Trip Diary Extracts - July + August

29 July, La betranmatz

Rain, rain, rain. We can't work today because the rain is too strong. Feeling mor elike going down south after all. I think I'll skip the Haina construction weeks and go down to Madrid after the workshop [on non violent direct action] before going back up to Germany. The Karlshof women's construction week has been pushed back to September, so it leaves memore time. I really want to learn the straw bale construction technique. If I have extra time before the clowns' camp end of September, I'll go to Haina or Ulenkrug. I hope Striedl will make it to the clowns' camp. Should write to him.
Am once again mentally / emotionally back at the beginning of the trip / in Mecklemburg, walking on the hills of Wischmannsdorf, sitting near the fire, helping myself to food, sitting in the plenum tent, watching the sunset over the baltic sea, falling asleep in the forest huddled with morgan, pia and andi... what do I miss exactly... the enrgy, the consensus, the self-organised structures, the people, the randomness, the twirling of events, the place, the bonding, the social setting (lack of bourgeois codes).
Melancholy or rather nostalgia is really annoying. I'm there, longing for a point in l'espace-temps that can't be recreated ever. [...] It motivates me even more to go to the workshop near brest.
[...]
Decision making on tour is a sssslow process! But I'm happy with my decisions because I leave them time to filter out and transform into gut feelings. My belly tells me where I want to go - and oh beautiful feeling to base decisions solely on what I want to do! How new, unusual and gewöhnungsbedürftig [that needs getting used to].
Realised I hate the concept of holidays. I'm not on holiday. This is a window of freedom, and I'm well decided to ensure I turn my life into a field of freedom.


31 July

EXCITEMENT: I called up the guy from désobéissance to ask about the workshop on non violent direct action. It sounds so cool! It's part of the journées d'été du réseau sortir du nucléaire, which lasts one week, and involves trainings and actions. I asked whether there'd be clowns, and he said yes indeed, as marsios would be there to give a training. Marsios was with us at the McDonald action and at the bombodrom, and in general all g8. I didn't have much contact with him at all, but he's nice - and I'm excited! 1) to meet up with a g8 clown again, 2) to see what french clowns are like, 3) to take part in actions again, 4) to spend a week on an activist camp again and meet all sorts of people. That's settled: I'm GOING!


01 August

Absolutely and entirely exhausted. Eric and I did part of the "ceinture" today, in the sun, taking heavy buckets of cement up and pouring. I feel v. tired but relaxed at the same time. It's our last day on the chantier. I'm off this weekend. Poor Eric will have to finish alone, I wonder if he'll manage. There's still a LOT to do.

05 August, Ferme du Meot, near Loperhet, near Brest

Mum drove and left me outside the camp of the journées d'été du réseau sortir du nucléaire yesterday. Green camp, not quite Zempow, not quite Wichmannsdorf, but something similar. I felt right at home immediately as I saw a girl with dreadlocks and the usual German activist camp look. "Just like in Germany", I thought. She turned out to be German, as I soon realised - I happened to put my tent up right next to hers and her friends'. One of her 2 friends happens to be jan, who was a g8 clown and with whom I nearly paired up for an action the Thursday! [...]

Helped all afternoon to set the infrastructure up for the camp in the BOILING sun. Chatted with Xavier, who was the guy I talked to on the phone to find out more about the workshop. I felt comfortable around him, but i'm slightly annoyed by his leader streak.
It's good to meet up with activists in France. Reassuring because in spite of vast differences as regards the communication culture [less efforts to reach consensus, more open and accepted hierarchies], I feel relatively at home.


06 August

Cecile, the "other french girl from germany" several people told me about, arrived today. It turns out that I HAD after all seen her before, against all my expectations - at the bombodrom and in Zempow. Crazy to think there will be a total of 3 or 4 clowns from Zempow who end up on this camp. The activist word is small...