Meeting Point of Different Cultures

The 4^th UBC Youth Camp took place on the island Hiiumaa on 13-18 June 2004. Over twenty young people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden met at Kopu to develop the project "Were my parents Europeans? - 1970's - 1980's".

Each group had to prepare an overview presentation and an exhibition of that period. During the camp days the students participated in several workshops to discuss fashion, music, dance and everyday life of seventies and eighties. It was a pleasant surprise for the students to find out that there had been few differences in the discussed topics.

Along with those thematic discussions, other interesting actions took place. Islanders appreciate the clean environment so one day all the members of the camp went to clean the beach. The aim was to sort out the garbage brought by the sea and by people. The students enjoyed the extreme walk to Tahkuna bankers, a trip to the neighbouring island Saaremaa and the sights of Hiiumaa guided by the Estonian students.

Some of the students' opinions: Maris thinks that the camp was just great. She would do it over and over again. Stiina enjoyed the workshops. The themes and the workshops also gave a chance to get together with different people. It was interesting and easy to discuss the topics with the open-minded people. After the cleaning of the beach Aaro found it much more important to keep the nature clean. Kersti knows that she will never forget the time she spent in this camp and hopes that there will be many more interesting projects like that one.

by Diana Liivat and Milvi Tikka