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At 08.30 in the morning it was orientation at the hotel Fenix. At 08.43 almost half of the participants were gathered. No Japanese time discipline here…

Everybody was dressed in their special T-shirt and hat for the day. We got our official nametags and behind them was telephone numbers to key-persons in the organizing committee: Vasilis, Xenia, Stella and Konstantinos. We were informed that the plan for the morning was to split into three groups to hand out leaflets. And we also got the headline for the leaflet: Your breath is in danger – protect the forests!

Alexandra is teaching us greekIn the buss we were getting a Greek class from Alexandra and Konstantinos.

Ne = Yes
Ohi = No
Kalimera = Good morning
Fotia = Fire
Dendro = Tree
Dassos = Forest
Prostatepste = Protect
Ime = I am
Ise = You are
Efharisto = Thank you
Signomi = Excuse me
Ime poli omorfi = You are beautiful

After that we were ready to start handing out the information. Two of the small problems were that some of the people strolling in the centre of Athens thought we were handing out commercial or political propaganda (since it’s an election coming up soon). But the one’s that looked at the leaflet was happy of the information. After that we walked to the city hall. Tassos, exPY in 10th SWY-program, now works for the mayor. He is in charge of the PR and made an impressive start when we all got into the new meeting room for the council and the city of Athens has prepared a gift pack (among other things a DVD with virtual tour of Athens and also a game…) and great snacks. It was also impressive to see the collections of dolls of every mayor in Athens. SWY 10 participantsTo bad I forgot my camera in the bus but it was soooooooo many other people taking pictures so I will putt hem up in the gallery later. After a lunch close to Acropolis (Johnny Bråttom stannade hemma och målade denna gång) we visited the unique place (I want to go back when I have more time), got back to the hotel, took a quick swim in the pool and then off to the excellent dinner. Held at an outdoor restaurant with casual formal dress code and new familiar faces. I will spare you the details and go straight to the main publishing event for today: Exclusive interviews with exPYs:

Dina KiselevaName: Dina Kiseleva
Country: Russia
SWY-connection: ExPY SWY 19

What is your best SWY memory?
– Stargazing night at the deck in Vanuatu islands. I saw two shooting stars and made a wish.
Did the wish come true?
– Not yet…
How can we foster the SWY-spirit in the future – what should the alumni associations do?
– Encourage and motivate people to be more active in the alumni network.
How?
– It’s up to us to figure out. Reunions are effective but we have to be aware of hat only few people can join because of lack of funds. We need more joint projects. Even the simplest ones, like to support a campaign, making short film contest on a common theme like global warming could be very effective. We are so many people from different countries with great personal networks – of course we can make things happen.
How could we make the world a better place for everybody?
– The person her/himself create the atmosphere inside her/himself. The person has the ability to change her/himself and the people around her. Everything is possible. The ways are open – we just have to create the connections.

Diego LombeidaName: Diego Lombeida
Country: Ecuador
SWY-connection: ExPY and Advisor. Participant in 1995 and advisor ten years late at the 18th ship. Biologist who, when he was advisor, held forums about global warming and endangered species.

What is your best SWY memory?
– During the summary forum in year 2005. The participants had to present what they learned and they really nailed it. I was so happy.
How can we foster the SWY-spirit in the future – what should the alumni associations do?
– People have ideas and the alumnis should provide these people with a framework to realize these ideas. It takes a lot of time and effort to get an own office for example. But we don’t need offices. We can organize ourselves in networks. If you have a network and this network is organized you can make things happen. The important thing is the ideas.
How could we make the world a better place for everybody?
– First of all we should not loose hope. Second, we have to listen to other people’s opinions. And thirdly we need the facts. And maybe most important of all: We should focus at the young people because they are the future.

See more photos from this day here.