturday.
Day Three: The final day had arrived. Sunday. Everyone woke up a little later and more tired than the prior day, but in a great mood! We obviously had a delicious breakfast once again, and before everyone departed on their ways back to their respective homes we deliberated on the steering committee decisions, created a proposal that was adopted unanimously to have a list of contacts on the SWER website of point persons of different chapters and regions, and Esteban and Fabby did a quick KYR training. Oh, and how can I forget, our technical genius, Walter, gave a run through on the SWER website and how to work with it. We still had one more activity though, a Theater of the Oppressed rendition by Luna and Edwin. It was awesome! We all interacted together and ended up in a huge pile with everyone hugging each other and maybe touching each other in forbidden places. Haha, I'm sure it happened. We all laughed and had a great time :)
Then, as we began to clean up and say our goodbyes, the distribution of our "fan mail" aka our envelopes was given which kind of got everyone emotional but with tears of joy and happiness. Especially Mayra, she was waterworks!
We really are a great group of individuals, united together with the same goal to better our lives and that of others. I am honored to have attended such a special weekend, and cannot wait until the next Face-to-Face meeting is scheduled and running!
P.S. I'm sorry that I might not have gone into a detailed description of everything, but it was a month ago! My busy mind cannot remember everything, but I loved having finally composed this post and back to my writing ways! Love you all! Until next time!
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