We went up hill and down dale

Dear friends, without boasting too much, we’d like to say that we had a camp. We came together face to face, talked, ate and drank before winter came. Some of us had never seen the others in person. As we got so used to looking at the light beam coming out of the screen that, we finally had the chance to take a short break at beloved Mount Ida, which evil men yearn to destroy. We toured around brooks, walked among olive trees and lifted some sour mandarins. We lit a fire at night, sang songs and played games amongst baby, chicken and peacock sounds. We had some jokes unfit for a “serious” name such as Albatros Tech Cooperative Initiative 🙂 

 We also erred on the side of self-discipline. Every day we had two sessions for discussions, which lasted three hours. Together, we raised our hopes for the coming days. After all, despair wouldn’t suit the people who had met in a corner from heaven. We had the justified pride of being people who can act with solidarity and make empathy with others’ troubles. That’s why our dreams were for all of us, for each one of us. Under the immortal trees we puzzled our brains on how we can do good for both ourselves and this ancient world.

 We realized that our dreams were eager to grow constantly like the forest we are camping in. We questioned ourselves by the samovar which we had trouble kindling in the beginning. We recognized once more that we need to work hard in order to fulfil our principles and shape our lives according to these principles. Yet we don’t intent to give up! As we couldn’t manage to kindle the samovar in the beginning but then we guzzled the tea, so we carry on.

 

 

As we had decided to take firm steps forward with the awareness that we are people who trust each other more, we chose to play warewolf game as we were chilling next to campfire, which turned out to be a grave mistake. We saw what kind of people we really were. All the vampires were at our elbows dear friends, while we, the peasants, were searching for them with wooden stakes in our hands and garlic around our necks. They ate us all, we taught each other that no one can be trusted 🙂 

To top it all we had realized that there is a generation gap amongst us. Some of us never heard of Yaşar Kurt where some of us had grown up with him. Luckily everyone knew Kesmeşeker, and a consensus could be achieved. Hey, don’t laugh! Preparing a repertoire that everyone will enjoy is tougher than writing a web application, you know. You can’t just say “play something” to a member of your cooperative who is waiting for a song recommendation with a guitar in his hand. The harmony of a team is obvious once they continue playing without skipping a beat by the fire. After such a tough process with the samovar, we managed to create a harmony in that, too.

There was only one thing left. Roasting eggplants and potatoes over the campfire. That, we couldn’t do. The campfire was left to be forgotten, as we were drawn to the warmth of the conversations we had ,The eggplants and potatoes were left out in the cold. Well, we’ll do that in the next camp 😉

The worst part of the camp was coming back. The memory of the brooks and trees, which we left behind as returning to the cities we live, on one hand, the noise of the cities we arrived on the other hand. But hey, we can go to camp again. Now we have a lot to do. We salute you all with the hope for a world where our cities are not concrete and the camp is not a place far away. 

 

 

We went up hill and down dale

 

Dear friends, without boasting too much, we’d like to say that we had a camp. We came together face to face, talked, ate and drank before winter came. Some of us had never seen the others in person. As we got so used to looking at the light beam coming out of the screen that, we finally had the chance to take a short break at beloved Mount Ida, which evil men yearn to destroy. We toured around brooks, walked among olive trees and lifted some sour mandarins. We lit a fire at night, sang songs and played games amongst baby, chicken and peacock sounds. We had some jokes unfit for a “serious” name such as Albatros Tech Cooperative Initiative 🙂 

We also erred on the side of self-discipline. Every day we had two sessions for discussions, which lasted three hours. Together, we raised our hopes for the coming days. After all, despair wouldn’t suit the people who had met in a corner from heaven. We had the justified pride of being people who can act with solidarity and make empathy with others’ troubles. That’s why our dreams were for all of us, for each one of us. Under the immortal trees we puzzled our brains on how we can do good for both ourselves and this ancient world. 

We realized that our dreams were eager to grow constantly like the forest we are camping in. We questioned ourselves by the samovar which we had trouble kindling in the beginning. We recognized once more that we need to work hard in order to fulfil our principles and shape our lives according to these principles. Yet we don’t intent to give up! As we couldn’t manage to kindle the samovar in the beginning but then we guzzled the tea, so we carry on. 

 


As we had decided to take firm steps forward with the awareness that we are people who trust each other more, we chose to play warewolf game as we were chilling next to campfire, which turned out to be a grave mistake. 
We saw what kind of people we really were. All the vampires were at our elbows dear friends, while we, the peasants, were searching for them with wooden stakes in our hands and garlic around our necks. They ate us all, we taught each other that no one can be trusted 🙂 

To top it all we had realized that there is a generation gap amongst us. Some of us never heard of Yaşar Kurt where some of us had grown up with him. Luckily everyone knew Kesmeşeker, and a consensus could be achieved. Hey, don’t laugh! Preparing a repertoire that everyone will enjoy is tougher than writing a web application, you know. You can’t just say “play something” to a member of your cooperative who is waiting for a song recommendation with a guitar in his hand. The harmony of a team is obvious once they continue playing without skipping a beat by the fire. After such a tough process with the samovar, we managed to create a harmony in that, too.

 

There was only one thing left. Roasting eggplants and potatoes over the campfire. That, we couldn’t do. The campfire was left to be forgotten, as we were drawn to the warmth of the conversations we had ,The eggplants and potatoes were left out in the cold. Well, we’ll do that in the next camp 😉

The worst part of the camp was coming back. The memory of the brooks and trees, which we left behind as returning to the cities we live, on one hand, the noise of the cities we arrived on the other hand. But hey, we can go to camp again. Now we have a lot to do. We salute you all with the hope for a world where our cities are not concrete and the camp is not a place far away.