Throughout my life, I have never traveled anywhere really far, even less so by myself. I felt safe and comfortable in my local region, and I never had any particular need to go beyond the places that I've grown attached to. This made my voyage to France even more unique, the first time I went traveling so far, all on my own, to a place that I've never been to, and to meet the people that I've never met in person before. Despite everything, I did not hesitate much and decided to leave my beloved pine forests and grassy meadows of eastern Poland for a while, to set out for this most foreign land of soft hills and strange, unfamiliar trees.
My landing at the airport was anticipated by two French comrades who greeted me on this occasion, and although we communicated in English, I could not hold myself back from at least attempting to utter some simple phrases in French that I learned back home, which certainly wasn't an easy task! Along with the amusement that my proficiency in French created among us, we drove to the place where the camp was supposed to be held soon.
As we arrived at the place, we still had a few days remaining for the main part of the camp to start, so I had the chance to acclimatize myself with the place and familiarize myself with the closest comrades that I already knew a bit from our online meetings. During this time, we had various lectures and trainings in a smaller group, which were of much help for us to start developing a sense of comradeship with each other.
At the start of the main part of the camp, I had the pleasure of meeting new comrades from different local French groups. It's really interesting to see that so many unique people, often from very different backgrounds, can be united so strongly by a single, shared goal.
With new comrades around, there was no slowing down with our training sessions. One of them that I had a lot of fun with was playing a traditional French game of 'Le Béret', where, divided into small groups, we had to grab and retrieve an object stationed in the middle of us. It required from us a good amount of teamwork and energy, besides being an utterly entertaining activity!
Training consisted, for example, of the debates that we arranged between each other. By constantly challenging our beliefs, we had the chance to learn how to present our arguments to others in a much better way. Accompanied by lectures on rhetoric-oriented texts, it also helped us greatly to gain more confidence in speaking-related skills.
The culmination of our training efforts, and the camp itself, was a hike on which we set out with a map and a compass, on a quest to find our camping spot. We slowly made our way together through light hills and twisting forest paths to reach our set objective. I noticed that the woods we passed by were quite mossy in some parts. Some trees were even completely covered by it, and this appeared to me as a very beautiful thing to witness. Either way, we found our destination without much trouble. It was a spot by a shallow, rocky river in which some of us went for a quick swim before the coming night, a good way of refreshing oneself a bit after an entire day of marching.
The time passed by quickly in a good company, so the camp ultimately had to come to an end. After returning from the hike, it was time to say goodbye. Despite the relatively short time we spent together, we nevertheless developed very strong bonds with each other, which made the last farewells even more emotional. Though it was hard for me, I was ready to set out back home with many good memories of this unique experience.
On the road back to the airport, with a few of my comrades, we passed through some forests on our way. It's there that we noticed that all the leaves already had that orange, rusty color just like they do in autumn, though it was still the middle of summer! 'It's because of the drought,' one of them explained. It might be a little thing, but at the end of my journey, it struck me as a grim reminder that we're facing a threat that is hostile to all life, and that the time to stop it is actively running out.
So I urge you not to wait passively! The danger that the expansion of the global-technological system brings hangs over all of us. Join the resistance, get organized, and let's take the initiative back together from the clutches of the machine!
For Freedom and Wildness!
My thanks to the hosts, organizers, and everyone who made this camp possible, and the people who helped me with my trip.
-Oliwier
