Koolitus "Speak Peace – Nonviolent communication Tools in Youth Work" Armeenias

It’s the second week of January and you’re on your way to the international training project
about peace and conflict solving. It’s 5:30 in the morning. You land on a dark landing strip in
the city of Yerevan. The temperature is close to freezing. Passport control is cautious at first,
but they let you through the security gate and now you’re met by the warm welcome…of taxi
drivers, each offering you a convenient ride to the city center for an affordable price. None of
the signs outside of the airport make sense to you, because both the language and the alphabet
are completely foreign - not even close to your language. None of the usual taxi apps work for
some reason, until you get a local SIM …or a local Ahpers (= brother) to help you. You stop
and rest at the airport restaurant and eventually it turns out that getting to city center is much
easier than it looks at first - the bus driver speaks perfect English and even helps you make
sense of the local currency.

It’s 10 in the morning now and somehow you have managed to navigate through the sleepy
city of Yerevan and even visit a few museums, while grabbing coffee and breakfast at a local
cafe. The sun is high, suddenly you feel completely overdressed as the temperature is now
+13. A few hours in you meet several other participants who all aim to reach Aparan - the
venue of the training, by dinner time. Your trip to the small mountain town is memorable, not
least because of the spectacular driving skill of local taxi drivers. The first day disappears into
the night as you haven’t slept for 36h, and sleep deprivation is starting to kick in. In the
morning you remember the names of the three participants you shared the taxi with, and the
location of both bathrooms, but not much else, and the alphabet is still as foreign as ever.
In the morning you wake up to the smell of freshly fried eggs, coffee and fresh mountain air,
mixing in the corridors of the three-storied building that will be your home for the next week
and then some. You learn a few more names at the breakfast table and try to create a catalog
in your head until you realize it’s worth to write the names down. By lunch most of the
participants are familiar to you by face and name and you also know what they think about
humanity reaching the stars, gender equality and a number of other topics that are close to
heart. This is just the beginning. Next few days and each workshop will bring you closer to
understanding each other’s psyche, thoughts on life and conflict and of course - food
preferences.

Three days in, it’s time to reflect on everything you have learned so far. You’re on your way
to the cultural landmark of your choice - Gyumri, the nearby mountaintop, Yerevan or local
forest - and you try to make sense of all you have learned until today. OK, so far you have
learned to recognize conflicts, divide them by type and find their root causes. You also now
know that roots can sprout several conflicts over time and the sooner you address the conflict,
the more likely you are to transform it into lasting peace. Even though your mind is working
hard to focus on reflection, it is easy to get distracted by the natural beauty surrounding you
on all sides - beauty of mountains, the cold blue sky and people. Yesterdays’ creative writing
sessions make your mind wander even more. Everything you think about just seems to rhyme
effortlessly and you hear a constant beat in your head. You now carry a piece of paper and a
pen with you at all times to write down the lyrics of your next rap album.

Two cultural nights later you know the basics of Armenian, Georgian, Italian, Pan-Baltic (it’s
Finnish, Estonian and Latvian this time), Ukrainian as well as German life. You still can’t
grasp how so much creativity can fit under the same roof, but somehow the host - Altera Lab
has managed to build this atmosphere of inspiration and enabled ideas to thrive unhampered.
Even though you’re in the house most of the time, it doesn’t mean you haven’t explored the
town. Actually, you are quite familiar with it by now thanks to evening walks with local
participants and the interviews you have conducted on the streets to get an understanding of
local conditions. By now you can order coffee and “ban” (pronounce the “a” more like in
“sun”, not “can”) at the local supermarket. It’s good to be able to order “ban”, because it can
mean absolutely anything they sell and that they do not yet sell.

The end of the training course is nearing with every day and meanwhile you have learned
about the methods of nonviolent communication to be clear and nonaggressive in your self-
expression, improved your intercultural understanding to see the conflict from a multitude of
viewpoints and also acquired meditation techniques to remain calm in the turmoil of conflicts.
Practice has taught you to use the new techniques both in the context of conflict resolution
and also outside of it. Your vocabulary has forever changed and it’s hard to talk or even write
without using one of the newly incorporated methods. The transformation of participants, and
yourself, is almost complete. The final days are filled with body and mind workshops,
painting, singing and deep immersion in the dream world.

It’s the final day. Goodbyes are hard, so instead you pledge to return soon enough, having
built a network of likeminded individuals. Aparan, Altera lab and the participants of Speak
Peace 2024 - you are dearly missed.

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