Retrospective ... the sixth day

The Workshop Day gathered together the participants in an activity which enabled some of them to be "group leaders" for a day.
Later on, we had Landolf Scherzer's lecture, the expert in German Democracy and political systems.
In the evening, the aMAZEing Human Rights Maze was a warm setting for interraction between the participants, as well as another great opportunity to hear some good live music.
In the end, clubbing 'round the campus, neverending parties. Read more

workshop day- children education

Children’s Education in Indonesia

For ‘Kumpul Bocah’, a newly founded Indonesian NGO that advocates the right to an adequate education, children are a top priority. The organisation’s statement, handed out during the session makes this very clear: “Children are a gift from god to continue this life…” Kumpul Bocah’s public relations representative, Umi Habiba, a student of Ma Chung Unversity, shared her idea of organizing young people who are willing to help in volunteering, promoting the importance and awareness in educating and enriching children reaching also to those who could not afford it otherwise.



By ravit benaim Read more

The Way To Ilmenau!

Written by: Ahmed El Garhy
Starring: Ahmed El Garhy
Directed by: Ahmed El Garhy!

15 trains, 1 plane, a ferry and a Taxi! 5 welcoming messages… here we go:
I started my journey on the 28 of April at Cairo airport; yes ….10 days before ISWI starts, I first landed in Madrid, Spain after 5:25 hours of flight. Then I took a train to Barcelona in 2:35 min and that was the best mean of transport that I ever experienced in my life. From there I took another train to Cerbere on the French-Spanish borders, it took 4:20 instead of the planned 3 hours as because of “technical problems”! Then…..-take a deep breath first!- I took an overnight train for 8 hours by mistake to Paris in the north instead of Marseille!

I woke up in the morning to find a very big billboard: Bienvenu à Paris!

I kept laughing for almost half an hour and asked all the people around me and they assured me that I’m in Paris!

I had to stay there for the whole day to catch the next train to Marseilles, it took almost 3 hours. Then from there I took another train to Nice in the Côte d’Azur for another 2:20 hours.

After waiting for some time in the train station as usual, I took the next train to a city on the French-Italian borders called “Ventimiglia” after spending a day and a half in French train stations :).


From there, I missed the last overnight train to a major Italian city, and that all because I missed the train from Nice as the ticket was written as 6:34 and I said by the EGYPTIAN mind set, well…..so it is quarter to seven then!

The funniest part was in Ventimiglia where I asked the lady in the train station…..”are there any more trains to Italy tonight?”, and she yelled at me: “We are already in ITALIAAAAAAAAAAA!”

I had to spend the night in the train station again! But I didn’t miss trying my first Italian Pizza over there  and it was awesome!

Next morning I took a train to Milano which should have taken almost 6 hours, but I saw on the map that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is on my way, so I changed my plans!

I went to Pisa then I took another train again to Florence for another 1.5 hours. Then from there I went to Roma through 4 hours train trip again!

The next day I took a train to Venice in another 7 hours then a ferry there for 15 minutes.
Afterwards I took a train to Verona in 3 hours then another one to München in 8 hours through Austria!

From there I took the FINAL train to Saalfeld, and guess what: The German train was late for 1.5 hours! So I missed the last connection to Ilmenau!

But! There was a German gentleman sitting beside me, and FORTUNATELY he was the only one going to Ilmenau in the train! He asked me if I’m going to ISWI! He is a student there and he contacted the Info-Point for me to wait there till 2 AM!

We took a taxi to Ilmenau then I guess that I was looking somehow similar to… a human being :)

Lessons:
1-Being punctual even for few seconds is a MUST!
2-Work on your French not to go to Paris instead of Marseilles!
3-Study the Italian map well! Ventimiglia is ITALIAN! Read more

Anarchy in the Ilm Valley

Tuesday night ISWI held one of the most awaited events, the Open Air concert. The plateau in front of the Humboldtbau was one happy place, as it hasn't seen such a large number of people gathered together in one night in a long time. Maybe last ISWI.
Around 8 p.m., the place was already crowded with people and the beer stands were selling quite well. One more hour and the crazy night was about to begin.
At about 9, the first band started performing. Kafkas, from Germany, a punk-rock band of vegetarians and vegans. After presenting themselves as Lady Gaga, they started the show with their comic wigs on. The public was quite shy at the beginning. During the first tune, there were only 7 people in front of the stage, while the rest preferred watching from the distance. At the beginning of tune number 2, there were 9 people in the front row. At the middle of the song, there were 11, and at the end, 16.
The brilliant idea was stated before the beginning of the third song: “Let's make a Polonaise, everyone!”...and the snake got bigger and bigger with each bass note.
After about one hour, the next band went up on the stage – Rafiki. Trumpets, guitars, drums, all put together in some ska mixture that made people dance and bounce while drinking their bear, eating their wurst or their icecream. Some small raindrops tried to stop the party, but no one minded them. “Let there be beer, wurst and punk!” the Humboldtbau plateau was singing.
After such a crazy prolonged warm-up, the third band got up on the stage, around 11 p.m. Rentokill, from Austria, travelled quite some miles to meet and sing for the ISWI people. They started a bit slow for the already aroused audience, but their later tunes described themselves best: noisy, fast, energetic.
A great night for punkers, a funny one for hippies, a jolly one for bohemians, a heavy one for everyone.




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A nice song to go with the afternoon

The docu group is a really big fan of this amazing artist:

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By the way...here you have the Workshop day

In the middle of ISWI you have the chance to speak up about the issues you are interested in. In the morning at the Humboldt building participants proposed themselves topics of discussion and had the opportunity to be teachers for at least 1h and 30'.
There have been 4 sessions, taking part in three different buildings: Humboldt Building, Kirchoff Building and Helmholtz Building.

Voila the final result:
Humboldt Bulding:
Gabor - Dance as a wordless conversation
Tobler R. - Intercultural competence in communication
Eliasu - Children right is human right
Heussler - Photography
Charly - Presentation of Cameroon
Najib & Pinastika - An outline of global civil and political rights (Indonesia)
Johnmary - HR in the era of globalization
Sieglinde - Practice our right to VOTE: Philippine voting Amro- The Palestinian rights of return
Mohamed - Architecture and culture in Morocco
Mido - Intercultural communication to get rid of stereotypes
Tadeu - Voluntary work and exchange of life
Ethel - Public-private partnerships for peace
Elena - The right to marry the person of your choice
Mariana - Human rights - senseless?
Advanced sleep and relaxation :) - seriously, this is was a topic too (maybe based on our current needs :) - Kirchoff Building
Ricardo - Get active
Sibel - Housing rights
Bashil - Violence in universities
Martin - Your passion as a tool for social transformation
Monti - Humanitarian work - what is it?
Jose Miguel - Death penalty - right to consular information

Helmholtz Building
Susan - Letter writing for Amnesty International causes
Emmanuel - War against poverty
Umi - Informal Children Education in Indonesia
Simon- Finding freedom through personal values
Ayo - Right to medical care in Nigeria

We hope that the workshop sessions worked well and helped you to enrich you cultural and emotional background as well :) Read more

Workshop Day Schedule

There is a kind of change in the workshop schedule.

Have a look HERE ! Read more

'The UFOs are coming' day.

This is what the initial title of the Workshop Day was supposed to be, but due to technical problems, we couldn't do it.
So, wake up and smell the coffee, the workshops already begun, but the lazy ones that are reading these lines from their bed can still go there and join. Move!
:) Read more

What you could do today

Good morning, Ilmenau!
Our sixth day is workshop day:

09:00 - What is "Open Space"?
09:30 - 1. workshop
11:00 - lunch is an hour early today
12:00 - plenary assembly
12:30 - 2. workshop
15:30 - lecture by Landolf Scherzer
20:00 - a-MAZE-in' human rights Read more

Weapon of Choice, 01:15 a.m.

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More photooos

We have a new photographer who can provide you, you hungry people, more photos of this year's ISWI. Here it goes Irene's blog:) Read more

Trip day.

Today, the docu group actually went out of the office (yes, that really happened!)and had a fun trip to Erfurt, at the MDR studios, which are the TV studios for the whole region of Thüringen.
After a 30 minutes car trip with our three nice drivers, we were greeted at the studios by a former Ilmenau student and HSF member who took us on a guided tour through the studios.
We started by visiting the "kids' zone", a special studio designed for kids shows, where some workers were building some future scenery. We moved on to the room where all the news is broadcasted from; here, we saw how all the magic is done(i mean we were shown a professional reading prompter) and our group participant, Ahmed, broadcasted some virtual news in Egyptian.
Later on, we saw the room of the "bad guys", the ones that give instructions through the headphones to the cameramen and the editing studio. Many buttons and colours and wires.
The last stop was at the radio station. Where we learnt that the phones which are in the studio don't ever ring, they just show a white-yellowish light. That's why we never hear ringing phones at the radio..
The participants asked some questions which our guide answered kindly and then we headed back to Ilmenau. There was an office meeting waiting for us to assign tasks and plan the rest of the day.
If you're reading this blog post just now, on the 13th of May at 00:19, put your pc on standby and go to the Humboldtbau, there's some action going on:)

 

  

 

 

  

  

 

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