Suddenly you're in the second day of the camp. It feels like the first, 'cause the previous evening was for landing, hugging, getting back together, resembling and smoothing the tiredness. Breakfast is like a fast break between the beds and the Tree House, where we all gather for the first steps into the Human Rainforest. This Tree House, a marquee that we rent just for the Y-TOP, is bare, besides from us, the seeds for the future plants. Nevertheless the climate under the tent is warm, humid, dynamic, curious, just like a pluvial wood. The inner weather is white and open. The sky outside is blue and sunny, funny, for the first time after many silver grey days.
Everything just spontaneously starts, like springtime, with a red-hair Dutch brave girl speeding up the growth of the prime shy stems. It went along with some spectacular jokes on wildlife and humans, scientists and gorillas.
This smoothly cleaned the atmosphere for a following royal exchange of readings between a boy and a girl, on behalf of all gentlemen and all ladies of the camp. Evolution and renovation requires an ecology of neutrality, love and respect. So it is and so we dedicated each other a couple of moments of valuing and promising each other respect.
The Y-TOP soon moved into the forest behind the Hostel. Some time for Contemplation, some breathing out and breathing in of questions and understanding of the human system and other eco-systems. What do I want to be an ecology for? What my seed it's gonna grow into? What's gonna be my fruits? Soft music in the forest, you couldn't really say if it was a real flute or just the birds waking up.
In the middle of a circle
in the middle of the big field
in the middle of the forest
Someone pointed out that in between trees, together with the air, many smells travel to carry messages and codes. Awesome! A bit like humans, when they speak, when they look at each other, when they think about each other. So with this in mind, one of us suddenly holds a red thread. He breaks the circle, he cuts it in half and delivers the red clew to a companion. The connection is said out loud, in few words, kind of a wish for the future. In few minutes the red network is shining strongly and the circle is filled up, with no boundaries. Someone feels like moving and the whole group obviously reflects the feeling and tries to fulfill it. We move one collective step towards the forest hundred meters down. We try another one, cautious, to maintain the net intact. Another one, and one more, and once again. In a while the Human Rainforest is running down the hill, unexpectedly and uniform until it breaks, with the belly full of laughter, butterflies and the first traces of hunger.
The rest of the day was for the Roots-teams, a set of groups with different functions, from Safety to Curiosity, from Experimentation to Feelings and so on. We also help ourselves through them for the shift of cleaning the place. Through teams we worked on the agreements of the Y-TOP. Together we come, together we grow, and so do the agreements. The bones of the Human Rainforest, the Youth Assistants, let the rest of the body grow by himself. The nerves, the muscles, the tissues and the skin. By the evening, after a good Israeli dinner made up with love, tachina and falafel and a strong dose of theater to present the work of each Roots-team, the Human Rainforest is ready for Day number 3, a long hike on the mountains of Kerry's County!